Determining location information using a location data point provided by a computing device

• US 9,778,063 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2016
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Holden, Paul-Phillip, Sweeney, Matthew, Grosser, Jeremy
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Tuan A
• Application Number:
  US15/295,719
• Publication Number:
  US 20170030732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 351 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3682 output of POI information on a road map G01C21/3614, G01C21/3685 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A system and method for determining location information using a location data point provided by a computing device is described. A location data point is received by a system from a client computing device. The system determines whether the location data point is within a predefined region from a plurality of predefined regions configured by a user of the system. If the location data point is within a predefined region, location information corresponding to the predefined region is transmitted to the client device. If the location data point is not within a predefined region, one or more third-party reverse geocoding services can be used that translates the location data point to a street address.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that when executed by one or more computer processors of a system cause the system to perform steps comprising:

receiving geographic coordinates from a client device;

identifying a plurality of location lookup resources responsive to receiving the geographic coordinates, each of the plurality of location lookup resources configured to translate the geographic coordinates to address information using a translation methodology associated with the location lookup resource;

selecting a location lookup resource from the plurality of location lookup resources to translate the geographic coordinates to address information based on a ranking of the plurality of location lookup resources;

determining the address information associated with geographic coordinates using the selected location lookup resource; and

providing the determined address information to the client device.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the geographic coordinates include a latitude, a longitude, and an error value describing an error associated with the geographic coordinates.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the plurality of location lookup resources includes a geofence database stored within the system, the geofence database storing a plurality of geofences that are each associated with a predefined geographical region, a map database stored within the system and the map database storing mapping information, a plurality of third-party reverse geocoding services that each translates the geographic coordinates into address information, and a text string database stored within the system, the text string database storing a plurality of distinct text strings indicating that address information is unavailable.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein selecting the location lookup resource from the plurality of location lookup resources comprises:

selecting a highest ranked location lookup resource that is available for translating the geographic coordinates into address information.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of geofences is associated with location information describing the predefined geographical region associated with the geofence and a plurality of geographic points that define a boundary of the predefined geographical region associated with the geofence.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein at least one of the plurality of geofences is associated with a time period describing when the geofence is an active geographical region.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the time period is associated with an event at the predefined geographical region associated with the geofence.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein determining the address information comprises:

responsive to the geofence database being selected to translate the geographic coordinates to address information, determining whether the geographic coordinates are within the boundary of one of the plurality of geofences; and

responsive to determining a geofence from the plurality of geofences that includes the geographic coordinates, providing the location information associated with the determined geofence to the client device.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein determining the address information comprises:

responsive to the geographic coordinates not being within any of the plurality of geofences;

selecting a third-party reverse geocoding service from the plurality of third-party reverse geocoding service to translate the geographic coordinates into address information;

transmitting, via a network, a request for the selected third-party reverse geocoding service to translate the geographic coordinates into the address information; and

receiving, via the network, the requested address information from the selected third-party reverse geocoding service.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein determining the address information comprises:

responsive to the plurality of third-party reverse geocoding service being unavailable or lacking address information associated with the geographic coordinates;

searching the map database for address information associated with the geographic coordinates; and

identifying from the map database the address information associated with the geographic coordinates.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein a third-party reverse geocoding service is unavailable responsive to the third-party reverse geocoding service reaching a query limit.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein determining the address information comprises:

responsive to the map database lacking address information associated with the geographic coordinates or being unavailable, providing to the client device one of the plurality of text strings indicating that the address information is unavailable.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein determining the address information comprises:

providing one of the plurality of text strings indicating that the address information is unavailable to the client device responsive to the error value of the geographic coordinates being greater than a threshold error value.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein providing the determined address information comprises:

determining a preferred language of a user of the client device from a profile associated with the user; and

providing the determined address information to the client in the preferred language of the user.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein further comprising:

receiving a request for a transport service from the client device, the request including the geographic coordinates;

selecting a driver for providing the transport service based on the geographic coordinates received from the client device; and

transmitting the determined address information to a client device of the driver.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for a food delivery service from the client device, the request including the geographic coordinates and an identifier of a food vender;

selecting a driver for providing the food delivery service based on the geographic coordinates received from the client device and the identifier of the food vendor; and

transmitting the determined address information and the identifier of the food vendor to a client device of the driver.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving geographic coordinates of client device;

identifying a plurality of location lookup resources responsive to receiving the geographic coordinates, each of the plurality of location lookup resources configured to translate the geographic coordinates to address information using a translation methodology associated with the location lookup resource;

selecting a location lookup resource from the plurality of location lookup resources to translate the geographic coordinates to address information based on a ranking of the plurality of location lookup resources;

determining the address information associated with geographic coordinates using the selected location lookup resource; and

providing the determined address information of the client device.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a request for a transport service from the client device, the request including the geographic coordinates;

selecting a driver for providing the transport service based on the geographic coordinates received from the client device; and

transmitting the determined address information to a client device of the driver.

19. A computer system comprising:

one or more computer processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions when executed by the one or more computer processors causes the computer system to perform steps comprising;

receiving geographic coordinates of a client device;

identifying a plurality of location lookup resources responsive to receiving the geographic coordinates, each of the plurality of location lookup resources configured to translate the geographic coordinates to address information using a translation methodology associated with the location lookup resource;

selecting a location lookup resource from the plurality of location lookup resources to translate the geographic coordinates to address information based on a ranking of the plurality of location lookup resources;

determining the address information associated with geographic coordinates using the selected location lookup resource; and

providing the determined address information of the client device.

20. The computer system of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving a request for a transport service from the client device, the request including the geographic coordinates;

selecting a driver for providing the transport service based on the geographic coordinates received from the client device; and

transmitting the determined address information to a client device of the driver.