METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DEFINING A ZONE

• US 20140179347A1
• Filed: 02/22/2012
• Published: 06/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Buddi Ltd
• Original Assignee: Buddi Ltd
• Inventors: Sanchez-Valenzuela, Jose Antonio, Murray, Sara Elizabeth, Carter, Gareth John
• Granted Patent: US 9,848,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• 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 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method of and apparatus for defining a zone, comprising receiving (S3) location data indicative of the location of a device 2 at a plurality of times, determining (S14), based on the location data, information relating to the occupancy of the device in a plurality of geographical regions, and defining (S15), based on the information, at least one zone. The or each zone consists of multiple contiguous regions of the geographical regions in which the occupancy of the device meets at least one criterion. Each of the plurality of predetermined geographical regions is defined independently of location areas over which base stations transmit and receive.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of defining a zone, comprising:

receiving location data indicative of the location of a device at a plurality of times;

determining, based on the location data, information relating to the occupancy of the device in a plurality of geographical regions;

automatically defining, based on the information, at least one zone,

wherein the at least one zone consists of multiple contiguous regions of the geographical regions in which the occupancy of the device meets at least one criterion,

wherein each of the plurality of predetermined geographical regions is defined independently of location areas over which base stations transmit and receive.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that at least two geographical regions in which the occupancy of the device meets the at least one criterion are contiguous.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information comprises an occupancy value for each of the geographical regions, wherein the method further comprises determining in each geographical region that the occupancy of the device meets the at least one criterion by comparing the occupancy value for each geographical region to a threshold occupancy value and determining that the occupancy value for each geographical region meets the at least one criterion based on a result of the comparison.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining an occupancy value for each of the geographical regions comprises:

determining, based on the location data for each time, at least one geographical region to which a value should be assigned;

assigning a value to the determined at least one geographical region; and

summing the assigned values for each of the geographical regions to give the occupancy value.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining the value to be assigned to the or each geographical region in dependence on an initial value.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the location data for a time is indicative of a location of the device in the vicinity of a border between multiple geographical regions, and, if so, determining a value to assign to each of the multiple geographical regions.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the multiple geographical regions comprise one, two, three or four of the geographical regions.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein when a value is determined for multiple geographical regions for location data for a time, the value assigned to each of the multiple geographical regions is a proportion of the initial value.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the initial value is a predetermined value for the location data for each time.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the initial value is dependent on a determined time value indicative of time spent by the device in the at least one geographical region.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the time value is dependent on the time interval between the times of the consecutive location data.

13. The method one of claim 3, further comprising determining, at the processor, based on the location data, at least one secondary zone in which the occupancy of the device meets at least one second criterion, wherein the at least one second criterion is different to the at least one criterion that must be met for determining of the at least one zone.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one second criterion comprises a secondary threshold occupancy value, wherein determining at least one secondary zone comprises determining that the occupancy value for a region is greater than the secondary threshold occupancy value and less than the threshold occupancy value.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of geographical regions comprises regions of substantially equal size.

19. The method claim 1, wherein each region has an area of between 1000 and 40,000 m2.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving further location data indicative of the location of the device at at least one other time over another time period;

determining, based on the further location data, information relating to the occupancy of the device in a plurality of geographical regions over the other time period; and

determining matching information indicative of a difference between the information based on the location data and the information based on the further location data.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

determining that the matching information meets at least one condition; and

generating a notification for a user based on a result of the determining.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a heat map indicating the geographical regions and providing a visual indication of degree of occupancy of each geographical region; and

providing the heat map for display on a display.

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27. A computer program embodied on a computer readable storage medium comprising computer program code which, when run on a processing apparatus, performs the following steps:

receiving location data indicative of the location of a device at a plurality of times;

determining, based on the location data, information relating to the occupancy of the device in a plurality of geographical regions;

automatically defining, based on the information, at least one zone,

wherein the at least one zone consists of multiple contiguous regions of the geographical regions in which the occupancy of the device meets at least one criterion,

wherein each of the plurality of predetermined geographical regions is defined independently of location areas over which base stations transmit and receive.

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29. An apparatus for defining a zone, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive location data indicative of the location of a device at a plurality of times; and

a processor configured to automatically define, based on the location data, at least one zone in which the occupancy of the device meets at least one criterion, and

wherein the or each at least one zone consists of multiple contiguous regions of the geographical regions in which the occupancy of the device meets at least one criterion,

wherein each of the plurality of predetermined geographical regions is defined independently of location areas over which base stations transmit and receive.

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