Content geofencing

• US 9,369,840 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2014
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Alsina, Thomas, Wilson, David T., Sun, Kenley, Joshi, Sagar
• Primary Examiner(s): MIZRAHI, DIANE D
• Application Number:
  US14/185,797
• Publication Number:
  US 20150237472A1
• Time in Patent Office: 845 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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 4/025 using location based information parameters

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for invitational content geofencing. A system first sends, to a server location data associated with the system, the location data being calculated at the system. The system then receives a listing of places of interest within a geofence including a geographical perimeter for identifying places of interest in the listing, the geofence being based on the location data associated with the system. Next, the system selects a place of interest from the listing based on a location of the system. The system then presents a content item associated with the place of interest.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

degrading a measured location of a mobile device to yield a degraded location;

sending, from the mobile device to a server, the degraded location;

in response to sending the degraded location to the server, receiving, by the mobile device from the server, a listing of places of interest within a geographical perimeter determined based on the degraded location associated with the mobile device and one or more media content items available at the server, the listing comprising respective media items associated with the places of interest in the listing;

selecting a place of interest from the listing based on a location of the mobile device calculated by the mobile device; and

presenting, at the mobile device, a respective media item associated with the place of interest from the respective media items.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the place of interest is presented at the mobile device when the mobile device is within a threshold distance of the place of interest.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the respective media item comprises invitational content, and wherein sending the degraded location data further comprises sending a request for the listing of places, wherein the request is triggered by a user action comprising at least one of a user input, a user activity, an application usage, or a user status.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the location comprises at least one of a current location and a predicted location, the place of interest being selected based on at least one of the current location and the predicted location.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the place of interest is selected from the listing based on at least one of an estimated user interest, a ranking, a user trajectory, a user profile, a state associated with the mobile device, a user context, or a current activity associated with the mobile device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the direction and the velocity are determined based on sensor data, the sensor data comprising at least one of accelerometer data, gyroscope data, and global positioning system (GPS) data.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising determining the predicted location of the mobile device based on a direction and a velocity associated with the mobile device, wherein the listing of places of interest comprises at least one place of interest based on the predicted location.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the listing further comprises one or more places of interest selected from a master list on the server based on the geographical perimeter.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein degrading the location comprises generating a range of location parameters from the measured location associated with the mobile device.

9. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

determining a location parameter associated with the system, the location parameter being calculated at the system;

sending, from the system, a request to a server for a list of places of interest within a geofence identified based on the location parameter, the geofence comprising a geographical perimeter for identifying places of interest, the geofence being based on the location parameter associated with the system, and the request being triggered by a user action associated with the system;

in response to the request, receiving the list of places of interest from the server;

selecting a place of interest from the list based on a location of the system measured by the system; and

presenting, at the system, a content item associated with the place of interest.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the location comprises at least one of a current location of the system and a predicted location of the system, and wherein the list of places of interest comprises a respective content item associated with each place in the list of places of interest, and wherein the location parameter comprises a degraded location.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the list of places is based on a predicted location of the system.

12. The system of claim 11, storing additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, result in an operation further comprising determining the predicted location of the system based on at least one of a velocity and a direction.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the velocity and the direction are calculated by the system based on sensor data, the sensor data comprising at least one of accelerometer data, gyroscope data, or global positioning system (GPS) data.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the place of interest is selected based on at least one of a user profile, an estimated interest, a time, a current location, a predicted location, or a content type.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

degrading location data calculated by a mobile device indicating a location of the mobile device to yield a degraded location, wherein the location data is different than the degraded location;

sending, to a server, the degraded location and a request for a listing of places of interest based on a geofence associated with the mobile device, the geofence comprising a geographical perimeter for identifying places of interest in the listing, the geofence being based on the degraded location;

in response to the request, receiving the listing of places of interest from the server;

selecting a place of interest from the listing based on the location data of the mobile device calculated by the mobile device; and

presenting, at the mobile device, a content item associated with the place of interest.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the location comprises at least one of a current location and a predicted location at a future time after a current time.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the request is triggered by a user action comprising at least one of a user status, a user activity, an application usage, a device usage, or a user input.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, storing additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, result in an operation further comprising caching, at the mobile device, content items associated with at least one place of interest from the listing, wherein presenting the content item comprises presenting a cached content item.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a server and from a mobile device via a network, location data associated with the mobile device, the location data comprising a degraded location generated by the mobile device based on a location of the mobile device measured by the mobile device;

determining a geofence based on the location data, the geofence comprising a geographical boundary for identifying places of interest associated with the mobile device;

determining a listing of places of interest and associated content items based on the geofence; and

sending the listing of places of interest to the mobile device.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the location data is received in response to a user action comprising at least one of a user status, a device status, a user input, or a user activity.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the location comprises at least one of a current location of the mobile device and a predicted location of the mobile device.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising receiving a request from the mobile device for the listing of places of interest, wherein the listing is sent to the mobile device in response to the request.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising:

ranking places of interest in the listing of places of interest to yield a ranked list; and

sending the ranked list to the mobile device.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising selecting a set of content items based on the geographical boundary, wherein the listing of places of interest comprises the set of content items.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising sending an instruction to the mobile device for determining the location of the mobile device to be used for generating the degraded location and selecting a place of interest from the listing of places of interest.