GENERATING GEOFENCES

• US 20150031388A1
• Filed: 09/27/2013
• Published: 01/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Square Inc (Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.))
• Inventors: Henderson, William, Spindel, Nathan, Chatterjee, Shuvo, Perry, Scott Charles
• Granted Patent: US 9,351,114 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 Item locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating geofences. One of the methods includes receiving, at a mobile device, a signal emitted by a merchant device associated with a merchant. If the signal is emitted by a merchant device associated with a merchant and the distance between the mobile device and the merchant device satisfies a threshold, a notification is provided on the mobile device indicating proximity of the merchant associated with the merchant device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining location information for a plurality of merchant locations that are within a threshold distance of a location of a mobile device;

determining a number of nearest merchant locations that are nearest to the location of the mobile device among the plurality of merchant locations;

determining a triggering geofence that encloses a geographic region that includes the number of nearest merchant locations;

determining a size of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence;

determining that the size of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence is smaller than a threshold size;

in response to determining that the size of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence is smaller than a threshold size, selecting two or more merchant locations of the number of merchant locations to have a common coalesced geofence, wherein the common coalesced geofence is a local geofence shared by two or more merchant locations;

associating each of the two or more merchant locations with a common coalesced geofence, wherein detection of the mobile device within the coalesced geofence triggers a notification on the mobile device indicating proximity of each merchant corresponding to the associated two or more merchant locations.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an additional local geofence for an outer merchant location that is not among the number of nearest merchant locations.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating a larger triggering geofence that encloses a larger geographic region that includes the outer merchant location.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the coalesced geofence that encloses two or more geographic regions enclosed by respective local geofences for the two or more merchant locations.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a local geofence for an outer merchant location that is not among the number of nearest merchant locations.

5. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining location information for a plurality of merchant locations;

determining a number of nearest merchant locations that are nearest to a location of a mobile device among the plurality of merchant locations;

determining a triggering geofence that encloses a geographic region that includes the number of nearest merchant locations;

determining that a size of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence satisfies a threshold;

in response to determining that the size of the triggering geofence satisfies a threshold, associating each of two or more merchant locations of the number of nearest merchant locations with a common coalesced geofence, wherein detection of the mobile device within the coalesced geofence triggers a notification on the mobile device of the proximity of each merchant corresponding to the associated two or more merchant locations.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining that a size of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence satisfies a threshold comprises determining that a radius, an axis, or an area of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence satisfies a threshold.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the size of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence is defined by a distance between the location of the mobile device and a merchant location that is not among the number of nearest merchant locations.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining a triggering geofence by repeatedly;

selecting two or more nearest merchant locations to have a common coalesced geofence;

updating the number of nearest merchant locations to include a merchant location that is not among the number of nearest merchant locations; and

updating the triggering geofence to enclose a geographic region that includes the updated number of nearest merchant locations until a size of the triggering geofence is larger than a threshold.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

selecting the two or more merchant locations of the number of nearest merchant locations as two or more merchant locations that are nearest to the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

selecting the two or more merchant locations of the number of nearest merchant locations as two or more merchant locations that are nearest to one another among the number of nearest merchant locations.

11. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

selecting the two or more merchant locations of the number of nearest merchant locations as two or more merchant locations that have local geofences that are most overlapping among local geofences associated with the number of nearest merchant locations.

13. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

generating the coalesced geofence that encloses two or more geographic regions enclosed by respective local geofences for the two or more merchant locations.

14. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining location information for a plurality of merchant locations that are within a threshold distance of a location of a mobile device;

determining a number of nearest merchant locations that are nearest to the location of the mobile device among the plurality of merchant locations;

generating a respective local geofence for each of the number of nearest merchant locations, wherein each local geofence encloses a circular geographic region having an associated first radius value;

determining a triggering geofence that encloses a geographic region that includes the number of nearest merchant locations, wherein the triggering geofence encloses a circular geographic region having an associated second radius value;

determining that the second radius value is larger than a threshold radius value;

