CONTENT GEOFENCING

• US 20160366551A1
• Filed: 05/11/2016
• Published: 12/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Alsina, Thomas, Wilson, David T., Sun, Kenley, Joshi, Sagar
• Granted Patent: US 9,826,354 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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 4/025 using location based information parameters

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for invitational content geofencing. A system first sends, to a server location data associated with the system, the location data being calculated at the system. The system then receives a listing of places of interest within a geofence including a geographical perimeter for identifying places of interest in the listing, the geofence being based on the location data associated with the system. Next, the system selects a place of interest from the listing based on a location of the system. The system then presents a content item associated with the place of interest.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A computer-implemented method comprising:

sending, from a mobile device to a server, location parameters identifying a first geographic location of the mobile device;

receiving, by the mobile device from the server, a listing of entities within a geographical perimeter determined based on the location parameters associated with the mobile device and respective media items associated with the entities in the listing;

selecting, by the mobile device, a particular entity from the listing and a respective media item based on a second geographic location of the mobile device calculated by the mobile device; and

presenting, at the mobile device, the respective media item associated with the particular entity.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the particular entity is presented at the mobile device when the mobile device is within a threshold distance of the particular entity.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the second geographic location is calculated after receiving the listing of entities and respective media items.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the first geographic location and the second geographic location comprise at least one of a current location or a predicted location.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the particular entity is selected from the listing based on at least one of an estimated user interest, a ranking, a user trajectory, a user profile, a state associated with the mobile device, a user context, or a current activity associated with the mobile device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the user trajectory comprises a direction and velocity determined based on sensor data, the sensor data comprising at least one of accelerometer data, gyroscope data, and global positioning system (GPS) data.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising determining the predicted location of the mobile device based on a calculated direction and a calculated velocity associated with the mobile device.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein sending the location parameters comprises calculating, prior to sending the location parameters, the first geographic location, wherein the second geographic location comprises the first geographic location calculated prior to sending the location parameters.

10. A mobile device comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage devices having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

sending, to a server, location parameters identifying a first geographic location of the mobile device;

receiving, from the server, a listing of entities within a geographical perimeter determined based on the location parameters associated with the mobile device and respective media items associated with the entities in the listing;

selecting a particular entity from the listing and a respective media item based on a second geographic location of the mobile device calculated by the mobile device; and

presenting the respective media item associated with the particular entity.

11. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the particular entity is presented at the mobile device when the mobile device is within a threshold distance of the particular entity.

12. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the second geographic location is calculated after receiving the listing of entities and respective media items.

13. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the first geographic location and the second geographic location comprise at least one of a current location or a predicted location, wherein the particular entity is selected from the listing based on at least one of an estimated user interest, a ranking, a user trajectory, a user profile, a state associated with the mobile device, a user context, or a current activity associated with the mobile device, wherein the user trajectory comprises a direction and velocity determined based on sensor data.

14. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the location parameters comprise a range of geographic locations.

15. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein sending the location parameters comprises calculating, prior to sending the location parameters, the first geographic location, wherein the second geographic location comprises the first geographic location calculated prior to sending the location parameters.

16. A server comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage devices having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a mobile device via a network, location parameters identifying a geographic location of the mobile device;

determining a geofence based on the location parameters, the geofence comprising a geographical perimeter around the first geographic location;

identifying a first list of entities within the geofence, wherein the entities in the first list are identified from a second list of entities maintained by the server, wherein the second list is populated with a plurality of entities based on respective media content items maintained by the server; and

sending the first list to the mobile device.

17. The server of claim 16, wherein the geographic location comprises at least one of a current location of the mobile device and a predicted location of the mobile device.

18. The server of claim 16, wherein the one or more computer-readable storage devices stores additional instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

ranking entities in the first list to yield a ranked list; and

sending the ranked list to the mobile device.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the one or more computer-readable storage devices stores additional instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

selecting one or more media content items for each entity from the first list; and

sending the one or more media content items to the mobile device along with the first list.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the location parameters comprise a range of geographic locations

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the geographic location comprises a current geographic location, wherein the location parameters identify the current geographic location and a predicted future geographic location, wherein the geofence is based on at least one of the current geographic location or the predicted future geographic location.