CONSTRAINT-BASED SCHEDULING FOR DELIVERY OF LOCATION INFORMATION

• US 20100291950A1
• Filed: 05/13/2009
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Murphy, Chester Overstead, Woodcock, Katrika, Weber, Karon A., Zhao, Gang, Lin, Jyh-Han
• Granted Patent: US 8,682,342 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Defining subscriptions to location information for a computing device (e.g., a mobile computing device). Application programs, services, and/or peer devices define the subscriptions based on constraints associated with requests for the location information. A location request scheduler coordinates the subscriptions temporally and spatially to reduce the quantity of the requests from the computing device. In some embodiments, the subscriptions are automatically defined based on an observed mobility pattern of the computing device.

Claims

1. A system for execution on a mobile computing device, said system executing to reduce a quantity of requests from the mobile computing device for location reports from a network, said system comprising:

a memory area for storing a plurality of subscriptions to a location report, said location report identifying a location of a mobile computing device, each of said subscriptions having a time value and application program associated therewith; and

a processor programmed to;

identify a mobility pattern for the mobile computing device based on a location history of the mobile computing device;

define the subscriptions to the location report based at least on the identified mobility pattern;

store the defined subscriptions in the memory area;

determine a report time based on at least one of the time values;

generate the location report at the determined report time;

select a plurality of the subscriptions stored in the memory area based on said at least one of the time values; and

provide the generated location report to the application programs associated with the selected subscriptions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to define the subscriptions by determining a request pattern for the mobile computing device, said request pattern representing one or more previous requests for the location report from the mobile computing device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to select the plurality of the subscriptions by identifying a plurality of the subscriptions having approximately equal time values associated therewith.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobility pattern represents one or more previous requests by the mobile computing device for the location report.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the location history comprises a plurality of locations, and wherein the processor is programmed to identify the mobility pattern by identifying a duration spent at each of the locations.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the location history comprises a plurality of timestamped locations, and wherein the processor is further programmed to correlate the location history with profile data to generate a location tag for each of the timestamped locations, wherein the profile data is associated with a user of the mobile computing device.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for coordinating requests for the location report to reduce a quantity of the requests.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for identifying the mobility pattern and means for defining the subscriptions.

9. A method comprising:

accessing subscriptions to location information, said location information describing a location of a computing device, each of the subscriptions having a time value and application program associated therewith;

defining a report time based on at least one of the time values;

generating the location information at the defined report time;

selecting a plurality of the subscriptions based on said at least one of the time values; and

providing the generated location information to the application programs associated with the selected subscriptions.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising defining one or more of the subscriptions based on one or more of the following:

a task list, a calendar entry, a location history, and a mobility pattern.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising defining one or more of the subscriptions by:

determining commuting time periods; and

defining the subscriptions to include time values corresponding to at least a portion of the determined commuting time periods.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein a task list application executing on the computing device manages one or more tasks, wherein each of the tasks has a location associated therewith, and further comprising identifying at least one of the tasks based on a comparison of the location to the generated location information.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the computing device provides a plurality of channels of radio content, and further comprising selecting one of the channels based on the generated location information.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising defining one or more of the subscriptions based on calendar events.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the calendar events has a time and location associated therewith, and wherein defining the one or more of the subscriptions comprises defining the one or more of the subscriptions based on differences between the times and distances between the locations of the calendar events.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining a reminder time based on estimated travel time between locations of the calendar events.

17. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components, said components comprising:

a memory component for accessing subscriptions to location information, said location information identifying a location of a computing device, each of the subscriptions having a time value and application program associated therewith;

a timing component for organizing the subscriptions into one or more groups based at least on the time values, wherein each of the groups has a group time value;

a processor component for executing, at one of the group time values, the application programs associated with the subscriptions in the group associated with said one of the group time values;

a location component for generating, responsive to a request from at least one of the executing application programs, the location information and providing the generated location information to the executing application programs.

18. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the time value comprises a time interval.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the location information comprises one or more of the following:

a position of the computing device, information describing an area surrounding the position, and business information associated with the area surrounding the position.

20. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein one or more locations are associated with each of the subscriptions, and wherein the timing component organizes the subscriptions based on geographic proximity of the locations.