Persistently determining and sharing user stays of a user of a mobile device

• US 9,037,485 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2014
• Issued: 05/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Alohar Mobile Inc. (Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.)
• Inventors: Fu, Yun, Wang, Chenyu, Liang, Sam Song, Chalecki, Jason, Smiddy, David, Wan, Marlene
• Primary Examiner(s): Weiss, John G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Scott C
• Application Number:
  US14/314,286
• Publication Number:
  US 20140310366A1
• Time in Patent Office: 328 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.66
• US Class Current: 705/14.66
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/00 Security arrangements; Authentication; Protecting privacy or anonymity
• 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 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Methods, systems and apparatuses for automatically detecting and sharing user stays of a mobile device of a user are disclosed. One method includes persistently collecting location information, determining a group of users for sharing the user stays, determining whether the mobile device is within a specific distance of a specific location for at least specific minimum duration based on the location information, determining a user stay based on the location information and the specific distance, determining if the user stay is private or public to at least a portion of the group of users based on preferences of the user and the location information, and sharing the user stay with the at least the portion of the group of users by sending notifications to the group of users if the user stay is determined to be public to the at least the portion of the group of users.

Claims

1. A method of automatically detecting and sharing user stays of a mobile device of a user, comprising:

persistently sensing, by at least one sensor of the mobile device, at least spatial information of the mobile device;

determining a group of users for sending notifications and sharing the user stays;

determining whether the mobile device is within a specific distance of a specific location for at least a specific minimum duration based on the at least spatial information;

determining a user stay of a plurality of user stays based on the at least spatial information and the specific distance, comprising automatically determining and tracking the plurality of user stays of the user over time without the user proactively or reactively providing input associated with a location or a point of interest for at least one of the plurality of user stays, wherein the plurality of user stays include the specific location, and wherein the at least one user stay comprises a point of interest the user has visited, an arrival time, a departure time, and a length of time the user stays at the point of interest, wherein the at least one user stay is detected by clustering user location data continuously collected by the mobile device of the user, and matching the clustered user location data with the point of interest;

determining if the user stay of the plurality of user stays is private or public to at least a portion of the group of users based on preferences of the user and the location information, wherein the user stay is shared with the at least a portion of the group the user when the user selects a public mode, and the user stay is not shared when the user selects a private mode; and

sharing the user stay with the at least the portion of the group of users by sending notifications to the group of users if the user stay is determined to be public to the at least the portion of the group of users, wherein the sending of the notifications is triggered upon determination of the arrival time or the departure time of the user stay.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sharing other location information to the at least the portion of the group of users after determining the user has selected the public mode.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a point of interest (POI) for the user stay based on the location information and user stay history of the user and user stay history of the group of users, wherein the user stay history of the user includes past user stays of the user, and wherein the user stay history of the group of users includes past user stays of the group of users.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the group of users for sharing the user stay comprises pair-wise connections, where a pair of connected users share user stay information with each other.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the group of users for sharing the user stay comprises a unidirectional following relationship, wherein the user shares user stays with users of the group of users who want to follow the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the group of users for sharing the user stay comprises a membership, wherein users in the group share user stay information with all members of the group of users.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining if a user stay is private or public to the group members, further comprises the user specifying a list of points of interest (POIs), POI categories, geographical regions, and time of day and/or day of week that are private or public.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user specifies a list of users who do not receive notifications or see user stays of the user.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein sharing the user stay comprises sending a push notification, SMS (small messaging system), or emails to group members about the arrival and the departure of the user stay and other related information, wherein the arrival includes the arrival time of the user stay and the POI, and the departure includes the departure time of the user stay and the POI.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining if the push notification should be sent comprising checking a specification by the user of the user stay and recipients of the push notification using a black list or a white list of POIs, POI categories, geographical regions, time of day and/or day of week.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein sharing the user stay comprises displaying the user stay on a timeline to members of the group of users in which the timeline consists of a series of arrivals and departures of user stays of a user stay history of the user and a user stay history of the group of users and ordered by timing of the arrivals and timing of the departures.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the timeline includes an arrival portion that includes the arrival time, a point of interest (POI), and a user name of the user stay.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the timeline includes departure portion that includes the time, a point of interest (POI), and a user name of the user stay.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein sharing the user stay comprises displaying a timeline of arrivals and departures of multiple members of the group of users, comprising merging events generated by the multiple members into a single event if user stays of the events are at a same POI during an overlapped period of time.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting an arrival or departure of a POI (point of interest) associated with the users stay, wherein the detecting triggers user specified actions including at least one of displaying a note, prompting a TODO list, playing a recorded voice message, sending an email, making a phone call, or triggering actions on third party services.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the user specified actions are specified by the user of the user stay or a recipient of the user stay using a white list of POIs, POI categories, geographic regions, time of day or day of the week.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a POI (point of interest) for the user stay comprises matching the POI with the user stay based on the location information, a database of nearby POIs, number of visits of POIs previous visited by the user or group members, or POIs corrected or added by members of the group of users.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising members of the group of users correcting selected POIs of other members of the group of users.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising sharing real-time location information comprising sharing a location of a mobile device of the user in transit between two user stays to group members.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein sharing real-time location comprises:

