LOCATION MAPPING FOR KEY-POINT BASED SERVICES

• US 20080172173A1
• Filed: 01/17/2007
• Published: 07/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chang, Eric, Wong, Kong-Kat, Tang, Difei
• Granted Patent: US 7,751,971 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/30 Map- or contour-matching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A “Proxi-Mapper” combines location based services (LBS), local searching capabilities, and relative mapping in a way that minimizes bandwidth requirements and maximizes user experience. The Proxi-Mapper automatically determines approximate locations of one or more local user devices (cell phones, PDA'"'"'s, media players, portable computing devices, etc.) and returns a lightweight model of local entities (“key-points”) representing businesses, services or people to those devices. Key-points are maintained in one or more remote databases in which key-points are assigned to predetermined grid sections based on the locations of the corresponding entities. Metadata associated with the key-points provides the user with additional information relating to the corresponding entities. In various embodiments, user query options allow the Proxi-Mapper to pull or push relevant local key-point based information to user devices via one or more wired or wireless networks.

Claims

1. A system for providing one or more mobile user devices with locally relevant information, comprising:

automatically determining an approximate position of at least one user device;

reporting the approximate position to a remote server;

querying a database of geographic points of interest to identify a set of one or more geographic points of interest within a predetermined distance from the approximate position of the at least one user device;

wherein each geographic point of interest has been assigned to a predetermined grid section approximately corresponding to a known physical location of that geographic point of interest;

returning the set of one or more geographic points of interest to one or more of the user devices;

rendering a grid-based display of the grid sections which illustrates graphical representations of each of the returned geographic points of interest on a display device of one or more of the user devices, wherein a representation of each geographic point of interest is rendered in a corresponding one of the rendered grid sections; and

wherein a representation of the approximate position is rendered in one of the grid sections corresponding to the approximate position of the at least one user device.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein each grid section represents a geographic area of a predetermined size, and wherein each grid section is identified by a single geographic point, regardless of total grid section size.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein assigning geographic points of interest to one of the predetermined grid sections comprises assigning all geographic points of interest falling within the geographic area of a particular grid section to that grid section, and using the single geographic point for that grid section to indicate the geographic position of all geographic points of interest in that grid section.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more of the geographic points of interest in the database of geographic points of interest include metadata that describes additional information for defining those geographic points of interest.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein returning the set of one or more geographic points of interest from the remote server to one or more of the user devices further includes returning the metadata associated with each returned geographic point of interest from the remote server to one or more of the user devices.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein a user query is sent from one of the user devices to the remote server before querying the database of geographic points of interest, and wherein querying the database of geographic points of interest is limited by the user query such that only those geographic points of interest matching the user query are returned the remote server to one or more of the user devices.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein geographic points of interests include any one or more of:

businesses having a known or determinable location;

services having a known or determinable location;

transportation modalities having a known or determinable location;

objects having a known or determinable location; and

people having a known or determinable location.

8. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon for providing location-based services via an electronic device, comprising instructions for:

determining an approximate position of a user device;

querying a database of location-based services to determine which of the location-based services are within a predetermined distance from the approximate position of the user device;

returning a set of available location-based services to the user device, said set comprising one or more of the location-based services that are within the predetermined distance from the approximate position of the user device;

assigning each available location-based service in the returned set to a particular one of a plurality of grid sections corresponding to a physical location of each of those location-based services; and

rendering a grid-based display on the user device comprising the grid sections for illustrating graphical representations of each available location-based service in a corresponding one of the rendered grid sections.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8 further comprising instructions for rendering a representation of the approximate position of the user device in one of the grid sections corresponding to the approximate position of the user device.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein each grid section represents a geographic area of a predetermined size and wherein each grid section is identified by a single geographic point corresponding to a physical point within each geographic area.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10 wherein assigning each available location-based service to a particular one of the grid sections comprises assigning those location-based services that are physically located within a particular geographic area to the corresponding grid section.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 8 further comprising instructions for ranking the location-based services that are within the predetermined distance from the approximate position of the user device, and wherein the set of available location-based services returned to the user device is limited as a function of the ranking associated with each location-based service.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 8 further comprising instructions for determining whether the user device is authorized to receive one or more of the location-based services that are within the predetermined distance from the approximate position of the user device, and wherein the set of available location-based services returned to the user device is limited to include only authorized location-based services.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 8 further comprising instructions for rendering the grid-based display as an overlay on a geographic map of the area corresponding to grid sections.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 8 further comprising instructions for automatically pushing coupons corresponding to one or more of the available location-based services to the user device.

16. A method for dynamically providing location-based service information to a user device, comprising;

dynamically determining a current geographic position of a user device, said current geographic position being periodically updated over time;

determining a current set of possible location-based services within a known distance of the geographic position of the user device, said current set of possible location-based services being updated whenever the current geographic position of the user device is updated;

providing a subset of available location-based services to the user device from the current set of possible location-based services, said subset of available location-based services being updated whenever the current geographic position of the user device is updated;

assigning each available location-based service a grid section corresponding to a physical location of each of those location-based services;

rendering a grid-based display on the user device comprising the grid sections for providing a graphical representation of each available location-based service in a corresponding one of the rendered grid sections; and

rendering a representation of the approximate position of the user device in one of the grid sections corresponding to the approximate position of the user device.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising limiting the set of available location-based services as a function of a user initiated query for location-based services.

18. The method of claim 16 further limiting the set of available location-based services as a function of whether the user device is authorized to receive those location-based services from the set of possible location-based services.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the available location-based services include one or more of:

matches to specific local businesses;

matches to specific local services;

matches to local transportation modalities having a known or determinable location;

matches to specific objects having a known or determinable location; and

matches to specific people having a known or determinable location.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein one or more of the location-based services includes metadata that describes additional information for defining those location-based services, and wherein the additional information for a particular location-based service is rendered on the user device in response to user selection of the graphical representation corresponding to that particular location-based service.