System for communicating through maps

• US 7,136,915 B2
• Filed: 12/26/2001
• Issued: 11/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Acuity Mobile, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rieger, Charles J III
• Primary Examiner(s): Barot, Bharat
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baturay, Alicia
• Application Number:
  US10/025,880
• Publication Number:
  US 20020103892A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,784 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/209, 705/27, 370/316
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/88 Mark-up to mark-up conversion conversion for visualization in web browsing G06F16/9577
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A communications system to post arbitrary information to any geographical region simply by outlining the region on a map in the system'"'"'s user interface and attaching the information to the outlined region is provided. The outlined region can be of any size, e.g., a city block, a neighborhood, a county, and defines the information'"'"'s “region of relevance”. Any user of the system can also browse and receive these geographically relevant postings simply by identifying a point or region of interest on one of the system'"'"'s maps. Uses of the system range from personal communication of questions and announcements to a geographically identified group, to governmental and commercial news and announcements aimed at a particular population, to “virtual billboards” for advertising.

Claims

1. A method of communicating postings to a target user community, comprising:

(a) storing a plurality of postings, each posting including a source identification tag, an information body, and a broadcast descriptor, the broadcast descriptor identifying a geographical region of said each posting, wherein the geographical region is defined by a closed region on a map;

(b) receiving a plurality of requests from mobile and stationary users, each request from a user including a user identification tag and an antenna descriptor, the antenna descriptor identifying a geographical location of the user;

(c) processing said each request, including;

(1) identifying one or more postings having geographical regions that contain the geographical location, and

(2) sending the identified one or more postings to the user;

(d) processing a subsequent request from the user, the subsequent request including a user identification tag and an antenna descriptor specifying a subsequent geographical location of the user, said processing a subsequent request from the user including;

(1) sending to the user other postings having geographical regions that contain the subsequent geographical location, wherein the other postings do not include any posting previously sent to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(e) storing and managing a plurality of user accounts corresponding to the stationary and mobile users, each user account including at least one user identification tag and corresponding antenna descriptor.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein step (c)(2) comprises:

sending postings via email to users associated with the plurality of user accounts.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

(f) accepting definitions of the postings and the plurality user accounts via a graphical user interface;

(g) removing definitions of the postings and the plurality user accounts via the graphical user interface; and

(h) displaying the postings and information related to the plurality of user accounts via the graphical user interface.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

(f) maintaining a transient user account for a transient user that does not have a user account in the plurality of user accounts, the transient user account including at least one user identification tag and corresponding antenna descriptor, and serving as a temporary user account until timed out and garbage collected after a predefined period of inactivity of the transient user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographical region is a closed region defined on a map by latitude and longitude.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the geographical region is further defined by vertical distance from sea level.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises:

receiving at least one request from a user over a wide-area network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises:

receiving at least one request from a user over the Internet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises:

enabling the mobile and stationary users to provide requests via standard Web browsers.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein step (h) comprises:

displaying geographical maps with the graphical user interface to depict at least one of a broadcast descriptor and an antenna descriptor; and

enabling the mobile and the stationary users to use the graphical user interface to draw on the geographical maps with interactive drawing tools to define the at least one of a broadcast descriptor and an antenna descriptor.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the user accounts have associated user preferences, the user preferences including logical filters, wherein step (e) comprises:

specifying further characteristics of the postings with the logical filters that must be present for the postings to be sent to the corresponding user.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein step (c)(2) comprises:

using the antenna descriptors of the transient user accounts to find and send postings to a mobile transient user based on global positioning system (GPS) coordinate data from a mobile communications device of the mobile transient user.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(e) maintaining a record for a particular user of which the postings having geographical regions that contain the geographical location of the particular user, wherein the record does not maintain duplicates of the postings having geographical regions that contain the geographical location of the particular user.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requiring a password associated with a posting to be used by any user requesting to view the information body of the posting.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said each posting includes an optional activation time period, the activation time period including a start time and a stop time, further comprising:

(e) governing the duration of an availability a respective posting to users using the start time and the stop time.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(e) recording user transaction data, the user transaction data including information related to a duration of contact with a respective user, and a record of actions performed within the duration by the respective user.

18. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

(f) storing the postings having geographical regions that contain the geographical location of a particular user in a user account of the particular user; and

(g) permitting the particular user to define criteria to determine when postings stored in a user account of the particular user are to generate email to the particular user.

19. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

(f) restricting the posting authority of any user account by accepting and storing a plurality of authorized region descriptors and unauthorized region descriptors, any authorized region descriptor optionally having at least one of an associated posting password and posting category restriction list; and

(g) requiring at least one of the posting password and the category restriction list to be respected by any posting having geographical regions that contain the geographical location of a particular user in a user account of the particular user before storing the posting.

20. A system for communicating information to a target user community using geographical maps, comprising:

a posting information database for storing one or more postings, each posting including a source identification tag, an information body, and a broadcast descriptor, the broadcast descriptor identifying a geographical region of said each posting, wherein the geographical region is defined by a closed region on a map; and

a postings manager in communications with said posting information database, wherein the postings manager is configured to receive a plurality of requests from mobile and stationary users, each request from a user including a user identification tag and an antenna descriptor, the antenna descriptor identifying a geographical location of the user;

an intersection engine configured to process said each request to identify one or more stored postings having geographical regions that contain the geographical location; and

a notifications manager that sends the identified one or more postings to the user;

wherein the intersection engine is configured to process a subsequent request from the user received by the postings manager, the subsequent request including a user identification tag and an antenna descriptor specifying a subsequent geographical location of the user; and

wherein the notifications manager is configured to send to the user other postings identified by the intersection engine having geographical regions that contain the subsequent geographical location, wherein the other postings do not include any posting previously sent to the user.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a map manager for generating geographical map views covering the target user community.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising a user interface for accepting a personal icon to be associated with a user account.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein said personal icon is a visible element in said postings.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising a virtual antenna.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein said postings manager is configured to display a visible graphical element representing said virtual antenna on said geographical map views.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein a user is permitted to activate said visible graphical element thereby causing a user-defined URL to be opened and displayed.

27. The system of claim 24, further comprised of a plurality of ping topics associated with said virtual antenna, each said ping topic comprising a ping topic keyword pattern and a ping topic response.

28. The system of claim 20, wherein said postings manager is configured to accept a photo attachment, said photo attachment comprising (1) a digital photograph, (2) descriptive information about said digital photograph, and (3) behavioral preferences associated with said digital photograph.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein said photo attachment is associated with an attachment point, said attachment point being a point on said geographical map views.

30. The system of claim 20, wherein said postings manager is further configured to enable a plurality of user dialogs, each said user dialogs comprising a plurality of messages between a source user and a recipient user.

31. The system of claim 20, further comprising a channel tree comprising a plurality of named system channels interrelated hierarchically.

32. The system of claim 31, further comprising a plurality of user channels, each of said user channels being owned by said user and comprising (1) a name, (2) a parent system channel, said parent system channel being one of said plurality of named system channels, and (3) a region descriptor.

33. The system of claim 20, further comprising a mobile antenna.

34. The system of claim 20, further comprising an account manager for assigning each user an account type, said account type comprising a system feature table and a usage limits table.

35. A computer program product having a computer readable medium having computer codes stored therein, said computer codes executed by a processor to communicate postings to a target user community, said computer codes comprising:

code for enabling a processor to store a plurality of postings, each posting including a source identification tag, an information body, and a broadcast descriptor, the broadcast descriptor identifying a geographical region of said each posting, wherein the geographical region is defined by a closed region on a map;

code for enabling a processor to receive a plurality of requests from mobile and stationary users, each request from a user including a user identification tag and an antenna descriptor, the antenna descriptor identifying a geographical location of the user;

code for enabling a processor to process said each request, including;

code for enabling a processor to identify one or more postings having geographical regions that contain the geographical location, and code for enabling a processor to send the identified one or more postings to the user;

code for enabling a processor to process a subsequent request from the user, the subsequent request including a user identification tag and an antenna descriptor specifying a subsequent geographical location of the user, said code for enabling a processor to process a subsequent request from the user including;

code for enabling a processor to send to the user other postings having geographical regions that contain the subsequent geographical location, wherein the other postings do not include any posting previously sent to the user.

