Telecommunications system for broadcasting and receiving information whose pertinence is at least partially based on geography

• US 7,620,556 B1
• Filed: 12/11/2000
• Issued: 11/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Ross, Paul C.
• Primary Examiner(s): OUELLETTE, JONATHAN P
• Application Number:
  US09/735,335
• Time in Patent Office: 3,263 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A telecommunications terminal is disclosed that comprises: a receiver for receiving a geographically-sensitive message and an indicium of a geographic location of relevance; means for ascertaining a geographic location of the telecommunications terminal; and a processor for determining a geographic region of interest based on the geographic location of the telecommunications terminal, for determining whether the geographic location of relevance is within the geographic region of interest, and for disregarding the geographically-sensitive message when the geographic location of relevance is not within the geographic region of interest.

Claims

1. A telecommunications terminal comprising:

a receiver for receiving a plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages having associated geographic locations of relevance and priorities, and for ascertaining a geographic location of said telecommunications terminal; and

a processor configured to determine a geographic region of interest of said telecommunications terminal based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal, to determine whether the geographic locations of relevance associated with the plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages are within said geographic region of interest of said telecommunications terminal, to filter out the broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages whose associated geographic locations of relevance are not within said geographic region of interest of said telecommunications terminal, and to order the unfiltered messages according to their associated priorities.

2. The telecommunications terminal of claim 1:

wherein said telecommunications terminal is mobile; and

wherein said geographic region of interest is based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal and on a direction of motion of said telecommunications terminal.

3. The telecommunications terminal of claim 1:

wherein said telecommunications terminal is mobile; and

wherein said geographic region of interest is based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal and on a speed of said telecommunications terminal.

4. The telecommunications terminal of claim 1 wherein said geographical region of interest is based on the associated priority of said geographically-sensitive message.

5. The telecommunications terminal of claim 1 wherein said geographic region of interest comprises at least one of a polygon and a conic section.

6. A method of operating a telecommunications terminal, said method comprising:

receiving a plurality of geographically-sensitive messages broadcasted to a plurality of telecommunication terminals, and the plurality of geographically-sensitive messages having associated geographic locations of relevance and priorities;

ascertaining a geographic location of said telecommunications terminal;

determining a geographic region of interest of said telecommunications terminal based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal;

determining whether the geographic locations of relevance are within said geographic region of interest of said telecommunications terminal;

filtering out the geographically-sensitive messages whose associated geographic locations of relevance are not within said geographic region of interest of said telecommunications terminal; and

ordering the unfiltered geographically-sensitive messages according to their associated priorities.

7. The method of claim 6:

wherein said telecommunications terminal is mobile; and

wherein said geographic region of interest is based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal and on a direction of motion of said telecommunications terminal.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein said telecommunications terminal is mobile;

and

wherein said geographic region of interest is based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal and on a speed of said telecommunications terminal.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein said geographic region of interest is based on the associated priority of said geographically-sensitive message.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein said geographic region of interest comprises at least one of a polygon and a conic section.

11. A telecommunications terminal for filtering geographically-sensitive messages which are broadcasted to a plurality of telecommunication terminals, the telecommunication terminal comprising:

a receiver for receiving a first message having a definition of a geographic region of relevance and an associated indicium of the geographic region of relevance and for receiving a plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages, the plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages being labeled by the indicium of a geographic region of relevance;

means for ascertaining a geographic location of said telecommunications terminal; and

a processor configured to determine geographic regions of relevance from the associated indicia supplied in the plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages and to determine whether said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal is within the determined geographic region of relevance, and to filter out the broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages when said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal is not within a determined geographic region of relevance indicated by an associated indicium supplied in a broadcasted geographically-sensitive message.

12. The telecommunications terminal of claim 11 wherein said receiver is also for receiving a definition of said geographic region of relevance and an indicium, and further comprising a memory for storing said definition of said geographic region of relevance with an indicium of said geographic region of relevance as an index into said memory.

