SELECTING USERS RELEVANT TO A GEOFENCE

• US 20150278865A1
• Filed: 04/01/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Jain, Chintan, Kong, Rui
• Granted Patent: US 10,318,990 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A system may identify attributes of a geofence surrounding a location. The attributes of the geofence may represent merchant characteristics of a brick-and-mortar store and may further represent item characteristics of merchandise items available for sale from the brick-and-mortar store. A subset of users from a plurality of users eligible to receive the geofence may be selected based at least in part on matching the attributes of the geofence to preferences associated with each user among the subset of users. Geofence data representing the geofence may be sent to each of the client devices operated by the subset of the plurality of users. An indication may be received from a client device operated by a user of the user crossing into the geofence based on the geofence data. Lastly, a notification may be presented to the client device operated by the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying attributes of a geofence surrounding a location, the attributes of the geofence representing merchant characteristics of a brick-and-mortar store located within the geofence, the attributes of the geofence further representing item characteristics of merchandise items available for sale from the brick-and-mortar store;

selecting a subset of users from a plurality of users eligible to receive the geofence based at least in part on matching the attributes of the geofence to preferences associated with each user among the subset of users, wherein each user among the plurality of users is operating a client device in communication with a central server, and wherein the preferences of the plurality of users are retrieved by the central server based at least in part on the communication with the central server;

sending geofence data representing the geofence to each of the client devices operated by the subset of the plurality of users in order to detect users of the client devices that cross the geofence surrounding the location;

receiving an indication, from a client device operated by a user among the subset of the plurality of users, of the user crossing into the geofence based on the geofence data sent to the client device operated by the user; and

presenting a notification to the client device operated by the user in response to the detecting the user as crossing into the geofence, the notification regarding the merchandise items available for sale from the brick-and-mortar store.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the preferences of the plurality of users are retrieved by the central server from each of the client devices operated by the plurality of users.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the preferences of the plurality of users are retrieved from a database managed by the central server, the database including profiles corresponding to the plurality of users.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

tracking user activity across each of the client devices and storing information related to the user activity in the profiles corresponding to the plurality of users.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving user demographics of the plurality of users based at least in part on the communication between the client devices with the central server, and wherein the selecting the subset of users eligible to receive the geofence is further based on matching the attributes of the geofence to the retrieved user demographics of the plurality of users.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user demographics indicate at least one of gender, race, occupation, dietary preferences, age, and marital status of each of the plurality of users.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the subset of users from the plurality of users eligible to receive the geofence is further based in part on determining that the subset of users are located within a pre-defined distance from the geofence.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes of the geofence indicate times during which the geofence is active, and wherein the selecting the subset of users is performed during the active times indicated by the attributes of the geofence.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that users excluded from the selected subset of users have preferences that match with less than a pre-defined threshold amount of the attributes of the geofence.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the item characteristics indicate at least one of a category of the merchandise items, price range of the merchandise items, purpose served by the merchandise items, features of the merchandise items, and a targeted demographic for users of the merchandise items.

11. A system comprising:

an identification module configured to identify attributes of a geofence surrounding a location, the attributes of the geofence representing merchant characteristics of a brick-and-mortar store located within the geofence, the attributes of the geofence further representing item characteristics of merchandise items available for sale from the brick-and-mortar store;

a selection module configured to select a subset of users from a plurality of users eligible to receive the geofence based at least in part on matching the attributes of the geofence to preferences associated with each user among the subset of users, wherein each user among the plurality of users is operating a client device in communication with a central server, and wherein the preferences of the plurality of users are retrieved by the central server based at least in part on the communication with the central server;

a communication module configured to send geofence data representing the geofence to each of the client devices operated by the subset of the plurality of users in order to detect users of the client devices that cross the geofence surrounding the location;

a detection module configured to receive an indication, from a client device operated by a user among the subset of the plurality of users, of the user crossing into the geofence based on the geofence data sent to the client device operated by the user; and

a presentation module configured to present a notification to the client device operated by the user in response to the detecting the user as crossing into the geofence, the notification regarding the merchandise items available for sale from the brick-and-mortar store.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the preferences of the plurality of users are retrieved by the central server from each of the client devices operated by the plurality of users.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the preferences of the plurality of users are retrieved from a database managed by the central server, the database including profiles corresponding to the plurality of users.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the detection module is further configured to track user activity across each of the client devices and store information related to the user activity in the profiles corresponding to the plurality of users.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the communication module is further configured to retrieve user demographics of the plurality of users based at least in part on the communication between the client devices with the central server, and wherein the selection module is further configured to select the subset of users eligible to receive the geofence based on matching the attributes of the geofence to the retrieved user demographics of the plurality of users.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the user demographics indicate at least one of gender, race, occupation, dietary preferences, age, and marital status of each of the plurality of users.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the selection module is further configured select the subset of users based in part on determining that the subset of users are located within a pre-defined distance from the geofence.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the attributes of the geofence indicate times during which the geofence is active, and wherein the selection module is further configured to select the subset of users during the active times indicated by the attributes of the geofence.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the selection module is further configured to determine that users excluded from the selected subset of users have preferences that match with less than a pre-defined threshold amount of the attributes of the geofence.

20. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

identifying attributes of a geofence surrounding a location, the attributes of the geofence representing merchant characteristics of a brick-and-mortar store located within the geofence, the attributes of the geofence further representing item characteristics of merchandise items available for sale from the brick-and-mortar store;

selecting a subset of users from a plurality of users eligible to receive the geofence based at least in part on matching the attributes of the geofence to preferences associated with each user among the subset of users, wherein each user among the plurality of users is operating a client device in communication with a central server, and wherein the preferences of the plurality of users are retrieved by the central server based at least in part on the communication with the central server;

sending geofence data representing the geofence to each of the client devices operated by the subset of the plurality of users in order to detect users of the client devices that cross the geofence surrounding the location;

receiving an indication, from a client device operated by a user among the subset of the plurality of users, of the user crossing into the geofence based on the geofence data sent to the client device operated by the user; and

presenting a notification to the client device operated by the user in response to the detecting the user as crossing into the geofence, the notification regarding the merchandise items available for sale from the brick-and-mortar store.