Generating geofences

• US 9,961,491 B1
• Filed: 02/10/2016
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chatterjee, Shuvo, Henderson, William, Spindel, Nathan, Perry, Scott Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Shen, Qun
• Application Number:
  US15/040,618
• Time in Patent Office: 811 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 Item locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating geofences. One of the methods includes receiving, at a mobile device, a signal emitted by a merchant device associated with a merchant. If the signal is emitted by a merchant device associated with a merchant and the distance between the mobile device and the merchant device satisfies a threshold, a notification is provided on the mobile device indicating proximity of the merchant associated with the merchant device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving an indication of a current location of a mobile device;

obtaining information associated with a plurality of merchants that are located within a threshold distance of the current location of the mobile device;

determining a distance threshold based at least in part on a number of the plurality of merchants;

receiving, at the mobile device, a respective signal emitted by a corresponding merchant device associated with a corresponding merchant of the plurality of merchants;

determining, from each respective signal emitted by the corresponding merchant device, a respective geographic location;

determining a respective distance between the current location of the mobile device and each respective geographic location of the corresponding merchant device;

determining that each respective distance between the mobile device and the each merchant device satisfies the distance threshold;

determining a predetermined number of the plurality of merchants that are nearest to the current location of the mobile device;

ranking the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants based on the respective distance between the current location of the mobile device and the respective geographical location of each of the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants, to yield a ranked list of the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants; and

providing a notification on the mobile device indicating at least the ranked list of the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that each respective signal is emitted by the corresponding merchant device by,

determining a code from each respective signal emitted by the corresponding merchant device; and

determining that the code corresponds to a reserved merchant identifier that identifies the corresponding merchant.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying, on the mobile device, a map indicating, for the plurality of merchants, the respective geographic location of the corresponding merchant device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the mobile device from at least one of the respective signal or an additional signal emitted by the corresponding merchant device, a unique merchant identifier for the corresponding merchant; and

requesting merchant information for the corresponding merchant from a payment service system using the unique merchant identifier.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein ranking the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants is further based on corresponding distances between respective geographical locations of the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of merchants includes at least a first merchant, a second merchant, and a third merchant, and wherein the method further comprises:

determining that a first merchant location of the first merchant and a second merchant location of the second merchant are nearer to the currently location of the mobile device than a third merchant location of the third merchant,

wherein determining the distance threshold is further based on ensuring that the distance threshold encloses a geographic region that includes the first geographic location and the second geographic location without including the third geographic location.

6. A mobile device comprising:

one or more processors; and

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

obtaining information associated with a plurality of merchants that are located within a threshold distance of the mobile device;

determining a distance threshold based at least in part on a number of the plurality of merchants;

receiving a respective signal emitted by a corresponding merchant device associated with a corresponding merchant of the plurality of merchants;

determining a respective distance between the mobile device and each corresponding merchant device;

determining that each respective distance between the mobile device and the corresponding merchant device satisfies the distance threshold;

determining a predetermined number of the plurality of merchants that are nearest to the mobile device;

ranking the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants based on the respective distance between the mobile device and the corresponding one the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants, to yield a ranked list of the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants;

providing a notification indicating at least the ranked list of the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein determining the respective distance between the mobile device and each corresponding merchant device comprises:

receiving a current location of the mobile device;

receiving, from the respective signal emitted by each corresponding merchant device, a corresponding geographic location; and

determining the distance between the current location of the mobile device and the corresponding geographic location of each corresponding merchant device.

8. The device of claim 6, wherein determining the respective distance between the mobile device and each corresponding merchant device comprises:

determining a strength of the respective signal emitted by each corresponding merchant device; and

determining the respective distance based at least in part on the strength of the respective signal.

9. The device of claim 6, further comprising:

determining that the respective signal is emitted by each corresponding merchant device by,

determining a code from the respective signal emitted by each corresponding merchant device; and

determining that the code corresponds to a reserved merchant identifier that identifies the corresponding merchant of the plurality of merchants.

10. The device of claim 6, further comprising:

a display,

and wherein the operations further comprising displaying, using the display, a map indicating a geographic location of each corresponding merchant device.

11. The device of claim 6, the operations further comprising:

receiving, from at least one of the respective signal or an additional signal emitted by each corresponding merchant device, a unique merchant identifier for the corresponding merchant of the plurality of merchants; and

requesting merchant information for the corresponding merchant of the plurality of merchants from a payment service system using the unique merchant identifier.

18. The mobile device of claim 6, wherein the plurality of merchants includes at least the first merchant and a second merchant, and a third merchant, and wherein the operations further comprises:

determining that a first merchant location of the first merchant and a second merchant location of the second merchant are nearer to the currently location of the mobile device than a third merchant location of the third merchant,

wherein determining the distance threshold is further based on ensuring that the distance threshold enclosing a geographic region that includes the first geographic location and the second geographic location without including the third geographic location.

12. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

obtaining information associated with a plurality of merchants that are located within a threshold distance of the mobile device;

determining a distance threshold based at least in part on a number of the plurality of merchants;

receiving a respective signal emitted by a corresponding merchant device associated with a corresponding merchant of the plurality of merchants;

determining a respective distance between the mobile device and each corresponding merchant device;

determining that each respective distance between the mobile device and the corresponding merchant device satisfies the distance threshold;

determining a predetermined number of the plurality of merchants that are nearest to the mobile device;

ranking the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants based on the respective distance between the mobile device and the corresponding one the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants, to yield a ranked list of the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants;

providing a notification on the mobile device indicating at least the ranked list of the predetermined number of the plurality of merchants.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 12, wherein determining the respective distance between the mobile device and each corresponding merchant device comprises:

receiving a current location of the mobile device;

receiving, from the respective signal emitted by each corresponding merchant device, a corresponding geographic location; and

determining the distance between the current location of the mobile device and the corresponding geographic location of each corresponding merchant device.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 12, further comprising:

determining that the respective signal is emitted by each corresponding merchant device by,

determining a code from the respective signal emitted by each corresponding merchant device; and

determining that the code corresponds to a reserved merchant identifier that identifies the corresponding merchant of the plurality of merchants.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 12, the operations further comprising displaying, on the mobile device, a map indicating a geographic location of each corresponding merchant device.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices of claim 12, the operations further comprising:

receiving, from at least one of the respective signal or an additional signal emitted by each corresponding merchant device, a unique merchant identifier for the corresponding merchant of the plurality of merchants; and

requesting merchant information for the corresponding merchant of the plurality of merchants from a payment service system using the unique merchant identifier.