System and method for differentially processing a location input for content providers that use different location input formats

• US 9,307,353 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2013
• Issued: 04/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tai Technologies Inc. (Crisis24)
• Original Assignee: Geofeedia, Inc.
• Inventors: Harris, Philip B., Mitchell, Scott K., Mulroy, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kerzhner, Aleksandr
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tamaru, Michael K
• Application Number:
  US13/788,843
• Publication Number:
  US 20140256355A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,125 Days
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

The disclosure relates to systems and methods for processing a location input that specifies one or more geographically definable locations for input to individual ones of a plurality of social media or other content providers that have different input formats for specifying locations. A geo-location input may be normalized to an input format that conforms to a particular content provider, which may use a format for the geo-location input that is different that a format used by another content provider. The formatted geo-location input may be communicated to the particular content provider to obtain content from the content provider. The formatting may result in artifacts such as over-inclusive results having excess content and/or under-inclusive results that omit content that should have been provided. The obtained content obtained may corrected based on a determination of whether the content is over-inclusive and/or under-inclusive by removing obtained content and/or adding new content.

Claims

1. A method for processing geo-location inputs to be used to obtain content from a plurality of social media content providers, the method being implemented in a computer that includes one or more physical processors programmed by one or more computer program instructions, the method comprising:

obtaining, by the computer, a geo-location input comprising a specification of one or more geographically definable locations, wherein the geo-location input is to be used to obtain content from a first social media content provider that uses a first input format for the geo-location input and a second social media content provider that uses a second input format for the geo-location input;

determining, by the computer, a first geographic size threshold indicating one or more allowable geographic dimensions for the first input format;

determining, by the computer, whether the geo-location input exceeds the first geographic size threshold;

responsive to a determination that the geo-location input exceeds the first geographic size threshold, converting, by the computer, the geo-location input into a first plurality of segments such that dimensions of each of the plurality of first segments do not exceed the first geographic size threshold, wherein each of the first plurality of segments specifies a respective first portion of the one or more geographically definable locations;

converting, by the computer, the geo-location input into a second plurality of segments, wherein each of the second plurality of segments specifies a respective second portion of the one or more geographically definable locations;

generating, by the computer, a first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs based on the first plurality of segments, wherein the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs is compatible with the first input format, wherein at least one of the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs is generated based on the first geographic size threshold;

generating, by the computer, a second plurality of formatted geo-location inputs based on the second plurality of segments, wherein the second plurality of formatted geo-location inputs is compatible with the second input format;

causing, by the computer, the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs to be communicated to the first social media content provider and causing the second plurality of formatted geo-location inputs to be communicated to the second social media content provider;

receiving, by the computer, a plurality of content items from the first social media content provider based on the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs;

determining, by the computer, that at least a first content item from among the plurality of content items is associated with a first location that is outside of the one or more geographically definable locations specified in the geo-location input;

filtering out, by the computer, the first content item from a set of content items that is to be communicated to one or more entities, wherein the set of content items comprises one or more of the plurality of content items;

providing, by the computer, an indication of the filtered out first content item;

receiving, by the computer, an indication to add the filtered out first content item to the set of content items responsive to the provided indication of the filtered out first content item; and

causing, by the computer, the filtered out first content item to be added to the set of content items responsive to the received indication to add the filtered out first content item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more allowable geographic dimensions comprises an allowable length, an allowable width, or an allowable area.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the geo-location input comprises a map input shaped as a polygon, the method further comprising:

identifying, by the computer, a centroid and a corner of the polygon;

determining, by the computer, a center of a circle based on the centroid and a radius of the circle based on the corner; and

generating, by the computer, at least one of the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs based on the center and the radius.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the geo-location input comprises a text input, the method further comprising:

determining, by the computer, one or more geographical coordinates based on the text input;

determining, by the computer, a center of a circle and a radius of the circle based on the one or more geographical coordinates; and

generating, by the computer, at least one of the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs based on the center and the radius.

5. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

storing, by the computer, a first content provider profile that specifies the first input format for the first social media content provider, wherein the first input format is obtained from the first content provider profile; and

storing, by the computer, a second content provider profile that specifies the second input format for the second social media content provider, wherein the second input format is obtained from the second content provider profile.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first content provider profile further specifies an allowable size for the first input format, the method further comprising:

determining, by the computer, a size of individual ones of the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs based on the allowable size.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first content provider profile further specifies an allowable shape for the first input format, the method further comprising:

determining, by the computer, a shape of individual ones of the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs based on the allowable shape.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the geo-location input comprises a user-defined input that is drawn on a map interface, and wherein the one or more entities comprise a user from which the user-defined input originated, the method further comprising:

determining, by the computer, a set of geographical coordinates based on the user-defined input; and

wherein converting the geo-location input into the first plurality of segments is based on the set of geographical coordinates.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the geo-location input comprises a map input or a text input.

10. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

identifying, by the computer, at least a second content item that was not included among the plurality of content items but should have been included based on the geo-location input and the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs and adding the second content item to the received plurality of content items;

providing, by the computer, an indication of the second content item;

receiving, by the computer, an indication to remove the second content item; and

causing, by the computer, the second content item to be filtered out responsive to the indication to remove the second content item.

11. A system for processing geo-location input to be used to obtain content from a plurality of social media content providers, the system comprising:

a computer comprising one or more physical processors programmed with computer program instructions that cause the computer to;

obtain a geo-location input, the geo-location input comprising one or more geographically definable locations, wherein the geo-location input is to be used to obtain content from a first social media content provider that uses a first input format for the geo-location input and a second social media content provider that uses a second input format for the geo-location input;

determine a first geographic size threshold indicating one or more allowable geographic dimensions for the first input format;

determine whether the geo-location input exceeds the first geographic size threshold;

responsive to a determination that the geo-location input exceeds the first geographic size threshold, convert the geo-location input into a first plurality of segments such that dimensions of each of the plurality of first segments do not exceed the first geographic size threshold, wherein each of the first plurality of segments specifies a respective first portion of the one or more geographically definable locations;

convert the geo-location input into a second plurality of segments, wherein each of the second plurality of segments specifies a respective second portion of the one or more geographically definable locations;

generate a first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs based on the first plurality of segments, wherein the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs is compatible with the first input format, wherein at least one of the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs is generated based on the first geographic size threshold;

generate a second plurality of formatted geo-location inputs based on the second plurality of segments, wherein the second plurality of formatted geo-location inputs is compatible with the second input format;

cause the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs to be communicated to the corresponding first social media content provider and cause the second plurality of formatted geo-location inputs to be communicated to the corresponding second social media content provider;

receive a plurality of content items from the first social media content provider based on the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs;

determine that at least a first content item from among the plurality of content items is associated with a first location that is outside of the one or more geographically definable locations specified in the geo-location input;

filter out the first content item from a set of content items that is to be communicated to one or more entities, wherein the set of content items comprises one or more of the plurality of content items;

provide an indication of the filtered out first content item;

receive an indication to add the filtered out first content item to the set of content items responsive to the provided indication of the filtered out first content item; and

cause the filtered out first content item to be added to the set of content items responsive to the received indication to add the filtered out first content item.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more allowable geographic dimensions comprises an allowable length, an allowable width, or an allowable area.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the geo-location input comprises a map input shaped as a polygon, and wherein the computer is further programmed to:

identify a centroid of the polygon and a plurality of corners of the polygon;

determine a corner having the longest distance between the corner and the centroid relative to other corners of the polygon;

determine a center of a circle based on the centroid and a radius of the circle based on the longest distance; and

generate a first formatted geo-location input comprising the center and the radius.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the geo-location input comprises a text input, the computer further programmed to:

determine one or more geographical coordinates based on the text input; and

determine a center of a circle and a radius of the circle, based on the one or more geographical coordinates, wherein at least one of the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs is generated based on the center and the radius.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to:

store a first content provider profile that specifies the first input format for the first social media content provider, wherein the first input format is obtained from the first content provider profile; and

store a second content provider profile that specifies the second input format for the second social media content provider, wherein the second input format is obtained from the second content provider profile.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first content provider profile further specifies an allowable size for the first input format, and wherein the computer is further programmed to:

determine a size of individual ones of the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs based on the allowable size.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the first content provider profile further specifies an allowable shape for the first input format, the method further comprising:

determine a shape of individual ones of the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs based on the allowable shape.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the geo-location input comprises a user-defined input that is specified by a user on a map, and wherein the one or more entities comprise the user.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer is further programmed to:

determine a set of geographical coordinates based on the user-defined input; and

determine a center and a radius of a circle based on the set of geographical coordinates, wherein at least one of the first plurality of formatted geo-location inputs is generated based on the center and the radius.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the geo-location input comprises a map input or a text input.

21. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer is further programmed to:

identify at least a second content item that was not included among the plurality of content items but should have been included based on the geo-location input and the plurality of first geo-location inputs, and add the second content item to the received plurality of content items;

provide an indication of the second content item;

receive an indication to remove the second content item; and

cause the second content item to be filtered out responsive to the indication to remove the second content item.