Method and apparatus for aggregating and presenting data associated with geographic locations

• US 9,646,025 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2009
• Issued: 05/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Boyns, Mark, Mehta, Chandrakant, Mandyam, Giridhar, Tsay, Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): DWIVEDI, MAHESH H
• Application Number:
  US12/470,475
• Publication Number:
  US 20100076968A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,910 Days
• Field of Search: 707705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• 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 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Implementations relate to systems and methods for aggregating and presenting data related to geographic locations. Geotag data related to geographic locations and associated features or attributes can be collected to build a regional profile characterizing a set of locations within the region. Geotag data related to the constituent locations, such as user ratings or popularity ranks for restaurants, shops, parks, or other features, sites, or attractions, can be combined to generate a profile of characteristics of locations in the region. The platform can generate recommendations of locations to transmit to the user of a mobile device, based for instance on the location of the device in the region as reported by GPS or other location service and the regional profile. Geotag data can include audio data analyzed using region-specific terms, and user recommendations can be presented via dynamic menus based on regional profiles, user preferences or other criteria.

Claims

1. A method of aggregating data associated with a geographic region, comprising:

receiving, from at least one user device, a set of geotag data associated with each of a plurality of locations in the region, the set of geotag data for each of the plurality of locations comprising at least;

a geographic identifier that identifies the location, and

a set of attributes associated with the location, wherein the set of attributes includes (i) at least one user description of the location other than a textual or numerical rating of the location that is received as user input by the at least one user device, and/or (ii) media that is captured by the at least one user device being operated while at the location;

generating a regional profile for the region by aggregating, from the set of geotag data, the set of attributes for each of the plurality of locations in the region to identify combined attributes of the region; and

comparing the regional profile for the region with a set of regional profiles for an additional set of regions to identify a set of additional similar regions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of attributes of each set of geotag data comprises at least one of a point of interest category, a set of user ratings for a point of interest at or near at least one of the plurality of locations, a set of recommendations associated with at least one of the plurality of locations, or a set of audio data associated with at least one of the plurality of locations.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the set of attributes comprises audio data, and the method further comprises:

analyzing the audio data to identify a speech characteristic of the audio data; and

generating additional attributes to add to the set of attributes based on the identified speech characteristic.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the analyzing of the audio data comprises performing language recognition processing on the audio data using a customized training set derived from audio data stored in the set of attributes associated with the regional profile.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing a discovery process based on the combined attributes of the region to generate recommendation information to transmit to a user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the recommendation information comprises the set of additional similar regions.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the recommendation information comprises a set of similar locations to a current location of the user identified based on the set of attributes contained in the set of geotag data for the plurality of locations.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the recommendation information comprises a set of locations in the region ranked by popularity based on the set of geotag data for locations in the regional profile.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the recommendation information comprises a set of locations in the region ranked by frequency of visitation by users in the regional profile.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the recommendation information comprises at least one new location based on a comparison of the regional profile to a user profile associated with the user.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the recommendation information comprises at least one similar user profile based on a comparison of a user profile associated with the user to profile information for a set of additional users.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the recommendation information comprises location information for a set of members of at least one social networking service associated with the user.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the recommendation information comprises a set of location history information for the user including a set of visited locations in the region.

14. The method of claim 5, wherein the recommendation information comprises a list of locations, and the method further comprises generating a selective ordering of the list of locations based on a user profile associated with the user.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the region corresponds to a block, tract, zip code area, city, state and/or country.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the combined attributes of the region include at least one class characterization for either the region or a subsection of the region that is based upon common classifications among the sets of attributes for the plurality of locations.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one class characterization corresponds to the region or the subsection of the region being a school zone, a residential zone, a commercial zone, a parkland zone or a recreational zone.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of additional similar regions are ranked based on a degree to which their respective regional profiles are similar to the regional profile for the region.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of attributes includes the at least one user description of the location that is received as user input by the at least one user device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the at least one user description includes a user-generated comment that is descriptive of the location.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of attributes includes the media that is captured by the at least one user device being operated while at the location.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the media includes audio content that is captured by the at least one user device at the location, video content that is captured by the at least one user device at the location, and/or image content that is captured by the at least one user device at the location.

23. The method of claim 1,

wherein the media is associated with a time when the at least one user device visited the location, and/or a time duration of the at least one user device'"'"'s visit to the location, and

wherein the set of additional similar regions corresponds to regions with similarities in terms of times when users or user devices visit the one or more locations within the set of additional similar regions as compared to the region and/or in terms of time durations for the users'"'"' or user devices'"'"' visits to the one or more locations within the set of additional similar regions.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating includes:

modifying an existing version of the regional profile by incorporating the set of attributes for each of the plurality of locations.

25. A system for aggregating data associated with a geographic region, comprising:

a data store storing a set of geotag data associated with each of a plurality of locations in the region and the set of geotag data for each of the plurality of locations comprising at least;

a geographic identifier that identifies the location, and

a set of attributes associated with the location, wherein the set of attributes includes (i) at least one user description of the location other than a textual or numerical rating of the location that is received as user input by at least one user device, and/or (ii) media that is captured by the at least one user device being operated while at the location;

a processor, communicating with the data store, the processor being configured to generate a regional profile for the region by aggregating, from the set of geotag data, the set of attributes for each of the plurality of locations in the region to identify combined attributes of the region and to compare the regional profile for the region with a set of regional profiles for an additional set of regions to identify a set of additional similar regions.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the set of attributes of each geotag comprises at least one of a point of interest category, a set of user ratings for a point of interest at or near at least one of the plurality of locations, a set of recommendations associated with at least one of the plurality of locations, or a set of audio data associated with at least one of the plurality of locations.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the processor is further configured to execute a discovery process based on the combined attributes of the region to generate recommendation information to transmit to a user.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the recommendation information comprises a set of similar locations to a current location of the user identified based on the set of attributes contained in the set of geotag data for the plurality of locations.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the recommendation information comprises a set of locations in the region ranked by popularity based on the set of geotag data for locations in the regional profile.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein the recommendation information comprises at least one new location based on a comparison of the regional profile to a user profile associated with the user.

