Method and system for tracking a mobile user

• US 9,338,759 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2013
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aura Home, Inc. (Pushd, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Pushd, Inc.
• Inventors: Chowdhury, Abdur, Carella, Chris, Cherry, Ben, Frieder, Ophir, Jensen, Eric, Howarth, Tyler, Sanford, Matt
• Primary Examiner(s): Hua, Quan M
• Application Number:
  US14/051,089
• Publication Number:
  US 20150105096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 943 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0263 by combining or switching between positions derived from two or more separate positioning systems
• 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 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method, system, and/or apparatus for automatically tracking a mobile user using the user'"'"'s mobile device. This invention is particularly useful in the field of social media, such as for detecting and tracking the location and activity of a user and her community. The method or implementing software application uses or relies upon location information available on the mobile device from any source, such as cell phone usage and/or other device applications. The method provides a tracking functionality that uses less battery power than a GPS system. The method includes a location module configured to receive location transmissions, places the location module into a sleep mode when possible, awakens the location module upon receipt of a location transmission, and determines a location with the location module and the location transmission. These steps are desirably repeated to continually and automatically track the mobile user. The location transmission can be provided by WiFi triangulation and/or a cellular phone system upon crossing a boundary between antennae cells and/or a boundary between a plurality of established and contiguous geofences.

Claims

1. A method of tracking a mobile user, the method comprising:

providing a location module on a mobile device configured to receive location transmissions;

placing the location module into a sleep mode;

awakening the location module upon receipt of a first location transmission; and

determining a first location with the location module

incrementing a timer count configured to monitor a duration of time, wherein whenever a time exceeds a predetermined time allocation, the location module is placed into the sleep mode;

incrementing a stationary counter configured to monitor a duration of time since a previous detected movement of the mobile user;

receiving a second location transmission of a second location;

comparing the second location to the first location;

calculating a rate of travel when the second location differs from the first location, wherein if the rate of travel exceeds a predetermined threshold the location module is placed into the sleep mode;

receiving a third location transmission of a third location;

comparing the third location to at least one of the first location or the second location;

further incrementing the stationary counter when the second or third location is the same as the first location;

determining an arrival event upon reaching a predetermined arrival threshold of the stationary counter;

storing data of all locations; and

placing the location module into the sleep mode.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first location transmission is obtained by at least one of a cell tower transmission or a Wi-Fi triangulation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a cell coordinate position of the first location transmission and associating the cell coordinate position with a location identification provided by the mobile user.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising storing cell coordinates with associated location identification in a location database.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a location identification for the first location transmission from the mobile user through the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the mobile user is a member of a social media community including a plurality of mobile users, and the location includes a plurality of different location identifications from the plurality of mobile users and stored on a recordable medium of a remote server in wireless communication with the mobile device, the method further comprising ranking the different location identifications based on context, user bias, community bias, or combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising increasing the accuracy of the location by overlapping a plurality of locations transmissions received by the server from different mobile user visits to the location.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating the placing, awakening, and determining steps.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the location transmission is received upon crossing a boundary between two of a plurality of established geofences.

10. The method of claim 1, obtaining the first second or third location transmission upon crossing a boundary between two of a plurality of established geofences.