System and method for internet connected service providing heterogeneous mobile systems with situational location relevant content

• US 8,538,685 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2007
• Issued: 09/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Johnson, William J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): PECHE, JORGE O
• Application Number:
  US11/758,912
• Publication Number:
  US 20070276587A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,295 Days
• Field of Search: 701/200, 701/209, 701/213, 701/400, 701/425, 701/426, 701/430, 701/451, 711/170, 370/352
• US Class Current: 701/425
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/02 Indoor
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02 using radio waves using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/444 Spatial browsing, e.g. 2D maps, 3D or virtual spaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/14 with services dependent on location where the service is an information service H04M2242/15; services independent of location H04M3/42229
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/15 Information service where the information is dependent on the location of the subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42348 Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 : Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• 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 4/024 : Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 : using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 : for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 : Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 : Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 : Recoverability

Abstract

Situational location dependent information is transmitted from a server data processing system to a receiving data processing system. The server data processing system communicates with the receiving data processing system in a manner by pushing content when appropriate. A candidate delivery event associated with a current positional attribute of the receiving data processing system is recognized and a situational location of the remote data processing system is determined. The candidate delivery event may be a location and/or direction change, device state change, or movement exceeding a movement tolerance. The situational location of the remote data processing system may be its location, direction, location and direction, proximity to a location, state change, or location and/or direction relative to a previous location and/or direction, or combinations thereof. A set of delivery content from a deliverable content database is transmitted from the server data processing system to the receiving data processing system according to the situational location of the receiving data processing system, and according to delivery constraints. The delivery content is configurable by authorized administrators on an instant activation basis for proactive delivery.

Claims

1. An internet connected service, said service comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer-readable medium including one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes;

receiving input from a plurality of content administrators over an internet connection to the service to add content to a database of the service for presentation to a mobile data processing system of a mobile user, the input specifying an association between the content and at least one configured situational location;

authenticating the plurality of content administrators to be content administrators of the service;

generating an association between the content and the at least one configured situational location;

determining a mobile situational location of the mobile user;

automatically finding the content in the database by comparing the mobile situational location with the configured situational location; and

sending the content to the mobile data processing system.

2. The internet connected service of claim 1 further including instructions that cause causing presentation of the content at the mobile data processing system.

3. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the input is received from a plurality of administrator data processing systems;

and wherein at least one of the administrator data processing systems and the mobile data processing system are heterogeneous data processing systems.

4. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the plurality of content administrators use heterogeneous data processing systems for configuring the content.

5. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the mobile user is one of a plurality of mobile users that use heterogeneous data processing systems for participating with the service.

6. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the instructions that cause determining a mobile situational location comprise instructions that cause using global positioning system data to determine the mobile situational location of the mobile user.

7. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the instructions that cause determining a mobile situational location comprise instructions that cause triangulating with radio wave signals the mobile situational location of the mobile user.

8. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the instructions that cause determining a mobile situational location comprise instructions that cause using a network cell identifier to determine the mobile situational location of the mobile user.

9. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the instructions that cause determining a mobile situational location comprise instructions that cause using a telephone number to determine the mobile situational location of the mobile user.

10. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the instructions that cause determining a mobile situational location comprise instructions that cause using a network address to determine the mobile situational location of the mobile user.

11. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the instructions that cause determining a mobile situational location comprise instructions that cause using proximity to a location to determine the mobile situational location of the mobile user.

12. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein at least one content administrator, of the plurality of content administrators, is the mobile user.

13. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the content is stored to a local cache of the mobile data processing system for later presentation.

14. The internet connected service of claim 1 further including instructions that cause maintaining a history of content sent.

15. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein instructions that cause sending the content to the mobile data processing system comprise instructions that cause sending the content according to capabilities of the mobile data processing system.

16. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the instructions that cause sending the content to the mobile data processing system comprise instructions that cause sending the content according to interests of the mobile user.

17. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the instructions that cause sending the content to the mobile data processing system comprise instructions that cause sending an indicator for the content to the mobile data processing system.

18. The internet connected service of claim 1 wherein the content includes an invocable speed reference.

19. A method in an internet connected service, the method comprising:

receiving input, at a computing device, from a plurality of users that specifies deliverable content and associations between deliverable content and configured situational locations;

authenticating, by the computing device, the plurality of users to be administrators of the service;

generating, by the computing device, an association between the deliverable content and the configured situational locations;

adding, by the computing device, the deliverable content to a deliverable content database of the service;

periodically receiving, by the computing device, automatically determined situational locations from a plurality of mobile data processing systems;

comparing, by the computing device, the automatically determined situational location of said mobile data processing systems with the configured situational locations associated with deliverable content stored in the deliverable content database;

determining, by the computing device, whether one or more of the automatically determined situational locations match one or more of the configured situational locations associated with deliverable content stored in the deliverable content database; and

causing presentation, at the mobile data processing systems, of information for deliverable content associated with configured situational locations which match the automatically determined situational locations of the mobile data processing systems.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising sending the information to the mobile data processing system.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the input is received from a plurality of administrator data processing systems;

and wherein at least one of the administrator data processing systems and at least one of the mobile data processing system are heterogeneous data processing systems.

22. The method of claim 19 wherein the plurality of users use heterogeneous data processing systems for configuring the deliverable content.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein the plurality of mobile data processing systems are heterogeneous data processing systems.

24. The method of claim 19 wherein the automatically determined situational location is automatically determined using global positioning system data.

25. The method of claim 19 wherein the automatically determined situational location is automatically determined using triangulation with radio wave signals.

26. The method of claim 19 wherein the automatically determined situational location is automatically determined using a network cell identifier.

27. The method of claim 19 wherein the automatically determined situational location is automatically determined using a telephone number.

28. The method of claim 19 wherein the automatically determined situational location is automatically determined using a network address.

29. The method of claim 19 wherein the automatically determined situational location is automatically determined using proximity to a location.

30. The method of claim 19 wherein at least one user, of the plurality of users, is a mobile user.

31. The method of claim 19 wherein the information is stored to a local cache of the mobile data processing system.

32. The method of claim 19 further comprising maintaining a history of the information presented.

33. The method of claim 19 wherein causing presentation, at the mobile data processing systems, of information includes causing presentation, at the mobile data processing systems, of information according to capabilities of the mobile data processing systems.

34. The method of claim 19 wherein causing presentation, at the mobile data processing systems, of information includes causing presentation, at the mobile data processing systems, of information according to user interests configured for the mobile data processing systems.

35. The method of claim 19 wherein causing presentation, at the mobile data processing systems, of information includes causing presentation, at the mobile data processing systems, of an indicator for the information.

36. The method of claim 19 wherein the information includes an invocable speed reference.