Pedestrian traffic monitoring and analysis using location and authentication of mobile computing devices

• US 9,571,981 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2013
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uniloc 2017 LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Uniloc Luxembourg S.à r.l. (f/k/a Uniloc Luxembourg S.A.) (Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited)
• Inventors: Etchegoyen, Craig S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fang, Keith
• Application Number:
  US14/049,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20140187274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,224 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Numerous mobile devices report their respective locations to a server which collects the location reports to provide real-time pedestrian traffic information, e.g., as a map that shows locations of individual mobile devices. Distribution of mobile devices in a geographic area more closely represents overall population locations and densities. Each device is identified by a digital fingerprint, formed from a number of system and device configuration parameters. Each mobile device is configured to periodically report its location, e.g., at a predetermined time interval and/or whenever the mobile device determines its location for another reason. A known location of a wireless network access point to which a mobile device is connected can serve as an estimated location of the mobile device.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

at least one processor;

a computer readable medium that is operatively coupled to the processor;

network access circuitry that is operatively coupled to the processor; and

location monitoring and assessment logic (i) that executes at least in part in the processor from the computer readable medium and (ii) that, when executed, causes the processor to report traffic information regarding a population of people by performing a method, the method comprising;

receiving a request for the traffic information from a remotely located client device, wherein the request specifies one or more attributes of the traffic information;

in response to the request, determining respective locations of two or more computing devices wherein determining includes, for each of the computing devices;

sending an authentication challenge to the computing device, wherein the authentication challenge specifies one or more parts of a digital fingerprint of the computing device to be provided by the computing device;

receiving location data and authentication data from the computing device wherein the authentication data is responsive to the authentication challenge, and wherein the location data comprises (i) GPS location data if available, otherwise if GPS location data is not available (ii) coarse location data if available, otherwise if GPS location data and coarse location data are not available (iii) WiFi GUID information if available, otherwise if GPS location data, coarse location data, and WiFi GUID information are not available (iv) wireless telephone network base station identifying information;

comparing the authentication data to predetermined authentication data associated with the computing device; and

accepting a location identified by the location data as the respective location of the computing device upon a condition in which the authentication data matches the predetermined authentication data;

preparing the traffic information from the attributes and the locations; and

sending the traffic information to the client device.

2. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the traffic information includes a map in which the respective locations of the computing devices within a predetermined recency are represented.

3. The computer system of claim 2 wherein the traffic information includes a statistical regression of the respective locations of the computing devices collected over time.

4. The computer system of claim 3 wherein the respective locations of each of the computing devices are associated with a digital fingerprint of the computing device.

5. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the coarse location data represents an estimate of the location of the computing device from a location of a wireless network access point to which the computing device is connected.

6. The computer system of claim 2 wherein the respective locations of each of the computing devices are associated with a digital fingerprint of the computing device.

7. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the traffic information includes a statistical regression of the respective locations of the computing devices collected over time.

8. The computer system of claim 7 wherein the respective locations of each of the computing devices are associated with a digital fingerprint of the computing device.

9. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the respective locations of each of the computing devices are associated with a digital fingerprint of the computing device.