Systems and methods for providing location services

#The disclosed embodiments generally relate to systems for providing location services using wireless tag or beacon information associated with multiple providers. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to a beacon registry for wireless tags or beacons that expose an open application programming interface.

#Providers, such as wireless network service providers or facilities, e.g. office buildings, museums, retail stores, or factories, may provide location services that use, for example, beacons and/or receivers to identify the location of users. But the current fragmented nature of location service provided by different providers hinders the complete realization of these devices' potential. While individual providers or facilities may provide beacons and/or receivers to identify the location of users, the sharing of this information is limited to the network of the provider or facility. In a single navigation, travel, or browsing experience, a user may travel through multiple networks provided or operated by different providers or facilities (e.g., by walking). This fragmentation prevents other providers or facilities from providing targeted information based on the user's current location. These deficiencies also prevent users from receiving location-specific information based on their movement and/or actions over the networks of multiple providers or facilities.

#Further, because providers or facilities offering location services are limited to the geographic extent of their network, they receive only fragmentary information about previous user locations. For example, existing systems may not be able to monitor whether a user has previously been in in one facility or in another facility. Existing systems may also fail to merge data from surrounding merchants, so the location of a user with respect to surrounding merchants may be undefined. Consequently, surrounding merchants cannot offer directions to their stores or other facilities.

#The accompanying drawings are not necessarily to scale or exhaustive. Instead, emphasis is generally placed upon illustrating the principles of the inventions described herein. These drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several embodiments consistent with the disclosure and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. In the drawings:

#FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary system for providing location services.

#FIGS. 2A-2C depict exemplary components of a system for providing location services.

#Reference will now be made in detail to the disclosed embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever convenient, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. Unless otherwise defined, technical and/or scientific terms have the meaning commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The disclosed embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the disclosed embodiments. Thus the materials, methods, and examples are illustrative only and are not intended to be necessarily limiting.

#FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary system for providing location services, consistent with disclosed embodiments. As described in more detail below, the location services are performed based on location information of a user provided by multiple providers (e.g., network providers) and/or facilities having network coverage. For example, such providers or facilities may comprise wireless network service providers, stadiums, office buildings, hospitals, retail locations, museums, subway station, etc. The providers or facilities may operate beacons and/or receivers. The providers or facilities may also provide other types of network services, such as Wi-Fi coverage. In the following description, the “network providers” and “facilities” may be referred to as “providers” collectively, where it is applicable. Beacon registry 105 may be configured to provide beacon information, consistent with disclosed embodiments. In some embodiments, beacon registry 105 may be configured to enable user devices to receive location signals. For example, beacon registry 105 may be configured to provide connection information for beacons, consistent with disclosed embodiments. The beacons may be selected from a database of beacons maintained by beacon registry 105. As described below with respect to FIGS. 2A and 3A, beacon registry 105 may be configured to maintain the database according to submissions received from one or more of provider systems, beacon systems, beacons and receivers, and user devices.

#In some embodiments, the user device may be configured to notify beacon system 120 of the presence and location of user 110a. The envisioned systems and methods then enable applications to gather data across multiple beacons/receivers managed by multiple distinct beacon systems, locations, and providers. This data may be used to identify the location of the user indoors, where GPS location may not be available, identify the manager of surrounding beacons/receivers (e.g., a network provider associated with beacon system 120), identify specific providers, identify others users that are or were near the beacon, manage a user location history to better determine the interests and behavior of users, and provide directions to users. In some embodiments, use of beacon registry 105 by one or more of users (e.g., user 110a) and provider systems (e.g., provider system 125) may require payment of a fee. The fee may be paid to the owners of the beacons/receivers, and to the owners of other contributed data sources, such as transaction information.