Systems and methods of networking enhancements using location based services

• US 8,285,751 B2
• Filed: 04/13/2010
• Issued: 10/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nielsen, Mark D., Ramanathan, Sri, Terry, Matthew A., Trevathan, Matthew B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Woo, Isaac M
• Application Number:
  US12/759,053
• Publication Number:
  US 20110252054A1
• Time in Patent Office: 910 Days
• Field of Search: 707600-899
• US Class Current: 707/791
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management

Abstract

A location based service and method configured to provide a mechanism for information to a subscribing user. The method is implemented on a computing infrastructure and includes querying one or more databases for matching information of a third party that is associated with one or more mobile devices that pass within a predefined location at one or more predefined intervals. The method further includes providing location information to a subscribing user of the one or more mobile devices that have the matching information and pass within the predefined location.

Claims

1. A method implemented on a computing infrastructure comprising:

querying one or more databases for matching information of one or more third parties which is associated with one or more mobile devices which pass within a predefined location at one or more predefined intervals, wherein the matching information includes the one or more third parties which are members of a same social network or interest group as a subscribing user;

providing location information, to the subscribing user, of the one or more mobile devices which have the matching information and pass within the predefined location; and

sending a message to the one or more mobile devices which are found to be a match, the message includes a request opt-in authorization for sending the location information to the subscribing user, prior to sending the location information to the subscribing user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising requesting a service provider to construct the predefined location as boundaries at the one or more predefined intervals.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the service provider performs the querying.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a content provider receives events from a service provider that the one or mobile devices have passed within the predefined location and the content provider queries the one or more databases for the matching information and sends the location information to the subscribing user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the content provider sends the message to the one or more mobile devices that are found to be a match.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more databases which are queried are databases associated with one or more social networking systems.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined location is a radius about the subscribing user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined location includes a radius about a certain physical location.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the one or more mobile devices is on a group list provided by the subscribing user.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising removing one or more devices which are on a list provided by the subscribing user when the one or more mobile devices exit the predefined location.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined location is a geo-boundary within a geo-boundary.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering out identification information of the active mobile device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising deconstructing the predefined location after providing the location information.

14. The method of claim 1, the computing infrastructure of claim 1 is at least one of maintained, deployed, created and supported by a service provider.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are provided on a software component, a hardware component or a combination of the software component and the hardware component running on the computing infrastructure.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a central location point for the subscribing user and the one or more third parties.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the determining of the central location point comprises:

retrieving a location of the subscribing user and the one or more third parties; and

averaging the locations of the subscribing user and the one or more third parties.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving from the subscribing user a request to activate a proximity alert; and

notifying the subscribing user that the proximity alert is activated.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

identifying opted-in devices within a geo-boundary, which match information provided by the subscribing user; and

communicating events for each of the identified opted-in devices.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the subscriber user a request for filtered group messages;

receiving a request to construct a geo-boundary; and

constructing the geo-boundary based on the request to construct the geo-boundary.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the request for filtered group messages includes a group list, a location, and a radius about the location.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

deconstructing the geo-boundary after identifying opted-in devices within the geo-boundary;

comparing the opted-in identified devices within the geo-boundary with the group list; and

providing a group message to opted-in identified devices which match devices provided on the group list.

23. A computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having readable program code tangibly embodied in the storage medium, the computer program product being operable to:

query one or more databases of at least one or more social networking systems or interest groups to obtain information associated with one or more users with mobile devices entering a predefined location;

determine a match between the one or more users with mobile devices and a subscriber using the queried information;

obtain location information of the one or more users that which are matched to the subscriber; and

provide the location information of the one or more matched users to the subscriber;

send a message to the one or more matched users requesting an opt-in authorization for sending the location information to the subscriber, prior to sending the location information to the subscriber.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the computer program product constructs geo-boundaries based on a vicinity of the subscriber.

25. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein a content provider:

receives notification that one or mobile devices of the one or more users have passed within a predefined location; and

sends the location information to the subscriber.

26. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising determining that the one or more users is on a group list of the subscriber and sending the list to the subscriber at a single time.

27. The computer program product of claim 26, further comprising removing one or more users which are on the list when the one or more users exit the predefined location.

28. A method for providing information to a subscriber, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure being operable to;

query one or more databases of at least one or more social networking systems or interest groups to obtain information associated with one or more users with mobile devices entering a predefined location;

determine a match between the one or more users with mobile devices and a subscriber using the queried information;

obtain location information of the one or more users which are matched to the subscriber;

provide the location information of the one or more matched users to the subscriber; and

deconstruct the predefined location after providing the location information.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the steps are provided on a software component, a hardware component or a combination of the software component and the hardware component on the computer infrastructure.

30. A computer system for at least one of modeling and forecasting technology adoption, the system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media;

first program instructions to query one or more databases for matching information of one or more third parties which is associated with one or more mobile devices which pass within a predefined location at one or more predefined intervals, wherein the matching information includes the one or more third parties that which are members of a same social network or interest group as that of a subscribing user;

second program instructions to provide location information to the subscribing user of the one or more mobile devices which have the matching information and pass within the predefined location; and

third program instruction to determine a central location point for the subscribing user and the one or more third parties by averaging the locations of the subscribing user and the one or more third parties.