Predicting Presence of a Mobile User Equipment

• US 20100279708A1
• Filed: 04/28/2010
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: LIDSRÕM, Mattias, Formo, Joakim, Olsson, Hjalmar
• Granted Patent: US 8,718,619 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• 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 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

A method, system, user equipment and computer program for predicting presence of a mobile user equipment, that includes: determining a set of time-distributed locations of a number of mutually associated mobile user equipments; calculating an aggregated location as a function of a location distribution of the set of locations; for each mobile user equipment, predicting a probability that the mobile user equipment will be present at the aggregated location at a future time; and initiating sending, to any of the mobile user equipments, a message indicating that another mobile user equipment of the mobile user equipments is predicted to be present at the aggregated location at a specific future time.

Claims

1. A method of predicting presence of a mobile user equipment, performed on a computer system and comprising the steps of:

determining a set of time-distributed locations of a number of mutually associated mobile user equipments,

calculating an aggregated location as a function of a location distribution of the set of locations,

for each mobile user equipment, predicting a probability that the mobile user equipment will be present at the aggregated location at a future time, and

initiating sending, to any of the mobile user equipments, a message indicating that another mobile user equipment of the mobile user equipments is predicted to be present at the aggregated location at a specific future time.

2. A method according to claim 1, comprising receiving from a mobile user equipment the aggregated location.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the aggregated location comprises a geographical coordinate.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the aggregated location comprises a distance value defining an area of the aggregated location.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the distance value is a function of the set of time-distributed locations of the number of mobile user equipments.

6. A method according to claim 1, comprising the steps of:

selecting a certain aggregated location as a function of the probability of mobile user equipments being present at the certain aggregated location, and

initiate sending to a mobile user equipment information associated with the certain aggregated location.

7. A method according to claim 1, comprising the step of storing the aggregated location.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of calculating the aggregated location comprises determining a mean value of the set of locations.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein aggregated location is a mean value of the set of locations.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the mobile user equipments are associated with each other via a social network system.

11. A method according to claim 1, comprising receiving at predefined time intervals time-distributed locations of a certain user equipment.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the predefined time intervals are determined as a function of a travelling speed of the certain user equipment.

13. A method according to claim 11, wherein the receiving of time-distributed locations comprises receiving a transmission time value set at the certain user equipment sending the time-distributed locations.

14. A method according to claim 13, comprising comparing the trans-mission time value with a receiving time value, for evaluating a validity of the time-distributed locations received with the transmission time value.

15. A method according to claim 1, comprising receiving from a user equipment a manual confirmation of a future presence at the aggregated location.

16. A method according to claim 1, comprising verifying an allowance setting received by a certain mobile user equipment before initiating the sending of any message indicating the predicted presence of the certain mobile user equipment.

17. A method according to claim 16, comprising omitting the initiate of the sending of any message indicating the predicted presence of the certain mobile user equipment, if the allowance setting fulfils a specific condition.

18. A computer system in a communications network for predicting presence of a mobile user equipment, the computer system comprising:

means for determining a set of time-distributed locations of a number of mutually associated mobile user equipments,

means for calculating an aggregated location as a function of a location distribution of the set of locations,

means configured to, for each mobile user equipment, predict a probability that the mobile user equipment will be present at the aggregated location at a future time, and

means for initiating sending of, to any of the mobile user equipments, a message indicating that another mobile user equipment of the mobile user equipments is predicted to be present at the aggregated location at a specific future time.

19. A mobile user equipment configured to exchange predicted presences with a number of associated, corresponding mobile user equipments, the mobile user equipment comprising:

radio transmission means for allowing a set of time-distributed locations of the mobile user equipment to be determined,

receiver means for receiving a message indicating that any of the associated mobile user equipments is predicted to be present at an aggregated location at a specific future time, the aggregated location being calculated as a function of a location distribution of the set of locations and a corresponding set of time-distributed locations of the number of associated mobile user equipments.

20. A computer program for predicting presence of a mobile user equipment, comprising code means which when run on a computer system causes the computer system to:

determine a set of time-distributed locations of a number of mutually associated mobile user equipments,

calculate an aggregated location as a function of a location distribution of the set of locations,

for each mobile user equipment, predict a probability that the mobile user equipment will be present at the aggregated location at a future time, and

initiate sending, to any of the mobile user equipments, a message indicating that another mobile user equipment of the mobile user equipments is predicted to be present at the aggregated location at a specific future time.

21. A computer program product comprising a computer readable means and a computer program according to claim 20 stored on the computer readable means.