Communications: directive radio wave systems and devices (e.g. – Directive – Including a satellite
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-31
2001-05-15
Tarcza, Thomas H. (Department: 3662)
Communications: directive radio wave systems and devices (e.g.,
Directive
Including a satellite
C342S357490, C342S457000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06232915
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to a method and system for processing data, and, in particular, to a method and system for identifying clusters of geographic locations.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many companies today employ field representatives to provide services to remote locations. It is often difficult for the managing staff of a company to effectively keep track of all service activities performed by their field representatives, especially for those companies that utilize a relatively large number of field representatives covering vast geographic area. Some services requested by clients may be completed in one service visit while other requested services may require several and even many repeated visits before they are completed. Frequent service visits to the same facility location may indicate that some sort of proactive maintenance work is required. However, if managing staff fail to recognize the recurring problem within the same facility location, the required proactive maintenance work may be omitted or delayed, leading to inefficient operations.
One way to monitor field representatives is to equip fleet vehicles with global positioning system (GPS) equipment. The GPS periodically reports the vehicle's position to a central location. The positional information may be used to optimize the allocation of job assignments. One problem faced with the use of GPS in fleet vehicles is the difficulty associated with manually processing data from the GPS units to evaluate efficiency and to provide guidance on how to optimize operations in the future.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The inventors have recognized that geographic locations may be grouped in clusters to provide identification for certain information. If the geographic locations of certain events, such as locations where field representatives stopped to perform their services, are available, certain processing operations may be performed to the geographic locations data in order to identify clusters of service visits that are located within a defined distance from each other.
The present invention is directed to a method and system for identifying clusters of activities based on frequency of activities occurring within a defined area. The clusters of activities may be associated with locations where fleet vehicles are parked after reaching their destinations. The present system may utilize GPS units, each of which includes a GPS receiver to detect geographic locations of the vehicles and store positional data in an onboard memory connected thereto. The system of the invention may also include a software program executable on a computer configured to identify clusters of stop locations of the vehicles based on latitude and longitude information reported by the GPS receivers in the vehicles.
In one aspect of the invention, the GPS unit may be configured to periodically record GPS positional data as the vehicle moves from one destination to another. Later, a computer at a central location may be used to process the GPS positional data to extract the locations where the vehicle was stopped at one location for an extended period of time. Alternatively, the GPS unit may be configured to record only when the vehicle is parked after it has reached its destination.
In another aspect of the invention, a clustering analysis may be accomplished with a standalone computer system. The GPS positional data stored in the on-board memory may be transferred to the computer system at a central location via a wireless communication network. Accordingly, a wireless network controller, such as a cellular transceiver, may be provided in the GPS unit to transmit positional data via wireless data signals. At the central location, the computer system may include a modem for establishing a data connection with the GPS units.
The clustering analysis may be used to monitor fleet activities. During the course of a working day, field representatives use their fleet vehicles to move from one destination to another. For purposes of supervising field representatives and planning future operations, frequent stops occurring within a close distance from each other or “hot spots” may be particular points of interest. A user at a central location may use the clustering analysis to detect frequent service visits made to the same location which may indicate recurring problems requiring proactive maintenance work. The clustering analysis may also be used to detect locations where work breaks are frequently taken.
In yet another aspect of the invention, the cluster analysis may be performed by a clustering module which is part of the computer system. The clustering module may start by reading stop locations into an array of input points, each stop location corresponding to a location where a vehicle equipped with the above-described GPS unit was parked at certain location for an extended period of time. The clustering module may then proceed by sorting the input points by their location, such as x-coordinates of the input points. Next, every input point in the array may be compared against a list of locations to ignore so that any input points closely located with respect to any ignore locations may be removed from consideration in the clustering process. At this point, the clustering module may link each input point with other input points that lie close enough to be considered neighbors. Once the linked lists of the input points are generated, an input point with the largest number of neighbors is selected. If the selected input point has at least a minimum number of neighbors, the selected input point and all its neighbors are recognized as a cluster by recording the center point (i.e. the location of the selected input point) and number of input points associated with the cluster. At this point, each of the input points associated with the recognized cluster is marked in the corresponding entries in the linked lists so that they can be ignored during subsequent searches for clusters of stop locations. The cluster module may then proceed to identify the next largest cluster. This process may be continued until there are no more input points with at least a minimum number of neighbors.
In yet another aspect of the invention, the system may include a user interface through which inputs may be entered for selection and changing of the predetermined parameters used in the clustering program. In this way, a user may adjust the parameter values such that the output results obtained by the clustering program provides the most desirable results. The output of the clustering information may also be presented in a predetermined format.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5919239 (1999-07-01), Fraker et al.
Babayev Djangir A.
Dean Vincil C.
Marsh & Fischmann & Breyfogle LLP
Mull Fred H
Qwest Communications International Inc.
Tarcza Thomas H.
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