Personalized location information for mobile devices

• US 8,712,431 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2011
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Granito, Jennifer, Franco, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Bhattacharya, Sam
• Application Number:
  US12/986,121
• Publication Number:
  US 20110106898A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,209 Days
• Field of Search: 455/418, 455/433, 455/456.1, 455/456.3
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0072 Transmission between mobile stations, e.g. anti-collision systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

Providing location information on a mobile device includes receiving signals from external devices. Each signal includes information that specifies a geographic location for the external device that has provided the signal. A geographic location for the mobile device is calculated by using the information contained in each of the received signals. A representation of the geographic location of the mobile device is generated. The representation of the geographic location is included within an electronic message that provides information describing a user of the mobile device to other users of an electronic communications system. The electronic message is transmitted to another device to provide an indication of the geographic location for the user to one of the other users of the electronic communications system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining, by one or more processors, a geographic location of a mobile device of a user of a communications system;

identifying a representation that is descriptive of the determined geographic location of the mobile device;

receiving a message from the user of the mobile device intended for one or more co-users of the communications system;

determining whether the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is to be included with the message;

if the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is to be included with the message, including the representation with message and sending the message; and

if the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is not to be included in the message, sending the message without including the representation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

determining if the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is to be included with the message comprises

receiving, from the user, an indication of whether the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is to be included with the message.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising

providing other representations in addition to the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device that the user can select as an alternative to the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a field for the user to manually enter an alternative representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications system is an instant messaging communications system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein determining if the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is to be included with the message comprises determining if the representation is in a list of representations provided by the user.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a map of a region about the determined geographic location of the mobile device; and

providing an indication of the determined geographic location on the map.

6. A method comprising:

determining, by a processor, a geographic location of a mobile device associated with a user of a communications system;

identifying a representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device, that includes information other than an address of the determined geographic location of the mobile device, and that was specified by an entity other than the user; and

including the identified representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device that includes information other than the address of the determined geographic location of the mobile device and that was specified by an entity other than the user within an electronic message that provides information about the user of the mobile device to one or more other users of the communications system.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein;

identifying the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device comprises identifying a business name that corresponds to the determined geographic location of the mobile device and that was specified by an entity other than the user of the communications system.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the communications system is an instant messaging system.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

providing a map of a region about the determined geographic location of the mobile device; and

providing an indication of the determined geographic location on the map.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing a list of possible representations of the determined geographic location of the mobile device; and

wherein identifying the representation of the determined geographic location comprises receiving a selection of the representation from the list of possible representations.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing a default representation of the determined geographic location.

12. The method as recited 10, wherein the list of possible representations of the determined geographic location of the mobile device comprises names of locations near the determined geographic location of the mobile device.

15. The method as recited 3, wherein the others representations of the determined geographic location of the mobile device comprises names of locations near the determined geographic location of the mobile device.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including a set of instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform steps comprising:

determining a geographic location of a mobile device of a user of a communications system;

identifying a representation that is descriptive of the determined geographic location of the mobile device;

receiving a message from the user of the mobile device intended for one or more co-users of the communications system;

determining whether the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is to be included with the message;

if the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is to be included in the message, including the representation with the message and sending the message; and

if the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is not to be included with the message, sending the message without including the representation.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 16, wherein determining if the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is to be included with the message comprises receiving a manual request from the user to include the representation with the message.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 17, wherein determining if the representation of the determined geographic location of the mobile device is to be included with the message comprises determining if the representation is in a list of representations provided by the user.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 17, further comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform steps comprising:

providing a map of a region about the determined geographic location of the mobile device; and

providing an indication of the determined geographic location on the map.