APPARATUS FOR TEMPORALLY ASSOCIATING A USER WITH A LOCATION

• US 20070299966A1
• Filed: 06/08/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AirBNB Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Eid, Hussam, Looby, Bill, O'Riordan, Kevin Tadgh, Roche, Michael, Crawford, Michael, Fairmichael, Fintan, Tapley, Stephen Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 8,898,231 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A system for temporally associating a user with a location. The system includes a receiving component for receiving identity data from an electronic sensor, the identity data being indicative of a user'"'"'s presence being detected at a location at a given time. The receiving component further receives scheduling information about the availability of the location for the given time, and an analysis component determines from the scheduling information and the user'"'"'s detected presence whether the location is available for use by the user.

Claims

1. An apparatus for temporally associating a user with a location, comprising:

a receiving component for receiving identity data from an electronic sensor, the identity data being indicative of a user'"'"'s presence being detected at a location at a given time;

the receiving component further for receiving scheduling information about the availability of the location for the given time; and

an analysis component for determining from the scheduling information and the user'"'"'s detected presence whether the location is available for use by the user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a notification component for notifying the user of the location'"'"'s unavailability in the event that the analysis component determines that the location is not available for use by the user.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein if the analysis component determines that the location is available for use by the user, the analysis component transmits a request to a calendar component requesting that the location be reserved for use by the user.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the analysis component determines whether a participant is associated with the user and on receipt of subsequent identity data determining whether the subsequent identity data is associated with the participant.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein if the subsequent identity data is determined by the analysis component to not be associated with the participant, a notification component generates a notification that the location is not available for use.

8. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the analysis component, upon determining that a participant is associated with a user and no identity data is received for the associated participant, notifies the associated participant of the presence of the user at the location.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein a notification component is operable to provide said notification by one of the set consisting of electronic mail, instant messaging, and voice communication.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the user'"'"'s presence is detectable in response to an electronic tag.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the electronic tag comprises an RFID tag.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the electronic tag is detectable by an electronic sensor.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the electronic sensor is locatable at an entry point at the location.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the electronic tag is connectable to the user.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the electronic tag is embedded within an identity means.

4. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the calendar component reserves the location for use by the user until a next reserved temporal time slot.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein a notification component further generates a notification informing the user of the reservation of the location.

16. A method for temporally associating a user with a location, comprising:

receiving identity data from an electronic sensor, the identity data being indicative of a user'"'"'s presence being detected at a location at a given time;

receiving scheduling information about the availability of the location for the given time; and

determining from the scheduling information and the user'"'"'s detected presence whether the location is available for use by the user.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising, in the event that the location is determined to not be available for use by the user, notifying the user of the location'"'"'s unavailability.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising, in the event that the location is determined to be available for use by the user, transmitting a request to a calendar component requesting that the location be reserved for use by the user.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising reserving the location for use by the user until a next reserved temporal time slot.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining whether a participant is associated with the user, and, on receipt of further identity data, determining whether the further identity data is associated with the participant.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising, in the event that the further identity data is determined to not be associated with the participant, generating a notification that the location is not available for use.

22. The method of claim 19 further comprising generating a notification informing the user of the reservation of the location.

23. The method of claim 21 further comprising, in the event that the user is determined to be associated with a participant and no identity data is received for the associated participant, notifying the associated participant of the user'"'"'s presence at the location.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the notifying is by one of the set consisting of electronic mail, instant messaging and voice communication.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein the user'"'"'s presence is detected by way of an electronic tag.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the electronic tag comprises an RFID tag.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the electronic tag is detected by an electronic sensor.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the electronic sensor is located at an entry point at the location.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the electronic tag is connected to the user.

30. The method of claim 19, wherein the electronic tag comprises an identity means.

31. A computer program product including a computer readable storage medium, the computer readable storage medium having computer program code stored thereon, which when executed would cause the computer system to temporally associate a user with a location, comprising:

a receiving component for receiving identity data from an electronic sensor, the identity data being indicative of a user'"'"'s presence being detected at a location at a given time;

the receiving component further for receiving scheduling information about the availability of the location for the given time; and

an analysis component for determining from the scheduling information and the user'"'"'s detected presence whether the location is available for use by the user.

32. A system for temporally associating a user with a location, the system including a central processing unit, a memory device and a storage device, comprising:

receiving means for receiving identity data from an electronic sensor, the identity data being indicative of a user'"'"'s presence being detected at a location at a given time;

the receiving means further for receiving scheduling information about the availability of the location for the given time; and

analysis means for determining from the scheduling information and the user'"'"'s detected presence whether the location is available for use by the user.