Location based discovery of real-time merchant device activity

• US 9,699,610 B1
• Filed: 12/28/2015
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Groupon Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Groupon Incorporated
• Inventors: Chicoine, Leslie Jean, Parthy, Anindha
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Mahendra
• Application Number:
  US14/980,667
• Time in Patent Office: 554 Days
• Field of Search: 4554563, 705 1417, 7054141
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

Systems, apparatus, methods, and non-transitory media for consumer interfaces including ambient map displays are discussed herein. Some embodiments may include a system with one or more servers. The one or more servers may be configured to generate a consumer interface including an ambient map display with a graphical representation of a map. The ambient map display may further include merchant location indicators within the map. The merchant location indicators may indicate the activity level for merchant locations that are determined to be near a consumer device, such as through a variable blink rate or other indicator. The activity level may represent, for example, the number of consumers at a particular venue or the rate of a particular consumer activity, such as transaction activity. The system may be configured to provide real-time merchant data to consumer device based on tracking the consumer device location.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more servers including;

communication circuitry configured to communicate with consumer devices and merchant devices via a network, wherein the merchant devices are associated with a plurality of merchant locations; and

processing circuitry configured to;

receive, via the network, transaction data from the merchant devices;

determine an activity level score for each of the plurality of merchant locations based on the transaction data;

receive, via the network and from a consumer device, consumer device location data indicating a consumer device location of the consumer device;

determine, at least in part by comparing the consumer device location and the plurality of merchant locations, one or more local merchant locations proximate to the consumer device location;

generate a consumer interface including an ambient map display, wherein the ambient map display comprises one or more local merchant location indicators associated with the one or more local merchant locations, and wherein at least one of the one or more local merchant location indicators is visually enhanced based on the activity level score for the one or more local merchant locations;

provide the consumer interface to the consumer device via the network; and

display, within the consumer interface, a travel path extending from the consumer device location to a local merchant location associated with a local merchant location indicator, wherein the local merchant location indicator is visually enhanced based on the activity level score for the local merchant location.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry configured to determine the one or more local merchant locations proximate to the plurality of merchant locations includes processing circuitry being configured to:

determine a distance threshold; and

determine the one or more local merchant locations from the plurality of merchant locations based on determining that the one or more local merchant locations are within the distance threshold to the consumer device location.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry configured to determine the distance threshold includes the processing circuitry being configured to:

determine, based on the consumer device location data a travel speed of the consumer device; and

determine the distance threshold based on the travel speed of the consumer device.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry configured to determine the distance threshold includes the processing circuitry being configured to:

receive, via the network and from the consumer device, consumer device input indicating a mode of transportation; and

determine the distance threshold based on the mode of transportation.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry configured to determine the distance threshold includes the processing circuitry being configured to:

determine, based on the consumer device location data, a mode of transportation; and

determine the distance threshold based on the mode of transportation.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry configured to determine the activity level score for each of the plurality of merchant locations based on the transaction data includes the processing circuitry being configured to determine, based on the transaction data, an average rate of received transaction data instances for a predetermined period of time.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry configured to determine the activity level score for each of the plurality of merchant locations based on the transaction data includes the processing circuitry being configured to determine, based on the transaction data, a projected activity level.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry configured to determine the activity level score for each of the plurality of merchant locations based on the transaction data includes the processing circuitry being configured to determine, based on the transaction data, a current activity level.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the transaction data from the merchant devices indicate consumer device interactions with merchant devices via wireless direct connections; and

the processing circuitry configured to determine the activity level score for each of the plurality of merchant locations based on the transaction data includes the processing circuitry being configured to determine the activity level score based on the consumer device interactions associated with each of the plurality of merchant locations.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the transaction data includes an indication of a completed transaction; and

the processing circuitry is further configured to, for each completed transaction of a local merchant location, provide an indication of the completed transaction as a visual enhancement to a local merchant indicator associated with the local merchant location.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more local merchant location indicators is visually enhanced with blink rates that are variable based on the activity level scores.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to, in response to receiving consumer device input indicating a selection of a local merchant location indicator, provide a merchant display to the consumer interface including merchant data of a local merchant location associated with the local merchant location indicator.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the consumer device is a mobile device.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the consumer interface is an electronic display associated with the consumer device.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein displaying, within the consumer interface, a travel path extending from the consumer device location to a local merchant location associated with a local merchant location indicator comprises determining a travel speed of an individual associated with the consumer device.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein displaying, within the consumer interface, a travel path extending from the consumer device location to a local merchant location associated with a local merchant location indicator comprises determining a mode of transportation of an individual associated with the consumer device.

13. A machine-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by processing circuitry of one or more servers connected with merchant devices and consumer devices via a network, transaction data from the merchant devices;

determining, by the processing circuitry, an activity level score for each of the plurality of merchant locations based on the transaction data;

receiving, by the processing circuitry via the network and from a consumer device, consumer device location data indicating a consumer device location of the consumer device;

determining, by the processing circuitry and at least in part by comparing the consumer device location and the plurality of merchant locations, one or more local merchant locations proximate to the consumer device location;

generating, by the processing circuitry a consumer interface including an ambient map display, wherein the ambient map display comprises one or more local merchant location indicators associated with the one or more local merchant locations, and wherein at least one of the one or more local merchant location indicators is visually enhanced based on the activity level score for the one or more local merchant locations;

providing, by the processing circuitry, the consumer interface to the consumer device via the network; and

displaying within the consumer interface, by the processing circuitry, a travel path extending from the consumer device location to a local merchant location associated with a local merchant location indicator, wherein the local merchant location indicator is visually enhanced based on the activity level score for the local merchant location.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the one or more local merchant locations proximate to the plurality of merchant locations includes:

determining a distance threshold; and

determining the one or more local merchant locations from the plurality of merchant locations based on determining that the one or more local merchant locations are within the distance threshold to the consumer device location.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining the distance threshold includes, by the processing circuitry:

determining, based on the consumer device location data a travel speed of the consumer device; and

determining the distance threshold based on the travel speed of the consumer device.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein determining the distance threshold includes, by the processing circuitry:

receiving, via the network and from the consumer device, consumer device input indicating a mode of transportation; and

determining the distance threshold based on the mode of transportation.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein determining the distance threshold includes, by the processing circuitry:

determining, based on the consumer device location data, a mode of transportation; and

determining the distance threshold based on the mode of transportation.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the activity level score for each of the plurality of merchant locations based on the transaction data includes determining, based on the transaction data, an average rate of received transaction data instances for a predetermined period of time.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the activity level score for each of the plurality of merchant locations based on the transaction data includes determining, based on the transaction data, a projected activity level.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the transaction data from the merchant devices indicate consumer device interactions with merchant devices via wireless direct connections; and

determining the activity level score for each of the plurality of merchant locations based on the transaction data includes determining the activity level score based on the consumer device interactions associated with each of the plurality of merchant locations.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the transaction data includes an indication of a completed transaction; and

the method further includes, by the processing circuitry and for each completed transaction of a local merchant location, providing an indication of the completed transaction as a visual enhancement to a local merchant indicator associated with the local merchant location.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one of the one or more local merchant location indicators is visually enhanced with blink rates that are variable based on the activity level scores.

23. The method of claim 13 further comprising, by the processing circuitry and in response to receiving consumer device input indicating a selection of a local merchant location indicator, providing a merchant display to the consumer interface including merchant data of a local merchant location associated with the local merchant location indicator.