METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DYNAMIC LOCATION-BASED MESSAGE NOTIFICATION

• US 20090156161A1
• Filed: 12/17/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Labs Incorporated (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Labs Incorporated (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Strahs, Leopold
• Granted Patent: US 8,521,127 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.200
• 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: H04M 3/42348 Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• 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 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/02 Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel

Abstract

In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for dynamic location-based message notification. In one embodiment, a method for providing alerts to a computing device includes identifying, via a set of location-specific computing resources, a current location of the computing device and sending at least one alert to the computing device, based on the current location.

Claims

1. A method for providing alerts to a computing device, comprising:

identifying, via a set of location-specific computing resources, a current location of the computing device; and

sending at least one alert to the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises:

measuring timing of signals emitted from the computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying is performed using a global positioning system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises:

mapping an Internet Protocol address of the computing device to a service area.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises:

deleting an existing record for a location of the computing device, once the existing record has reached a predefined age; and

updating the location of the computing device using the set of location-specific computing resources.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending comprises:

checking one or more notification services to which the computing device is subscribed; and

determining whether any of the one or more notification services has an alert available for the current location.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a mobile telephone, a pager, a reading tablet, an electronic book, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a game console, a handheld game device, or a personal music/media player.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one alert relates to at least one of:

weather, homeland security, missing children, or traffic.

9. A computer readable medium containing an executable program for providing alerts to a computing device, where the program performs the steps of:

identifying, via a set of location-specific computing resources, a current location of the computing device; and

sending at least one alert to the computing device.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the identifying comprises:

measuring timing of signals emitted from the computing device.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the identifying is performed using a global positioning system.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the identifying comprises:

mapping an Internet Protocol address of the computing device to a service area.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the identifying comprises:

deleting an existing record for a location of the computing device, once the existing record has reached a predefined age; and

updating the location of the computing device using the set of location-specific computing resources.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the sending comprises:

checking one or more notification services to which the computing device is subscribed; and

determining whether any of the one or more notification services has an alert available for the current location.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the computing device is a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a mobile telephone, a pager, a reading tablet, an electronic book, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a game console, a handheld game device, or a personal music/media player.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the at least one alert relates to at least one of:

weather, homeland security, missing children, or traffic.

17. A system for providing alerts to a computing device, comprising:

one or more sets of computing resources, each set of computing resources being dedicated to a specific location such that the system is distributed over a geographic area, each of the one of more sets of computing resources comprising;

means for identifying a current location of the computing device; and

means for sending at least one alert to the computing device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the means for identifying comprises:

means for measuring timing of signals emitted from the computing device.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the means for identifying is a global positioning system.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the means for identifying comprises:

means for mapping an Internet Protocol address of the computing device to a service area.