13. The telecommunications terminal of claim 11 wherein said geographic region of relevance comprises at least one of a polygon and a conic section.

14. A method of operating a telecommunications terminal to filter geographically-sensitive messages which are broadcasted to a plurality of telecommunications terminal, said method comprising:

receiving a first message having a definition of a geographic region of relevance and an associated indicium of the geographic region;

receiving a plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages having associated indicia of a geographic region of relevance;

ascertaining a geographic location of said telecommunications terminal;

determining a geographic region of relevance from the associated indicium supplied in a broadcasted geographically-sensitive message; and

determining whether said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal is within the determined geographic region of relevance; and

disregarding the broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages when said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal is not within the determined geographic region of relevance.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

receiving a definition of each geographic region of relevance and an indicium of said geographic region of relevance before receiving said geographically-sensitive message; and

storing said definition of said geographic region of relevance into a memory with said indicium of said geographic region of relevance as an index into said memory.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein said geographic region of relevance comprises at least one of a polygon and a conic section.

17. A telecommunications terminal comprising:

a receiver for receiving a first message having a definition of a geographic region of relevance and an associated indicium of the geographic region of relevance and for receiving a plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages, the plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages having associated indicia of geographic regions of relevance and for ascertaining a geographic location of said telecommunications terminal; and

a processor configured to determine geographic regions of relevance from the associated indicia supplied in the plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages, to determine a geographic region of interest based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal, to determine whether said determined geographic regions of relevance overlap said geographic region of interest, and to filter out said broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages whose determined geographic regions of relevance fail to overlap said geographic region of interest.

18. The telecommunications terminal of claim 17:

wherein said telecommunications terminal is mobile; and

wherein said geographic region of interest is based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal and on a direction of motion of said telecommunications terminal.

19. The telecommunications terminal of claim 17 wherein said receiver is also for receiving a definition of said geographic region of relevance, and further comprising a memory for storing said definition of said geographic region of relevance and an indicium of said geographic region of relevance as an index into said memory.

20. The telecommunications terminal of claim 17:

wherein said telecommunications terminal is mobile; and

wherein said geographic region of interest is based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal and on a speed of said telecommunications terminal.

21. The telecommunications terminal of claim 17 wherein said geographic region of interest is based on a priority of said geographically-sensitive message.

22. The telecommunications terminal of claim 17 wherein said geographic region of interest comprises at least one of a polygon and a conic section.

23. A method of operating a telecommunications terminal, said method comprising:

receiving a first message having a definition of a geographic region of relevance and an associated indicium of the geographic region of relevance;

receiving a plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages having associated indicia of geographic regions of relevance;

ascertaining a geographic location of said telecommunications terminal;

determining geographic regions of relevance from the associated indicia supplied in the plurality of broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages;

determining a geographic region of interest of said telecommunications terminal based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal;

determining whether the determined geographic regions of relevance overlap said geographic region of interest of said telecommunications terminal; and

filtering out the broadcasted geographically-sensitive messages whose associated determined geographic regions of relevance fail to overlap said geographic region of interest of said telecommunications terminal.

24. The method of claim 23:

wherein said telecommunications terminal is mobile; and

wherein said geographic region of interest is based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal and on a direction of motion of said telecommunications terminal.

25. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

receiving a definition of said geographic region of relevance and an indicium of said geographic region of relevance before receiving said geographically-sensitive message; and

storing said definition of said geographic region of relevance into a memory with said indicium of said geographic region of relevance as an index into said memory.

26. The method of claim 23:

wherein said telecommunications terminal is mobile; and

wherein said geographic region of interest is based on said geographic location of said telecommunications terminal and on a speed of said telecommunications terminal.

27. The method of claim 23 wherein said geographic region of interest is based on a priority of said geographically-sensitive message.

28. The method of claim 23 wherein said geographic region of interest comprises at least one of a polygon and a conic section.