Method and system for delivery of location specific information

• US 7,565,153 B2
• Filed: 01/22/2003
• Issued: 07/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions Connectivity Incorporated (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CML Emergency Services, Inc.
• Inventors: Alcock, William Guy, Vitardebo, Kenneth Martin, McWilliams, Timothy Francis
• Primary Examiner(s): TIEU, BINH KIEN
• Application Number:
  US10/348,693
• Publication Number:
  US 20040198389A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,372 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.1, 455/456.1, 455/466, 455/414.2, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/557, 455/432, 455/517, 725 32- 36
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42229 Personal communication services, i.e. services related to one subscriber independent of his terminal and/or location diverting calls from one subscriber to another subscriber, i.e. two different subscriptions H04M3/54; selecting arrangements in intelligent networks H04Q3/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4872 Non-interactive information services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• 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 method and system for delivering location specific information to a receiver without the receiver having to transmit its location. The method includes self-determining a location of a receiver and receiving a signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area. The method further includes selectively extracting, from the signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area, geographic location specific information that only applies to a self-determined geographic location of the receiver. The method may also include broadcasting a signal to a wide geographic area, wherein information in the signal is tagged to specific geographic locations. The system includes at least one receiver comprising a locator for self-determination of geographic location and a discriminator for extracting appropriate location specific information. The system may also include a base station for broadcasting a signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographic area, wherein the information comprises geographic location specific information.

Claims

1. A method of receiving location specific information comprising:

self-determining a discrete geographic location of a receiver;

receiving a broadly transmitted signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area;

configuring the base station to identify at least one of the sectors of the base station that transmits to an area that overlaps the wide geographical area,

wherein the base station comprising a plurality of sectors is configured to transmit signals to the receiving device,

wherein the base station is configured to transmit the signal only via the at least one identified sector; and

selectively extracting, from the signal comprising information pertaining to one or more discrete geographic locations within the wide geographical area, geographic location specific information that only applies to the discrete geographic location self-determined by the receiver.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a signal wherein geographic location specific information within the information pertaining to a wide geographic area is tagged to identify respective geographic locations.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising discriminating the signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area according to the self-determined discrete geographic location of the receiver and an assigned tag.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising distinguishing between geographic location specific information that is geographically remote, and geographic location specific information that is geographically local to the self-determined discrete geographic location of the receiver.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the information pertaining to a wide geographical area to extract geographic location specific information associated with the self-determined discrete geographic location according to a selected viewing scale.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

overriding a self-determined discrete geographic location of a receiver; and

accepting a desired geographic location input to allow receiving and extracting of geographic location specific information corresponding to the desired geographic location input.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising selectively extracting, from the signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area, geographic location specific information that only applies to a desired geographic location input.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising processing the information pertaining to a wide geographical area to extract geographic location specific information associated with the desired geographic location input according to a selected viewing scale.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving and extracting advertising information linked to a specific location in the signal comprising location specific information.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting information from the receiver.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving and extracting updated geographic location specific information to continually refresh previously stored geographic location specific information.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving and extracting updated geographic location specific information for a plurality of selected locations to continually refresh previously stored geographic location specific information for each of the respective selected locations.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing extracted geographic location specific information to allow selective replay of the extracted geographic location specific information.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising overlaying geographic location specific information extracted from the signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographic area on a receiver map display corresponding to a self-determined geographic location of a receiver.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising gathering information related to specific geographic locations.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising broadcasting a signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographic area, wherein the information comprises geographic location specific information.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising distributing information related to specific geographic locations in a wide geographical broadcast area to at least one transmitter broadcasting in the corresponding wide geographical broadcast area.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising assigning tags, identifying a respective geographic location, to the geographic location specific information within the information pertaining to a wide geographic area.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the tags are only valid for a predetermined geographic location.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the tags are only valid for a predetermined time period.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising including advertising information linked to a specific geographic location in the signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographic.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein a first portion of the information pertaining to a wide geographic area is broadcast across an entire broadcast area and a second portion of the information pertaining to a wide geographic area is simultaneously broadcast over less than an entire broadcast area.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising broadcasting, to a respective geographic sector of a wide geographical broadcast area, only geographic location specific information corresponding to the respective geographic sector.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising assigning tags, identifying a respective geographic location, to the geographic location specific information corresponding to the respective geographic sector.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising subdividing information related to geographic locations and broadcasting subdivided information simultaneously on separate transmission channels.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the subdivided information broadcast on a respective transmission channel is updated at a different rate than information simultaneously broadcast on a different channel.

27. A system configured to deliver location specific information comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area;

a locator, operably connected to the receiver, configured to self-determine a geographic location of the receiver;

a discriminator, operably connected to the receiver, configured to selectively extract, from the signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area, geographic location specific information that only applies to a self-determined geographic location of the receiver; and

a base station having a plurality of sectors configured to transmit signals to the receiving device and wherein the base station is configured to identify at least one of the sectors of the base station that transmits to an area that overlaps the wide geographical area,

wherein the base station is configured to transmit the signal only via the at least one identified sector.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the locator is a GPS receiver.

29. The system of claim 27, further comprising an override to allow input of a desired geographic location input for extracting geographic location specific information corresponding to the desired geographic location input.

30. The system of claim 27, further comprising a base station for broadcasting a signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographic area, wherein the information comprises geographic location specific information.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the base station further comprises an encoder for assigning tags, to identify geographic location specific information in the signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographic area.

32. The system of claim 27, further comprising a centralized network operations center for gathering geographic location specific information for a wide geographic area and distributing the information to at least one base station broadcasting to a respective wide geographic area.

33. A data distribution system configured to receive geographic location specific information comprising:

a receiving device configured to receive a signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area, wherein the information pertaining to a wide geographical area is transmit tagged according to specific geographic locations;

a base station having a plurality of sectors configured to transmit signals to the receiving device and wherein the base station is configured to identify at least one of the sectors of the base station that transmits to an area that overlaps the wide geographical area,

wherein the base station is configured to transmit the signal only via the at least one identified sector;

a locator, operably connected to the receiving device, configured to self-determine a geographic location of the receiving device and generating a receive tag corresponding to the geographic location of the receiving device;

a discriminator, operably connected to the receiving device, configured to selectively extract, from the signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area, geographic location specific information having a transmit tag corresponding to the receive tag; and

an output connected to the receiving device configured to output the selectively extracted geographically selected information.

34. The data distribution system of claim 33, wherein the locator changes the receive tag according to a self-determined location of the receiving device.

35. The data distribution system of claim 33, wherein the receiving device is a paging device and the signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area is a paging-type signal.

36. The system of claim 33, further comprising an override to allow input of a desired geographic location input for extracting geographic location specific information corresponding to the desired geographic location input.

37. The data distribution system of claim 33, further comprising a base station for encoding geographic location specific information with transmit tags and broadcasting a signal comprising information pertaining to a wide geographical area comprising geographic location information tagged to geographic location specific information.