initiating a sharing session, comprising;

sending a sharing request from a recipient device using push notification to the mobile device in transit;

maintaining a persistent network connection from a backend server to the mobile device in transit to wait for accepting a sharing request initiated from the recipient device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein sharing real-time location comprises:

proactively initiating the sharing session by the mobile device in transit and constantly publishing location information to the server while in transit.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein sharing the other location information comprises performing a user stay behavior analysis of the user and performing a social behavior analysis of members of the group of users.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the user stay behavior analysis comprises automatically identifying unusual user stay behavior of the user and the group of users, wherein the identified unusual user stay behavior includes the user visiting a never-visited place or staying at a place for a longer time than previously tracked.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the social behavior analysis comprises automatically identifying time of day, day of week, and duration that members of the group of users spend time together at the same place.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the user stay behavior analysis comprises automatically identifying home and work places for the user based on user stay history of the user.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the user stay behavior analysis comprises automatically identifying top places visited by the user and top places for a category visited by the user.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the group of users comprises automatically discovering nearby users and recommending the nearby users to establish connections to establish the group of users, wherein nearby is defined by a selected distance.

28. A system for tracking and sharing user stays of a mobile device, comprising:

a backend server electronically coupled to the mobile device;

at least one sensor of the mobile device operative to persistently sense spatial information of the mobile device;

the mobile device operative to collect the spatial information;

wherein

a processor of the backend server is operative to;

automatically determine and track a plurality of user stays of the user over time without the user proactively or reactively providing input associated with a location or a point of interest for at least one of the plurality of user stays, wherein the plurality of user stays include at least one location, wherein the at least one location is determined at least in part by the sensed spatial information, and wherein the at least one user stay comprises a point of interest the user has visited, an arrival time, a departure time, and a length of time the user stays at the point of interest, wherein the at least one user stay is detected by clustering user location data continuously collected by the mobile device of the user, and matching the clustered user location data with a nearby point of interest;

determine a group of users for sending notifications and sharing the user stays;

determine if a user stay is private or public to at least a portion of the group of users based on preferences of the user and the location information, wherein the user stay is shared with the at least a portion of the group the user when the user selects a public mode, and the user stay is not shared when the user selects a private mode; and

share the user stay with the at least the portion of the group of users by sending notifications to the group of users if the user stay is determined to be public to the at least the portion of the group of users, wherein the sending of the notifications is triggered upon determination of the arrival time or the departure time of the user stay.

29. A system, comprising:

a mobile device, wherein the mobile device comprises;

at least one sensor operative to persistently sense at least spatial information of the mobile device;

a transceiver operative to establish a communication link with a network server; and

a controller;

the system further comprising the network server, the system configured to;

determine a group of users for sending notifications and sharing the user stays;

determine whether the mobile device is within a specific distance of a specific location for at least specific minimum duration based on the at least spatial information;

determine a user stay of a plurality of user stays based on the location information and the specific distance, comprising automatically determining and tracking the plurality of user stays of the user over time without the user proactively or reactively providing input associated with a location or a point of interest for at least one of the plurality of user stays, wherein the plurality of user stays include the specific location, and wherein the at least one user stay comprises a point of interest the user has visited, an arrival time, a departure time, and a length of time the user stays at the point of interest, wherein the at least one user stay is detected by clustering user location data continuously collected by the mobile device of the user, and matching the clustered user location data with the point of interest;

determine if the user stay of the plurality of user stays is private or public to at least a portion of the group of users based on preferences of the user and the location information, wherein the user stay is shared with the at least a portion of the group the user when the user selects a public mode, and the user stay is not shared when the user selects a private mode; and

share the user stay with the at least the portion of the group of users by sending notifications to the group of users if the user stay is determined to be public to the at least the portion of the group of users, wherein the sending of the notifications is triggered upon determination of the arrival time or the departure time of the user stay.