Locating mobile users

• US 10,152,548 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2016
• Issued: 12/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Malegaonkar, Ashutosh A., Qian, Mofei, Chen, Rizhi, Kang, Li, Kamel, Wael
• Primary Examiner(s): Figueroa, Marisol
• Application Number:
  US15/176,968
• Publication Number:
  US 20160360028A1
• Time in Patent Office: 916 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/04 using triggered events

Abstract

In one embodiment, respective user devices may be registered for one or more particular users at a particular physical space, and each of the one or more particular users may be associated with a respective user profile. The system monitors a location of each of the particular users within the particular physical space based on a corresponding location of the respective user device, such that upon receiving a search query for a particular type of user within the particular physical space, and determining one or more resultant users that correspond to the particular type of user based on the associated respective user profiles, the system can determine a location of the one or more resultant users. As such, the system can display, on a graphical user interface (GUI), the location of the one or more resultant users on a virtualized map of the particular physical space.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting, by a computer, that a respective user device for one or more particular users has entered a particular physical space;

registering, by the computer, the respective user device for the one or more particular users at the particular physical space;

associating, by the computer, each of the one or more particular users with a respective user profile;

monitoring, by the computer, a location of each of the particular users within the particular physical space based on a corresponding location of the respective user device, wherein monitoring includes;

limiting monitoring within certain areas of the particular physical space, wherein the particular users are not tracked in the certain areas if the particular users are within a predefined range of a blackout area;

receiving, by the computer, a search query for a particular type of user within the particular physical space;

determining, by the computer, one or more resultant users that correspond to the particular type of user based on the associated respective user profiles;

determining, by the computer, a location of the one or more resultant users;

determining, by the computer, utilization of areas within the particular physical space based on the monitoring; and

displaying, on a graphical user interface (GUI), the location of the one or more resultant users on a virtualized map of the particular physical space, wherein the location of the one or more resultant users within certain areas of the physical space are not displayed on a virtualized map.

2. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

displaying information regarding the one or more resultant users on the GUI.

3. The method as in claim 2, wherein the information is selected from a group consisting of:

a user name;

a user profile;

a user picture; and

a user availability.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein the particular type of user queried is based on a type selected from a group consisting of:

a skill set;

a knowledge base;

an experience level;

an expertise;

a job;

a position;

a company;

a provided service; and

a price rate.

5. The method as in claim 1, wherein the particular type of user queried is based on a specific identity of one or more users.

6. The method as in claim 1, wherein the particular type of user queried comprises all registered users within the physical space.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein monitoring comprises:

communicating with location-based services of one or more respective registered user devices to determine a physical location of the one or more respective registered user device.

8. The method as in claim 1, wherein registering one or more user devices occurs at a particular event at the physical space.

9. The method as in claim 1, wherein associating one or more of the particular users is based on attendance of the respective user at a previous event.

10. The method as in claim 1, wherein registering and associating occur based on QR-code scanning by one or more particular user devices.

11. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more of the user devices based on a media access control (MAC) address.

12. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

limiting monitoring based on a user-defined level of detectability.

13. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

determining traversed paths of one or particular users within the particular physical space based on the monitoring.

14. The method as in claim 1, wherein the user devices are selected from a group consisting of:

a phone;

a tablet;

a laptop; and

a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.

15. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media comprising program instructions, which when executed on a processor are configured to:

detect that a respective user device for one or more particular users has entered a particular physical space;

register the respective user device for the one or more particular users at the particular physical space;

associate each of the one or more particular users with a respective user profile;

monitor a location of each of the particular users within the particular physical space based on a corresponding location of the respective user device, wherein monitoring includes;

limiting monitoring within certain areas of the particular physical space, wherein the particular users are not tracked in the certain areas if the particular users are within a predefined range of a blackout area;

receive a search query for a particular type of user within the particular physical space;

determine one or more resultant users that correspond to the particular type of user based on the associated respective user profiles;

determine a location of the one or more resultant users;

determine utilization of areas within the particular physical space based on the monitoring; and

display, on a graphical user interface (GUI), the location of the one or more resultant users on a virtualized map of the particular physical space, wherein the location of the one or more resultant users within certain areas of the physical space are not displayed on a virtualized map.

16. The computer-readable media as in claim 15, wherein the program instructions when executed are further configured to:

display information regarding the one or more resultant users on the GUI.

17. The computer-readable media as in claim 15, wherein the particular type of user queried is based on a type selected from a group consisting of:

a skill set;

a knowledge base;

an experience level;

an expertise;

a job;

a position;

a company;

a provided service;

a price rate;

a specific identity of one or more users; and

all registered users within the physical space.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor adapted to execute one or more processes; and

a memory configured to store a process executable by the processor, the process when executed operable to;

detect that a respective user device for one or more particular users has entered a particular physical space;

register the respective user device for the one or more particular users at the particular physical space;

register a respective user device for one or more particular users at a particular physical space;

associate each of the one or more particular users with a respective user profile;

monitor a location of each of the particular users within the particular physical space based on a corresponding location of the respective user device, wherein monitoring includes;

limiting monitoring within certain areas of the particular physical space wherein the particular users are not tracked in the certain areas if the particular users are within a predefined range of a blackout area;

receive a search query for a particular type of user within the particular physical space;

determine one or more resultant users that correspond to the particular type of user based on the associated respective user profiles;

determine a location of the one or more resultant users;

determine utilization of areas within the particular physical space based on the monitoring; and

display, on a graphical user interface (GUI), the location of the one or more resultant users on a virtualized map of the particular physical space, wherein the location of the one or more resultant users within certain areas of the physical space are not displayed on a virtualized map.