System and method for providing location reporting services

• US 8,977,748 B1
• Filed: 01/13/2014
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Mendis, Indika Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M
• Application Number:
  US14/154,045
• Time in Patent Office: 421 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-203, 709217-227, 709/228, 455/456.1, 455/456.3, 455/456.6
• US Class Current: 709/224
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

A method and system for reporting a user location are described. Aspects of the invention minimize the need to report a current location of a user device to a remote server by attempting to predict a most likely location or most likely destination of the user device. As long as the user device does not leave a certain area defined in relation to the predetermined location or destination, the user device refrains from reporting to the remote server. The likely location or likely destination may be determined using a schedule generated from heat map information stored on the remote server. The schedule is used to determine where the user is likely to be traveling based upon the user'"'"'s current location and/or the time of day.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for reporting a device location, the method comprising:

determining, using a processor, a confidence value for a predicted location or destination predicted by a comparison with a schedule, the schedule comprising one or more times and one or more geographic locations, where each of the one or more times is associated with at least one of the one or more geographic locations;

comparing the confidence value with a threshold value;

determining, using a processor, a predicted location or a predicted destination is a likely location or a likely destination in response to the confidence value being equal to or exceeding the threshold value;

identifying, using a processor, one or more a geographic locations indicating at least one of the likely location or the likely destination of a user device;

determining whether the user device is within a predetermined area proximate to the one or more geographic locations; and

reporting a current location of the user device to a remote server in response to the user device traveling a distance away from the predetermined area.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more new geographic locations as the likely location or the likely destination in response to the user device traveling the distance away from the predetermined area.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

reporting the likely location or likely destination to the remote server.