Profile construction using location-based aggregate profile information

• US 8,554,770 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2010
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Concert Technology Corporation
• Original Assignee: Waldeck Technology, LLC (Concert Technology Corporation)
• Inventors: Purdy, Sean T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ehichioya, Fred I
• Assistant Examiner(s): OWYANG, MICHELLE N
• Application Number:
  US12/764,150
• Publication Number:
  US 20120047184A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,266 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/16 selectively restricting mobility data tracking

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for creating a user profile for a subject user based on historical aggregate profile data for locations at which the subject user was previously located. In one embodiment, one or more location and time period pairs are determined for the subject user. Each location and time period pair defines a previous location of the subject user and a time period during which the subject user was at the previous location. Historical aggregate profile data is obtained for the location and time period pairs. For each location and time period pair, the historical aggregate profile data is generally an aggregation of user profiles of a number of users relevant to the location and time period pair. A user profile for the subject user is then created based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining one or more location and time period pairs for a subject user, each location and time period pair of the one or more location and time period pairs defining a previous location of the subject user and a time period during which the subject user was at the previous location;

obtaining historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs, wherein the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs comprises, for each location and time period pair of the one or more location and time period pairs, a plurality of historical aggregate profiles for a corresponding plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair; and

creating a user profile for the subject user based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs, wherein creating the user profile comprises, for each location and time period pair of the one or more location and time period pairs;

determining relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair; and

combining the plurality of historical aggregate profiles for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair based on the relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands to provide a consolidated profile for the location and time period pair where the user profile is based on the consolidated profile, wherein combining the plurality of historical aggregate profiles for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair comprises, for each historical aggregate profile of the plurality of historical aggregate profiles;

determining whether the relevancy rating for one of the plurality of sub-bands that corresponds to the historical aggregate profile is greater than or equal to a predefined cut-off value; and

merging at least a subset of the historical aggregate profile into the consolidated profile for the location and time period pair when the relevancy rating is greater than or equal to the predefined cut-off value.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair comprises determining the relevancy ratings of the plurality of sub-bands based on a manner in which the time period was defined.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair comprises, for each sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands, determining the relevancy rating of the sub-band based on a degree of similarity between a corresponding one of the plurality of historical aggregate profiles and one or more user interests of the subject user.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair comprises determining the relevancy ratings of the plurality of sub-bands based on a degree of similarity between additional information known about the location defined by the location and time period pair and one or more user interests of the subject user.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair comprises determining the relevancy ratings of the plurality of sub-bands based on at least two of a group consisting of:

a manner in which the time period was defined, a degree of similarity between each of the plurality of historical aggregate profiles and one or more user interests of the subject user, a degree of similarity between additional information known about the location defined by the location and time period pair and one or more user interests of the subject user, and whether the location and time period pair is similar to any other location and time period pairs from the one or more location and time period pairs.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the predefined cut-off value is a function of a highest relevancy rating of the relevancy ratings of the plurality of sub-bands.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein merging the at least a subset of the historical aggregate profile into the consolidated profile for the location and time period pair comprises:

merging the historical aggregate profile into the consolidated profile for the location and time period pair if the relevancy rating is greater than or equal to a predefined threshold value that is greater than the predefined cut-off value; and

merging a subset of the historical aggregate profile into the consolidated profile for the location and time period pair if the relevancy rating is greater than or equal to the predefined cut-off value and less than the predefined threshold value.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the predefined threshold value is half a difference between a maximum relevancy rating and the predefined cut-off value plus the predefined cut-off value.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the subset of the historical aggregate profile merged into the consolidated profile is a subset of the historical aggregate profile related to one or more interests in the historical aggregate profile that are already included in the consolidated profile.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein creating the user profile for the subject user based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs further comprises:

processing the consolidated profiles provided for the one or more location and time period pairs to combine similar ones of the consolidated profiles and thereby provide one or more unique profiles.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein creating the user profile for the subject user based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs further comprises automatically selecting one of the one or more unique profiles as the user profile of the subject user.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein automatically selecting the one of the one or more unique profiles as the user profile of the subject user comprises automatically selecting one of the one or more unique profiles that is most similar to an aggregate profile of a current crowd in which the subject user is located as the user profile of the subject user.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein creating the user profile for the subject user based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs further comprises enabling the subject user to select one of the one or more unique profiles as the user profile of the subject user.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein creating the user profile for the subject user based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs further comprises enabling the subject user to modify one of the one or more unique profiles to provide the user profile of the subject user.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the one or more unique profiles includes a plurality of unique profiles, and creating the user profile for the subject user based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs further comprises enabling the subject user to merge subsets of two or more of the one or more unique profiles to provide the user profile of the subject user.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein each historical aggregate profile of the plurality of historical aggregate profiles comprises a list of user interests and, for each user interest in the list of user interests, a number of occurrences for the user interest in user profiles of a plurality of users that contributed to the historical aggregate profile.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein each historical aggregate profile of the plurality of historical aggregate profiles comprises a list of user interests and, for each user interest in the list of user interests, a ratio of a number of occurrences for the user interest in user profiles of a plurality of users that contributed to the historical aggregate profile and a total number of users whose user profiles contributed to the historical aggregate profile.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the one or more location and time period pairs for the subject user comprises:

