DYNAMIC RECONFIGURING OF GEO-FENCES

• US 20160169696A1
• Filed: 12/12/2014
• Published: 06/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Butts, James F. III, Hipschman, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 10,852,151 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3476 using point of interest [POI] information, e.g. a route passing visible POIs
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• 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

Geo-fences may be dynamically reconfigured to identify merchants that may be of particular interest to users. In some instances, a geo-fence may be defined for a particular user based on a variety of information, in order to identify merchants that may be of interest to the user and that are located within proximity to the user. The geo-fence may be defined based on purchase history, places that are frequented by the user, a mode of transportation, a navigation or transportation route, user preferences, and/or a variety of other information. Information regarding the identified merchants may be displayed or otherwise output to notify the user of nearby merchants that may be of interest.

Claims

1. A method implemented at least in part by a mobile electronic device that is associated with a user, the method comprising:

receiving a request to receive information regarding merchants having a specified attribute;

determining a current geographical location of the mobile electronic device;

determining, from a geographical region surrounding the current geographical location, one or more portions of the geographical region based on at least one of (i) a location in the geographical region that is most frequented by the user, (ii) purchase history for the user, (iii) a mode of transportation that is currently being used by the user, (iv) an appointment for the user, (v) a current speed or direction of the mobile electronic device, (vi) a current navigation route of the user, (vii) a transportation route in the geographical region, (viii) current weather conditions for the geographical region, (ix) current traffic conditions for the geographical region, (x) a current time of day or year, or (xi) an event occurring in the geographical region;

identifying one or more merchants each having the specified attribute and each having an establishment located within the one or more portions of the geographical region; and

causing display of, on the mobile electronic device, information regarding the one or more merchants.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified attribute includes at least one of a particular rating, a particular category of items that are offered for acquisition, or a particular price range of items that are offered for acquisition.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein causing display of the information regarding the one or more merchants comprises causing display of at least one of (i) a list of the one or more merchants or (ii) a map of the one or more portions of the geographical region, the map including an icon for each of the one or more merchants at a respective location of an establishment of the respective merchant.

4. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request to receive information regarding merchants;

identifying a current geographical location of an electronic device associated with a user;

determining, from a geographical region surrounding the current geographical location, one or more portions of the geographical region;

identifying one or more merchants each having an establishment located within the one or more portions of the geographical region; and

causing information regarding the one or more merchants to be output via the electronic device.

5. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 4, wherein the one or more portions of the geographical region are determined based on at least one of purchase history for the user or a location of an appointment for the user.

6. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 4, wherein the one or more portions of the geographical region are determined based on at least one of a mode of transportation that is currently being used by the user, a current speed of the electronic device, or a current direction of travel of the electronic device.

7. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 4, wherein the one or more portions of the geographical region are determined based on at least one of current weather conditions for the geographical region, a current time of day or year, or an event occurring in the geographical region.

8. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 4, wherein the one or more portions of the geographical region are determined based at least in part on a location in the geographical region that is most frequented by the user.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 4, wherein the one or more portions of the geographical region are determined based on at least one of a current navigation route of the user, a transportation route in the geographical region, or current traffic conditions for the geographical region.

10. An electronic device comprising:

a display;

one or more processors communicatively coupled the display; and

memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

receive input from a user requesting information regarding merchants;

identify, from a geographical region surrounding a current geographical location of the user, one or more portions of the geographical region that are deemed to have more than a threshold level of interest to the user due to a frequency of visits by at least one of the user or at least one other user; and

cause display of, via the display, a map of the one or more portions of the geographical region, the map including information that identifies a location of an establishment of a merchant that is located in the one or more portions of the geographical region.

11. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the map includes information identifying a level of interest for each of the one or more portions of the geographical region.

12. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the map includes information designating a boundary for each of the one or more portions of the geographical region.

13. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the one or more portions of the geographical region are deemed to have more than the threshold level of interest to the user due to a frequency of visits by the at least one other user, the at least one other user having a threshold level of similarity to the user.

14. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the one or more portions include a portion of the geographical region that has been visited by the user or the at least one other user more than a threshold number of times.

15. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

determining a current geographical location of an electronic device associated with a user;

determining a geographical region bounding one or more locations that have been visited by the user more than a threshold number of times or that have been visited by the user within a window of time;

determining a first geo-fence extending along one or more transportation routes away from the geographical region for a distance that is proportional to a speed of the electronic device and that is reduced according to a biasing distance;

determining a second geo-fence extending along one or more transportation routes toward the geographical region for a distance that is proportional to the speed of the electronic device and that is increased according to the biasing distance;

identifying one or more merchants each having an establishment located within the first or second geo-fence; and

causing information regarding the one or more merchants to be presented via the electronic device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein:

the acts further comprise determining a mode of transportation that is currently being used by the user; and

the one or more transportation routes associated with the first geo-fence or the second geo-fence are related to the mode of transportation that is currently being used by the user.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the window of time comprises a period of time leading up to a current time.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the first geo-fence or the second geo-fence has a size that is based at least in part on an amount of available time the user has before an appointment.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the size of the first geo-fence or the second geo-fence increases as the amount of available time the user has before the appointment increases.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the identifying the one or more merchants includes identifying one or more merchants that offer for acquisition items that are associated with a same category of items identified in purchase history for the user.