36. The computer program product of claim 35, further comprising:

code for enabling a processor to store and manage a plurality of user accounts corresponding to the stationary and mobile users, each user account including at least one user identification tag and corresponding antenna descriptor.

37. The computer program product of claim 36, wherein said code for enabling a processor to send the identified one or more postings to the user comprises:

code for enabling a processor to send postings via email to users associated with the plurality of user accounts.

38. The computer program product of claim 35, further comprising:

code for enabling a processor to accept definitions of the postings and the plurality user accounts via a graphical user interface;

code for enabling a processor to remove definitions of the postings and the plurality user accounts via the graphical user interface; and

code for enabling a processor to display the postings and information related to the plurality of user accounts via the graphical user interface.

39. The computer program product of claim 35, further comprising:

code for enabling a processor to maintain a transient user account for a transient user that does not have a user account in the plurality of user accounts, the transient user account including at least one user identification tag and corresponding antenna descriptor, and serving as a temporary user account until timed out and garbage collected after a predefined period of inactivity of the transient user.

40. The computer program product of claim 35, wherein the geographical region is a closed region defined on a map by latitude and longitude.

41. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein the geographical region is further defined by vertical distance from sea level.

42. The computer program product of claim 35, wherein the code for enabling a processor to receive a plurality of requests from mobile and stationary users comprises:

code for enabling a processor to enable the mobile and stationary users to provide requests via standard Web browsers.

43. The computer program product of claim 38, wherein the code for enabling a processor to display the postings and information related to the plurality of user accounts via the graphical user interface comprises:

code for enabling a processor to display geographical maps with the graphical user interface to depict at least one of a broadcast descriptor and an antenna descriptor; and

code for enabling a processor to enable the mobile and the stationary users to use the graphical user interface to draw on the geographical maps with interactive drawing tools to define the at least one of a broadcast descriptor and an antenna descriptor.

44. The computer program product of claim 36, wherein the user accounts have associated user preferences, the user preferences including logical filters, wherein the code for enabling a processor to store and manage a plurality of user accounts corresponding to the stationary and mobile users comprises:

code for enabling a processor to specify further characteristics of the postings with the logical filters that must be present for the postings to be sent to the corresponding user.

45. The computer program product of claim 39, wherein the code for enabling a processor to send the identified one or more postings to the user comprises:

code for enabling a processor to use the antenna descriptors of the transient user accounts to find and send postings to a mobile transient user based on global positioning system (GPS) coordinate data from a mobile communications device of the mobile transient user.

46. The computer program product of claim 35, further comprising:

code for enabling a processor to maintain a record for a particular user of which the postings having geographical regions that contain the geographical location of the particular user, wherein the record does not maintain duplicates of the postings having geographical regions that contain the geographical location of the particular user.

47. The computer program product of claim 35, further comprising:

code for enabling a processor to require a password associated with a posting to be used by any user requesting to view the information body of the posting.

48. The computer program product of claim 35, wherein said each posting includes an optional activation time period, the activation time period including a start time and a stop time, further comprising:

code for enabling a processor to govern the duration of an availability a respective posting to users using the start time and the stop time.

49. The computer program product of claim 35, further comprising:

code for enabling a processor to record user transaction data, the user transaction data including information related to a duration of contact with a respective user, and a record of actions performed within the duration by the respective user.

50. The computer program product of claim 36, further comprising:

code for enabling a processor to stored the postings having geographical regions that contain the geographical location of a particular user in a user account of the particular user; and

code for enabling a processor to permit the particular user to define criteria to determine when postings stored in a user account of the particular user are to generate email to the particular user.

51. The computer program product of claim 36, further comprising:

code for enabling a processor to restrict the posting authority of any user account by accepting and storing a plurality of authorized region descriptors and unauthorized region descriptors, any authorized region descriptor optionally having at least one of an associated posting password and posting category restriction list; and

code for enabling a processor to require at least one of the posting password and the category restriction list to be respected by any posting having geographical regions that contain the geographical location of a particular user in a user account of the particular user before storing the posting.