SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AGGREGATING AND DISSEMINATING MOBILE DEVICE TAG DATA

• US 20110269452A1
• Filed: 08/17/2010
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smith Micro Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Wavemarket Incorporated (Gen Digital Inc.)
• Inventors: Grossman, Joel, Roumeliotis, Tasos, Hotes, Scott, Hodges, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 8,244,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/424
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for aggregating and disseminating tag data is provided. The method includes receiving a tag generated at a particular time from a particular mobile device. Data indicative of a particular location of the particular mobile device is received corresponding to the particular time. The tag is associated with the location indicative data of the particular mobile device. Data indicative of a location of one or more other mobile devices is received, and data indicative of the tag is transmitted to the one or more other mobile devices in response to the location indicative data of the one or more other mobile devices corresponding to the location indicative data of the particular mobile device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for aggregating and disseminating tag data comprising:

receiving a tag generated at a particular time from a particular mobile device;

receiving data indicative of a particular location of the particular mobile device corresponding to the particular time;

associating the tag with the location indicative data of the particular mobile device;

receiving data indicative of a location of at least one other mobile device; and

transmitting data indicative of the tag to the at least one other mobile device in response to the location indicative data of the at least one other mobile device corresponding to the location indicative data of the particular mobile device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the data indicative of the location of the particular mobile device comprises receiving measurements of base station signal quality from the particular mobile device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the data indicative of the location of the particular mobile device comprises receiving measurements of a length of time for a signal to arrive to the first mobile device from at least one base station.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the data indicative of the location of the particular mobile device comprises receiving Timing Advance set for the particular mobile device by a base station in communication with the particular mobile device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the data indicative of the location of the particular mobile device comprises receiving a GPS fix from the particular mobile device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the data indicative of the location of the particular mobile device comprises receiving data generated via at least one of the Global Positioning System;

Assisted-GPS, Observed Time Difference, Time Of Arrival, Time Difference of Arrival;

Angle of Arrival;

multipath fingerprinting;

Timing Advance, Enhanced Forward Link Triangulation;

Time Difference of Arrival &

Received Signal Strength, Time Difference of Arrival &

Angle of Arrival, Assisted Forward Link Triangulation &

Assisted GPS; and

Enhanced Observed time Difference &

Assisted GPS.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the location indicative data of the particular mobile device as a signal fingerprint generated by the particular mobile device via a radio signal scan.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the location indicative data of the particular mobile device as a signal fingerprint generated by the particular mobile device;

receiving the location indicative data of the at least one other mobile device as a signal fingerprint generated by the at least one other mobile device;

comparing the signal fingerprint of the particular mobile device and the at least one other mobile device;

transmitting the data indicative of the tag to the at least one other mobile device in response to the signal fingerprint of the at least one other mobile device corresponding to a predetermined proximity of the location indicative data of the particular mobile device.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting the data indicative of the tag to the at least one other mobile device in response to the signal fingerprint of the at least one other mobile device being within a predetermined edit distance of the location indicative data of the particular mobile device.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

defining a fingerprint space;

associating the signal fingerprint generated by the particular mobile device with a neighborhood of the fingerprint space defined by data points within at least one predetermined edit distance of the signal fingerprint generated by the particular mobile device; and

transmitting the data indicative of the tag to the at least one other mobile device in response to the signal fingerprint of the at least one other mobile device being within the neighborhood of the defined fingerprint space.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the tag as a user-inputted description via the particular mobile device.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the tag as a product identifier via the particular mobile device; and

associating the product identifier with a predetermined product description;

wherein transmitting the tag indicative data comprises transmitting the predetermined product description.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving promotional content corresponding to a product identifier;

receiving the tag as the product identifier via the particular mobile device; and

associating the product identifier with the promotional content;

wherein transmitting the tag indicative data comprises transmitting the promotional content to the at least one other mobile device.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the tag as data captured automatically via at least one of a barcode and a radio frequency identification (RFID).

