Location aware mobile-device software development

• US 9,128,956 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2009
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Salmre, Ivo W., Mantek, Frank, Brasche, Gotz-Philip
• Primary Examiner(s): Kiswanto, Nicholas
• Application Number:
  US12/581,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20100042320A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,150 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/35 model driven
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

A development environment makes it easier to develop and use location aware software applications. Combining the currently separate and complex tasks of location information gathering, analysis, and display and making them integrated such that non-experts can build location services into their applications increases a developer'"'"'s capability to write rich location-aware software applications. A higher level programming model allows a programmer to use location information as a logical entity rather than just raw location data, such as latitude and longitude. A location data store and map data store may be accessed by different location aware applications on the device. Instead of each location application relying on its own data store, applications may share their location related information.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for location aware applications, comprising:

defining areas of interest on a map having a size that is selectable by a user;

receiving raw location data at a location manager;

determining when an item enters, exits and moves inside one of the areas of interest;

generating a location event when it is determined that the item entered, exited, or moved inside one of the areas of interest;

providing notice of the location event from the location manager to a location aware application without the raw location data;

executing event driven code supplied by the location aware application in response to the notice of the location event received from the location manager;

receiving at a map manager from the location aware application criteria including a type of an object to display;

providing different map choices comprising separate maps to the location aware application based on the criteria;

providing a ranking of the different map choices according to their order of suitability based on each of the different map choices comparison to the received criteria for the location aware application to make a selection from;

selecting a map from a map store using the ranking of the different map choices;

sharing the selected map with another location aware application without the map manager and the other location aware application requiring raw location data; and

displaying the map using a map rendering engine, wherein the map rendering engine is selected from at least two map rendering engines.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the area of interest is a predefined area on a map having a boundary defined by a user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining when the item enters and exits an area of interest comprises obtaining location information from at least one location source and determining whether the item is within the area of interest.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the location event comprises generating a location event in response to at least one of the following events:

a determination that the location of the item has entered the area of interest, a determination that the location of the item has exited the area of interest and a determination that the location of the item as moved a specified distance inside an area of interest.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising supplying at least one object to the map rendering engine to overlay on the map.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising dynamically provisioning the map store.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the map includes a description of the map using an XML representation.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the description comprises a map projection;

a resolution;

an indication of the map rendering engine used to display the map and an area the map includes.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for location aware applications, the instructions comprising:

defining areas of interest on a map having a size that is selectable by a user;

receiving raw location data at a location manager;

determining when an item enters, exits and moves inside one of the areas of interest;

generating a location event in response to the determination;

providing notice of the location event from the location manager to a location aware application without the raw location data;

executing event driven code supplied by the location aware application in response to the notice of the location event received from the location manager;

providing different map choices to the location aware application that are ranked according to their order of suitability for the location aware application based on received criteria received at a map manager from the location aware application including a type of an object to display to select from;

selecting a map from a map store, wherein the map may be shared by other location aware applications; and

displaying the map using a map rendering engine, wherein the map rendering engine is selected from at least two map rendering engines.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising determining areas of interest, wherein the area of interest is a predefined area on a map.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein determining when the item enters and exits an area of interest comprises obtaining location information from at least one location source and determining whether the item is within the area of interest.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein generating the location event comprises generating a location event in response to at least one of the following events:

a determination that the location of the item has entered the area of interest, a determination that the location of the item has exited the area of interest and a determination that the location of the item has moved a specified distance inside an area of interest.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising supplying at least one object to the map rendering engine to overlay on the map.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising dynamically provisioning the map store.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the map includes a description of the map using an XML representation.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the description comprises a map projection;

a resolution;

an indication of the map rendering engine used to display the map and an area the map includes.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein displaying the map using the map rendering engine comprises selecting a projection technique depending on the type of map being rendered, wherein the projection technique is selected from at least two projection techniques of:

Mercator, Polar, Grid, and Custom.

18. A system, comprising:

a map store configured to store maps;

map rendering engines that are configured to render maps;

a processor and a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the processor is configured to perform actions, comprising;

defining areas of interest on a map having a size that is selected by a user;

receiving raw location data at a location manager;

generating a location event in response to determining when an item enters, exits and moves inside one of the areas of interest;

providing notice of the location event from the location manager to a location aware application without the raw location data;

executing event driven code supplied by the location aware application in response to the notice of the location event received from the location manager;

providing different map choices to a location aware application that are ranked according to their order of suitability based on received criteria, at a map manger from the location aware application, including a type of an object to display for the location aware application to select from;

selecting a map from the map store, wherein the map may be shared by other location aware applications without the other location aware applications requiring raw location data; and

displaying the map using one of the map rendering engines.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein determining when the item enters and exits an area of interest comprises obtaining location information from at least one location source and determining whether the item is within the area of interest.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein each map includes a description of the map using an XML representation, wherein the description comprises a map projection;

a resolution;

an indication of the map rendering engine used to display the map and an area the map includes.