Information delivery system for mobile communication using location, date, and time information

• US 8,055,246 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2008
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sugino, Akinobu, Sano, Akane, Sako, Yoichiro, Ito, Taiji, Kamatani, Yoshiteru, Takehara, Mitsuru, Asukai, Masamichi, Kon, Takayasu, Kamada, Yasunori, Hayashi, Kazunori
• Primary Examiner(s): Corsaro; Nick
• Assistant Examiner(s): Johnson; Gerald
• Application Number:
  US12/283,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20090068992A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,155 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.2, 705/10, 705/14
• US Class Current: 455/414.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like

Abstract

There is provided an information delivery apparatus including a receiving portion to receive location information of a mobile communication terminal at a given time and acquired date and time of the location information from the terminal, an event information storage portion to store event information including an event place, date and time, a delivery terminal selecting portion to select the mobile communication terminal to which the event information is to be delivered based on the location information and the acquired date and time of the location information and on the event place, date and time, and an event information delivery portion to deliver the event information to the selected mobile communication terminal. The delivery terminal selecting portion selects the mobile communication terminal whose location indicated by location information is within a predetermined range and whose acquired date and time of the location information are before the event date and time.

Claims

1. An information delivery apparatus comprising:

a receiving portion to receive location information and date and time information of at least one mobile communication terminal, the location information indicating at least one past location of the at least one mobile communication terminal, the at least one past location being different from a current location of the at least one mobile communication terminal, the date and time information indicating a past date and time at which the at least one mobile communication terminal was present at the at least one past location;

an event information storage portion to store event information including an event place, an event date, and an event time of an event;

a delivery terminal selecting portion to select a mobile communication terminal to which the event information is to be delivered based on the location information and the date and time information received by the receiving portion and on the event place, the event date, and the event time; and

an event information delivery portion to deliver the event information stored in the event information storage portion to the mobile communication terminal selected by the delivery terminal selecting portion,

wherein the delivery terminal selecting portion is configured to select the mobile communication terminal based on the at least one past location indicated by the location information being within a predetermined range defined depending on the event place and the past date and time being before the event date and time.

2. The information delivery apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an attribute information storage portion to store attribute information of a user of the mobile communication terminal,

wherein the delivery terminal selecting portion is configured to select the mobile communication terminal based on the attribute information being related to the event information from the mobile communication terminal.

3. The information delivery apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the delivery terminal selecting portion is configured to select at most a predetermined number of mobile communication terminals.

4. The information delivery apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the delivery terminal selecting portion is configured to select a plurality of mobile communication terminals having past locations within the predetermined range defined depending on the event place, each past location having corresponding past date and time, and wherein the plurality of mobile communication terminals are selected in increasing order based on time length from the corresponding past date and time to the event date and time.

5. The information delivery apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the delivery terminal selecting portion is configured to select the mobile communication terminal only if a distance between a current location of the mobile communication terminal and the event place does not exceed a predetermined value.

6. The information delivery apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the delivery terminal selecting portion is configured to calculate a travel time from a current location of the mobile communication terminal to the event place and select the mobile communication terminal only if the calculated travel time is not longer than an interval between a current time and the event time.

7. An information receiving apparatus comprising:

a location information acquiring portion to acquire location information indicating a location of the information receiving apparatus;

a location information storage portion to accumulate and store a plurality of pieces of location information acquired over time by the location information acquiring portion and, for each piece of location information, a date and time at which the piece of location information was acquired, wherein at least one piece of location information indicates a past location of the information receiving apparatus that is different from a current location of the information receiving apparatus;

an event information receiving portion to receive event information including an event place, an event date and an event time of an event; and

an event information selecting portion to select event information of which a user is to be notified based on the at least one piece of location information and corresponding date and time and on the event place, the event date and the event time included in the event information,

wherein the event information selecting portion is configured to select the event information based on the past location indicated by the at least one piece of location information being within a predetermined range defined depending on the event place and the date and time corresponding to the at least one piece of location information being before the event date and time.

8. The information receiving apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

an attribute information storage portion to store attribute information of a user,

wherein the event information selecting portion is configured to select the event information based on the event information being related to the attribute information.

9. The information receiving apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the event information selecting portion is configured to select the event information only if a distance between a current location of the information receiving apparatus and the event place does not exceed a predetermined value.

10. The information receiving apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the event information selecting portion is configured to calculate a travel time from a current location of the information receiving apparatus to the event place and is configured to select the event information only if the calculated travel time is not longer than an interval between a current time and the event time.

