SECONDARY INDICATIONS OF USER LOCATIONS AND USE THEREOF BY A LOCATION-BASED SERVICE

• US 20120046049A1
• Filed: 07/21/2010
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stripe, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kota Enterprises, LLC (Concert Technology Corporation)
• Inventors: Curtis, Scott, Petersen, Steven L., Purdy, Sean T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,763,048 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for obtaining secondary indications of locations of users for use by a location-based service. In one embodiment, a secondary indication of a location of one or more users is obtained from a source of secondary indications of locations of users. The secondary indication includes a location of the one or more users and timing information defining when the one or more users were or will be located at the location. The secondary indication of the location of the one or more users is then stored and utilized to provide the location-based service. In one embodiment, the secondary indication is utilized to store historical aggregate user profile data by location and/or to provide aggregate user profile data for crowds of users formed via a spatial crowd formation process.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining a secondary indication of a location of one or more users, the secondary indication comprising the location of the one or more users and timing information that defines when the one or more users were or will be at the location; and

utilizing the secondary indication of the location of the one or more users to provide a location-based service.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein utilizing the secondary indication comprises utilizing both the secondary indication of the location of the one or more users and user profile data for the one or more users to provide the location-based service.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein utilizing both the secondary indication of the location of the one or more users and the user profile data for the one or more users to provide the location-based service comprises:

maintaining a historical record of user profile data by location; and

serving historical requests for aggregate profile data based on the historical record of user profile data by location.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein utilizing both the secondary indication of the location of the one or more users and the user profile data for the one or more users to provide the location-based service comprises:

forming crowds of users using a spatial crowd formation process; and

providing aggregate user profile data for the crowds of users.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the secondary indication further comprises, for each user of the one or more users, information that identifies the user, and the information that identifies the user is used to obtain the user profile data for the user from local storage.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the secondary indication further comprises the user profile data for the one or more users.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondary indication of the location of the one or more users is based on credit card usage by the one or more users such that the location included in the secondary indication is a location at which the one or more users conducted a corresponding one or more credit card transactions and the timing information is timing information that defines when the one or more users conducted the corresponding one or more credit card transactions at the location.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the secondary indication further comprises user profile data for the one or more users, where the user profile data is based on the corresponding one or more financial transactions conducted by the one or more users at the location.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the one or more financial transactions comprise one or more credit card transactions.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the user profile data for the one or more users is further based on one or more previous financial transactions conducted by the one or more users.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondary indication of the location of the one or more users is based on public records regarding the one or more users such that the location included in the secondary indication is a location at which the one or more users were or will be located as determined based on the public records and the timing information is timing information that defines when the one or more users were or will be located at the location as determined based on the public records.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the secondary indication further comprises user profile data for the one or more users, where the user profile data is based on information included in the public records.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondary indication of the location of the one or more users is based on an electronic invitation sent to the one or more users via an electronic invitation service such that the location included in the secondary indication is a location of an event for which the electronic invitation was sent and the timing information is timing information that defines when the event occurred or will occur.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the secondary indication is obtained in response to the one or more users accepting the electronic invitation.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the secondary indication further comprises user profile data for the one or more users, where the user profile data is based on the electronic invitation.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the secondary indication further comprises user profile data for the one or more users, where the user profile data is from user profiles for the one or more users known to the electronic invitation service.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondary indication of the location of the one or more users is based on detection of the one or more users in a geo-tagged and time-stamped digital image such that the location included in the secondary indication is a location at which the digital image was captured and the timing information comprises a time at which the digital image was captured.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the secondary indication further comprises user profile data for the one or more users, where the user profile data comprises one or more keywords applied to the digital image as tags being descriptive of content of the digital image.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the secondary indication further comprises user profile data for the one or more users, where the user profile data is based on one or more captions applied to the digital image.

20. A computing device comprising:

a communication interface adapted to communicatively couple the computing device to a network; and

a controller associated with the communication interface and adapted to;

obtain, via the communication interface, a secondary indication of a location of one or more users from a source of secondary locations of users, the secondary indication comprising the location of the one or more users and timing information that defines when the one or more users were or will be at the location; and

utilize the secondary indication of the location of the one or more users to provide a location-based service.

21. A computer readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a computing device to:

obtain a secondary indication of a location of one or more users from a source of secondary locations of users, the secondary indication comprising the location of the one or more users and timing information that defines when the one or more users were or will be at the location; and

utilize the secondary indication of the location of the one or more users to provide a location-based service.