Passive check-in

• US 9,420,418 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2013
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cheung, Dennis, Cox, Greg Alan, Yang, Zhenyin, Young, Dawnray, Vaddi, Viswa, Davis, Todd, Jain, Chintan, Shea, Andrew, Chinnakonda, Raj
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, David Q
• Application Number:
  US14/097,063
• Publication Number:
  US 20140308977A1
• Time in Patent Office: 986 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 701/426, 709/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• 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

Abstract

A system to effectuate passive check-in with respect to a user'"'"'s mobile device is described. A server system may be configured to receive communications from a GPS-enabled mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone), extract a stream of locations from the received communications, and use the location information to determine whether a boundary-crossing event has occurred with respect to the mobile device. In response to detecting a boundary-crossing event, the server may communicate a message, such as a recommendation, to the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, at a server computer system, a request from a mobile device;

from the request detected at the server computer system, collecting current geo-location data for the mobile device, using at least one processor;

at the server computer system, comparing the current geo-location data to a previously stored geo-location data for the mobile device;

based on a result of the comparing, determining a crossing of a geo-fence event for the mobile device, the determining of the crossing of a geo-fence event for the mobile device comprising accessing a database of geo-fence data; and

responsive to the crossing of a geo-fence event, generating a recommendation for a user of the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising storing the current geo-location data as previous geo-location data.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising providing the recommendation from the server computer system to the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the request originated from a mobile application executing on the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request originated from a browser application executing on the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is directed to an on-line trading platform, the on-line trading platform provided on the server computer system.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising storing one or more geo-fences for use with the current geo-location data to detect a geo-fence event for the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

detecting, at the server computer system, a further request from the mobile device;

from the request detected at the server computer system, collecting current geo-location data for the mobile device;

at the server computer system, based on the current geo-location data and the previous geo-location data for the mobile device, determining lack of a crossing of a geo-fence event for the mobile device; and

storing the current geo-location data as previous geo-location data.

9. The method of claim 1 comprising analyzing stored previous geo-location data for the mobile device to determine a special location associated with the mobile device, the stored previous geo-location data comprising a plurality of geo-location data values, the special location associated with an activity of a user of the mobile device.

10. A computer-implemented system comprising:

at least one processor coupled to a memory;

a request detector to detect, at a server computer system, using the at least one processor, a request from a mobile device;

a geo-location collector to collect, using the at least one processor, current geo-location data for the mobile device from the request detected at the server computer system;

a crossing event detector to;

compare the current geo-location data to a previously stored geo-location data for the mobile device and,

based on a result of the comparison, determine, using the at least one processor, a crossing of a geo-fence event for the mobile device, the determining of the crossing of a geo-fence event for the mobile device comprising accessing a database of geo-fence data; and

a recommendation generator to generate, using the at least one processor, a recommendation for a user of the mobile device responsive to the crossing of a geo-fence event.

11. The system of claim 10, comprising a storing module to store, using the at least one processor, the current geo-location data as previous geo-location data.

12. The system of claim 10, comprising a communications module to provide the recommendation from the server computer system to the mobile device, using the at least one processor.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the request originated from a mobile application executing on the mobile device.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the request originated from a browser application executing on the mobile device.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the request is directed to an on-line trading platform, the on-line trading platform provided on the server computer system.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the storing module is to store one or more geo-fences for use with the current geo-location data to detect a geo-fence event for the mobile device.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein:

the request detector is to detect, at the server computer system, a further request from the mobile device;

the geo-location collector is to collect current geo-location data for the mobile device from the request detected at the server computer system; and

the crossing event detector is to determine lack of a crossing of a geo-fence event for the mobile device at the server computer system, based on the current geo-location data and the previous geo-location data for the mobile device.

18. A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instruction data to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

detecting, at a server computer system, a request from a mobile device;

collecting current geo-location data for the mobile device from the request detected at the server computer system;

at the server computer system, comparing the current geo-location data to a previously stored geo-location data for the mobile device;

based on a result of the comparing, determining a crossing of a geo-fence event for the mobile device, the determining of the crossing of a geo-fence event for the mobile device comprising accessing a database of geo-fence data; and

generating a recommendation for a user of the mobile device responsive to the crossing of a geo-fence event.