Location aware requests

• US 8,750,901 B1
• Filed: 06/26/2008
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gupta, Diwakar, Schattauer, Paul C., Huang, Chih-Jen, Meduri, Kiran Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Georgewill, Opiribo
• Application Number:
  US12/146,761
• Time in Patent Office: 2,175 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/466, 455/456.3, 705/39, 705/78, 705/44, 707/9
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3223 Realising banking transactions through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/42 Confirmation, e.g. check or permission by the legal debtor of payment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A mobile payment network receives a payment request from a first user operating a first mobile device and identifies recipients of the payment request based at least in part on the proximity of other mobile devices to the first mobile device.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

receiving, from a first mobile device associated with a first account, a request for payment from one or more other accounts associated with respective other mobile devices that are within a specified proximity of the first mobile device;

receiving location information that indicates a location of the first mobile device;

determining which of the other mobile devices are within the specified proximity of the first mobile device based at least in part on the received location information;

identifying historical data that indicates an extent to which the first mobile device and the other mobile devices have been in proximity to one another; and

forwarding the request for payment to the mobile devices that are determined to be within the specified proximity of the first mobile device and based at least in part on the historical data.

2. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the one or more other accounts associated with the respective mobile devices appear on a contacts list created by a user associated with the first account.

3. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the receiving of the location information comprises receiving global positioning data that indicates the location of the first mobile device.

4. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the receiving of the location information comprises receiving cellular tower information that indicates the location of the first mobile device.

5. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the receiving of the location information comprises receiving wireless access point information that indicates the location of the first mobile device.

6. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the received and forwarded request for payment comprises short message service (SMS) messages.

7. One or more computing devices comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform acts comprising;

receiving, from a first mobile device associated with a first account, a request for payment from one or more other accounts associated with respective other mobile devices that are within a specified proximity of the first mobile device;

receiving location information that indicates a location of the first mobile device;

determining which of the other mobile devices are within the specified proximity of the first mobile device based at least in part on the received location information;

identifying historical data that indicates an extent to which the first mobile device and the other mobile devices have been in proximity to one another; and

forwarding the request for payment to the mobile devices that are determined to be within the specified proximity of the first mobile device and based at least in part on the historical data.

8. A method comprising:

receiving, from a first mobile device associated with a first user account, a request for payment from a second user account associated with a second mobile device that is within a predefined proximity of the first mobile device;

determining that the second mobile device is within the predefined proximity of the first mobile device;

identifying historical data that indicates whether the first mobile device and the second mobile device have been within the predefined proximity from one another; and

sending the request for payment to the second mobile device that is within the predefined proximity of the first mobile device based at least in part on the historical data.

9. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein the second user account includes contacts of the first user account.

10. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising receiving location information that indicates a location of the first mobile device, and wherein the determining that the second mobile device is within the predefined proximity is based at least in part on the received location information.

11. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising receiving location information for the second mobile device, the received location information indicating a location of the second mobile device, and wherein the determining that the second mobile device is within the predefined proximity is based at least in part on the received location information.

12. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein the first mobile device specifies the predefined proximity.

13. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein the first mobile device specifies the predefined proximity in the request for payment.

14. A method comprising:

receiving, from a first mobile device associated with a first account, a request for payment from at least a subset of accounts associated with respective mobile devices that are within a predefined proximity of the first mobile device;

receiving location information of the first mobile device;

determining which of the subset of the respective mobile devices are within the predefined proximity of the first mobile device based at least in part on the received location information;

identifying historical data that indicates particular times that the first mobile device and the respective mobile devices have been within the predefined proximity of one another; and

forwarding the request for payment to the mobile devices that are within the subset, that are determined to be within the predefined proximity of the first mobile device, and implementing an amount of authorization procedures prior to forwarding the request for payment based at least in part on the historical data.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein a first user is associated with the first account, and wherein the subset comprises accounts associated with respective users that have been listed as contacts of the first user.

16. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein a first user is associated with the first account, and wherein the subset comprises accounts associated with respective users that appear as friends on a friends network list of the first user.

17. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the subset comprises each account associated with a respective mobile device that is within the predefined proximity of the first mobile device.

18. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the request from the first mobile device specifies the predefined proximity to the first mobile device.

19. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the predefined proximity is a default proximity to the first mobile device.

20. A method comprising

receiving a request for payment from a first mobile device, the request for payment specifying as recipients of the request for payment mobile devices that are:

(i) members of a particular group, and (ii) within a specified proximity of a location of the first mobile device;

receiving location information from the first mobile device, the location information indicating the location of the first mobile device;

determining which of the mobile device members are within the specified proximity of the location of the first mobile device based at least in part on the location information;

identifying historical data that indicates an extent to which the first mobile device and the mobile device members have been in proximity to one another; and

sending, based at least partly on the historical data, the request for payment to the mobile device members that are determined to be within the specified proximity of the location of the first mobile device.

21. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein the historical data indicates the extent to which the first mobile device and each of the mobile device members have been in proximity to one another.

22. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein the request for payment is from accounts associated with respective ones of the mobile device members that are within the specified proximity of the location of the first mobile device.

23. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein the particular group comprises a group of contacts that have previously been associated with an account of the first mobile device.

24. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein the request for payment comprises a short message service (SMS) message.

25. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein the location information comprises global positioning data, cellular tower information, or wireless access point information.

26. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

receiving, from a first user via a mobile device associated with the first user, a request for payment from other users having associated mobile devices that are within a specified proximity from the mobile device;

receiving location information that indicates a current location of the mobile device and current locations of the associated mobile devices;

determining that a current location of at least one associated mobile device of the associated mobile devices is within the specified proximity from the current location of the mobile device;

identifying historical data that indicates an extent to which the mobile device and the at least one associated mobile device have been in proximity to one another; and

initiating payment from the at least one associated mobile device based at least partly on the historical data and in response to determining that the current location of the at least one associated mobile device is within the specified proximity from the current location of the mobile device.

27. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 26, wherein identifying the other users comprises identifying only users who have been previously specified as acquaintances of the first user.

28. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 26, wherein the request for payment comprises a reimbursement request.