Publishing location information

• US 9,226,108 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2011
• Issued: 12/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Firstenberg, Yosef, Hua, Li
• Primary Examiner(s): Cumming, William D
• Application Number:
  US13/076,438
• Publication Number:
  US 20120252504A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,734 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.2, 455/435.1, 455/457, 455/466, 370/254, 705/1.1, 705/319, 340/539.13, 707/912
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a method for publishing location information. The method includes receiving the location information from an entity. The entity may be associated with a geographic location. The method further includes identifying one or more entities to be notified of the location information. Additionally, the method includes sending the location information to the identified entities.

Claims

1. A method for publishing location information, comprising:

receiving the location information in a location broadcasting service from an entity associated with a geographic location;

identifying, with the location broadcasting service, one or more entities to be notified of the location information based in part on metadata provided by the one or more entities, the one or more entities comprising associates and strangers of the entity associated with the geographic location, and the one or more identified entities to be prevented from being notified of the location information when the location information is within a specified distance of a home of the entity associated with the geographic location;

and sending the location information to the identified entities from the location broadcasting service.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more entities comprises identifying one or more associates that are allowed to view private information about the entity, and wherein the location information comprises the private information.

3. The method recited in claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more entities comprises:

determining a geographic region comprising the geographic location; and

identifying one or more strangers to the entity, wherein the strangers are restricted from viewing private information about the entity; and

wherein the strangers subscribe to the geographic region.

4. The method recited in claim 3, wherein the location information comprises information that the entity specifies to be shared with the strangers.

5. The method recited in claim 2, wherein the geographic location comprises a latitude coordinate and longitude coordinate, and wherein the entity comprises one of a user and a software application.

6. The method recited in claim 1, wherein determining the geographic region comprises using a persistent hash map that maps geographic location to the geographic region.

7. The method recited in claim 1, comprising subdividing a surface area of the earth into a plurality of geographic regions comprising the geographic region, using a gridding method, wherein the plurality of geographic regions are equal in area.

8. The method recited in claim 6, wherein the geographic regions correspond to at least one of zip codes, and geo-political borders.

9. The method recited in claim 1, comprising:

receiving, for a plurality of entities, a corresponding plurality of geographic locations, and a corresponding plurality of nicknames; and

visualizing a map comprising the plurality of nicknames at the corresponding plurality of geographic locations.

10. A system for publishing location information, comprising:

a processing unit;

and a system memory, wherein the system memory comprises code configured to direct the processing unit to;

send a subscription request to a cloud service that maintains a subscription for an entity to a geographic region;

send a request to the cloud service for the location information, the request based in part on metadata provided by a plurality of entities, the plurality of entities comprising associates and strangers of the entity associated with the geographic region;

and receive the location information, wherein the location information comprises a plurality of geographic locations for the corresponding plurality of entities that are disposed within the geographic region, the location information from one or more of the plurality of entities to be prevented from being received when one or more of the plurality of entities is within a specified distance of a home of the one or more entities.

11. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the processing unit is to generate a map comprising a plurality of nicknames corresponding to the plurality of entities, wherein the plurality of nicknames are each located at a position on the map representing the corresponding plurality of geographic locations.

12. The system recited in claim 10, comprising code configured to direct the processing unit to:

receive a subset of the location information from an entity that is a stranger; and

determine that the stranger is disposed within the geographic region based on the subset of location information.

13. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the location information comprises information that the plurality of entities specify be shared with strangers.

14. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the geographic location comprises a latitude coordinate and longitude coordinate.

15. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the map comprises private information about the associate at a position on the map representing a geographic location of the associate.

16. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the geographic region is based on population data.