METHOD OF LOCATING NEARBY PICTURE HOTSPOTS

• US 20120105651A1
• Filed: 10/28/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Monument Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Fund 83 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Lahcanski, Tomi, Winters, Dustin L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,627,391 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/207.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/587 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• 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 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

A network connected computer receives data from a wireless communication device including location data and user data. The computer is programmed to determine if the wireless communication device is in a vicinity of a preselected location, stored on the computer, based on the data for identifying the location of the wireless communication device. The computer transmits data to the communication device for notifying the user of the communication device that the user is in the vicinity of the preselected location. Directional information can then be sent to the communication device for the user to access in order to assist the user in finding the preselected location.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising the steps of:

connecting the computer to a communication network;

receiving data at the computer sent over the communication network by a communication device, the received data including data for identifying a current location of the communication device and data for identifying a user of the communication device;

determining that the communication device is within a preselected notification distance from a hotspot location, the step of determining based on both the data for identifying a current location and on the data for identifying a user; and

transmitting a notification over the communication network to the communication device for notifying the user of the communication device that the communication device is within the preselected notification distance from the hotspot location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of transmitting includes the step of transmitting directional information to the communication device for the user to access, the directional information for enabling the user to find the hotspot location.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the directional information is selected from the group consisting of audio data for playback on a speaker of the communication device, descriptive text data for display on a display screen of the communication device, numerical coordinate data for display on the display screen of the communication device, and map image data for display on the display screen of the communication device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of accessing a database connected to the computer that includes data associated with the user, accessing an image database connected to the computer based on the data for identifying a current location of the communication device, and identifying digital images in the image database that were captured proximate to the hotspot location.

5. The method of claim 4, further including the step of transmitting over the communication network to the communication device at least one of the digital images from the image database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication network includes the internet and the data identifying the current location of the communication device includes GPS derived data.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the directional information includes data selected from the group consisting of a geographic direction from the current location to the hotspot location, a distance from the current location to the hotspot location, and data identifying a location of the hotspot location.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining that the communication device is within a preselected distance of the hotspot location includes the step of determining that an image database connected to the computer includes at least a plurality of digital images captured near the hotspot location.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

providing a database of digital images accessible to the computer, each of the digital images associated with capture location information defining a capture location where said each of the digital images was captured; and

storing a capture location as the hotspot location if at least a plurality of the digital images in the database was captured within a preselected capture distance from the capture location.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

providing a database of digital images accessible to the computer, each of the digital images associated with capture location information defining a capture location where said each of the digital images was captured; and

storing a capture location as the hotspot location if a density of capture locations of the digital images exceeds a preselected magnitude.

11. A method for finding a hotspot location comprising the steps of:

transmitting data over a communication network by an electronic communication device, the transmitted data including first data for identifying a current location of the communication device and second data for identifying a user of the communication device; and

receiving hotspot data at the communication device that was sent over the communication network in response to the first data and the second data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of receiving hotspot data includes the step of receiving directional information at the communication device for the user to access, the directional information for enabling the user to find the hotspot location.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the directional information is selected from the group consisting of audio data for playback on a speaker of the communication device, descriptive text data for display on a display screen of the communication device, numerical coordinate data for display on the display screen of the communication device, and map image data for display on the display screen of the communication device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of receiving hotspot data includes receiving at least one digital image of the hotspot location.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the communication network includes the internet and the directional information is based upon GPS coordinate data.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of using the hotspot data for notifying the user of the communication device that the communication device is within a preselected distance of the hotspot location.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of the communication device generating a visual notification on a display of the communication device or an audible notification through a speaker of the communication device in response to the hotspot data.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the hotspot data includes a plurality of hotspot locations and wherein the method further comprises the step of the communication device detecting that the communication device is within a preselected distance from another one of the plurality of hotspot locations including generating a notification for notifying the user as to a location of said another one of the plurality of hotspot locations.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein the hotspot data includes data selected from the group consisting of a geographic direction from the current location to the hotspot location, a distance from the current location to the hotspot location, and data identifying a location of the hotspot location.

20. A computer implemented method of selecting a picture taking hot spot comprising the steps of:

connecting the computer to a communication network;

the computer receiving location data and user data from the communication network, the location data identifying a plurality of geographic locations and the user data identifying a plurality of users, each of the location data corresponding to one of a plurality of digital images, each of the plurality of geographic locations for indicating where its corresponding digital image was captured;

determining a common geographic location, including determining that a certain number of the plurality of digital images was captured within a preselected hotspot distance of the common geographic location based on the location data; and

storing on the computer the location data for the common geographic location as the picture taking hotspot if the certain number of the plurality of digital images exceeds a preselected minimum number.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein each of the plurality of users identified by the user data correspond to one of the plurality of digital images, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

the computer receiving user-designation information over the communication network from a first user, the user-designation information identifying one or more of the plurality of users as designated users; and

wherein the step of storing includes storing the picture taking hotspot as a first user hotspot if both the certain number of the plurality of digital images exceeds the preselected minimum number and at least a portion of the certain number of the plurality of digital images corresponds to a preselected minimum number of designated users.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of:

receiving current location data at the computer, the current location data sent over the communication network by a communication device, the current location data including GPS data identifying a current location of the communication device.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of:

determining that the communication device is within a preselected notification distance from the picture taking hotspot based on the GPS data, including determining that the user of the communication device is the first user based on the user data.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of:

transmitting data over the communication network to the communication device for notifying the first user that the communication device is within the preselected notification distance of the picture taking hotspot only if the computer has stored the picture taking hotspot as the first user hotspot.

25. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of:

transmitting over the communication network to the communication device one of said certain number of the plurality of digital images that corresponds to a designated user.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein each of the plurality of users identified by the user data correspond to one of the plurality of digital images, wherein the method further comprises the step of the computer receiving user-designation information over the communication network from a first user, the user-designation information identifying one or more of the plurality of users as designated users, and wherein the step of determining the common geographic location comprises determining that at least a preselected minimum number of the designated users corresponds to the certain number of the plurality of digital images.

27. A computer implemented method of selecting a picture taking hotspot comprising the steps of:

connecting the computer to a communication network;

receiving at the computer from the communication network location data and user identification data, the location data identifying a plurality of geographic locations and the user identification data identifying a plurality of users, each of the location data and each of the user identification data corresponding to at least one of a plurality of digital images;

determining the picture taking hot spot using the location data, including determining that the location data corresponding to a preselected minimum number of the plurality of digital images indicates that their corresponding geographic locations are located within a preselected distance of the picture taking hot spot; and

transmitting over the communication network location data identifying a location of the picture taking hotspot.