Location based service provider

• US 7,386,318 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2003
• Issued: 06/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Precisely Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Pitney Bowes MapInfo Corporation
• Inventors: Berrill, Arthur R., Li, Xiang, Moon, George Christopher, Dewald, Edward T., Petronis, Scott, Tweedie, Matthew W., Dove, John L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gary; Erika A.
• Application Number:
  US10/392,370
• Publication Number:
  US 20040023666A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,910 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 455/456.1, 455/414.1, 455/414.3
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/00 Communication routing or communication path finding
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

The disclosed method and system provide extensible or stand-alone location enabled services at granularity down to a stand-alone service. The various interfaces are preferably specified via DTD or schemas for communication based on XML. This collection of services enables management of mobile device locations information, and real-time services. Mobile device location is integrated with other location sensitive data, such as maps or demographics of a particular region or even the location of businesses and consumers to enable a richer service offering for customers of wireless carriers and service providers. Examples of such services include obtaining routes to a destination; providing a geocode corresponding to an address; providing an address corresponding to a geocode; providing maps as image files encompassing specified geocodes, locations, or addresses and the like. Additional services may be added to the disclosed system and method seamlessly due to the use of extensible interfaces.

Claims

1. An integrated system for providing geographical locations based services to clients, the system comprising:

a networked routing manager module for receiving a request from a client;

a plurality of response modules registered with the routing manager for receiving one or more types of service requests, the service requests including obtaining one or more records containing a geocode corresponding to an address, an address corresponding to a geocode;

a route to a destination, a position for a mobile device, identity of a location, one or more geographic features near a location; and

a person profile data;

a plurality of spatial servers in communication with one or more of said plurality of response modules to provide spatial information and to allow said plurality of response modules to communicate with one another; and

an interface for adding response modules, the interface registering an added response module to the plurality of response modules registered with the routing manager,

wherein the routing manager forwards the received request to at least two of said plurality of response modules, said at least two of said plurality of response modules communicate with one another regarding the received request and receive spatial information from at least one of said plurality of spatial servers in response to said request, and one of said at least two of said plurality of response modules generates and sends a response corresponding to the request to said routing manager to be forwarded to the client.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising response modules for mapping, coordinate geometry service for carrying out geometric calculations and measurements, coordinate transformations, providing traffic related information, generating entelrrise specific maps;

and providing an enterprise profile.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the request and the response is encoded in a markup language.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising one or more third party servers in communication with one or more of the response modules from the plurality of response modules, wherein the one or more response modules receive requested third party information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of response modules has a unique name for registering a service with the routing manager.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein each of the response modules presents at least one interface for interacting with the routing manager whereby the routing manager initializes or closes a selected response module, parses and publishes a request document, and handles results of a received request.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the request received by the routing manager from a first network address results in the response being directed to a second network address.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the response containing nearest geographic features includes an instruction or a link for accessing a network address corresponding to at least one geographic feature.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one geographic feature is an address of a location-based-information-system server associated with a user location, and the location-based-information-system server also provides personalization data as part of the person profile service.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the location-based-information-system server also provides links to one or more local servers, associated with the user location, corresponding to input profile data or a user profile.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the location-based-information-system server redirects a user to a first local server, or provides a choice of local servers.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first local server has additional user profile information.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the first local server provides information about one or more of sales, promotions, availability of a product or service, alternative sellers of a specified product close to the user location, or alternative providers of a specified service close to the user location.

14. The system of claim 9 further comprising a user interface responsive to one or more taps or strokes on a pad, one or more clicks of an input device, or a voice command.

15. A user interface for navigating through a plurality of location based services to accumulate data for a task requiring results from two or more services, said interface comprising:

a system for providing geographical locations based services to clients comprising;

a networked routing manager module for receiving a request from a client;

a plurality of response modules registered with the routing manager for receiving one or more types of service requests, the service requests including obtaining one or more records containing a geocode corresponding to an address, an address corresponding to a geocode;

a route to a destination, a position for a mobile device, identity of a location, one or more geographic features near a location, and person profile data;

a plurality of spatial servers in communication with one or more of said plurality of response modules to provide spatial information and to allow said plurality of response modules to communicate with one another; and

a first interface for adding response modules, the first interface registering an added response module to the plurality of response modules registered with the routing manager,

wherein the routing manager forwards the received request to at least two of said plurality of response modules, said at least two of said plurality of response modules communicate with one another regarding the received request and receive spatial information from at least one of said plurality of spatial servers in response to said request, and one of said at least two of said plurality of response modules generates and sends a response corresponding to the request to said routing manager to be forward to the client,

the response contains nearest geographic features including an instruction or a link for accessing a network address corresponding to at least one geographic feature,

the at least one geographic feature is an address of a location-based-information-system server associated with a user location, and the location-based-information-system server also provides personalization data as part of the person profile service, and

the first local server provides information about one or more of sales, promotions, availability of a product or service, alternative sellers of a specified product close to the user location, or alternative providers of a specified service close to the user location.

16. The user interface of claim 15, further comprising navigation through sales, promotions, products, services, or events associated with a user profile or preference, the navigation being via one or more of choosing a location from a sorted list, selecting one or more entries corresponding to products or services, and requesting/receiving directions to a selected location.

17. The user interface of claim 16, further comprising functionality for navigation backwards to visit a previously presented screen.

18. The user interface of claim 16, wherein one or more of the sales, promotions, products, services, or events are presented to the user as a sorted list.

19. The user interface of claim 18, wherein the sorted list is based on one or more of attribute values matching with the user profile or preference.

20. The user interface of claim 18, wherein each of said events presented to the user is associated with values of a plurality of event attributes, and each user profile comprises values of a plurality of profile attributes, wherein one or more of the event and profile attributes are weighted to reflect their relative significance followed by the generation of a similarity score based on shared attributes and their respective weights.

21. The user interface of claim 20, wherein the profile attributes are standardized, based on their distribution in a reference database.