System and method for handling location information

• US 20020143930A1
• Filed: 01/31/2001
• Published: 10/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Terrace Licensing LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Eagle, Brian Lee White, Krauszer, Adam, Babu, Anand Naga, Paterson, Roy, Heifets, Abraham S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,774,453 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/28 with correlation of data from several navigational instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

The present invention is a system and method for handling location information. The goal of the present invention is to allow users to collect and evaluate information from multiple sources, and thus make proper use of all available location information. Location sources for the present invention include mobile electronic devices such as mobile telephones, cell phones, hand-held computers, personal digital assistants, pagers, Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, and other pervasive computing devices. Satellite-based or network-based positioning technologies make it possible to determine the geographic location of these wireless electronic devices and their users (e.g. location-based services for users of mobile telephones use such positioning technologies). Location sources for the present invention also include computer-based models, schedules or calendars that give a person'"'"'s expected location depending on the date and time. One aspect of the present invention is a method for handling location information. Another aspect of the present invention is a system for executing the method of the present invention. A third aspect of the present invention is as a set of instructions on a computer-usable medium, or resident in a computer system, for executing the method of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for handling location information, said method comprising:

acquiring location data regarding a user from a plurality of location sources;

creating a collection of said location data regarding said user;

ranking items in said collection according to expected utility; and

updating said location data continuously.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

filtering data in said collection to remove misleading data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

consolidating data in said collection to determine the most likely location of said user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said acquiring further comprises acquiring location data regarding more than one user;

said creating further comprises creating collections of said location data regarding more than one user, organized by user; and

said ranking further comprises ranking items in said collections regarding more than one user, according to expected utility.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

filtering data in said collections to remove misleading data.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

consolidating data in said collections to determine the most likely locations of said users.

7. A method for handling location information, said method comprising:

ranking items in a collection of location data regarding a user, according to expected utility; and

updating said location data continuously.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

filtering data in said collection to remove misleading data.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

consolidating data in said collection to determine the most likely location of said user.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein:

said ranking further comprises ranking items in collections of location data regarding more than one user, according to expected utility.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

filtering data in said collections to remove misleading data.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

consolidating data in said collections to determine the most likely locations of said users.

14. The information handling system of claim 13, further comprising:

means for filtering data in said collection to remove misleading data.

15. The information handling system of claim 13, further comprising:

means for consolidating data in said collection to determine the most likely location of said user.

16. The information handling system of claim 13, wherein:

said means for acquiring further comprises means for acquiring location data regarding more than one user;

said means for creating further comprises means for creating collections of said location data regarding more than one user, organized by user; and

said means for ranking further comprises means for ranking items in said collections regarding more than one user, according to expected utility.

17. The information handling system of claim 16, further comprising:

means for filtering data in said collections to remove misleading data.

18. The information handling system of claim 16, further comprising:

means for consolidating data in said collections to determine the most likely locations of said users.

20. The information handling system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for filtering data in said collection to remove misleading data.

21. The information handling system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for consolidating data in said collection to determine the most likely location of said user.

22. The information handling system of claim 19, wherein:

said means for ranking further comprises means for ranking items in collections of location data regarding more than one user, according to expected utility.

23. The information handling system of claim 22, further comprising:

means for filtering data in said collections to remove misleading data.

24. The information handling system of claim 22, further comprising:

means for consolidating data in said collections to determine the most likely locations of said users.

26. The computer-usable medium of claim 25, further comprising:

means for filtering data in said collection to remove misleading data.

27. The computer-usable medium of claim 25, further comprising:

means for consolidating data in said collection to determine the most likely location of said user.

28. The computer-usable medium of claim 25, wherein:

said means for acquiring further comprises means for acquiring location data regarding more than one user;

said means for creating further comprises means for creating collections of said location data regarding more than one user, organized by user; and

said means for ranking further comprises means for ranking items in said collections regarding more than one user, according to expected utility.

29. The computer-usable medium of claim 28, further comprising:

means for filtering data in said collections to remove misleading data.

30. The computer-usable medium of claim 28, further comprising:

means for consolidating data in said collections to determine the most likely locations of said users.

13. An information handling system for handling location information, said information handling system comprising:

means for acquiring location data regarding a user from a plurality of location sources;

means for creating a collection of said location data regarding said user;

means for ranking items in said collection according to expected utility; and

means for updating said location data continuously.

19. An information handling system for handling location information, said information handling system comprising:

means for ranking items in a collection of location data regarding a user, according to expected utility; and

means for updating said location data continuously.

25. A computer-usable medium having computer-executable instructions, comprising:

means for acquiring location data regarding a user from a plurality of location sources;

means for creating a collection of said location data regarding said user;

means for ranking items in said collection according to expected utility; and

means for updating said location data continuously.

31. A computer-usable medium having computer-executable instructions, comprising:

means for ranking items in a collection of location data regarding a user, according to expected utility; and

means for updating said location data continuously.

32. The computer-usable medium of claim 31, further comprising:

means for filtering data in said collection to remove misleading data.

33. The computer-usable medium of claim 31, further comprising:

means for consolidating data in said collection to determine the most likely location of said user.

34. The computer-usable medium of claim 31, wherein:

said means for ranking further comprises means for ranking items in collections of location data regarding more than one user, according to expected utility.

35. The computer-usable medium of claim 34, further comprising:

means for filtering data in said collections to remove misleading data.

36. The computer-usable medium of claim 34, further comprising:

means for consolidating data in said collections to determine the most likely locations of said users.