Automatic management of geographic information pertaining to social networks, groups of users, or assets

• US 8,594,715 B1
• Filed: 09/20/2010
• Issued: 11/26/2013
• 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:
  US12/886,128
• Time in Patent Office: 1,163 Days
• Field of Search: 455/518, 455/517, 455/500, 4554141-4144, 4554561-457, 455/560, 455/561, 455/550.1, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 455/426.1, 455/426.2, 709/203, 709/204, 709/218, 709/219, 709/224, 370/310, 370/328, 370/329, 370/343
• US Class Current: 455/518
• 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 method, comprising:

determining, at a server computing device, a location corresponding to a client communications device;

selecting a first label from a plurality of labels corresponding to the location;

selecting a second label different from the first label from the plurality of labels corresponding to the location;

transmitting the first label to at least one first client communications device based at least in part on a first sharing constraint corresponding to the at least one first client communications device; and

transmitting the second label to at least one second client communications device based at least in part on a second sharing constraint corresponding to the at least one second client communications device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining, at the server computing device, the location corresponding to the client communications device further comprises:

detecting the location in response to location data received from the client communications device;

detecting the location in response to information received from a network communications service provider;

or

detecting the location in response to information received from another server computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the location corresponding to the client communications device further comprises:

using cell identification (cell-ID) information, cell site sector information, enhanced cell-ID information, enhanced observed time difference (E-OTD) information, timing advance information, round-trip-time information, global positioning system (GPS) information, assisted-GPS information, user specified information, time difference of arrival (TDOA) information, client communications device network access information, strength of received communications device signal, media access control (MAC) information, or service set identifier (SSID) information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the server computing device, a definition for at least one sharing constraint from the client communications device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first sharing constraint or the second sharing constraint further comprises:

specification of a user allowed to receive the location;

specification of a group of users allowed to receive the location;

specification of a time period during which the location information can be shared;

specification of a geographic restriction on the sharing of the location;

specification of a proximity restriction on the sharing of the location;

or

specification of the plurality of labels corresponding to the location.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the server computing device, location information from another client communications device.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

causing a display of the location information received from the another client communications device on the communications device using a graphical user interface, a text interface, a command line interface, or an indicator light.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising causing an audible indication of or a vibrational indication at the communications device in response to receiving the location information from the another client communications device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting additional information associated with the client communications device to the at least one first client communications device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the client communications device and the at least one first client communications device are configured to access a social network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first label is a more specific indication of the location than the second label.

12. A memory device having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

determining a location of a client communications device;

selecting a first label from a plurality of labels corresponding to the location;

selecting a second label different from the first label from the plurality of labels corresponding to the location;

transmitting the first label to at least one first client communications device based at least in part on a first sharing constraint corresponding to the at least one first client communications device; and

transmitting the second label to at least one second client communications device based at least in part on a second sharing constraint corresponding to the at least one second client communications device.

13. The memory device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

displaying location information received from another client communications device on the communications device using a graphical user interface, a text interface, a command line interface, or an indicator light.

14. The memory device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a definition of the first sharing constraint.

15. The memory device of claim 12, wherein the first label is a more specific indication of the location than the second label.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory configured to store instructions;

a processor configured to execute the instructions stored on the memory to;

receive a location of a client communications device from the client communications device;

associate the location with a first label and a second label from a plurality of location labels stored in a database in association with the location;

transmit the first location label to at least one first client communications device according to a first information sharing constraint; and

transmit the second location label to at least one second client communications device according to a second information sharing constraint;

wherein the first label is different from the second label.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions stored on the memory further to:

receive information about a plurality of users; and

organize the information about the plurality of users according to relationships among the plurality of users.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first label is a more specific indication of the location than the second label.

19. A device, comprising:

a memory device configured to store instructions; and

a processing device configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory device to;

determine a location of the device using circuitry internal to the device;

enable associating the location of the device to a first label and to a second label different from the first label using a graphical user interface;

enable setting a first sharing constraint associated with a first device using the graphical user interface;

enable setting a second sharing constraint associated with a second device using the graphical user interface; and

transmit the location of the device, the first label, the second label, the first sharing constraint, and the second sharing constraint to a server;

wherein the server is configured to transmit the location of the device and the first label to the first device in response to the first sharing constraint; and

wherein the server is configured to transmit the location of the device and the second label to a second device in response to the second sharing constraint.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the processing device is further configured to cause display of a location of the another device and a label associated with the location of the another device received from the server.

21. The device of claim 19, wherein the first label is a more specific indication of the location than the second label.