Passive check-in

• US 9,866,998 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2016
• Issued: 01/09/2018
• 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, Rajkumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, David Q
• Application Number:
  US15/226,178
• Publication Number:
  US 20160345128A1
• Time in Patent Office: 525 Days
• Field of Search: 4554562, 4554563, 4554142, 4554561, 705 34, 705 268
• 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 stores special locations information in a profile that represents the user with respect to a web-based service.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a server computer system, a location stream corresponding to a mobile device of a user represented by a user profile, the mobile device accessing one or more web sites;

comparing data representing a current location of the mobile device to data representing an earlier location of the mobile device using the obtained location stream;

determining a boundary crossing of a geo-fence based on the result of the comparison;

in response to determining the boundary crossing;

tracking a period of time during which the user is within the geo-fence based on the location stream;

tracking online user behavior while the user is within the geo-fence based on access of the mobile device of one or more websites during the period of time; and

tracking offline user behavior while the user is within the geo-fence based on offline behavior tracked by online services during the period of time;

identifying an area within the geo-fence as a type of special location with respect to the user based on a duration of the period of time, the online user behavior, and the offline user behavior;

determining special locations information for the area within the geo-fence based on the identified type of special location, the duration of the period of time, the online user behavior, and the offline user behavior; and

including the special locations information into the user profile.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile is maintained by a web-based service hosted at the server computer system.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the web-based service is an on-line trading service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the location stream is associated with requests originated from a web browser accessed from the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the location stream is associated with requests originated from a mobile application accessed from the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising storing the location stream andevent data representing the boundary crossing in a passive check-in database.

7. 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.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising providing a recommendation from the server computer system to the mobile device, based on the determining of the boundary crossing of the geo-fence.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the special locations information corresponds to:

a work place of the user, a home of the user, a place of worship of the user, a gym of the user, a store frequently visited by the user, or a restaurant frequently visited by the user.

10. A computer-implemented system comprising:

at least one memory configured to store instructions; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory at a server computer system, the processor being configured to, in response to execution of the instructions, cause the system to perform operations, the operations comprising;

obtain a location stream corresponding to a mobile device of a user represented by a user profile, the mobile device accessing one or more web sites;

determine a plurality of boundary crossings of a geo-fence of the user based on comparing data included in the location stream;

track periods of time during which the user is within the geo-fence based on the location stream and the plurality of boundary crossings;

track user behavior while the user is within the geo-fence based on one or more types of tracking selected from a group of tracking types consisting of;

tracking online user behavior while the user is within the geo-fence based on access of the mobile device of one or more websites during the period of time; and

tracking offline user behavior while the user is within the geo-fence based on offline behavior tracked by online services during the period of time;

determine special locations information for an area within the geo-fence based on the tracking of the user behavior and based on durations of the periods of time and a number of the plurality of boundary crossings, and

include the special locations information into the user profile.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the user profile is maintained by a web-based service hosted at the server computer system.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the web-based service is an on-line trading service.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the location stream is associated with requests originated from a web browser accessed from the mobile device.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the location stream is associated with requests originated from a mobile application accessed from the mobile device.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise store the location stream in a passive check-in database.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise :

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

from the request detected at the server computer system, collect 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, determine lack of a crossing of a geo-fence event for the mobile device; and

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

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise generate a recommendation to be provided from the server computer system to the mobile device, based on the determining of the boundary crossing of the geo-fence.

18. One or more machine-readable non-transitory storage media having instruction data to cause a system to perform operations comprising:

obtaining, by a server computer system, a location stream corresponding to a mobile device of a user represented by a user profile, the mobile device accessing one or more web sites;

comparing data representing a current location of the mobile device to data representing an earlier location of the mobile device using the obtained location stream;

determining a boundary crossing of a geo-fence based on the result of the comparison;

in response to determining the boundary crossing, tracking user behavior while the user is within the geo-fence based on one or more types of tracking selected from a group of tracking types consisting of;

tracking online user behavior while the user is within the geo-fence based on access of the mobile device of one or more websites during the period of time; and

tracking offline user behavior while the user is within the geo-fence based on offline behavior tracked by online services during the period of time;

identifying an area within the geo-fence as a type of special location with respect to the user based on the tracking of the user behavior;

determining special locations information for the area within the geo-fence based on the identified type of special location and the tracking of the user behavior; and

including the special locations information into the user profile.

19. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

tracking a period of time during which the user is within the geo-fence based on the location stream; and

identifying the area as a type of special location based on a duration of the period of time.