Position-sensitive events

• US 20070192116A1
• Filed: 02/10/2006
• Published: 08/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Garmin Limited
• Original Assignee: Garmin Limited
• Inventors: Lovitt, John
• Application Number:
  US11/351,600
• Publication Number:
  US 20070192116A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40

Abstract

Techniques for position-sensitive events are provided. Positioning information is used to acquire events for a given geographical location or within a configurable distance of that geographical location. In an embodiment, a route is provided from a current position of a requester to a destination location associated with a selected one of the events.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving positioning information from a requestor;

querying a repository for events within a configurable geographic distance of a location associated with the positioning information; and

presenting the events to the requestor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein querying further includes limiting the query to at least one of a calendar date or a range of calendar days.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein querying further includes representing the events as at least one of job opportunities, volunteer opportunities, and community activities.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving further includes receiving the positioning information as at least one of an automatic communication from a wireless device and a user-provided communication from a Word-Wide Web (WWW) browser.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the events;

identifying a current position of the requestor;

calculating a route from the current position to a location associated with the selection; and

providing the route to the requester.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, contacting an event service to acquire the events, wherein an identity of the event service is resolved in response to the positioning information and the configurable geographic distance.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising, sending updates for one or more of the events to the requestor if modifications are detected.

8. A method, comprising:

issuing a search request for events of a given geographic location;

receiving results associated with the search request;

selecting one of the results; and

presenting a route from a current location to a destination location associated with the selected result.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein issuing further includes submitting with the search request a calendar date or range of calendar days that restricts a search to the calendar day or the range of calendar days and restricts the search to a configurable distance within the given geographic location.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein issuing further includes representing the given geographic location as at least one of a city name, a venue name, a landmark descriptor, and an address.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving the results further includes receiving the results as a link to a dynamically created World-Wide Web (WWW) page that includes the results.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving further includes downloading the results to a local environment of a device that processes the method.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the selecting and the presenting are performed within the local environment of the device.

14. The method of claim 8 further comprising, acquiring the route from a remote service over a network in response to the current location and the destination location.

15. A system, comprising:

a position-sensitive event service; and

a portable device, wherein the portable device is to communicate over a network with the position-sensitive event service and is to communicate positioning information to the position-sensitive event service, and wherein the position-sensitive event service is to communicate events associated with the positioning information to the portable device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the portable device is at least one of a phone, a laptop, a personal computer (PC), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet PC, and a global positioning satellite (GPS) enabled device.

17. The system of claim 15 further comprising, an event service, wherein the event service is to communicate the events to the position-sensitive event service in response to search parameters.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the search parameters include at least one of the positioning information, a configurable distance within the positioning information, a calendar date, a range of calendar days, and a category associated with a specific type of event.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the position-sensitive event service and the portable device communicate with one another over at least one of a wireless network, a wired network, and a combination of wired and wireless networks.

20. A system, comprising:

a position-sensitive event service; and

one or more event stores, wherein the position-sensitive event service is to query and update the one or more event stores for events in response to positioning information, and wherein the position-sensitive event service is to present the events to requestors.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein position-sensitive event service is to generate routes from current positions of the requesters to locations associated with selected ones of the events.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the one or more event stores are to be accessed through one or more event services in communication with the position-sensitive event service.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the position-sensitive event service is to interact with the requestors over the Internet.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the position-sensitive event service is to dynamically generate World-Wide Web (WWW) pages for presenting the events to the requesters within a browser interface.