System and method of disseminating electronic content utilizing geographic and time granularities

• US 9,378,507 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2010
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emodo Inc. (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: 1020, Inc. (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Bezancon, Anne, Parkes, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Hua
• Application Number:
  US12/816,368
• Publication Number:
  US 20110010422A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,205 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A system and method for disseminating electronic content by defining a plurality of places each having a location and at least one place attribute associated therewith, receiving electronic content from a network, identifying a target geographic extent for the electronic content, identifying a target time extent for the electronic content, identifying at least one of the plurality of places based upon its location being within the target geographic extent, identifying an electronic device located at or proximate to the identified at least one place while within the target time extent, and distributing the electronic content to the identified electronic device over a network.

Claims

1. A method of disseminating electronic content, comprising:

defining a plurality of places and a plurality of sub-places, wherein

each of the plurality of places having a location, and

each of the plurality of sub-places having a location at or in one of the locations of the plurality of places;

for each of the plurality of sub-places, associating, by an association module of a data base, a plurality of non-geographic place attributes with the sub-place;

storing the associations with the plurality of sub-places in the storage module;

for each one of the plurality of places, associating with the one place, by the association module, at least one non-geographic place attribute and all the pluralities of non-geographic place attributes associated with the sub-places having their locations at or in the location of the one place;

storing the associations with the plurality of places in the storage module;

receiving electronic content from a network by the data base;

identifying a target geographic extent for the electronic content by the association module;

identifying a target time extent for the electronic content by the association module;

identifying non-geographic target attribute information for the electronic content by the association module;

identifying, by the association module, at least one of the plurality of places or plurality of sub-places based upon its location being within the target geographic extent and its at least one non-geographic place attribute or plurality of non-geographic place attributes associated therewith as stored in the storage module matching the non-geographic target attribute information;

identifying, by a location module of the data base, an electronic device located at or proximate to the identified at least one place or sub-place while within the target time extent; and

distributing, by the data base, the electronic content to the identified electronic device over a network;

wherein;

each of the non-geographic place attributes by itself does not uniquely identify a geographic location, and

the non-geographic target attribute information by itself does not uniquely identify a geographic location.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving non-geographic attribute information from a network;

wherein the associating with the sub-places and the associating with the places comprises;

determining which of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is relevant; and

associating the non-geographic attribute information with any of the places and sub-places for which the attribute information is determined relevant;

wherein the non-geographic attribute information by itself does not uniquely identify a geographic location.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining of which of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is relevant comprises:

identifying a geographic extent for the non-geographic attribute information; and

identifying which of the places and sub-places have locations associated therewith which are within the geographic extent for the non-geographic attribute information.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

identifying a time extent for the non-geographic attribute information;

wherein the associating comprises associating the non-geographic attribute information with any of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is determined relevant for a time period corresponding to the time extent.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

for each of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is determined relevant, identifying a time extent for the non-geographic attribute information, wherein the time extent for at least two of the places or sub-places varies from each other in at least one of a start time and a length of time;

wherein the associating with the sub-places and the associating with the places comprises associating the non-geographic attribute information with each of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is determined relevant for a time period corresponding to the time extent identified for that place or sub-place.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the identifying of the time extents for the non-geographic attribute information for the places and sub-places is based on non-geographic attribute information already associated with the places and sub-places.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining of which of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is relevant is based on non-geographic attribute information already associated with the places and sub-places.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining of which of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is relevant comprises selectively excluding at least one of the places or sub-places having a location associated therewith within the target geographic extent based on non-geographic attribute information already associated with the at least one place or sub-place.

9. A system for disseminating electronic content, comprising:

a storage module in which a plurality of places and a plurality of sub-places are defined, wherein;

each of the plurality of places having a location,

each of the plurality of sub-places having a location at or in one of the locations of the plurality of places;

an association module configured to;

for each of the plurality of sub-places, associating a plurality of non-geographic place attributes with the sub-place, and providing the associations with the plurality of sub-places to the storage module for storage therein;

for each one of the plurality of places, associating with the one place at least one non-geographic place attribute and all the pluralities of non-geographic place attributes associated with the sub-places having their locations at or in the location of the one place, and providing the associations with the plurality of places to the storage module for storage therein;

a network connection for receiving electronic content;

an association module configured to;

identify a target geographic extent for the electronic content;

identify a target time extent for the electronic content;

identifying non-geographic target attribute information for the electronic content;

identify at least one of the plurality of places or plurality of sub-places based upon its location being within the target geographic extent and its at least one non-geographic place attribute or plurality of non-geographic place attributes associated therewith as stored in the storage module matching the non-geographic target attribute information; and

a location detection module configured to identify an electronic device located at or proximate to the identified at least one place or sub-place while within the target time extent;

wherein at least one of the association module and the location detection module is configured to distribute the electronic content to the identified electronic device via a network;

wherein;

each of the non-geographic place attributes by itself does not uniquely identify a geographic location, and

the non-geographic target attribute information by itself does not uniquely identify a geographic location.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the association module is configured to:

define the plurality of places and the plurality of sub-places by receiving non-geographic attribute information from a network;

associate the non-geographic attribute information with the places and sub-places by;

determining which of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is relevant; and

associating the non-geographic attribute information with any of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is determined relevant;

wherein the non-geographic attribute information by itself does not uniquely identify a geographic location.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the association module is configured to determine which of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is relevant by:

identifying a geographic extent for the non-geographic attribute information; and

identifying which of the places and sub-places have locations associated therewith which are within the geographic extent for the non-geographic attribute information.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the association module is further configured to identify a time extent for the non-geographic attribute information, and to perform the associating of the non-geographic attribute information by associating the non-geographic attribute information with any of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is determined relevant for a time period corresponding to the time extent.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the association module is further configured to identify a time extent for the non-geographic attribute information for each of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is determined relevant, wherein the time extent for at least two of the places or sub-places varies from each other in at least one of a start time and a length of time, and to perform the associating with the sub-places and the associating with the places of the non-geographic attribute information by associating the non-geographic attribute information with each of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is determined relevant for a time period corresponding to the time extent identified for that place or sub-place.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the association module is further configured to identify the time extents for the non-geographic attribute information for the places and sub-places based on non-geographic attribute information already associated with the places and sub-places.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the association module is further configured to determine which of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is relevant based on non-geographic attribute information already associated with the places and sub-places.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the association module is further configured to determine which of the places and sub-places for which the non-geographic attribute information is relevant by selectively excluding at least one of the places or sub-places having a location associated therewith within the target geographic extent based on non-geographic attribute information already associated with the at least one place or sub-place.