DATA SYNCHRONIZATION FOR DEVICES SUPPORTING DIRECTION-BASED SERVICES

• US 20090318168A1
• Filed: 06/12/2009
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Novik, Lev, Khosravy, Moe
• Granted Patent: US 8,200,246 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.300
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3664 Details of the user input interface, e.g. buttons, knobs or sliders, including those provided on a touch screen; remote controllers; input using gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3811 Point data, e.g. Point of Interest [POI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

With the addition of directional information and gesture based input in a location based services environment, a variety of service(s) can be provided on top of user identification or interaction with specific object(s) of interest. For instance,

Claims

1. A method for displaying point of interest information on a mobile device, comprising:

via a display of the mobile device, displaying static information and dynamically updateable information associated with a point of interest of a location based network service based on at least one of direction information or location information associated with the mobile device;

receiving change input that alters, deletes or augments the dynamically updateable information associated with the point of interest; and

synchronizing changes resulting from the change input from the mobile device to the location based network service.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the static information from local memory of the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the dynamically updateable information from local memory of the mobile device; and

automatically receiving updates to the dynamically updateable information via synchronization with the location based network service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying includes retrieving the static information and the dynamically updateable information from a local cache memory.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a set of points of interest based on at least one of the location information or the direction information; and

receiving a selection of the point of interest from the set of points of interest.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving includes receiving change input that alters at least some of the dynamically updateable information associated with the point of interest.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving includes receiving change input that deletes at least some of the dynamically updateable information associated with the point of interest.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving includes receiving change input that augments at least some of the dynamically updateable information associated with the point of interest.

9. A portable electronic device, comprising:

a storage device that stores information about at least one point of interest of a location based service;

a positional component that outputs position information as a function of a location of the portable electronic device;

a directional component that outputs direction information as a function of an orientation of the portable electronic device; and

at least one processor configured to process at least one of the position information or the direction information to determine at least one point of interest and configured to display point of interest information about the at least one point of interest from the storage device and to facilitate synchronization of modifications to the point of interest information to or from remote storage of the location based service.

10. The portable electronic device of claim 9, further comprising:

a motion component that outputs motion information as a function of at least one movement of the portable device.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the motion component includes at least one accelerometer for measuring an acceleration of at least part of the device.

12. The portable electronic device of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to process the motion information to determine at least one gesture input with respect to the at least one point of interest.

13. The portable electronic device of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to process the at least one gesture input with respect to the at least one point of interest and automatically modify the point of interest information to generate the modifications.

14. The portable electronic device of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to facilitate synchronization of the modifications based a multi-master synchronization protocol based on versioning information applied to each item of information synchronized with respect to the point of interest information.

15. The portable electronic device of claim 9, wherein the positional component includes a global positioning satellite (GPS) component for receiving and processing GPS signals.

16. The portable electronic device of claim 9, wherein the positional component includes a component for receiving position information based on triangulation to wireless base stations.

17. The portable electronic device of claim 9, wherein the directional component includes a digital compass.

18. A method, comprising:

determining a location of a portable device based on location information determined for the device, the location information representing a global position of the device;

analyzing direction information representing an orientation of the portable device and the location information to determine at least one point of interest towards which the portable device is substantially oriented;

analyzing path information representing a path traversed by the portable device based on at least the location information to determine updates for the path information to be synchronized; and

synchronizing to obtain the updates for the path information.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the analyzing includes analyzing the path information to determine updates for the path information to be synchronized from the portable device to a location based network service employing the path information to deliver one or more location based services.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the synchronizing includes synchronizing to obtain the updates for the path information from the portable device by a location based network service.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the analyzing includes analyzing the path information representing a path traversed by the portable device based on at least the location information and the direction information to determine updates for the path information to be synchronized.