Dynamic geotagging of photographs

• US 9,232,349 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mikan, Jeffrey, McNamara, Justin, Cenciarelli, Fulvio
• Primary Examiner(s): Rampuria, Sharad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Madani, Farideh
• Application Number:
  US14/041,326
• Publication Number:
  US 20140024398A1
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 4554561-457
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging

Abstract

A wireless mobile telecommunications network tags an image or other multimedia message that it receives from wireless user equipment (UE) with geographical information indicating the location of the UE. The network can determine the UE location using a conventional method such as those used in Location-Based Services.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a network computing device of a wireless mobile telecommunications network, a message transmitted by a user equipment, wherein the message is received at the network computing device via the wireless mobile telecommunications network and wherein the network computing device comprises a processor;

determining, by an image detector element of the network computing device, that the message comprises image data;

in response to determining that the message comprises the image data, requesting, by the network computing device, from a network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network, location information of the user equipment; and

in response to receiving the location information of the user equipment from the network element, modifying, by the network computing device, the message to indicate a geographic location of the user equipment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information of the user equipment is determined by the network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network using a triangulation method.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein requesting the location information of the user equipment comprises:

generating a location-based services query; and

submitting the location-based services query to the network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network, wherein the network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network comprises a gateway mobile location center.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the network computing device of the wireless mobile telecommunications network comprises a multimedia messaging service center.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a multimedia messaging service message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the message to indicate the geographic location of the user equipment comprises modifying the message to include a tag indicating the geographic location of the user equipment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the tag comprises an exchangeable image file format header.

8. A network computing device of a wireless mobile telecommunications network, the network computing device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising

receiving, from a user equipment via the wireless mobile telecommunications network, a message,

determining, by an image detector element, that the message comprises image data,

in response to determining that the message comprises the image data, requesting, from a network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network, location information of the user equipment, and

in response to receiving the location information of the user equipment from the network element, modifying the message to indicate a geographic location of the user equipment.

9. The network computing device of claim 8, wherein the location information of the user equipment is determined by the network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network using a triangulation method.

10. The network computing device of claim 8, wherein requesting the location information of the user equipment comprises:

generating a location-based services query; and

submitting the location-based services query to the network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network, wherein the network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network comprises a gateway mobile location center.

11. The network computing device of claim 8, wherein the message is a multimedia messaging service message.

12. The network computing device of claim 8, wherein modifying the message to indicate the geographic location of the user equipment comprises modifying the message to include a tag indicating the geographic location of the user equipment.

13. The network computing device of claim 12, wherein the tag comprises an exchangeable image file format header.

14. A non-transitory memory storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a network computing device of a wireless mobile telecommunications network, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, via the wireless mobile telecommunications network, a message transmitted by a user equipment;

determining, by an image detector element of the network computing device, that the message comprises image data;

in response to determining that the message comprises the image data, requesting, from a network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network, location information of the user equipment; and

in response to receiving the location information of the user equipment from the network element, modifying the message to indicate a geographic location of the user equipment.

15. The non-transitory memory of claim 14, wherein the location information of the user equipment is determined by the network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network using a triangulation method.

16. The non-transitory memory of claim 14, wherein requesting the location information of the user equipment comprises:

generating a location-based services query; and

submitting the location-based services query to the network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network, wherein the network element of the wireless mobile telecommunications network comprises a gateway mobile location center.

17. The non-transitory memory of claim 14, wherein the network computing device of the wireless mobile telecommunications network comprises a multimedia messaging service center.

18. The non-transitory memory of claim 14, wherein modifying the message to indicate the geographic location of the user equipment comprises modifying the message to include a tag indicating the geographic location of the user equipment.

19. The non-transitory memory of claim 18, wherein the tag comprises an exchangeable image file format header.

20. The non-transitory memory of claim 14, wherein the message is a multimedia messaging service message.