METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR GEOSPATIAL-BASED SHARING OF INFORMATION BY MULTIPLE DEVICES
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for exchanging GPS or other position data between wireless devices for purposes of group activities, child location monitoring, work group coordination, dispatching of employees etc. Cell phones and other wireless devices with GPS receivers have loaded therein a Buddy Watch application and a TalkControl application. The Buddy Watch application communicates with the GPS receiver and other wireless devices operated by buddies registered in the users phone as part of buddy groups or individually. GPS position data and historical GPS position data can be exchanged between cell phones of buddies and instant buddies such as tow truck drivers via a buddy watch server. Emergency monitoring services can be set up with notifications to programmable individuals in case an individual does not respond. Positions and tracks can be displayed. TalkControl simplifies and automates the process of joining talk groups for walkie talkie services such as that provided by Nextel.
60 Citations
40 Claims
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1-9. -9. (canceled)
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10. A method of providing for sharing of information by multiple mobile devices, comprising:
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defining a zone based on geospatial proximity to a first location and storing definitions representing the zone; collecting position information for each of multiple mobile devices; for each of the multiple mobile devices, determining based on the collected position information whether the mobile device is within the zone; for each mobile device within the zone, generating an indication accessible to such mobile device that permits a user of such mobile device to electively post information associated with the zone; responsive to the elective posting of information, aggregating the posted information at a server and using the server to automatically generate a display image representing the aggregated information; and serving the display image to at least those mobile devices posting such information. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. An apparatus, comprising:
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at least one server; a database storing at least one account, the account identifying a client, a first location, and a zone defined by geospatial proximity to the first location; the at least one server including at least one functional component to collect location information for each of multiple mobile devices, determine, for each of the multiple mobile devices based on the collected position information, whether the mobile device is within the zone, for each mobile device within the zone, generate an indication accessible to such mobile device that permits a user of such mobile device to electively post information associated with the zone, aggregate information from each of the mobile devices posting such information and render a display image representing the aggregated information, and serve the display image available in a manner accessible over a wide area network to at least those mobile devices posting such information. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35)
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36. An apparatus, comprising:
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a memory to store information defining a zone based on geospatial proximity to a first location; means for collecting position information for each of multiple mobile devices; means for determining based on the collected position information whether each mobile device is within the zone; means for generating for those mobile devices within the zone an indication accessible to such mobile device that permits a user of such mobile device to electively post information associated with the zone; means for aggregating information from each of the mobile devices posting such information and generating a display image representing the aggregated information; and means for rendering a display image, for storing the display image, and for serving the display image via the internet to at least those mobile devices posting such information. - View Dependent Claims (37)
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38. A network based service hosted by at least one server, comprising:
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a database to store at least one account, the account identifying a client, a first location, and a zone defined by geospatial proximity to the first location; a client application for download to each of multiple mobile devices, to report position information for a mobile device on which the client application is installed to the at least one server; a software component run by the at least one server to collect location information for each of multiple mobile devices running said client application; a software component run by one of (a) the at least one server, or (b) the client application, to determine whether a given mobile device is within the zone; a software component run by the at least one server to generate an indication, for each mobile device within the zone, accessible to the associated client application that permits a user of such mobile device to electively post information associated with the zone; a software component run by the at least one server to aggregate information from each of the mobile devices posting such information and render a display image representing the aggregated information; and a software component run by the at least one server to serve the display image available in a manner accessible over the Internet to at least those mobile devices posting such information. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40)
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Specification