User location retrieval for consumer electronic divices

• US 20070117571A1
• Filed: 01/11/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Musial, Pawel
• Application Number:
  US10/582,569
• Publication Number:
  US 20070117571A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.100
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/10 between location register and external networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A personal mobile device such as a mobile phone (104) stores an identifier of its location when staying in an area for sufficient time (240, 252), or in response to user input (136), and reports (124, 156, 160) the locations to a recommender system (168) of a consumer electronic (CE) device (164). Based on knowledge of the user'"'"'s itinerary, the recommender system (168) can select or filter content to deliver programs likely to be of interest to the user.

Claims

1. A method for providing user data pertaining to a user of a mobile terminal (104) to a recommender system (168) of a consumer electronic device (164), the method comprising the steps of:

determining, by the terminal, a current location of the terminal (208, 236, 248);

saving, in the terminal, an identifier of the determined location (316, 240, 252); and

informing, by means of the terminal, said recommender system of a consumer electronic device of the determined location (124, 156, 160).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said terminal has an input device (136), said determining being triggered by said user actuating said input device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal includes a timer (116), said determining step comprises the steps of:

detecting, by said terminal, a signal from a mobile terminal network (132, 156);

recognizing, from the signal, whether said determined location is outside a predefined home territory of the user (204); and

if it is recognized that the terminal is outside the home territory, automatically and without intervention by the user other than moving the terminal to a different location, starting a first predetermined time period as measured by means of said timer (216).

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the current location determined in the determining step changes in correspondence with movement of the terminal, said current location comprising at any moment a region and a sub-region within the region (236, 248), the region and sub-region being discernible by the terminal from the signal, the starting step further comprising the step of monitoring said signal to determine whether at least one of the region and the sub-region stays constant over said first predetermined time period (220).

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the monitoring step comprises the steps of:

monitoring said signal to determine whether the region stays constant over said first predetermined time period (236); and

monitoring said signal to determine whether the sub-region stays constant over a second predetermined time period (248).

6. The method of claim 5, wherein, if it is determined that the region has stayed constant over said first predetermined time period, the saving step further comprises the step of saving the region as an identifier (240) and the informing step comprises the step of informing the recommender system of said region (156, 160).

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, if it is determined that both the region and the sub-region have stayed constant over the first and second predetermined time periods respectively, the saving step further comprises the step of saving the sub-region as an identifier (228) and the informing step comprises the step of informing the recommender system of said sub-region (156, 160).

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the monitoring step comprises the steps of:

monitoring said signal to determine whether the region stays constant over said first predetermined time period (320); and

while the region monitoring determines that the region has stayed constant, monitoring the sub-region to measure for what length of time the sub-region stays constant, to detect any change from said sub-region to a new sub-region (236, 248) and to measure for what length of time the new sub-region stays constant (252, 356).

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining, saving and informing steps are initiated automatically by the terminal without intervention by the user other than moving the terminal to a different location (124, 204, 220, 224, 236, 248).

10. A mobile terminal for providing user data pertaining to a user of said terminal to a recommender system (168) of a consumer electronic device (164), the apparatus comprising:

a memory (128);

a transmitter (120);

a receiver configured for receiving a wireless signal (120, 156); and

a processor (112) for determining, from the received signal, a current location of the terminal (204), saving an identifier of the determined location to said memory (216) and informing (124), by means of said transmitter, said recommender system of a consumer electronic device of the determined location.

11. The terminal of claim 10, wherein said terminal further comprises an input device (136), and is further configured so that said determining is triggered by said user actuating said input device.

12. The terminal of claim 10, further comprising a timer (116), wherein said signal has been transmitted from a mobile terminal network, the processor being further configured for detecting said signal (120, 156), recognizing, from the signal, whether said determined location is outside a predefined home territory of the user and (204), if it is recognized that the terminal is outside the home territory, automatically and without intervention by the user other than moving the terminal to a different location, starting a first predetermined time period (216) as measured by means of said timer.

13. The terminal of claim 12, wherein the current location to be determined by the processor changes in correspondence with movement of the terminal, said current location comprising at any moment a region and a sub-region within the region (216), the processor being configured for discerning the region and sub-region from the signal and for monitoring said signal to determine whether at least one of the region and the sub-region stays constant over said first predetermined time period (236, 248).

14. The terminal of claim 13, the processor being further configured for:

monitoring said signal to determine whether the region stays constant over a first predetermined time period (236); and

monitoring said signal to determine whether the sub-region stays constant over a second predetermined time period (248).

15. The terminal of claim 14, the processor being further configured for, if it is determined that the region has stayed constant over said first predetermined time period, saving the region as an identifier (240) and informing the recommender system of said region (124, 156, 160).

16. The terminal of claim 15, the processor being further configured for, if it is determined that both the region and the sub-region have stayed constant over the first and second predetermined time periods respectively, saving the sub-region as an identifier (228) and informing the recommender system of said sub-region (124, 156, 160).

17. The terminal of claim 13, the processor being further configured for monitoring said signal to determine whether the region stays constant over a first predetermined time period (236), and, while determining that the region has stayed constant, monitoring the sub-region to measure for what length of time the sub-region stays constant (248), to detect any change from said sub-region to a new sub-region and to measure for what length of time the new sub-region stays constant (252, 356).

18. The terminal of claim 10, the processor being further configured for initiating said determining, saving and informing automatically without intervention by the user other than moving the terminal to a different location (124, 204, 220, 224, 236, 248).

19. The terminal of claim 10, wherein said terminal comprises a mobile phone (104).