Geofence prioritization

• US 9,736,636 B1
• Filed: 10/28/2016
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HCL Technologies Limited
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Greenberger, Jeremy A., DeLuca, Lisa Seacat
• Primary Examiner(s): Shedrick, Charles
• Application Number:
  US15/337,375
• Time in Patent Office: 291 Days
• Field of Search: 455566
• 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 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

Systems, methods and tools for prioritizing the transmission of geofences based on the social influences and interactions with the geofences previously performed or discussed by associates of a user. Embodiments may search a user'"'"'s social media connections and friend'"'"'s lists for associates of the user that may have interacted with, commented about or used one or more of the geofences. As a function of the social influences of the user'"'"'s associates, the disclosed systems, methods and tools may calculate a rating for each geofence based on the popularity of the geofence or probability that the user may enjoy interacting with the geofence. Embodiments may prioritize the transmission of the geofences being downloaded to the user'"'"'s client device as a function of the ratings assigned, therefore downloading and displaying the most popular geofences and/or the geofences most likely to appeal to the user first.

Claims

1. A method for prioritizing transmission of a geofence comprising the steps of:

querying, by a processor of a computer system, a list of each available geofence;

calculating, by the processor, a number of available geofences returned by the list of each available geofence, wherein the number of available geofences returned by the querying step is more than a maximum number of active geofences permitted by a client device;

retrieving, by the processor, historical data from one or more data sources;

analyzing, by the processor, the historical data for positive or negative opinions of each available geofence using a sentiment analysis of messages for keywords, location tags and time stamps describing previous interactions between associates of a user and each of the available geofences;

populating, by the processor, a prioritized list of geofences from the list of each available geofence as a function of the sentiment analysis of messages for keywords, location tags, time stamps, wherein each of the geofences in the prioritized list are assigned a rating as a function of the analysis of the historical data and each of the geofences are prioritized by rating, wherein highest rated geofences are prioritized first;

weighting, by the processor, the rating of each geofence in the prioritized list of geofences as a function of a relationship between the associate of the user and the user; and

transmitting, by the processor, each of the geofences in order by the rating to the client device up to a maximum number of allowable geofences permitted by the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving, by the client device, each of the geofences of the prioritized list;

mapping, by the client device, each of the geofences to a mapping interface; and

displaying, by the client device, a notification as the user triggers a geofence event associated with each of the geofences.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of displaying the notification as the user triggers the geofence event further includes displaying the rating of each of the geofences on the mapping interface.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of displaying the notification as the user triggers the geofence event further comprises displaying within the notification, an indicator describing each of the associates of the user that have previously interacted with the geofence.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of displaying the notification as the user triggers the geofence event further comprises:

displaying, by the client device, a message stored as part of the historical data written by associates of the user about at least one geofence of the prioritized list.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more data sources include social media data, email data, short message service (SMS) data, direct messaging data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of analyzing the historical data identifies associates of the user that have triggered a geofence event within each of the available geofences, associates that have provided a location tag on social media corresponding to one or more of the available geofences or associates that have posted messages comprising keywords associated with one or more of the available geofences.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing at least one support service for at least one of creating, integrating, hosting, maintaining, and deploying computer-readable program code in a computer system, where the computer-readable program code in combination with the computer system is configured to implement the steps of querying, retrieving, analyzing, populating and transmitting.

9. A computer system, comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU);

a memory device coupled to the CPU;

a client device placed into electronic communication with the CPU; and

a computer readable storage device coupled to the processor, wherein the storage device contains program code executable by the CPU via the memory device to implement a method for prioritizing transmission of a geofence comprising the steps of;

querying, by the CPU, a list of each available geofence;

calculating, by the CPU, a number of available geofences returned by the list of each available geofence, wherein the number of available geofences returned by the querying step is more than a maximum number of active geofences permitted by a client device;

retrieving, by the CPU, historical data from one or more data sources;

analyzing, by the CPU, the historical data for positive or negative opinions of each available geofence using a sentiment analysis of messages for keywords, location tags and time stamps describing previous interactions between associates of a user and each of the available geofences;

populating, by the CPU, a prioritized list of geofences from the list of each available geofence as a function of the sentiment analysis of messages for keywords, location tags, time stamps, wherein each of the geofences in the prioritized list are assigned a rating as a function of the analysis of the historical data and each of the geofences are prioritized by rating, wherein highest rated geofences are prioritized first;

weighting, by the CPU, the rating of each geofence in the prioritized list of geofences as a function of a relationship between the associate of the user and the user; and

transmitting, by the CPU, each of the geofences in order by the rating to the client device up to a maximum number of allowable geofences permitted by the client device.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the client device, each of the geofences of the prioritized list;

mapping, by the client device, each of the geofences to a mapping interface; and

displaying, by the client device, a notification as the user triggers a geofence event associated with each of the geofences.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the step of displaying the notification as the user triggers the geofence event further includes displaying the rating of each of the geofences on the mapping interface.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the step of displaying the notification as the user triggers the geofence event further comprises displaying within the notification, an indicator describing each of the associates of the user that have previously interacted with the geofence.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the step of displaying the notification as the user triggers the geofence event further comprises:

displaying, by the client device, a message stored as part of the historical data written by associates of the user about at least one geofence of the prioritized list.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more data sources include social media data, email data, short message service (SMS) data, direct messaging data.

15. A computer program product comprising:

one or more computer readable hardware storage devices having computer readable program code stored therein, said program code containing instructions executable by the one or more central processing units (CPU) to implement a method for prioritizing transmission of a geofence comprising the steps of;

querying, by the CPU, a list of each available geofence to a client device operated by a user;

calculating, by the CPU, a number of available geofences returned by the list of each available geofence, wherein the number of available geofences returned by the querying step is more than a maximum number of active geofences permitted by a client device;

retrieving, by the CPU, historical data from one or more data sources;

analyzing, by the CPU, the historical data for positive or negative opinions of each available geofence using a sentiment analysis of messages for keywords, location tags and time stamps describing previous interactions between associates of the user and each of the available geofences;

populating, by the CPU, a prioritized list of geofences from the list of each available geofence as a function of the sentiment analysis of messages for keywords, location tags, time stamps, wherein each of the geofences in the prioritized list are assigned a rating as a function of the analysis of the historical data and each of the geofences are prioritized by rating, wherein highest rated geofences are prioritized first;

weighting, by the CPU, the rating of each geofence in the prioritized list of geofences as a function of a relationship between the associate of the user and the user; and

transmitting, by the CPU, each of the geofences in order by rating to the client device up to a maximum number of allowable geofences permitted by the client device.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising the steps of:

receiving, by the client device, each of the geofences of the prioritized list;

mapping, by the client device, each of the geofences to a mapping interface; and

displaying, by the client device, each of the geofences.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the step of displaying the notification as the user triggers the geofence event further includes displaying the rating of each of the geofences on the mapping interface.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the step of displaying the notification as the user triggers the geofence event further comprises displaying within the notification, an indicator describing each of the associates of the user that have previously interacted with the geofence.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the step of displaying the notification as the user triggers the geofence event further comprises:

displaying, by the client device, a message stored as part of the historical data written by associates of the user about at least one geofence of the prioritized list.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the step of analyzing the historical data identifies associates of the user that have triggered a geofence event within each of the available geofences, associates that have provided a location tag on social media corresponding to one or more of the available geofences or associates that have posted messages comprising keywords associated with one or more of the available geofences.