Method and system for determining a location of a mobile device and utilizing the location in content services

• US 10,285,018 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2017
• Issued: 05/07/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DIRECTV, LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cansino, Don E., Sharma, Pankaj, Tsurutani, Brady C., Chan, Yeung K., Shurgot, Mark A., Nguyen, Dien L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): Du, Hung K
• Application Number:
  US15/620,879
• Publication Number:
  US 20170280300A1
• Time in Patent Office: 693 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/15 on receiving information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/51 of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes

Abstract

A system and method for controlling a mobile device at a headend includes the mobile device communicating a request for content to the headend. The headend requests geographic coordinate location data from the mobile device and, when geographic coordinate data is available, determines a first geographic region associated with the mobile device in response to the geographic coordinate location data. When geographic coordinate data is not available from the mobile device, the headend extracts an IP address from the request and determines a second geographic region based on the IP address and a confidence level. When the confidence level is below a threshold, the headend determines a third geographic region based on subscriber data for the mobile device. The headend controls the mobile device in response to one of the first geographic region, the second geographic region and the third geographic region.

Claims

1. A method blacking out a content stream to a mobile device comprising:

receiving advanced blackout data once during an update period and dynamic blackout data more than once during the update period;

receiving a request for content at content source from the mobile device;

using, at a content source, subscriber data to determining a geographic region, unless the geographic region from an IP address of the content source is available and a confidence level is above a confidence level threshold then using the geographic region from the IP address, unless the geographic region is available from a native location service using geographic coordinate data then using the geographic region from the native location service; and

after determining the geographic region, preventing communication of the content stream to the mobile device in response to one of the geographic region.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising receiving a blackout data notification signal at the content source and requesting, by the content source, second blackout data.

3. A method of controlling a content stream based on a geographic region associated with a mobile device comprising:

receiving at a content source, a request for content from a mobile device;

when a native location service is available at the mobile device reading, by the content source, geographic coordinate location data content source from the native location service of the mobile device, and determining the geographic region at the content source associated with the mobile device in response to comparing the geographic coordinate location data with a location database;

when the native location service is not available from the mobile device, extracting at an IP-based location module, an IP address from the request for content, and determining the geographic region based on the IP address and a confidence level returned from an IP-based location module;

when the confidence level is below a confidence level threshold, determining an updated geographic region based on subscriber data for the mobile device;

receiving advanced blackout data from a content provider at the content source once during an update period;

after receiving the advanced blackout data, receiving a notification signal for dynamic blackout data at a communication module of the content source;

requesting dynamic blackout data at the communication module of the content source content source in response to the notification signal;

receiving dynamic blackout data at the communication module of the content source content source from the content provider in response to requesting dynamic blackout data, said dynamic blackout data received at least twice for every update period; and

preventing communication of the content stream to the mobile device in response to one of the geographic region, and the updated geographic region, and one of the advanced blackout data and the dynamic blackout data.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein receiving advanced blackout data comprises receiving advanced blackout data at a first module of the content source periodically.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising communicating the advanced blackout data from the first module to a second module within the content source.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 further comprising in response to receiving dynamic blackout data, communicating the notification signal to the second module.

7. The method as recited in claim 6 further comprising retrieving the dynamic blackout data from the first module at the second module.

8. The method as recited in claim 3 further comprising communicating location-based advertising to the mobile device.

9. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein determining the geographic region is performed by the IP-based location module within the content source.

10. A head end for controlling a content stream based on a geographic region associated with a mobile device comprising:

a location determination module receiving a request for content from a mobile device;

the location determination module, when a native location service is available from the mobile device, reading geographic coordinate location data from the native location service of the mobile device, and determining the geographic region associated with the mobile device in response to comparing the geographic coordinate location data with a location database;

the location determination module, when the native location service is not available from the mobile device, extracting at the an IP-based location module, an IP address from the request for content, and determining the geographic region based on the IP address and a confidence level returned from an IP-based location module;

the location determination module, when the confidence level is below a confidence level threshold, determining an updated geographic region based on subscriber data for the mobile device;

the location determination module receiving advanced blackout data from a content provider once during an update period;

a communication module, after receiving the advanced blackout data, receiving a notification signal for dynamic blackout data;

the communication module requesting dynamic blackout data at the communication module in response to the notification signal;

the communication module receiving dynamic blackout data from a content source in response to requesting dynamic blackout data at least twice during the update period; and

the location determination module preventing communication of the content stream to the mobile device in response to one of the geographic region, and the updated geographic region, and one of the advanced blackout data and the dynamic blackout data.

11. The head end as recited in claim 10 wherein the advanced blackout data comprises advanced blackout data received on a periodic basis.

12. The head end as recited in claim 10 wherein the communication module receives advanced blackout data at a first module.

13. The head end as recited in claim 12 wherein the communication module content source communicates advanced blackout data from the first module to a second module within the head end.

14. The head end as recited in claim 13 wherein the head end communicates a notification signal to the second module in response to receiving dynamic blackout data in response to the notification signal.

15. The head end as recited in claim 14 wherein the second module retrieves the dynamic the blackout data from the first module in response to the notification signal.

16. The head end as recited in claim 15 further comprising a blackout module that retrieves the advanced blackout and dynamic blackout data from the second module and wherein the head end controls the mobile device in response to blackout data in the blackout module.

17. The head end as recited in claim 10 wherein the head end controls the mobile device by communicating location-based advertising to the mobile device.