Invisible pet fencing systems and methods
A system and a method for locating an animal in area no matter what type of communications that are present where the animal is located utilizing a smart collar. The smart collar communicates via different type of signals and a system and method are used to operate the smart collar in the most efficient mode in order to prolong the operating life of smart collar battery.
1. A method for creating a geofence and extending battery life of a smart collar, wherein the smart collar comprises at least one processor unit, a global positioning system (GPS) unit, a WIFI unit, cellular chips including at least one of a GSM or a CDMA standard chip, and a memory, the method comprising:
creating a geofenced area larger than the user's residence;
determining based on the created geofenced area, a listing of available public hotspots, cellular strength regions, and global positioning system (GPS) regions for the geofenced area;
generating a communications plan based on a given position for an animal wearing the smart collar residing in the geofenced area; and
uploading at least a portion of the communication plan to the smart collar's memory.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
modifying the communications plan on a remote server based on the current direction the animal wearing the animal collar is heading.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communications plan involves switching between operating in a Cellular or GPS communication mode to operating in a public hotspot mode.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating a geofenced area comprises determining a most efficient technique for tracking the smart collar based on a geographic region where the smart collar is currently located.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the most efficient technique for tracking the smart collar is based on an amount of energy consumed by the smart collar.
6. A method for creating a geofence and extending battery life of a smart collar, wherein the smart collar comprises at least one processor unit, a global positioning system (GPS) unit, a WIFI unit, cellular chips including at least one of a GSM or a CDMA standard chip, and a memory, the method comprising:
placing a device in a first region and determining a presence and strength of GPS signals, cellular signals, and public WIFI signals,
storing which signals are present and a strength for each signal;
determining which type of communication is most efficient for a smart collar;
and saving a communication plan for the first region.
7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
placing a device in a second region and determining a presence and strength of GPS signals, cellular signals, and public WIFI signals,
storing which signals are present and a strength for each signal;
determining which type of communication is most efficient for a smart collar;
and saving a communication plan for the second region.
8. A system for creating a geofence and extending battery life of a smart collar, wherein the smart collar comprises at least one processor unit, a global positioning system (GPS) unit, a WIFI unit, cellular chips including at least one of a GSM or a CDMA standard chip, and a memory, the method comprising:
a device configured to determine a location and a presence and strength of GPS signals, cellular signals, and public WIFI signals at the location;
a processor configured to determine which type of communication is most efficient for a smart collar at the location; and
a memory device configured to store which type of communication is most efficient for the smart collar at the location.
9. A method for extending battery life of a smart collar, wherein the smart collar comprises at least one processor unit, a global positioning system (GPS) unit, a WIFI unit, cellular chips including at least one of a GSM or a CDMA standard chip, and a memory, the method comprising:
using a networked computing device having a processor and memory to do the following steps:
identifying an area for desired use of the smart collar,
gathering GPS signal data for the area from a remote database,
gathering cellular signal data for the area from a remote database,
gathering public WIFI signal data for the area from a remote database, and
generating an extended battery plan for uploading to a smart collar, using the smart collar to perform the following steps:
determining a presence and strength of GPS signals, cellular signals, and public WIFI signals in the identified area based on the uploaded extended battery plan;
recording signal strength data of GPS signals, cellular signals, and public WIFI signals in the identified area;
sending the recorded signal strength data to a memory accessible by the networked computing device;
comparing using the networked computing device the recorded signal strength data to the signal data from the remote database for GPS signal data, cellular signal data and public WIFI signal data;
updating the extended battery plan based on the compared signal information; and
uploading the updated extended battery plan to the smart collar.
10. The method for extending battery life of a smart collar of claim 9 , further comprising the step of updating the remote database with the recorded GPS signal data, cellular signal data, and public WIFI signal data.
11. The method for extending battery life of a smart collar of claim 9 , further comprising the step of creating a geofence around at least a portion of the identified area.
12. The method for extending battery life of a smart collar of claim 11 , further comprising the step of uploading the geofence to the smart collar.
13. The method for extending battery life of a smart collar of claim 12 , wherein the smart collar is configured to notify a user associated with the smart collar when the smart collar has gone outside the geofence area.
14. The method for extending battery life of a smart collar of claim 12 , wherein the smart collar is configured to cause a stimulus device on the smart collar to be activated.