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Determining locations of interest based on user visits

  • US 20090005987A1
  • Filed: 04/28/2008
  • Published: 01/01/2009
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2007
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for a computing system to determine location-related information of interest, the method comprising:

  • for each of a plurality of users in a geographic area, obtaining information about travel paths of the user in the geographic area over a period of time, each travel path indicating a sequence of multiple location data points in the geographic area at which the user is located that are recorded by a device of the user having location determination capabilities;

    automatically analyzing the obtained information about the travel paths of the plurality of users so as to identify multiple distinct subareas of the geographic area that are frequent destinations of the plurality of users during the period of time, each subarea being identified as a frequent destination based at least in part on the location data points of the travel paths of the plurality of users indicating at least a predefined minimum number of multiple user visits to the subarea that are each of a duration of time that exceeds a predefined minimum length;

    for one of the identified subareas of the geographic area, identifying a business whose location is represented by the identified subarea, such that the multiple user visits that are used to identify the subarea correspond to user visits to the identified business; and

    after the identifying of the business, obtaining information about one or more location data points within the geographic area that an indicated user visits at a time after the identifying of the business, and automatically determining that the indicated user visits the identified business based on at least one of the one or more location data points being within the identified subarea for the identified business.

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