Data pre-fetching based on user demographics

• US 8,509,816 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2011
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maplebear Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Branch, Joel W., Chen, Han, Lei, Hui
• Primary Examiner(s): Afshar, Kamran
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHAHEED, KHALID W
• Application Number:
  US13/294,540
• Publication Number:
  US 20130122934A1
• Time in Patent Office: 641 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.6, 455/414.1, 455/414.2, 455/457
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Mechanisms are provided for pre-fetching content data and storing the content data in a mobile device. An identifier of a mobile device and a location of the mobile device are received. Demographic information about a user of the mobile device is obtained based on the identifier of the mobile device. The demographic information of the user is compared with demographic information of other users to identify one or more similar users having similar demographic information to the demographic information of the user of the mobile device. Content data to transmit to the mobile device is identified based on the location of the mobile device and the identification of the one or more similar users. The content data is transmitted to the mobile device for storage in the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method, in a data processing system, for pre-fetching content data and storing the content data in a mobile device, comprising:

receiving, in the data processing system from the mobile device, an identifier of the mobile device and a location of the mobile device;

obtaining, by the data processing system, demographic information about a user of the mobile device based on the identifier of the mobile device;

comparing, by the data processing system, the demographic information of the user with demographic information of other users to identify one or more similar users having similar demographic information to the demographic information of the user of the mobile device;

identifying, by the data processing system, content data to transmit to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device and the identification of the one or more similar users, wherein identifying content data to transmit to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device and the identification of the one or more similar users comprises;

performing a lookup operation in a tag data and landmark database that stores content data in association with geographical location information to retrieve content data having an associated geographical location within a predetermined geographical range of the location of the mobile device to generate a superset of content data; and

selecting a subset of the superset of content data based on content data accessed by the one or more similar users, wherein the one or more similar users are users of a same social network system or social network application as the user of the mobile device; and

transmitting, by the data processing system, the content data to the mobile device for storage in the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying content data further comprises:

identifying a social network system with which the user of the mobile device is associated;

analyzing one or more communications between at least a subset of the one or more similar users that are determined to be in the social network system to identify content of interest to the one or more similar users that are determined to be in the social network system; and

identifying the content data as content data corresponding to the identified content of interest of the one or more similar users.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein analyzing one or more communications between at least the subset of the one or more similar users comprises, for each of the one or more similar users:

generating a score based on a similarity of demographic information between the similar user and the user of the mobile device, a similarity of the location of the mobile device with a location of the similar user, and a score of keywords in communications within the social network system associated with the similar user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the score of keywords in the communications within the social network system is generated based on at least one of a temporal filtering of the communications or subject relevance filtering of the communications.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the content data to the mobile device for storage in the mobile device comprises comparing a current condition of the mobile device to one or more conditions specified in a user policy, wherein the user policy specifies user established conditions required for transmission of the content data, and wherein the content data is transmitted to the mobile device only in response to the conditions of the mobile device meeting the one or more conditions specified in the user policy.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying content data to transmit to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device comprises:

predicting a future destination of user based on a predicted path of motion of the user, the predicted path of motion being determined based on the location of the mobile device; and

identifying content data that corresponds to the future destination of the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the content data is cached in a cache memory of the mobile device for access by a user of the mobile device at a later point in time.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the content data is output to the user only in response to a specific operation being performed by the user with the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the specific operation is at least one of scanning a particular tag, barcode, or physical identifier at a physical geographical location associated with the content data.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining wireless network signal strength information for a geographical area associated with the location of the mobile device or a predicted future location of the mobile device; and

determining whether the wireless network signal strength information for the geographical area is below a predetermined threshold, wherein transmitting the content data to the mobile device for storage in the mobile device is performed in response to a determination that the wireless network signal strength information for the geographical area is below the predetermined threshold.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving a web browser history from the mobile device; and

analyzing the web browser history to identify interests of the user of the mobile device, wherein identifying content data to transmit to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device and the identification of the one or more users is further based on the identified interests of the user of the mobile device identified by the analysis of the web browser history.

12. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

receive, from a mobile device, an identifier of the mobile device and a location of the mobile device;

obtain demographic information about a user of the mobile device based on the identifier of the mobile device;

compare the demographic information of the user with demographic information of other users to identify one or more similar users having similar demographic information to the demographic information of the user of the mobile device;

identify content data to transmit to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device and the identification of the one or more similar users, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to identify content data to transmit to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device and the identification of the one or more similar users by;

performing a lookup operation in a tag data and landmark database that stores content data in association with geographical location information to retrieve content data having an associated geographical location within a predetermined geographical range of the location of the mobile device to generate a superset of content data; and

selecting a subset of the superset of content data based on content data accessed by the one or more similar users, wherein the one or more similar users are users of a same social network system or social network application as the user of the mobile device; and

transmit the content data to the mobile device for storage in the mobile device.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to identify content data by:

identifying a social network system with which the user of the mobile device is associated;

analyzing one or more communications between at least a subset of the one or more similar users that are determined to be in the social network system to identify content of interest to the one or more similar users that are determined to be in the social network system; and

identifying the content data as content data corresponding to the identified content of interest of the one or more similar users.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to analyze one or more communications between at least the subset of the one or more similar users by, for each of the one or more similar users:

generating a score based on a similarity of demographic information between the similar user and the user of the mobile device, a similarity of the location of the mobile device with a location of the similar user, and a score of keywords in communications within the social network system associated with the similar user.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the score of keywords in the communications within the social network system is generated based on at least one of a temporal filtering of the communications or subject relevance filtering of the communications.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to transmitting the content data to the mobile device for storage in the mobile device by comparing a current condition of the mobile device to one or more conditions specified in a user policy, wherein the user policy specifies user established conditions required for transmission of the content data, and wherein the content data is transmitted to the mobile device only in response to the conditions of the mobile device meeting the one or more conditions specified in the user policy.

17. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to identify content data to transmit to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device by:

predicting a future destination of user based on a predicted path of motion of the user, the predicted path of motion being determined based on the location of the mobile device; and

identifying content data that corresponds to the future destination of the user.

18. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the content data is cached in a cache memory of the mobile device for access by a user of the mobile device at a later point in time.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the content data is output to the user only in response to a specific operation being performed by the user with the mobile device.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the specific operation is at least one of scanning a particular tag, barcode, or physical identifier at a physical geographical location associated with the content data.

21. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

obtain wireless network signal strength information for a geographical area associated with the location of the mobile device or a predicted future location of the mobile device; and

determine whether the wireless network signal strength information for the geographical area is below a predetermined threshold, wherein transmitting the content data to the mobile device for storage in the mobile device is performed in response to a determination that the wireless network signal strength information for the geographical area is below the. predetermined threshold.

22. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

retrieve a web browser history from the mobile device; and

analyze the web browser history to identify interests of the user of the mobile device, wherein identifying content data to transmit to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device and the identification of the one or more users is further based on the identified interests of the user of the mobile device identified by the analysis of the web browser history.

23. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive, from a mobile device, an identifier of the mobile device and a location of the mobile device;

obtain demographic information about a user of the mobile device based on the identifier of the mobile device;

compare the demographic information of the user with demographic information of other users to identify one or more similar users having similar demographic information to the demographic information of the user of the mobile device;

identify content data to transmit to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device and the identification of the one or more similar users, wherein the instructions cause the processor to identify content data to transmit to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device and the identification of the one or more similar users by;

performing a lookup operation in a tag data and landmark database that stores content data in association with geographical location information to retrieve content data having an associated geographical location within a predetermined geographical range of the location of the mobile device to generate a superset of content data; and

selecting a subset of the superset of content data based on content data accessed by the one or more similar users, wherein the one or more similar users are users of a same social network system or social network application as the user of the mobile device; and

transmit the content data to the mobile device for storage in the mobile device.