System and methods for providing location information using location based queues

• US 8,787,929 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2009
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dingler, John R., Nielsen, Mark D., Ramanathan, Sri, Terry, Matthew A., Trevathan, Matthew B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan, Kiet
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sabouri, Mazda
• Application Number:
  US12/367,600
• Publication Number:
  US 20100203903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,989 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/10 adapted for application session management, e.g. SIP [Session Initiation Protocol] connection management H04W76/00; arrangements for session management H04L67/14

Abstract

A location based service and method configured to provide a mechanism for delivering location to a subscribing user using a location queuing system. The method is implemented on a computing infrastructure and includes receiving one or more SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) messages with location information of a user. The method further includes publishing the location information to a location system queue with related timestamp information.

Claims

1. A method implemented on a computing infrastructure comprising:

receiving one or more SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) messages with location information of a user;

publishing the location information to a location system queue with related timestamp information comprising a time which the location information is received;

determining that a second user has permission from the user to access the location information in the location system queue;

subscribing the second user to the location system queue, such that the second user is a subscribing user;

providing the subscribing user a public key corresponding to a wireless device of the user; and

sorting the location system queue at intervals based on the related timestamp information to create a history file that allows the subscribing user to track the user over time,

wherein;

the receiving one or more SIP messages comprises receiving a broadcast from the wireless device including the location information, wherein the one or more SIP messages are modified to include indications that the one or more SIP messages are location messages; and

the publishing the location information to the location system queue comprises;

determining that the SIP message is a location message based on the included indication;

encrypting the location information with a private key corresponding to the wireless device;

publishing the encrypted location information to the location system queue; and

providing the subscribing user access to the encrypted location information in the location system queue based on the public key corresponding to the wireless device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising polling location information at predefined intervals and time-stamping the location information in the location system queue.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising queuing the polled location information with the timestamp information and an address of the user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the public key was not previously sent to the subscribing user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the private key for the encrypting.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the location information to a subscribing user using a modified “

to”

SIP message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information is obtained from at least one of a GPS coordinate, A-GPS coordinate and triangulation methodologies and broadcast to a location queue service.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are provided on a computing infrastructure which is at least one of maintained, deployed, created and supported by a service provider.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are provided on a hardware component or a combination of a software component and the hardware component.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the private key for the encrypting the location information has been generated for the user;

retrieving the private key when the key has been generated; and

generating the private key using a public and private encryption process comprising one of a Goldbach pairing process and a Rivest, Shamir and Adleman process, when the private key has not been generated.

20. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the subscribing user decrypts the encrypted location information when the public key was previously sent to the subscribing user; and

the subscribing user requests the public key from the computer infrastructure when the public key was not previously sent to the subscribing user.

10. A computer program product comprising a tangible computer usable storage medium having readable program code tangibly embodied in the tangible computer usable storage medium, the computer program product being operable to:

receive broadcasted location information of a user at predefined intervals from a modified SIP message;

publish the location information to a queue with timestamp information and a user address;

determine that a second user has authorization from the user to access the location information in the queue;

subscribe the second user to the queue, such that the second user is an authorized subscribing user;

provide the authorized subscribing user a public key corresponding to a wireless device of the user;

sort the queue at intervals based on the related timestamp information to create a history file that allows the authorized subscribing user to track the user; and

send the location information of various timestamp intervals to the authorized subscribing user in order to track the location of the user over a time period,

wherein;

the receiving broadcasted location information comprises receiving a broadcast of one or more SIP messages from the wireless device including the location information, wherein the one or more SIP messages are modified to include indications that the one or more SIP messages are location messages; and

the publishing the location information to the queue comprises;

determining that the one or more SIP messages are location messages based on the included indications;

encrypting the location information with a private key corresponding to the wireless device;

publishing the encrypted location information to the queue; and

providing the authorized subscribing user access to the encrypted location information in the queue based on the public key corresponding to the wireless device.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer program product is further operable to encrypt the location information prior to the sending to the authorized subscribing user.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the the one or more SIP messages include abbreviations that can be detected by the computer program product.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer program product is further operable to provide detailed information of the location information using a user interface.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer program product is provided on a computing infrastructure which is at least one of maintained, deployed, created and supported by a service provider on a fee and/or subscription basis.

15. A method for providing location information to one or more users, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure being operable to;

receive a modified SIP message with location information from a user at defined times;

publishing the location information to a queue relating the location information with time stamp information representative of the defined times which the location information is received;

sorting the queue at intervals based on the time stamp information to create a history file that allows a second user to track the user over time;

determine that the second user has permission to view the location information;

subscribe the second user to the queue, such that the second user is a subscribing user;

providing the subscribing user a public key corresponding to a wireless device of the user; and

send the location information to the subscribing user in order to display a route of the user over the defined times wherein;

the receiving the modified SIP message comprises receiving a broadcast from the wireless device of the user including the location information, wherein the modified SIP message includes an indication that the modified SIP message includes location information; and

the publishing the location information to the queue comprises;

determining that the modified SIP message is a location message based on the included indication;

encrypting the location information with a private key corresponding to the wireless device of the user;

publishing the encrypted location information to the queue; and

providing the subscribing user access to the encrypted location information in the queue based on the public key corresponding to the wireless device of the user.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the steps are provided on a software component, a hardware component or a combination of the software component and the hardware component.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the computer infrastructure is further operable to generate detailed information of certain locations of the location information.

18. A system comprising:

a location platform configured to;

receive location information of a first user from a broadcasted modified SIP based message having location information therein, wherein the modified SIP message includes an indication that the modified SIP message includes a location message;

determining that one or more users have permission from the first user to access the location information of the first user; and

subscribe the one or more users to a location queue,

providing the one or more users a public key corresponding to a wireless device of the first user; and

sorting the location queue at intervals based on timestamp information to create a history file that allows the one or more users to track the first user over time,

wherein the location platform includes a storage mechanism configured to;

store the location information with the timestamp information, wherein the timestamp information comprises a time which the location information is received in the location queue; and

publish the location information from the location queue, wherein the publishing the location information comprises;

determining that the modified SIP message is a location message based on the included indication;

encrypting the location information with a private key corresponding to the wireless device of the first user;

publishing the encrypted location information to the location queue; and

providing the one or more users access to the encrypted location information in the location queue based on the public key corresponding to the wireless device; and

a policy server storing permission information of the one or more subscribing users which can have access to the published location information.