Methods, device and systems for allowing modification to a service based on quality information

• US 8,682,348 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2009
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Tysowski, Piotr Konrad
• Primary Examiner(s): MILLER, BRANDON J
• Application Number:
  US12/613,723
• Publication Number:
  US 20110111772A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,600 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4566, 455/414.1, 455418-420, 4554121-4122, 455/457, 455/566
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0244 Accuracy or reliability of position solution or of measurements contributing thereto
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/00 Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers subscriber services or facilities provided at exchanges H04M3/00; prepayment telephone coin boxes H04M17/00; current supply arrangements H04M19/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

The disclosure is directed to a method, computer program product, mobile device allowing for configuring a service accessible via the mobile device. The mobile device is configured to allow a determination of its location data using one or more of a plurality of location techniques. The configuring of the service comprises obtaining quality information including a designation of the location technique used for determining said location data and at least partly a quality of said location data; and integrating said quality information at least partly with said service to allow a modification of said service based on said quality information. Various examples of services enabled or enhanced by this capability are described including camera service, navigation services, data sharing services. Various configurations of computer program products, mobile devices and systems for enabling the services above are also described.

Claims

1. A method of configuring a service accessible via a mobile device, said mobile device configured to allow a determination of location data indicative of a location of the mobile device using one or more of a plurality of location techniques, said method comprising:

obtaining, by the mobile device, quality information including a designation of a location technique, selected from the plurality of location techniques, used for determining said location data (110), said quality information including at least partly a quality of said location data, said quality information further including an amount of time remaining until said location data is updated using a second location technique, the second location technique belonging to the plurality of location techniques and having higher accuracy than said location technique; and

integrating, by the mobile device, said quality information at least partly with said service to allow a modification of said service based on said quality information, wherein the integrating is modified if said quality information is outside of a quality criterion range.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said integrating comprises displaying.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of location techniques includes one or more of the following technologies:

Global Positioning System (GPS), cell-tower trilateration, cell-tower triangulation, wireless access points and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said service is a camera service, a navigation service, a location-sharing service, a video service, a voice service, a messaging service, a routing service, a mapping service, a weather service, an emergency service, or a roadside assistance service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said quality of location data is indicative of one or more of the following:

a location accuracy, a location precision, a location availability, a location latency, a location yield, or a combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein said quality information is displayed to said user using one or more numerical or graphical indicators.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining of said quality information is performed in real-time.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the integrating with said service is automatically denied if said quality information is outside of said quality criterion range.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the integrating with said service is allowed if said quality information is outside of said quality criterion range and if a user override input is received.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said quality criterion range is user-selectable or is pre-determined for said service.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining of said quality information comprises receiving said quality information from a communicatively linked server, or from a communicatively linked peer mobile device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending data to or receiving data from one or more peer mobile devices or servers, communicatively linked with said mobile device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least part of said sending or receiving occurs in real-time.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the modification of said service is performed based on an input to the mobile device from a user of said mobile device.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said integrating comprises creating one or more data files, said one or more data files indicative of one or more of an image, text or audio.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is a geotagging service configured to associate corresponding location data with a data file comprising primary data;

the corresponding location data based at least partly on the quality information.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the quality information is updated at an update rate which is dependent upon one or more of:

the location data, and the location technique.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the quality information is indicative of an age of the location data.

19. A non-transitory computer program product configured for a service accessible via a mobile device, said mobile device configured to allow a determination of location data indicative of a location of the mobile device using one or more of a plurality of location techniques, the computer program product comprising code which, when loaded into a memory and executed on an associated processor, is adapted to cause the associated processor to perform:

obtaining quality information including a designation of a location technique, selected from the plurality of location techniques, used for determining said location data and at least partly a quality of said location data, said quality information further including an amount of time remaining until said location data is updated using a second location technique, the second location technique belonging to the plurality of location techniques and having higher accuracy than said location technique; and

integrating said quality information at least partly with said service to allow a modification of said service based on said quality information, wherein the integrating is modified if said quality information is outside of a quality criterion range.

20. A mobile device configured to allow a user access to a service, said mobile device comprising:

a location identification module configured to determine location data indicative of a location of the mobile device, using one or more of a plurality of location techniques;

a quality provisioning module configured to obtain quality information, said quality information including a designation of a location technique, selected from the plurality of location techniques, used for determining said location data and at least partly a quality of said location data, said quality information further including an amount of time remaining until said location data is updated using a second location technique, the second location technique belonging to the plurality of location techniques and having higher accuracy than said location technique; and

a service access module configured to integrate said quality information at least partly with said service to allow a modification of said service based on said quality information, and configured to allow said user to access said service, wherein the integrating is modified if said quality information is outside of a quality criterion range.

21. The mobile device of claim 20, further comprising a data collection module configured for collection of data indicative of one or more of an image, text, monitoring data and audio.

22. The mobile device of claim 20, wherein said service access module is a user interface configured to display said quality information at least partly to said user of the mobile device, said user interface further configured to receive an input from said user for said modification of said service.

23. The mobile device of claim 22, wherein said user interface is further configured to signal said user if the quality information is outside of a quality criterion range.