Determining and providing locations of communication devices in proximity to wireless access points

• US 8,554,245 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2011
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chemtron Research LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Behemoth Development Company LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Stewart, Brett B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ferguson, Keith
• Application Number:
  US13/028,999
• Publication Number:
  US 20110136506A1
• Time in Patent Office: 965 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-457, 455/422.1, 455/403, 455/404, 455/404.1, 455/550.1, 4554141-4144, 455/466, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 370/310, 370/328, 370/329, 370/343, 370/338
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• 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: 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 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment

Abstract

Systems, methods, apparatus and software have been discovered for use by individual users to monitor the geographic location of other people or assets with some relationship to the user. Once some manner of location information is determined, users have the ability to describe that location in various ways and control how that information is shared with other users.

Claims

1. A computer accessible non-transitory memory medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

identifying a wireless access point in communication with a first mobile communication device associated with a first user;

determining a location of the first mobile communication device based at least in part on a location of the wireless access point;

associating a label to the location of the first mobile communication device based at least in part on a sharing constraint; and

providing the label over a network to at least a second mobile communication device associated with a second user in accordance with the sharing constraint, wherein the label indicates the location of the first mobile communication device.

2. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein identifying the wireless access point comprises obtaining a media access control (MAC) address of the wireless access point.

3. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein determining the location of the wireless access point comprises accessing a database configured to store information regarding locations of wireless access points.

4. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein providing the label over the network comprises providing the label to the second user via a service.

5. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 4, wherein the service is a social networking website;

wherein the first user is a member of the social networking website;

wherein the second user is a member of the social networking website; and

wherein the first user is associated with the second user on the social networking website.

6. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 4, wherein the service is configured to select the second user based at least in part on the sharing constraint.

7. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 4, wherein the sharing constraint is provided by the first user.

8. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 4, wherein the sharing constraint comprises one or more parameters regarding when, to whom, and to what degree the location of the first mobile communication device is provided to the second user.

9. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein the first mobile communication device comprises a mobile telephony device.

10. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein the label comprises a user-selected alias associated with the location, and wherein the sharing constraint comprises selectively authorizing viewing rights of the user-selected alias to a group of users including the second user.

11. A method comprising:

determining an identity of a wireless access point in communication with a mobile computing device associated with a first user;

determining a location of the mobile computing device based at least in part on a location or the identity of the wireless access point;

associating a label to the location of the mobile computing device based at least in part on a sharing constraint, wherein the sharing constraint comprises restricting viewing access of the label to a designated group of users; and

providing the label associated with the location of the mobile computing device over a network to at least a second user in accordance with the sharing constraint, wherein the second user is associated with the designated group of users.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identity of the wireless access point comprises a media access control (MAC) address of the wireless access point.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein determining the location of the wireless access point comprises accessing a database configured to store information regarding locations of wireless access points.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein providing the label over the network comprises providing the label to the second user via a service.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the service is a social networking website;

wherein the first user and the second user are members of the social networking website; and

wherein the second user is associated with the first user on the social networking website.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the service is configured to select the second user based at least in part on the sharing constraint.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the sharing constraint is provided by the first user.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving the sharing constraint including one or more parameters regarding when, to whom, and to what degree the location is provided to the second user.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the mobile computing device comprises a mobile telephony device.

20. A computer accessible non-transitory memory medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device cause the processing device to perform operations to:

receive information indicating that a mobile communication device is within range of a wireless access point;

determine location information of the mobile communication device based on the wireless access point;

associate a label with the location information according to a sharing constraint, wherein the sharing constraint comprises selectively authorizing access of the label to a group of users; and

provide the location info nation of the mobile communication device to a service over a network;

wherein the location information includes the label; and

wherein the service is configured to provide the location information of the communication device to a plurality of authorized users associated with the service in accordance with the sharing constraint.

21. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 20, wherein the information indicating that the mobile communication device is within range of a wireless access point is a beacon transmitted by the mobile communication device.

22. A method comprising:

receiving information indicating that a mobile communication device is within range of a wireless access point;

determining a location of the mobile communication device based on a location of the wireless access point;

associating a label with the location of the mobile communication device according to a sharing constraint, wherein the sharing constraint comprises selectively authorizing access of the label to a group of users; and

providing the label associated with the location of the mobile communication device to a service over a network;

wherein the service is configured to provide the label associated with the location of the mobile communication device to a plurality of authorized users associated via the service in accordance with the sharing constraint.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein receiving the information indicating that the mobile communication device is within range of the wireless access point includes receiving a beacon transmitted from the mobile communication device.

24. A computer accessible non-transitory memory medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device cause the processing device to perform operations to:

receive an identity of a wireless access point;

receive an identity of a mobile communication device associated with a first user;

determine a location of the mobile communication device based at least in part on the identity of the wireless access point;

determine a label for the location of the mobile communication device from a plurality of available labels in response to a rule, wherein the rule comprises selectively authorizing access to the plurality of available labels according to an association of a second user with one or more groups of users;

provide the label for the location of the mobile communication device over a network to the second user in accordance with the rule.

25. A method comprising:

receiving an identity of a wireless access point;

receiving an identity of a mobile communication device associated with a first user;

determining a location of the mobile communication device based at least in part on the identity of the wireless access point;

determining a label for the location of the mobile communication device from a plurality of available labels in response to a rule, wherein the rule comprises selectively authorizing viewing access of one or more of the plurality of available labels according to an association of a second user with a group of users;

providing the label for the location of the mobile communication device over a network to the second user in accordance with the rule.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the plurality of labels comprises a first label associated with a first group of users and a second label associated with a second group of users, and wherein said determining a label for the location of the mobile communication device comprises selecting the label from between the first label and the second label according to an association of the second user with the first group of users or the second group of users.