31. The system of claim 27, wherein the recommendation information comprises a list of locations, and wherein the processor is further configured to generate a selective ordering of the list of locations based on a user profile associated with the user.

32. A system for aggregating data associated with a geographic region, comprising:

means for storing data, the means for storing data storing a set of geotag data associated with each of a plurality of locations in the region and the set of geotag data for each of the plurality of locations comprising at least;

a geographic identifier that identifies the location, and

a set of attributes associated with the location, wherein the set of attributes includes (i) at least one user description of the location other than a textual or numerical rating of the location that is received as user input by at least one user device, and/or (ii) media that is captured by the at least one user device being operated while at the location;

means for processing data, communicating with the means for storing data, the means for processing data being configured to generate a regional profile for the region by aggregating, from the set of geotag data, the set of attributes for each of the plurality of locations in the region to identify combined attributes of the region; and

means for comparing the regional profile for the region with a set of regional profiles for an additional set of regions to identify a set of additional similar regions.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the set of attributes of each geotag comprises at least one of a point of interest category, a set of user ratings for a point of interest at or near at least one of the plurality of locations, a set of recommendations associated with at least one of the plurality of locations, or a set of audio data associated with at least one of the plurality of locations.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein the means for processing data is further configured to execute a discovery process based on the combined attributes of the region to generate recommendation information to transmit to a user.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the recommendation information comprises a set of similar locations to a current location of the user identified based on the set of attributes contained in the set of geotag data for the plurality of locations.

36. The system of claim 34, wherein the recommendation information comprises a set of locations in the region ranked by popularity based on the set of geotag data for locations in the regional profile.

37. The system of claim 34, wherein the recommendation information comprises at least one new location based on a comparison of the regional profile to a user profile associated with the user.

38. The system of claim 34, wherein the recommendation information comprises a list of locations, and the means for processing is further configured to generate a selective ordering of the list of locations based on a user profile associated with the user.

39. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising:

at least one instruction for causing a computer to receive, from at least one user device, a set of geotag data associated with each of a plurality of locations in the geographic region and the set of geotag data for each of the plurality of locations comprising at least;

a geographic identifier that identifies the location, and

a set of attributes associated with the location, wherein the set of attributes includes (i) at least one user description of the location other than a textual or numerical rating of the location that is received as user input by the at least one user device, and/or (ii) media that is captured by the at least one user device being operated at the location;

at least one instruction for causing the computer to generate a regional profile for the region by aggregating, from the set of geotag data, the set of attributes for each of the plurality of locations in the region to identify combined attributes of the region; and

at least one instruction for causing the computer to compare the regional profile for the region with a set of regional profiles for an additional set of regions to identify a set of additional similar regions.

40. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 39, wherein the set of attributes of each geotag comprises at least one of a point of interest category, a set of user ratings for a point of interest at or near at least one of the plurality of locations, a set of recommendations associated with at least one of the plurality of locations, or a set of audio data associated with at least one of the plurality of locations.

41. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 39, wherein the computer readable medium further comprises at least one instruction for causing the computer to execute a discovery process based on the combined attributes of the region to generate recommendation information to transmit to a user.

42. A method of accessing geographically related information in a mobile device, comprising:

acquiring a geographic location for the mobile device;

initiating a request for data related to a regional profile of a region that is associated with the acquired geographic location for the mobile device; and

receiving the data related to the regional profile, the regional profile comprising at least a set of geotag data, received from at least one user device, representing an aggregation of a set of attributes associated with a plurality of locations in the region, wherein the set of attributes includes (i) at least one user description of one or more of the plurality of locations other than a textual or numerical rating of the one or more locations that is received as user input by the at least one user device, and/or (ii) media that is captured by the at least one user device being operated by the at least one user while at the one or more locations, wherein the data related to the regional profile includes a set of additional similar regions to the region.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the mobile device comprises at least one of a cellular telephone, a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, a WiFi™

-enabled communications device, a network-enabled personal digital assistant device, or a network-enabled media player device.

44. The method of claim 42, further comprising receiving an additional set of geotag information entered by the user in the mobile device associated with the geographic location of the mobile device.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the additional set of geotag information comprises a set of audio data associated with at least one of the plurality of locations in the region captured via the mobile device.

46. The method of claim 42, wherein the data related to the regional profile comprises recommendation information generated based on the regional profile and the geographic location for the mobile device.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the recommendation information comprises at least one of:

the set of additional similar regions to the region, a set of similar locations to a current location of the user, a set of locations in the region ranked by popularity, a set of locations in the region ranked by frequency of visitation by additional users, at least one new location based on a comparison of the regional profile to a user profile associated with the user, at least one similar user profile based on a comparison of the user profile to profile information for a set of additional users, location information for a set of members of at least one social networking service associated with the user, a set of location history information for the user including a set of visited locations in the region, or a selectively ordered list of recommended locations in the region based on the user profile.