in response to determining that the second radius value is larger than a threshold radius value, increasing the size of the local geofences including generating a respective updated local geofence for each of the number of nearest merchant locations, wherein each updated local geofence encloses a circular geographic region having a third radius value that is larger than the first radius value.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the third radius value is one half of the second radius value.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the second radius value is a distance between the location of the mobile device and an outer merchant location that is not among the number of nearest merchant locations.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining information for a plurality of merchant locations that are within a threshold distance of a location of a mobile device;

determining a number of nearest merchant locations that are nearest to the location of a mobile device among the plurality of merchant locations, wherein each of the number of nearest merchant locations are associated with respective local geofences that enclose respective geographic regions that are at least a first size;

determining a triggering geofence that encloses a geographic region that includes the number of nearest merchant locations;

determining that a size of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence satisfies a threshold;

in response to determining that a size of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence satisfies a threshold, determining a second size for local geofences, wherein the second size is larger than the first size; and

generating a respective updated local geofence for each of the number of nearest merchant locations, wherein each updated local geofence encloses a geographic region that is at least the second size.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein determining a second size for local geofences comprises:

determining a distance between the mobile device and an outer merchant location that is not among the number of nearest merchant locations;

determining the second size as a ratio of the distance between the mobile device and the outer merchant location.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the ratio is at least one third of the distance between the mobile device and the outer merchant location.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving, at the mobile device, an indication that the mobile device is within the an updated local geofence for a particular merchant location of the number of nearest merchant locations; and

providing a notification on the mobile device indicating proximity of the particular merchant corresponding to the particular merchant location.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein determining that a size of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence satisfies a threshold comprises determining that a radius, an axis, or an area of the geographic region enclosed by the triggering geofence satisfies a threshold.

22. A computer implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a mobile device, a signal emitted by a merchant device associated with a merchant;

determining a code from the signal emitted by the merchant device;

determining that the code identifies a merchant;

determining a distance between the mobile device and the merchant device based on the strength of the signal emitted by the merchant device;

determining that the distance between the mobile device and the merchant device satisfies a threshold;

in response to determining that the distance between the mobile device and the merchant device satisfies a threshold, receiving merchant information from a signal emitted by the merchant device;

providing a notification on the mobile device indicating proximity of the merchant associated with the merchant device, wherein the notification includes the merchant information from the signal emitted by the merchant device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the merchant information received from the signal emitted by the merchant device includes a geographic location of the merchant.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

displaying, on the mobile device, a map indicating the geographic location of the merchant received from the signal emitted by the merchant device.

25. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a mobile device, a signal emitted by a merchant device associated with a merchant;

determining that the signal is emitted by a merchant device associated with a merchant;

determining a distance between the mobile device and the merchant device;

determining that the distance between the mobile device and the merchant device satisfies a threshold;

in response to determining that the distance between the mobile device and the merchant device satisfies a threshold, providing a notification on the mobile device indicating proximity of the merchant associated with the merchant device.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein determining a distance between the mobile device and the merchant device comprises determining a distance based on a strength of the signal emitted by the merchant device.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein determining a distance between the mobile device and the merchant device comprises:

receiving a current location of the mobile device;

receiving, from the signal emitted by the merchant device, a location of the merchant device; and

determining the distance between the current location of the mobile device and the location of the mobile device.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein determining that the signal is emitted by a merchant device associated with a merchant comprises:

determining a code from the signal emitted by the merchant device; and

determining that the code corresponds to a reserved merchant identifier that identifies merchants.

29. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

receiving, at the mobile device from a signal emitted by the merchant device, a geographic location of the merchant.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

displaying, on the mobile device, a map indicating the geographic location of the merchant received from the signal emitted by the merchant device.

31. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

receiving, at the mobile device from a signal emitted by the merchant device, a unique merchant identifier for the merchant; and

requesting merchant information for the merchant from a payment service system using the unique merchant identifier.

32. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

determining, from the distance between the mobile device and the merchant device, that the merchant is among a number of nearest merchant locations that are nearest to the location of the mobile device; and

ranking the merchant relative to one or more other merchants that are among the number of nearest merchant locations to the location of the mobile device.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

providing, to the mobile device, a number of top-ranked merchants based on the ranking of the merchant relative to one or more other merchants that are among the number of nearest merchant locations.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein ranking the merchant relative to one or more other merchants comprises ranking the merchant by distance relative to merchant locations of the one or more other merchants.