Method and system for location-based communication

• US 8,498,654 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2007
• Issued: 07/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Van Wyk, Ryan, Steinbrueck, Scott, Jennings, Phillip
• Primary Examiner(s): Afshar, Kamran
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHAHEED, KHALID W
• Application Number:
  US11/728,124
• Publication Number:
  US 20080233956A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,321 Days
• Field of Search: 379/201.06, 379/207.15, 379/207.13, 455/435.1, 455/3.05, 455/3.01, 455/3.06, 455/12.1, 725/99, 725/106, 725/122, 725/62, 348/14.02, 348/14.01, 348/14.07
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0018 Transmission from mobile station to base station
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42357 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• 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 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like

Abstract

A method and system for location-based communication. A selection of a source transceiver from a plurality of available transceivers associated with a source may be received. A telephony session may be initiated with the selected source transceiver. A mobile target transceiver may be geographically located. A result of the geographic location regarding the located mobile target transceiver may be provided. The located mobile target transceiver may be connected to the telephony session.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a system having a processor, an indication of a user-chosen source transceiver chosen from a listing of a plurality of source transceivers, wherein each of the plurality of source transceivers is associated with a source and configured to facilitate a telephony session between the source transceiver and a mobile target transceiver, and the user-chosen source transceiver is a type of device selected from a group consisting of a mobile device, an internet-protocol-television device, a computing device, and a land-line device;

initiating, by the system, a telephony session between the system and the user-chosen source transceiver;

determining, by the system, a geographic location of the mobile target transceiver;

providing, by the system, the geographic location to a destination; and

connecting, by the system, the mobile target transceiver to the telephony session.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the geographic location comprises:

initiating a geographic location search for the mobile target transceiver; and

obtaining, by way of the geographic location search, geographic location information indicating the geographic location.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein initiating the geographic location search comprises notifying the mobile target transceiver of initiation of the geographic location search.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein initiating the geographic location search comprises requesting, of the mobile target transceiver, location data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein obtaining the geographic location information comprises:

receiving, from the mobile target transceiver, the location data; and

deriving, from the location data, the geographic location information.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

creating a log of the telephony session initiated; and

associating the geographic location information obtained during the telephony session, to the log.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing, using the geographic location, a map; and

providing the map for presentation by way of the internet-protocol-television device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the method further comprises;

sending the geographic location to a reverse-geocoding application configured to determine a street address from using the result; and

receiving, from the reverse-geocoding application, the street address; and

providing the geographic location comprises sending the map and the street address to a receiver device, being in operative communication with the internet-protocol-television device, for presentation on the internet-protocol-television device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a directions request relating to the geographic location of the mobile target transceiver; and

providing, to the target mobile transceiver, directions connecting the geographic location and a target location.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the target location includes a type of location selected from a group consisting of a location of the user-chosen source transceiver, a location of a network device, and a predefined location.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing, during the telephony session, a voice communication between the user-chosen source transceiver and the mobile target transceiver, wherein the processing includes transferring the voice communication, received from a first device of the user-chosen source transceiver and the mobile target transceiver, to a second device of the user-chosen source transceiver and the mobile target transceiver.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing, during the telephony session, a text communication between the user-chosen source transceiver and the mobile target transceiver, wherein the processing includes transferring the text communication, received from a first device of the user-chosen source transceiver and the mobile target transceiver, to a second device of the user-chosen source transceiver and the mobile target transceiver.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring, during the telephony session, a call from the user-chosen source transceiver to a new source transceiver.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding an additional transceiver to the telephony session to create a conference call.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic location includes location coordinates.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile target transceiver is a general-packet-radio-service-enabled mobile phone.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the source, being associated with the user-chosen source transceiver, is selected from a group consisting of a person, a family, and a non-family group of persons.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the destination is a component selected from a group consisting of;

the internet-protocol-television device; and

a receiver device in operative communication with the internet-protocol-television device; and

the geographic location is provided to the destination for presentation by way of the Internet-protocol-television device.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving an indication of a user-chosen source transceiver chosen from a listing of a plurality of source transceivers, wherein each of the plurality of source transceivers is associated with a source and configured to facilitate a telephony session between the source transceiver and a mobile target transceiver, and the user-chosen source transceiver is a type of device selected from a group consisting of a mobile device, an internet-protocol-television device, a computing device, and a land-line device;

initiating a telephony session between the user-chosen source transceiver and a system of which computer-readable storage device is a part;

determining a geographic location of the mobile target transceiver;

providing the geographic location to a destination; and

connecting the mobile target transceiver to the telephony session.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the operation of determining the geographic location comprises:

initiating a geographic location search for the mobile target transceiver; and

obtaining, by way of the geographic location search, geographic location information indicating the geographic location.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the operation of initiating the geographic location search comprises notifying the mobile target transceiver of initiation of the geographic location search.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the operations further comprise:

creating a log of the telephony session initiated; and

associating the geographic location information, obtained during the telephony session initiated, to the log.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a directions request relating to the geographic location of the mobile target transceiver; and

providing, to the target mobile transceiver, directions between the geographic location and a target location;

wherein the target location includes a type of location selected from a group consisting of a location of the user-chosen source transceiver, a location of a network device, and a predefined location.

24. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the source, being associated with the user-chosen source transceiver, is selected from a group consisting of a person, a family, and a non-family group of persons.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein:

the destination is a component selected from a group consisting of;

the internet-protocol-television device; and

a receiver device in operative communication with the internet-protocol-television device; and

the geographic location is provided to the destination for presentation by way of the internet-protocol-television device.

26. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving an indication of a user-chosen source transceiver chosen from a listing of a plurality of source transceivers, wherein each of the plurality of source transceivers is associated with a source and configured to facilitate a telephony session between the source transceiver and a mobile target transceiver, and the user-chosen source transceiver is a type of device selected from a group consisting of a mobile device, an internet-protocol-television device, a computing device, and a land-line device;

initiating a telephony session between the user-chosen source transceiver and a system of which the computer-readable storage device is a part;

determining a geographic location of the mobile target transceiver;

providing the geographic location to a destination; and

connecting the mobile target transceiver to the telephony session.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the operation of determining the geographic location comprises:

initiating a geographic location search for the mobile target transceiver; and

obtaining, by way of the geographic location search, geographic location information indicating the geographic location.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the operation of initiating the geographic location search comprises notifying the mobile target transceiver of initiation of the geographic location search.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the operations further comprise:

creating a log of the telephony session initiated; and

associating the geographic location information, obtained during the telephony session initiated, to the log.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a directions request relating to the geographic location of the mobile target transceiver; and

providing, to the target mobile transceiver, directions between the geographic location and a target location;

wherein the target location includes a type of location selected from a group consisting of a location of the user-chosen source transceiver, a location of a network device, and a predefined location.

31. The system of claim 26, wherein the source, being associated with the user-chosen source transceiver, is selected from a group consisting of a person, a family, and a non-family group of persons.

32. The system of claim 26, wherein:

the destination is a component selected from a group consisting of;

the internet-protocol-television device; and

a receiver device in operative communication with the internet-protocol-television device; and

the geographic location is provided to the destination for presentation by way of the internet-protocol-television device.