Information distribution method and device

• US 8,489,121 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2012
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Guangzhou Ucweb Computer Technology Company, Ltd.
• Inventors: Liang, Jie
• Primary Examiner(s): SAMS, MATTHEW C
• Application Number:
  US13/640,569
• Publication Number:
  US 20130029692A1
• Time in Patent Office: 518 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-457, 4554141-4144, 701/426, 707/E17.11, 705 141- 1473
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

The present invention provides an information distribution method based on geographical location information of a mobile terminal. The method includes obtaining current geographical location information of the mobile terminal; based on an acquiring mode used to obtain the current geographical location information, determining a positioning accuracy of the mobile terminal'"'"'s current geographical location information; based on the determined positioning accuracy, determining a distribution mode used to distribute information to the mobile terminal, wherein the distribution mode includes a location-based distribution mode and the combination mode of location-based distribution and relation-based distribution; and distributing information to the mobile terminal using the determined distribution mode.

This method may be used to accurately distribute to the mobile terminal user the information related to the nearby Points of Interest (POIs) within a predetermined distance range from the current geographical location of the mobile terminal or related to the similar POIs having the same type of the current POI of the mobile terminal user, such as coupons, advertisement information, and/or POI characteristic information.

Claims

1. An information distribution method based on geographical location information of a mobile terminal, comprising:

obtaining current geographical location information of the mobile terminal;

based on an acquiring mode used to obtain the current geographical location information of the mobile terminal, determining a positioning accuracy of the mobile terminal'"'"'s current geographical location information;

based on the determined positioning accuracy, determining a distribution mode used to distribute information to the mobile terminal, wherein the distribution mode includes a location-based distribution mode, where information of a plurality of nearby points of interest (POIs) determined based on current geographical location information of a first positioning accuracy is distributed to the mobile terminal, and a combination mode of location-based distribution and relation-based distribution, where a current POI is determined based on current geographical location information of a second positioning accuracy, nearby POIs having a same type as the current POI are automatically searched, and information of the POIs having the same type as the current POI is distributed to the mobile terminal; and

distributing information to the mobile terminal using the determined distribution mode.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, based on the determined positioning accuracy, determining the distribution mode further includes:

comparing the determined positioning accuracy with a predetermined threshold value;

when the determined positioning accuracy is greater than the predetermined threshold value, using the location-based distribution mode to distribute the information to the mobile terminal; and

when the determined positioning accuracy is less than or equal to the predetermined threshold value, using the combination mode of location-based distribution and relation-based distribution to distribute the information to the mobile terminal.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein using the location-based distribution mode to distribute the information to the mobile terminal further includes:

based on the determined current geographical location information of the mobile terminal, searching the nearby POIs within a predetermined distance from the mobile terminal'"'"'s current geographical location; and

distributing information related to the searched nearby POIs to the mobile terminal.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the distributed information includes coupons, advertisement information, and/or POI characteristic information.

5. An information distribution device based on geographical location information of a mobile terminal, comprising:

a geographical location information acquiring unit configured to obtain current geographical location information of the mobile terminal;

a positioning accuracy determining unit configured to, based on an acquiring mode used to obtain the current geographical location information of the mobile terminal, determine a positioning accuracy of the current geographical location information of the mobile terminal;

a distribution mode determining unit configured to, based on the determined positioning accuracy, determine a distribution mode used to distribute information to the mobile terminal, wherein the distribution mode includes a location-based distribution mode, where information of a plurality of nearby points of interest (POIs) determined based on current geographical location information of a first positioning accuracy is distributed to the mobile terminal, and a combination mode of location-based distribution and relation-based distribution, where a current POI is determined based on current geographical location information of a second positioning accuracy, nearby POIs having a same type as the current POI are automatically searched, and information of the POIs having the same type as the current POI is distributed to the mobile terminal; and

an information distributing unit configured to distribute information to the mobile terminal based on the determined distribution mode.

6. The device according to claim 5, wherein the distribution mode determining unit further includes:

a comparing unit configured to compare the determined positioning accuracy with a predetermined threshold value; and

a distribution mode selecting unit configured to, when the determined positioning accuracy is larger than the predetermined threshold value, select the location-based distribution mode to distribute the information to the mobile terminal, and, when the determined positioning accuracy is less than or equal to the predetermined threshold value, to select the combination mode of location-based distribution and relation-based distribution to distribute the information to the mobile terminal.

7. The device according to claim 6, wherein, when the location-based mode is used to distribute the information to the mobile terminal, the information distributing unit further includes:

a nearby POI searching unit configured to, based on the determined current geographical location information of the mobile terminal, search the nearby POIs within a predetermined distance of the mobile terminal'"'"'s geographical location; and

the information distributing unit distributes the information related to nearby POIs to the mobile terminal.

8. The device according to claim 6, wherein, when the combination mode of location-based distribution and relation-based distribution is used to distribute the information to the mobile terminal, the information distributing unit further includes:

a current POI determining unit configured to determine the current POI of the mobile terminal;

a nearby POI searching unit configured to, based on the mobile terminal'"'"'s current POI, search the nearby POIs within a predetermined distance from the mobile terminal'"'"'s current POI;

a similar POI searching unit configured to, based on the mobile terminal'"'"'s current POI, search similar POIs having the same type as the mobile terminal'"'"'s current POI;

wherein the information distributing unit distributes the information related to nearby POIs and the similar POIs to the mobile terminal.

9. The device according to claim 5, wherein the distributed information includes coupons, advertisement information, and/or POI characteristic information.

10. A server, comprising the device according to claim 5.

11. A server, comprising the device according to claim 6.

12. A server, comprising the device according to claim 7.

13. A server, comprising the device according to claim 8.

14. A server, comprising the device according to claim 9.