Method and apparatus for acquiring, processing, using and brokering location information associated with mobile communication devices

• US 6,961,562 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2002
• Issued: 11/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unwired Planet LLC (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: Openwave Systems Incorporated (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Ross, Elias N.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, DUC MINH
• Application Number:
  US10/176,152
• Publication Number:
  US 20030236095A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,231 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-457, 342/450, 342/458, 342/463, 342/465, 342/419, 342428-430, 342/432
• US Class Current: 455/425
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

An information broker operates a location server coupled to a wireless network and a wireline network, which acquires and processes information indicating locations of mobile communication devices on the wireless network. The information broker provides the processed information to one or more recipients. The processed information may be provided by the information broker to a recipient in exchange for payment, as part of a business transaction. The raw or processed location related information may include a history of locations of a mobile communication device and times and durations associated with the locations. The processed information may include graphs or maps of geographic areas in which the mobile devices have been located, movement trends, or other behavioral patterns of mobile users. The processed location data can also be used in performing location-based searches and other location-related applications and for customer analysis, among other uses.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

using a processing system to acquire location related information associated with a plurality of mobile devices that operate on a wireless network;

processing the location related information associated with the plurality of mobile devices in the processing system to produce processed location related information, wherein said processing the location related information comprises aggregating the location related information corresponding to at least two of the mobile devices, generating a set of vectors representing movement of the at least two users based on the aggregated information, each of the vectors representing a trend of movement of the at least two users of the mobile devices, and generating a measure of population density corresponding to each vector of the set of vectors;

transmitting the processed location related information to a recipient as part of a business transaction, wherein said transmitting comprises transmitting data representing the set of vectors to the recipient, and transmitting to the recipient data representing the measure of population density for each vector; and

receiving payment in exchange for said transmitting as part of the business transaction.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising using the processing system to maintain a plurality of billing accounts, each associated with a separate potential user of the processed information.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, further comprising using the processing system to update a corresponding one of the billing accounts in conjunction with said transmitting.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said transmitting comprises transmitting the processed location related information to the recipient over a data network.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said processing comprises:

defining a plurality of regions based on location information indicative of a plurality of locations of a mobile device of said plurality of mobile devices, each region associated with a subset of the location information, each region representing a geographic area in which the mobile device has been located; and

storing in a storage device data identifying each of the regions in association with the corresponding subset of the location information.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein said defining a plurality of regions based on the location information comprises:

generating a graph from the location information; and

identifying the plurality of regions from the graph.

7. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein each region has a metric associated therewith, the metric corresponding to a number of recorded locations of the mobile device in the corresponding region.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein said processing comprises updating the location information associated with one or more of the regions to account for elapsed time.

9. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein said updating comprises applying a time decay factor to the metric associated with the region.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said processing the location related information comprises:

aggregating at least a subset of the location related information which satisfies a specified criterion, the criterion corresponding to a demographic characteristic of users of said at least some of the devices; and

generating a map based on the aggregated location related information, such that the map is indicative of said demographic characteristic.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said data representing the set of vectors is for use by the recipient in generating a visual display in which each vector is represented as a line segment and the measure of population density for each vector is represented by a thickness of the corresponding line segment.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising maintaining a metric associated with a place and an entity;

wherein said processing the location related information comprises;

detecting at least one of the mobile devices being in proximity to the place by using the location related information associated with the mobile device and data indicating a location of the place; and

updating the metric in response to a predetermined number of instances of detecting at least one of the mobile devices being in proximity to the place; and

awarding a value to the entity based on the metric.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein said receiving payment comprises receiving payment in exchange for awarding the value.

14. A computer-implemented method comprising:

acquiring aggregated location related information indicative of a plurality of locations of a plurality of mobile devices on a wireless network;

defining a plurality of regions based on the aggregated location related information, each region associated with a subset of the aggregated location related information, each region representing a geographic area in which at least two of the mobile devices have been located;

storing in a storage device data identifying each of the regions in association with the corresponding subset of the location related information; and

generating a map based on the aggregated location related information wherein the map represents a demographic characteristic of users of said at least some of the devices comprising a population density of users of said at least some of the devices.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising updating the stored data based on additional location related information identifying one or more locations of at least one of the mobile devices.

16. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein said defining a plurality of regions based on the aggregated location related information comprises:

generating a graph from the aggregated location related information; and

identifying the plurality of regions from the graph.

17. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein said acquiring aggregated location related information comprises acquiring a short-term history of locations of at least one of the mobile devices.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein said acquiring aggregated location related information comprises acquiring times and durations associated with the locations.

19. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising assigning a user-specified label to at least one of the regions.

20. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein each region has a metric associated therewith, the metric corresponding to a number of recorded locations of at least one of the mobile devices in the corresponding region.

21. A method as recited in claim 20, further comprising updating the location related information associated with one or more of the regions to account for elapsed time.

22. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein said updating comprises applying a time decay factor to the metric associated with the region.

23. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising weighting the stored data representing one or more of the regions according to a predetermined criterion.

24. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein the predetermined criterion is a time of day at which at least one of the mobile devices was at one or more locations associated with a region.

25. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein the predetermined criterion is a duration for which at least one of the mobile devices was at one or more locations associated with a region.

26. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein the predetermined criterion corresponds to the number of times that at least one of the mobile devices was at one or more locations within a region.

27. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising using the stored location related information associated with one or more of the regions to perform a search to locate an entity of a specified type in proximity to one or more of the regions.

28. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a search request from a user of at least one of the mobile devices, the search request representing a request to locate an entity of a specified type in proximity to a point, wherein the point is not a present location of the at least one of the mobile devices; and

using the stored data representing one or more of the regions as a basis for a search to locate the entity.

29. A method as recited in claim 28, wherein said storing comprises storing data identifying each of the regions in association with the corresponding subset of the location related information and further in association with a user account of a user of at least one of the mobile devices.

30. A computer-implemented method comprising:

acquiring location information indicative of locations of a plurality of mobile devices that operate on a wireless network;

aggregating the location related information associated with two or more of the mobile devices;

generating a map based on the aggregated information, wherein the map represents a demographic characteristic of users of the at least some of the devices comprising a population density of users of the at least some of the devices; and

transmitting information representing the map to a recipient as part of a business transaction; and

receiving payment in exchange for the transmitting information representing the map as part of the business transaction.

31. A method as recited in claim 30, wherein said aggregating comprises aggregating the stored location related information which satisfies a specified criterion, such that the map is indicative of said criterion.

32. A method as recited in claim 31, wherein the criterion is specified in a request for the processed location related information.

33. A method as recited in claim 32, wherein the criterion is from the list consisting of:

a geographic area, a type of mobile device user, and a time period.

34. A computer-implemented method comprising:

acquiring location information indicative of locations of a plurality of mobile devices that operate on a wireless network;

aggregating the location information; and

generating a set of vectors representing an overall trend of movement of at least two users of the mobile devices based on the aggregated location information, wherein each of the vectors represents an overall trend of movement of a plurality of users of the mobile devices, and wherein said acquiring and said aggregating the location information further comprises generating a measure of population density corresponding to each vector of the set of vectors.

35. A method as recited in claim 34, wherein said data representing the set of vectors is for use by the recipient in generating a visual display in which each vector is represented as a displayed feature and the measure of population density for each vector is represented by a characteristic of the displayed feature.

36. A method comprising:

aggregating the location related information associated with a plurality of mobile devices that operates on a wireless network;

maintaining a metric associated with a place and an entity;

detecting at least one of the mobile devices being in proximity to the place, based on the location related information associated with the at least one of the mobile devices and data indicating a location of the place;

updating the metric in response to detecting a predetermined number of instances of the at least one of the mobile devices being in proximity to the place;

awarding a value to the entity based on the metric; and

generating a map based on the aggregated location related information wherein the map represents a demographic characteristic of users of said at least some of the devices comprising a population density of users of said at least some of the devices.

37. A method as recited in claim 36, further comprising receiving payment in exchange for awarding the value to the entity.

38. A method as recited in claim 37, wherein said receiving payment comprises receiving payment from the entity or a party associated therewith.

39. A method as recited in claim 37, wherein the entity is a retail entity, and wherein said awarding a value comprises using a transaction server to maintain said value in association with information identifying the retail entity, the method further comprising using the transaction server to communicate over a network with a remote server associated with the retail entity.

40. A method as recited in claim 39, wherein the remote server is associated with a point of sale transaction system of the retail entity.

41. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein each said value is for use by the associated entity as part of a business incentive program directed to customers of said entity.

42. A system comprising:

means for acquiring location related information associated with a plurality of mobile devices that operate on a wireless network;

means for processing the location related information associated with the plurality of mobile devices to produce processed location related information, wherein said processing the location related information comprises aggregating the location related information corresponding to at least two of the mobile devices, generating a set of vectors representing movement of the at least two users based on the aggregated information, each of the vectors representing a trend of movement of the at least two users of the mobile devices, and generating a measure of population density corresponding to each vector of the set of vectors; and

means for transmitting the processed location related information to a recipient as part of a business transaction, wherein said transmitting comprises transmitting data representing the set of vectors to the recipient, and transmitting to the recipient data representing the measure of population density for each vector.