obtaining user information from the subject user that identifies one or more sources of previous locations of the subject user;

obtaining information from the one or more sources that is indicative of one or more previous locations of the subject user and times at which the subject user was at the one or more previous locations; and

processing the information from the one or more sources to determine the one or more location and time period pairs for the subject user.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the one or more sources comprises at least one of a group consisting of a network service that operates to maintain a location history for a plurality of users including the subject user, one or more sources of a record of network accesses made by a mobile device of the subject user, a cellular telecommunications service provider that provides service to a mobile telecommunications device of the subject user, a source of a record of locations at which the subject user has conducted financial transactions, an electronic calendar of the subject user, and a source of geo-tagged content of the subject user.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the one or more location and time period pairs for the subject user comprises receiving user input defining at least one of the one or more location and time period pairs from the subject user.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining one or more user interests of the subject user;

wherein creating the user profile for the subject user comprises creating the user profile of the subject user based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs and the one or more user interests of the subject user.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein obtaining the one or more user interests of the subject user comprises:

obtaining user information from the subject user that identifies one or more sources of user interests of the subject user;

obtaining information from the one or more sources that is representative of the one or more user interests of the subject user; and

processing the information from the one or more sources to obtain the one or more user interests of the subject user.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the one or more sources comprises at least one of a group consisting of:

a social networking service and a website.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein obtaining the one or more user interests of the subject user comprises receiving user input defining at least one of the one or more user interests from the subject user.

25. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

memory;

a communication interface; and

a controller associated with the processor, the memory and the communication interface and configured to;

determine one or more location and time period pairs for a subject user, each location and time period pair of the one or more location and time period pairs defining a previous location of the subject user and a time period during which the subject user was at the previous location;

obtain historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs, wherein the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs comprises, for each location and time period pair of the one or more location and time period pairs, a plurality of historical aggregate profiles for a corresponding plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair; and

create a user profile for the subject user based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs, wherein when creating the user profile the controller is further configured to, for each location and time period pair of the one or more location and time period pairs;

determine relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair; and

combine the plurality of historical aggregate profiles for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair based on the relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands to provide a consolidated profile for the location and time period pair where the user profile is based on the consolidated profile, wherein to combine the plurality of historical aggregate profiles for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair comprises, for each historical aggregate profile of the plurality of historical aggregate profiles the controller is configured to;

determine whether the relevancy rating for one of the plurality of sub-bands that corresponds to the historical aggregate profile is greater than or equal to a predefined cut-off value; and

merge at least a subset of the historical aggregate profile into the consolidated profile for the location and time period pair when the relevancy rating is greater than or equal to the predefined cut-off value.

26. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing software for instructing a controller of a computing device to:

determine one or more location and time period pairs for a subject user, each location and time period pair of the one or more location and time period pairs defining a previous location of the subject user and a time period during which the subject user was at the previous location;

obtain historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs, wherein the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs comprises, for each location and time period pair of the one or more location and time period pairs, a plurality of historical aggregate profiles for a corresponding plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair; and

create a user profile for the subject user based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs, wherein when creating the user profile the software instructs the controller of the computing device to, for each location and time period pair of the one or more location and time period pairs;

determine relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair; and

combine the plurality of historical aggregate profiles for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair based on the relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands to provide a consolidated profile for the location and time period pair where the user profile is based on the consolidated profile, wherein to combine the plurality of historical aggregate profiles for the plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by the location and time period pair comprises, for each historical aggregate profile of the plurality of historical aggregate profiles the software for instructing the controller to;

determine whether the relevancy rating for one of the plurality of sub-bands that corresponds to the historical aggregate profile is greater than or equal to a predefined cut-off value; and

merge at least a subset of the historical aggregate profile into the consolidated profile for the location and time period pair when the relevancy rating is greater than or equal to the predefined cut-off value.