Mass transportation service delivery platform

• US 8,428,620 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2009
• Issued: 04/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sweeney, Jeffrey, Rooks, Kelsyn D. S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gonzalez, Amancio
• Application Number:
  US12/428,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20100273509A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,462 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 455/456.1, 705/5
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• 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

Embodiments of the disclosed invention include an apparatus, method, and computer program product for providing location information for a mobile device associated with a passenger of a mass transportation vehicle. For example, in some embodiments, the location information of a mobile device of a passenger may be utilized to provide location-based services, such as, but not limited to, providing the passenger with updated information regarding a travel arrangement, enabling an airline crew to determine the whereabouts of a passenger, and enabling automatic check-in. In addition, certain ones of the disclosed embodiments provide a method for maintaining location-based services associated with a mobile device while the device is in transit on a mass transportation vehicle, such as, but not limited to, an airplane.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for providing location information for a mobile device associated with a passenger of a mass transportation vehicle, the computer implemented method comprising:

receiving travel related information associated with the passenger;

receiving an identifier associated with the mobile device of the passenger;

monitoring for the presence of the mobile device in a departing mass transportation facility associated with the travel related information using one or more mobile signal detection units; and

communicating with a data processing system associated with a mass transportation service provider to automatically check in the passenger in response to a determination that the passenger is in the departing mass transportation facility based on the presence of the mobile device of the user being in the departing mass transportation facility; and

communicating with the data processing system to update a flight manifest with a location of the passenger within the departing mass transportation facility to indicate an amount of time before the passenger reaches a departing gate for the mass transportation vehicle;

transmitting a check-in confirmation message to the mobile device, in response to automatically checking in the passenger, the confirmation message including a scannable bar code that is utilized to board the mass transportation vehicle.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting one or more advertisements to the mobile device based on a location of the mobile device within the departing mass transportation facility.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a query request for location information associated with the passenger from a requesting device; and

returning the location status of the passenger to the requesting device.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the mobile device is aboard the mass transportation vehicle using one or more mobile signal detection units located on the mass transportation vehicle; and

responsive to a determination that the mobile device is located aboard the mass transportation vehicle, monitoring for communication requests for location information from one or more location-based services associated with the mobile device;

responsive to identifying a communication requests for location information associated with the mobile device from a location-based service, transmitting location data associated with the mobile device to the location-based service; and

returning the location-based service data to the mobile device.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the one or more mobile signal detection units located on the mass transportation vehicle are femto cells.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the location-based services utilized by the mobile device are pre-specified by the passenger.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the one or more mobile signal detection units located on the mass transportation vehicle enable cellular communication by routing cellular calls to and from the mobile device through the one or more mobile signal detection units.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the one or more mobile signal detection units located on the mass transportation vehicle may be utilize to block all use of wireless devices located on the mass transportation vehicle.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the one or more mobile signal detection units located on the mass transportation vehicle provide wireless data services to the mobile device.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the mobile device is aboard the mass transportation vehicle using one or more mobile signal detection units located on the mass transportation vehicle; and

responsive to a determination that the mobile device is located aboard the mass transportation vehicle, monitoring for incoming calls to the mobile device; and

automatically answering an incoming call with a greeting message that includes all or a part of the travel related information of the passenger.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

responsive to identifying the incoming call to the mobile device, determining a caller identification associated with the incoming call, determining whether the caller identification is included in a user-specified list of approved incoming callers; and

responsive to the caller identification being on the user-specified list of approved incoming callers, initiating the step of automatically answering the incoming call with the greeting message that includes all or a part of the travel related information of the passenger; and

responsive to the caller identification not being on the user-specified list of approved incoming callers, forwarding the incoming call to voicemail.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the mobile device is aboard the mass transportation vehicle using one or more mobile signal detection units located on the mass transportation vehicle; and

responsive to a determination that the mobile device is located on the mass transportation vehicle, monitoring the location of the mass transportation vehicle; and

transmitting a notification to a user-specified identifier in response to a determination that the user mass transportation vehicle is located approximately a user-specified amount of time away its destination.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring for the detection of the mobile device in an arriving mass transportation facility associated with the travel related information using one or more mobile signal detection units, and responsive to identifying that the mobile device is located in the arriving mass transportation facility, updating a location status associated with the passenger to indicate that the passenger is within the arriving mass transportation facility.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

communicating with a data processing system associated with a service provider of the mass transportation vehicle to retrieve baggage claim information; and

transmitting the baggage claim information to the mobile device of the passenger.

15. A location tracking apparatus for providing location information for a mobile device associated with a passenger of a mass transportation vehicle, the location tracking apparatus comprising:

a network interface for communicating with one or more mobile signal detection units;

a data storage component for storing computer executable instructions; and

a processing unit for executing the computer executable instructions to detect the presence of the mobile device in a mass transportation facility using data received from the mobile signal detection units, to communicate with a data processing system associated with a mass transportation service provider to automatically check in the passenger in response to a determination that the passenger is in the departing mass transportation facility based on detecting the presence of the mobile device of the user being in the departing mass transportation facility, to communicate with the data processing system to update a flight manifest with a location of the passenger within the departing mass transportation facility to indicate an amount of time before the passenger reaches a departing gate for the mass transportation vehicle, and to transmit a check-in confirmation message to the mobile device, in response to automatically checking in the passenger, the confirmation message including a scannable bar code that is utilized to board the mass transportation vehicle.

16. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code comprising instructions to:

monitor for the presence of a mobile device of a passenger in a mass transportation facility using one or more mobile signal detection units;

responsive to identifying that the mobile device is located in the mass transportation facility, communicate with a data processing system associated with a mass transportation service provider to automatically check in the passenger;

communicate with the data processing system to update a flight manifest with a location of the passenger within the departing mass transportation facility to indicate an amount of time before the passenger reaches a departing gate for the mass transportation vehicle; and

transmit a check-in confirmation message to the mobile device, in response to automatically checking in the passenger, the confirmation message including a scannable bar code that is utilized to board the mass transportation vehicle.