Credential tracking

• US 9,886,569 B1
• Filed: 11/23/2015
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microstrategy Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Microstrategy Incorporated
• Inventors: Vazquez, Hector, Chen, Gang
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehedi, Morshed
• Application Number:
  US14/949,365
• Time in Patent Office: 806 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2151 Time stamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

In one implementation, a credential associated with a user identifier and a location is stored at a client device. A request to output a representation of the credential in a manner that enables a credential authority to validate the representation is received. Responsive to receiving the request to render the representation of the credential, a location of the client device is obtained and a determination that the location of the client device is within a predefined distance of the location associated with the credential is made. Responsive to determining that the location of the client device is within the predefined distance of the location associated with the credential, data indicating that the user has entered the location associated with the credential is stored in a memory of the client device.

Claims

1. A method performed by a mobile electronic device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the mobile electronic device, a request to output a representation of a credential that is associated with a location; and

responsive to receiving the request to output the representation of the credential;

obtaining, by the mobile electronic device, the representation of the credential;

outputting, by the mobile electronic device, the representation of the credential;

determining a location of the mobile electronic device;

based on the determined location of the mobile electronic device, generating, by the mobile electronic device, data indicating that a user corresponding to the credential has entered the location associated with the credential; and

transmitting, from the mobile electronic device to a server, the generated data indicating that the user has entered the location associated with the credential.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing, in a memory of the mobile electronic device, the generated data indicating that the user has entered the location associated with the credential.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the representation of the credential comprises generating, by the mobile electronic device, the representation of the credential.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the representation of the credential comprises generating the representation of the credential based on a credential identifier stored at the mobile electronic device.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the representation of the credential comprises:

obtaining, by the mobile electronic device, a time measured by a timing device of the mobile electronic device; and

generating, by the mobile electronic device, the representation of the credential based on the obtained time measured by the timing device of the mobile electronic device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the location of the mobile electronic device is within a predefined distance of the location associated with the credential;

and

wherein generating the data indicating whether the user corresponding to the credential has entered the location associated with the credential comprises;

based on determining that the location of the mobile electronic device is within the predefined distance of the location associated with the credential, generating data indicating that the user has entered the location associated with the credential.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting, by the mobile electronic device, the representation of the credential on a display of the mobile electronic device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein outputting the representation of the credential comprises outputting a representation of the credential that includes a parametrically-generated graphical representation, an animated graphical representation, a phrase, a numeric representation, or an optical machine-readable representation.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining a time at the mobile electronic device; and

determining that the time is within a predefined time period associated with the credential;

wherein generating the data indicating whether a user corresponding to the credential has entered the location associated with the credential is further based on determining that the time is within the predefined time period associated with the credential.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after determining that the mobile electronic device has entered the location associated with the credential, determining that the location of the mobile electronic device is outside the location associated with the credential; and

responsive to determining that the location of the mobile electronic device is outside the location associated with the credential, storing, in a memory of the mobile electronic device, data indicating that the user has left the location associated with the credential.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising transmitting, from the mobile electronic device to a server, a message indicating that the user has left the location associated with the credential.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting, from the mobile electronic device to a server, the generated data comprises:

determining that the mobile electronic device lacks network connectivity;

responsive to determining that the mobile electronic device lacks network connectivity, caching a message indicating that the user has entered the location associated with the credential for subsequent transmission to a server when network connectivity is restored;

determining that network connectivity has been reestablished; and

responsive to determining that network connectivity has been reestablished, sending the cached message to the server.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a location of the mobile electronic device comprises determining, by the mobile electronic device, the location of the mobile electronic device using a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a location of the mobile electronic device comprises determining, by the mobile electronic device, the location of the mobile electronic device using Wi-Fi signals.

13. One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage devices storing instructions that are executable by one or more processing devices of a mobile electronic device and that, upon execution, cause the mobile electronic device to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the mobile electronic device, a request to output a representation of a credential that is associated with a location; and

responsive to receiving the request to output the representation of the credential;

obtaining, by the mobile electronic device, the representation of the credential;

outputting, by the mobile electronic device, the representation of the credential;

determining a location of the mobile electronic device;

based on the determined location of the mobile electronic device, generating, by the mobile electronic device, data indicating whether a user corresponding to the credential has entered the location associated with the credential; and

transmitting, from the mobile electronic device to a server, the generated data indicating that the user has entered the location associated with the credential.

14. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage devices of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise storing, in a memory of the mobile electronic device, the generated data indicating that the user has entered the location associated with the credential.

15. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage devices of claim 13, wherein obtaining the representation of the credential comprises generating, by the mobile electronic device, the representation of the credential.

16. A system comprising:

one or more processors of a mobile electronic device; and

one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors of the mobile electronic device, cause the mobile electronic device to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by the mobile electronic device, a request to output a representation of a credential that is associated with a location; and

responsive to receiving the request to output the representation of the credential;

obtaining, by the mobile electronic device, the representation of the credential;

outputting, by the mobile electronic device, the representation of the credential;

determining a location of the mobile electronic device;

based on the determined location of the mobile electronic device, generating, by the mobile electronic device, data indicating whether a user corresponding to the credential has entered the location associated with the credential; and

transmitting, from the mobile electronic device to a server, the generated data indicating that the user has entered the location associated with the credential.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise storing, in a memory of the mobile electronic device, the generated data indicating that the user has entered the location associated with the credential.