11. An information delivery method comprising:

receiving location information and date and time information of at least one mobile communication terminal, the location information indicating at least one past location of the at least one mobile communication terminal, the at least one past location being different from a current location of the at least one mobile communication terminal, the date and time information indicating a past date and time at which the at least one mobile communication terminal was present at the at least one past location;

selecting a mobile communication terminal to which event information about an event is to be delivered based on the location information and the date and time information received in the receiving step and on an event place, an event date, and an event time of the event; and

delivering the event information to the mobile communication terminal selected in the act of selecting,

wherein the mobile communication terminal is selected in the selecting step based on the at least one past location indicated by the location information being within a predetermined range defined depending on the event place and the past date and time being before the event date and time.

15. The information delivery method according to claim 11, further comprising:

determining whether a distance between a current location of the mobile communication terminal and the event place exceeds a predetermined value; and

selecting the mobile communication terminal only if the distance between the current location of the mobile communication terminal and the event place does not exceed the predetermined value.

16. The information delivery method according to claim 11, further comprising:

calculating a travel time from a current location of the mobile communication terminal to the event place; and

selecting the mobile communication terminal only if the calculated travel time is not longer than an interval between a current time and the event time.

12. An information receiving method comprising:

acquiring location information indicating a location of an information receiving apparatus;

storing, into a storage medium, a plurality of pieces of location information acquired over time and, for each piece of location information, a date and time at which the piece of location information was acquired, wherein at least one piece of location information indicates a past location of the information receiving apparatus that is different from a current location of the information receiving apparatus;

receiving event information including an event place, an event date, and an event time of an event; and

selecting the event information of which a user is to be notified based on the at least one piece of location information and corresponding date and time stored in the storage medium and on the event place, the event date, and the event time included in the event information,

wherein the event information is selected in the selecting step if the past location indicated by the at least one piece of location information stored in the storage medium is within a predetermined range defined depending on the event place and the date and time corresponding to the at least one piece of location information are before the event date and time.

17. The information receiving method according to claim 12, further comprising:

determining whether the distance between the current location of the information receiving apparatus and the event place exceeds a predetermined value; and

selecting the event information only if the distance between the current location of the information receiving apparatus and the event place does not exceed the predetermined value.

18. The information receiving method according to claim 12, further comprising:

calculating a travel time from the current location of the information receiving apparatus to the event place; and

selecting the event information only if the calculated travel time is not longer than an interval between a current time and the event time.

13. An information delivery system including at least one information receiving apparatus that acquires and supplies location information and an information delivery apparatus that delivers event information based on the location information supplied by the information receiving apparatus, the information delivery apparatus comprising:

a receiving portion to receive location information and date and time information of the at least one information receiving apparatus, the location information indicating at least one past location of the at least one information receiving apparatus, the at least one past location being different from a current location of the at least one information receiving apparatus, the date and time information indicating a past date and time at which the at least one information receiving apparatus was present at the at least one past location;

an event information storage portion to store event information including an event place, an event date, and an event time of an event;

a delivery terminal selecting portion to select an information receiving apparatus to which the event information is to be delivered based on the location information and the date and time information received by the receiving portion and on the event place, the event date, and the event time; and

an event information delivery portion to deliver the event information stored in the event information storage portion to the information receiving apparatus selected by the delivery terminal selecting portion,

wherein the delivery terminal selecting portion is configured to select the information receiving apparatus based on the at least one past location indicated by the location information being within a predetermined range defined depending on the event place and the past date and time being before the event date and time.

14. An information delivery system including an information receiving apparatus that acquires and accumulates location information and an information delivery apparatus that delivers event information about an event to the information receiving apparatus, the information receiving apparatus comprising:

a location information acquiring portion to acquire location information indicating a location of the information receiving apparatus;

a location information storage portion to accumulate and store a plurality of pieces of location information acquired over time by the location information acquiring portion and, for each piece of location information, a date and time at which the piece of location information was acquired, wherein at least one piece of location information indicates a past location of the information receiving apparatus that is different from a current location of the information receiving apparatus;

an event information receiving portion to receive event information delivered by the information delivery apparatus, the event information including an event place, an event date, and an event time of the event; and

an event information selecting portion to select the event information of which a user is to be notified based on the past location indicated by the at least one piece of location information and corresponding date and time stored in the location information storage portion and on the event place, the event date, and the event time included in the event information,

wherein the event information selecting portion is configured to select the event information based on the at least one piece of location information stored in the location information storage portion being within a predetermined range defined depending on the event place and the date and time corresponding to the at least one piece of location information being before the event date and time.