SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF NETWORKING ENHANCEMENTS USING LOCATION BASED SERVICES

• US 20120276931A1
• Filed: 07/11/2012
• Published: 11/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: NIELSEN, Mark D., RAMANATHAN, Sri, TERRY, Matthew A., TREVATHAN, Matthew B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,495,095 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management

Abstract

A location based service and method configured to provide a mechanism for information to a subscribing user. The method is implemented on a computing infrastructure and includes querying one or more databases for matching information of a third party that is associated with one or more mobile devices that pass within a predefined location at one or more predefined intervals. The method further includes providing location information to a subscribing user of the one or more mobile devices that have the matching information and pass within the predefined location.

Claims

1. A computer system for providing information to a subscriber user, the system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media;

first program instructions to query one or more databases for matching information of one or more third parties which is associated with one or more mobile devices which pass within a predefined location at one or more predefined intervals, wherein the matching information includes the one or more third parties which are members of a same social network or interest group as the subscribing user;

second program instructions to provide location information, to the subscribing user, of the one or more mobile devices which have the matching information and pass within the predefined location; and

third program instruction to send a message to the one or more mobile devices which are found to be a match, the message includes a request opt-in authorization for sending the location information to the subscribing user, prior to sending the location information to the subscribing user.

2. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising fourth program instructions to request a service provider to construct the predefined location as boundaries at the one or more predefined intervals.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the service provider performs the querying.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein a content provider receives events from a service provider that the one or mobile devices have passed within the predefined location and the content provider queries the one or more databases for the matching information and sends the location information to the subscribing user.

5. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the content provider sends the message to the one or more mobile devices that are found to be a match.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the one or more databases which are queried are databases associated with one or more social networking systems.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the predefined location is a radius about the subscribing user.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the predefined location includes a radius about a certain physical location.

9. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising fourth program instructions to determine that the one or more mobile devices is on a group list provided by the subscribing user.

10. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising fourth program instructions to remove one or more devices which are on a list provided by the subscribing user when the one or more mobile devices exit the predefined location.

11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the predefined location is a geo-boundary within a geo-boundary.

12. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising fourth program instructions to filter out identification information of the active mobile device.

13. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising fourth program instructions to deconstruct the predefined location after providing the location information.

14. A computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having readable program code tangibly embodied in the storage medium, the computer program product being operable to:

query one or more databases of at least one or more social networking systems or interest groups to obtain information associated with one or more users with mobile devices entering a predefined location;

determine a match between the one or more users with mobile devices and a subscriber using the queried information;

obtain location information of the one or more users which are matched to the subscriber;

provide the location information of the one or more matched users to the subscriber; and

deconstruct the predefined location after providing the location information.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer program product is further operable to determine a central location point for the subscribing user and the one or more third parties.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the determining of the central location point comprises:

retrieving a location of the subscribing user and the one or more third parties; and

averaging the locations of the subscribing user and the one or more third parties.

17. A method for providing information to a subscribing user:

querying one or more databases for matching information of one or more third parties which is associated with one or more mobile devices which pass within a predefined location at one or more predefined intervals, wherein the matching information includes the one or more third parties which are members of a same social network or interest group as that of the subscribing user;

providing location information to the subscribing user of the one or more mobile devices which have the matching information and pass within the predefined location; and

determining a central location point for the subscribing user and the one or more third parties by averaging the locations of the subscribing user and the one or more third parties.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the determining of the central location point comprises:

retrieving a location of the subscribing user and the one or more third parties; and

averaging the locations of the subscribing user and the one or more third parties.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving from the subscribing user a request to activate a proximity alert; and

notifying the subscribing user that the proximity alert is activated.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

deconstructing the geo-boundary after identifying opted-in devices within the geo-boundary;

comparing the opted-in identified devices within the geo-boundary with the group list; and

providing a group message to opted-in identified devices which match devices provided on the group list.