Presenting dynamic location of a user

• US 9,313,046 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2012
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Appelman, Barry, Erickson, Andrew Ivar, Lu, Larry L., Weltman, Robert Eugene
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdul-Ali, Omar
• Application Number:
  US13/620,863
• Publication Number:
  US 20130073967A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,305 Days
• Field of Search: 715/751, 715/758
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/00 Beacons or beacon systems transmitting signals having a characteristic or characteristics capable of being detected by non-directional receivers and defining directions, positions, or position lines fixed relatively to the beacon transmitters; Receivers co-operating therewith position fixing by co-ordinating a plurality of determinations of direction or position lines G01S5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/21 Interference related issues ; Issues related to cross-correlation, spoofing or other methods of denial of service
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/26 involving a sensor measurement for aiding acquisition or tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0269 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect the exact location of child or item using a navigation satellite system, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

Providing location information to a supervisory user includes providing a parental control, using a computer automatically to determine a location of a subordinate user, and storing location information indicative of the location of the subordinate user in a database. A request of the supervisory user to locate the subordinate user is received and a user interface informs the supervisory user of the location of the subordinate user based on the stored location information. At least one of the storing and/or the informing are based on the parental control.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a display of a group of co-users of a communications system, the co-users being associated with a user of the communications system;

detecting, by at least one processor, a user selection of a co-user from the group of co-users; and

in response to detecting the user selection of the co-user, providing a display of recent online locations and associated geographic locations of a mobile device of the selected co-user used to access the recent online locations.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the recent geographic locations of the mobile device of the selected co-user comprise at least one global positioning system (GPS) location.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the at least one GPS location comprises a GPS location of the mobile device associated with the selected co-user.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the recent online locations of the selected co-user comprises an online location for each of the associated geographic locations.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the recent online locations comprise a uniform resource locator (URL) of a web site that the selected co-user has visited.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the recent online locations comprise an activity the selected co-user has performed utilizing the Internet.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the activity the selected co-user has performed utilizing the Internet is viewing a television program.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the recent online locations and associated geographic locations of the selected co-user comprise an online location and a name or physical address of an associated physical location of the mobile device that the selected co-user used to access the online location.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the geographic locations further comprise a global positioning system (GPS) location of the mobile device used to access at least one of the recent online locations.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein providing the display of the group of co-users of the communications system comprises providing a first user interface for display on a client device that includes the display of the group of co-users of the communications system.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein providing the display of the recent online locations and associated geographic locations of the mobile device of the selected co-user used to access the recent online locations comprises providing a second user interface for display on the client device.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the second user interface comprises a list including a current geographic location and associated online location of the mobile device of the selected co-user and one or more past geographic locations and associated online locations of the mobile device of the selected co-user.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the second user interface comprises a graph indicating the recent online locations and associated geographic locations of the mobile device of the selected co-user.

14. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein detecting the user selection of the co-user from the group of co-users comprises detecting a cursor floating over a name of the co-user.

15. A graphical user interface produced on a computing device having a display device associated therewith, the graphical user interface comprising:

a group of screen names, the screen names identifying co-users associated with a user of a communications system;

a first indication displayed in connection with a first screen name of a co-user for which location information is available; and

wherein, upon selection of the first screen name, an information interface area is displayed on the display device of the computing device, the information interface area indicating recent online locations and associated geographic locations of a mobile device of the co-user used to access the recent online locations.

16. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 15, wherein the first indication comprises an icon.

17. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 15, wherein the recent geographic locations of the mobile device of the co-user used to access the recent online locations comprise a global positioning system (GPS) location.

18. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 17, wherein the GPS location comprises a GPS location of the mobile device associated with the co-user used to access at least one of the recent online locations.

19. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 15, wherein the recent online locations of the co-user comprise an online location for each of the recent geographic locations.

20. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 15, wherein the recent online locations comprise a uniform resource locator (URL) of a web site that the co-user has visited.

21. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 15, wherein the recent online locations comprise an activity the co-user has performed utilizing the Internet.

22. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 21, wherein the information interface area comprises a selectable option for joining the co-user in the activity.

23. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 21, wherein the activity the co-user has performed utilizing the Internet is viewing a television program.

24. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 21, wherein the activity the co-user has performed utilizing the Internet is viewing a web site.

25. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 15, wherein the recent online locations and associated geographic locations of the co-user comprise at least one online location and a name or physical address of an associated physical location at which the co-user accessed the at least one online location.

26. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 15, wherein the information interface area comprises a pop-up window.

27. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 15, wherein the information interface area comprises a portion of the graphical user interface.

36. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 25, wherein the geographic location further comprises a global positioning system (GPS) location of the mobile device which the co-user utilized to access the online location.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including a set of instructions that, when executed, by a computing device having a display device, cause the computing device to:

provide a display, on the display device, of a first interface comprising a group of screen names, the screen names identifying co-users associated with a user of a communications system;

provide a display, in the first interface, of a first indication in connection with a first screen name of a co-user for which location information is available; and

provide a display, on the display device, of an information interface area upon selection of the first screen name, the information interface area indicating recent online locations and associated geographic locations of a mobile device of the co-user used to access the recent online locations.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 28, wherein the recent geographic locations of the mobile device comprise a global positioning system (GPS) location of the mobile device used to access the recent online locations.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 28, wherein the recent online locations and associated geographic locations comprise a current online location and current geographic location of the mobile device of the co-user used to access the current online location and one or more previous online locations and associated geographic locations of the mobile device of the co-user used to access the one or more previous online locations.

31. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 28, wherein the recent online locations of the co-user comprise an online location for each of the recent geographic locations.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 28, wherein the recent online locations comprise a uniform resource locator (URL) of a web site that the co-user has visited.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 28, wherein the recent online locations comprise an activity the co-user has performed utilizing the Internet.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 33, wherein the information interface area comprises a selectable option for joining the co-user in the activity.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 28, wherein the recent online locations of the co-user comprise an online location and a name or physical address of an associated physical location of the mobile device that the co-user used to access the online location.

37. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 28, wherein information interface area comprises a pop-up window.

38. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 28, wherein information interface area comprises a portion of the first interface.