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the tag as at least one of an optical recording and a photograph of a machine readable representation of data captured via the particular mobile device.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the tag as a description of a product.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the tag as a description of a section of a shopping establishment.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the tag as a description of a section of a shopping establishment.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising repeating the steps of receiving the location indicative data of the particular mobile device and receiving the tag corresponding to the location indicative data of the particular mobile device from the particular mobile device for a plurality of location indicative data, a plurality of particular mobile devices, and a plurality of tags respectively corresponding to the plurality of location indicative data and the plurality of particular mobile devices;

and

transmitting data indicative of at least one of the plurality of tags to the at least one other mobile device in response to the location indicative data of the at least one other mobile device corresponding to the location indicative data of at least one of the plurality of particular mobile devices.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising

determining a confidence in an association of the plurality of tags with the plurality of location indicative data;

and

transmitting an indication of the confidence in association to the other mobile device.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising transmitting data indicative of predetermined ones of the plurality of tags to the at least one other mobile device in response to:

the location indicative data of the at least one other mobile device corresponding to the location indicative data of at least one of the plurality of particular mobile devices; and

the predetermined ones of the plurality of tags being of a predetermined number and a particular type.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising

determining a quality value respectively of a plurality of users of the plurality of particular mobile devices;

generating a point value of the plurality of received tags respectively based on the quality values of the plurality of users from which the plurality of tags were received; and

transmitting the data indicative of at least one of the plurality of tags to the at least one other mobile device in response to the quality value of the at least one of the plurality of tags meeting a predetermined minimum value.

23. Non-transitory computer-readable media tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a processor of a particular mobile device associated with a particular user to implement a method, the method comprising:

receiving signals indicative of a location of the particular mobile device associated with the particular user;

receiving a tag via the particular mobile device;

generating signal fingerprints associated with the location indicative signals;

associating with the tag a particular signal fingerprint corresponding to a time the tag was received;

transmitting the associated tag and the signal fingerprints including the particular signal fingerprint to a remote system via a network; and

receiving with the particular mobile device from the remote system data indicative of a tag provided by at least one other mobile device associated with at least one other user corresponding to a current signal fingerprint of the particular mobile device.

24. The computer-readable media of claim 23, wherein the implemented method further comprises providing to a user via the mobile device the data indicative of the tag provided by the at least one other user.

25. The computer-readable media of claim 23, wherein the implemented method further comprises:

receiving a request initiated by at least one of a local application executed by the mobile device and a remote application executed external of the mobile device for the data indicative of the tag provided by the at least one other user; and

transmitting a request to the remote system via a network for the data indicative of the tag provided by the at least one other user in response to the request initiated by the at least one of the local application and the remote application; and

providing the data indicative of the tag provided by the at least one other user to the at least one of the local application and the remote application.

26. The computer-readable media of claim 23, wherein the implemented method further comprises receiving the user input of the tag as at least one of a recording and a photograph of a machine readable representation of data captured via the mobile device.

27. The computer-readable media of claim 23, wherein the implemented method further comprises providing an interface for input of a tag by a user and receiving user input of the tag.

28. The computer readable media of claim 23, wherein the at least one other mobile device associated with at least one other user is the particular mobile device with the particular user at a future time after the tag was received.

29. A computer-implemented method for aggregating and disseminating tag data comprising:

receiving signals indicative of a location of a particular mobile device associated with a particular user;

receiving a tag via the particular mobile device;

generating signal fingerprints associated with the location indicative signals;

associating with the tag a particular signal fingerprint corresponding to a time the tag was received;

transmitting the associated tag and the signal fingerprints including the particular signal fingerprint to a remote system via a network; and

receiving with the particular mobile device from the remote system data indicative of a tag provided by at least one other mobile device associated with at least one other user corresponding to a current signal fingerprint of the particular mobile device.

30. A computer-implemented method for aggregating and disseminating tag data comprising:

receiving a tag generated at a particular time from a particular mobile device;

receiving data indicative of a particular location of the particular mobile device corresponding to the particular time;

associating the tag with the location indicative data of the particular mobile device;

receiving an authorization from a user associated with the particular mobile device to provide the tag as associated with the data indicative of a particular location to a remote system; and

transmitting the tag as associated with the data indicative of a particular location to the remote system in response to the authorization from the user associated with the particular mobile device.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 30, further comprising transmitting an identifier of the particular mobile device to the remote system.

32. A computer-implemented method for aggregating and disseminating tag data comprising:

receiving a tag generated at a particular time from a particular mobile device;

receiving data indicative of a particular location of the particular mobile device corresponding to the particular time;

associating the tag with the location indicative data of the particular mobile device;

receiving data indicative of a location of at least one other mobile device from a remote system; and

transmitting data indicative of the tag to the remote system in response to the location indicative data of the at least one other mobile device corresponding to the location indicative data of the particular mobile device.