METHOD OF LOCATING NEARBY PICTURE HOTSPOTS

• US 20140073361A1
• Filed: 11/19/2013
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Monument Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Fund 83 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Lahcanski, Tomi, Winters, Dustin L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,100,791 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/587 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• 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 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

A network connected computer receives data from a wireless communication device including location data and user data. The computer is programmed to determine if the wireless communication device is in a vicinity of a preselected location, stored on the computer, based on the data for identifying the location of the wireless communication device. The computer transmits data to the communication device for notifying the user of the communication device that the user is in the vicinity of the preselected location. Directional information can then be sent to the communication device for the user to access in order to assist the user in finding the preselected location.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving data at a computer sent over a communication network by a communication device, wherein the received data includes data indicating a current location of the communication device and data indicating a user associated with the communication device;

determining whether the communication device is within a predetermined notification distance from a hotspot location based on both the data indicating the current location and the data indicating the user; and

transmitting a notification over the communication network to the communication device indicating to the user that the communication device is within the predetermined notification distance from the hotspot location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting includes transmitting directional information to the communication device for the user to access, wherein the directional information enables the user to find the hotspot location.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the directional information is selected from the group consisting of audio data for playback on a speaker of the communication device, descriptive text data for display on a display screen of the communication device, numerical coordinate data for display on the display screen of the communication device, and map image data for display on the display screen of the communication device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the directional information includes data selected from the group consisting of a geographic direction from the current location to the hotspot location, a distance from the current location to the hotspot location, and data identifying a location of the hotspot location.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing a database connected to the computer that includes data associated with the user, accessing an image database connected to the computer based on the data indicating the current location of the communication device, and identifying digital images in the image database that were captured proximate to the hotspot location.

6. The method of claim 5, further including transmitting over the communication network to the communication device at least one of the digital images from the image database.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication network includes the internet and the data indicating the current location of the communication device includes GPS derived data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the communication device is within a predetermined distance of the hotspot location includes determining that an image database connected to the computer includes at least a plurality of digital images captured near the hotspot location.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a database of digital images accessible to the computer, wherein each of the digital images is associated with capture location information defining a capture location where each of the digital images was captured;

and storing a capture location as the hotspot location if at least a plurality of the digital images in the database was captured within a preselected capture distance from the capture location.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a database of digital images accessible to the computer, wherein each of the digital images is associated with capture location information defining a capture location where each of the digital images was captured;

and storing a capture location as the hotspot location if a density of capture locations of the digital images exceeds a predetermined magnitude.

11. A system comprising:

a network communication module configured to receive data sent over a communication network by a communication device, wherein the received data includes data indicating a current location of the communication device and data indicating a user associated with the communication device; and

a processor configured to determine whether the communication device is within a predetermined notification distance from a hotspot location based on both the data indicating the current location and the data indicating the user, wherein in response to determining that the communication device is within the predetermined notification distance from the hotspot location the processor is further configured to transmit a notification over the communication network to the communication device, wherein the notification is configured to indicate to the user that the communication device is within the predetermined notification distance from the hotspot location.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to transmit directional information to the communication device for the user to access, wherein the directional information enables the user to find the hotspot location.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to access an image database connected to the computer based on the data indicating the current location of the communication device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the network communication module is configured to transmit over the communication network to the communication device at least one of the digital images from the image database.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to determine that an image database connected to the computer includes at least a plurality of digital images captured near the hotspot location.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable to cause a processor perform operations comprising:

receiving data at a computer sent over a communication network by a communication device, wherein the received data includes data indicating a current location of the communication device and data indicating a user associated with the communication device;

determining whether the communication device is within a predetermined notification distance from a hotspot location based on both the data indicating the current location and the user; and

transmitting a notification over the communication network to the communication device indicating to the user that the communication device is within the predetermined notification distance from the hotspot location.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting directional information to the communication device for the user to access, wherein the directional information enables the user to find the hotspot location.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise accessing an image database connected to the computer based on the data indicating the current location of the communication device.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the network communication module is configured to transmit over the communication network to the communication device at least one of the digital images from the image database.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise determining that an image database connected to the computer includes at least a plurality of digital images captured near the hotspot location.