CONSTRAINT-BASED SCHEDULING FOR DELIVERY OF LOCATION INFORMATION

• US 20140206387A1
• Filed: 03/24/2014
• Published: 07/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lin, Jyh-Han, Zhao, Gang, Weber, Karon A., Morris, Katrika, Murphy, Chester Overstead
• Granted Patent: US 9,648,461 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Defining subscriptions to location information for a computing device (e.g., a mobile computing device). Application programs, services, and/or peer devices define the subscriptions based on constraints associated with requests for the location information. A location request scheduler coordinates the subscriptions temporally and spatially to reduce the quantity of the requests from the computing device. In some embodiments, the subscriptions are automatically defined based on an observed mobility pattern of the computing device.

Claims

1. A system for execution on a mobile computing device, said system executing to reduce a quantity of requests from the mobile computing device for location reports from a network, said system comprising:

a memory area for storing a plurality of subscriptions, each subscription having a time value and an application program identifier associated therewith, each subscription identifying constraints associated with a request for location information by an application program associated with the application program identifier; and

a processor programmed to;

access the plurality of subscriptions stored in the memory area;

define a report time based at least on the time values associated with at least two of the accessed plurality of subscriptions;

align at least two requests for the location information into a single request for location information based on the defined report time and based on location affinity of at least two of the application programs identified by the application program identifiers associated with the at least two of the accessed plurality of subscriptions;

generate a location report based on the single request; and

provide the generated location report to the at least two of the application programs.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a location request scheduler executing on the mobile computing device aligns the at least two of the requests into the single request based additionally on a history of requests for the location information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the time values associated with the at least two of the accessed plurality of subscriptions are within a pre-defined tolerance.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to generate the location information by at least one of:

receiving the location information from a location information provider, receiving the location information from a peer device co-located with the mobile computing device, or calculating the location information based on data obtained from local cellular towers.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to select one or more of the subscriptions based at least on the time values used to define the report time.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

collect a location history of the mobile computing device; and

automatically create the subscriptions based on the location history.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the requests are aligned based on geofenced regions within a map.

8. A method comprising:

generating, by a plurality of application programs executing on a computing device, a plurality of location requests at a plurality of geofenced regions;

coordinating, by a processor associated with the computing device, at least two of the plurality of location requests based on the geofenced regions; and

sharing, based on the coordination, location information received for one of the plurality of application programs in one of the geofenced regions with at least another one of the plurality of application programs in the one of the geofenced regions.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising sharing the location information received for the one of the plurality of application programs with a peer computing device requesting location information in the one of the geofenced regions.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising predicting, based on a location history of the computing device, an expected time for the computing device to reach a particular location.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising inserting, based on an amount of time duration spent at a particular location, a trip to the particular location between appointments.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein a location request scheduler executing on the computing device automatically obtains location information that has historically been requested by each of the plurality of application programs.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein a location request scheduler executing on the computing device automatically creates subscriptions based on a location history of the computing device, each subscription specifying a type of event, parameters for the event, and actions to take when the event occurs.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising defining subscriptions based on a mobility pattern of the computing device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the subscriptions are further defined based on at least one of:

calendar data, task entries, a to-do list, or other user-specific data.

16. One or more computer-readable devices embodying computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a processor associated with a computing device perform operations comprising:

generating, by a plurality of application programs executing on the computing device, a plurality of location requests at a plurality of geofenced regions;

coordinating, by the processor associated with the computing device, at least two of the plurality of location requests based on the geofenced regions; and

sharing, based on the coordination, location information received for one of the plurality of application programs in one of the geofenced regions with at least another one of the plurality of application programs in the one of the geofenced regions.

17. The computer-readable devices of claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions execute further to perform operations comprising sharing the location information received for the one of the plurality of application programs with a peer computing device requesting location information in the one of the geofenced regions.

18. The computer-readable devices of claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions execute further to perform operations comprising predicting, based on a location history of the computing device, an expected time for the computing device to reach a particular location.

19. The computer-readable devices of claim 16, wherein a location request scheduler executing on the computing device automatically obtains location information that has historically been requested by each of the plurality of application programs.

20. The computer-readable devices of claim 16, wherein a location request scheduler executing on the computing device automatically creates subscriptions based on a location history of the computing device, each subscription specifying a type of event, parameters for the event, and actions to take when the event occurs.