Device for determining path

A path determination device, comprising:

• a memory for receiving signaling data associating mobile communication device identifiers, time markers and signaling identifiers, at least some of the signaling identifiers denoting a location cell;
• a classifier capable, for a given mobile communication device identifier, of marking the signaling data that are associated therewith with a movement marker indicating a state chosen from among a list comprising at least a movement and a short stop that is less than four hours;
• and
• an analyzer capable of processing the marked signaling data on the basis of the movement markers so as to produce path data associating a given mobile communication device identifier, on the one hand, and a series of movement markers each associated with a location cell and with a time marker, on the other hand, such that two movement markers whose time markers indicate that they are sequential denote different states, by applying at least one of the following rules:
• a) changing arbitrary movement markers into movement markers indicating a short stop when, for two movement markers indicating a short stop associated with a single location cell, the number of movement markers whose time markers indicate that they are between these two movement markers is less than or equal to 4;
• b) changing movement markers indicating a movement into movement markers indicating a short stop when the time markers that are associated therewith indicate that they are preceded and followed by movement markers indicating a short stop and the time markers associated with the movement markers that precede and follow the changing movement markers indicate a duration shorter than a first threshold;
• c) changing movement markers indicating a movement into movement markers indicating a short stop when the time markers that are associated therewith indicate that they are preceded and followed by movement markers indicating a short stop that are associated with one and the same location cell and the time markers associated with the movement markers that precede and follow the changing movement markers indicate a duration shorter than a second threshold;
• d) changing movement markers indicating a short stop into movement markers indicating a movement when the time markers that are associated therewith indicate that they are preceded and followed by movement markers indicating a movement and the time markers associated with the movement markers that precede and follow the changing movement markers indicate a duration shorter than a third threshold;
• and
• e) merging movement markers indicating a short stop whose time markers indicate that they are consecutive and associating a resulting movement marker with:
• a location cell associated with the movement markers whose time markers represent a longest duration amongst durations for each of the consecutive movement markers;
• and a time marker corresponding to a sum of the durations of the time markers that correspond to each of the consecutive movement markers.