# US 2021/0279749 A1 · Characterizing geographic areas based on geolocations reported by populations of mobile computing devices > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2021/0279749 A1 - Document ID: US20210279749A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 17/190,304 - Filed: 2021-03-02 - Published: 2021-09-09 - Earliest claimed: 2020-03-02 - Assignees: PlaceIQ, Inc. - Applicants: PlaceIQ, Inc. - Inventors: Drew Breunig - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210279749A1 ## CPC - G06Q 30/0205: {based on location or geographical consideration} - G06Q 30/0201: Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data - H04W 4/021: Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences - H04W 4/025: {using location based information parameters} - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR - H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72) ## Abstract Provided is a process including obtaining a set of geographic places of interest, obtaining a set of location identifiers of devices, determining a set of tiles based on the set of geographic places of interest, and determining a subset of the set of location identifiers of devices based on members of the subset of the set of location identifiers. The process also includes determining a subset of the devices based on the subset of the set of location identifiers of devices and determining a set of dwell-based values based on the subset of the set of devices. The process also includes determining a set of threshold-satisfying tiles based on the set of dwell-based values and storing the set of threshold-satisfying tiles in a computer system. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A non-transitory, machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, effectuate operations comprising: obtaining, with a computer system, a set of geographic places of interest; obtaining, with the computer system, a set of location identifiers of mobile computing devices, the set of location identifiers of the mobile computing devices being based on a set of wireless signals transmitted or received by a set of mobile computing devices; determining, with the computer system, a set of geographic unit tiles based on the set of geographic places of interest; determining, with the computer system, a subset of the set of location identifiers of mobile computing devices based on members of the subset of the set of location identifiers having a respective location associated with a respective location identifier within one of the places of interest; determining, with the computer system, a subset of the mobile computing devices based on the subset of the set of location identifiers of mobile computing devices, wherein each of the subset of the mobile computing devices is associated with one location identifier in the subset of the set of location identifiers of mobile computing devices; determining, with the computer system, a set of dwell-based values based on the subset of the set of mobile computing devices, wherein the set of dwell-based values is based on an amount of mobile computing devices from the subset of the set of mobile computing devices indicated to have visited one of the set of geographic unit tiles outside a boundary of a set of locations associated with the set of location identifiers; determining, with the computer system, a set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles based on the set of dwell-based values and a threshold, wherein the set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles satisfies the threshold; and storing the set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles in the computer system. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, wherein determining the subset of the set of location identifiers of mobile computing devices comprises determining whether a location associated with a location identifier is in one of the set of geographic places of interest using a ray casting algorithm or a winding number algorithm. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, further comprising: building a graph that comprises graph nodes based the set of geographic places of interest and the set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles, wherein a first node of the graph nodes corresponds to one of the set of geographic places of interest, and wherein a second node of the graph nodes correspond to one of the set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles, and wherein the graph further comprises a node connection between the first node and the second node; and determining a zone of co-visited devices based on the node connection. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, wherein the set of geographic places of interest is a first set of geographic places of interest, and wherein determining the set of geographic unit tiles comprises: obtaining a second set of geographic places of interest; and setting boundaries of a subset of the set of geographic unit tiles based on the second set of geographic places of interest, wherein the set of geographic unit tiles comprises the subset of the set of geographic unit tiles. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The medium of claim 4, further comprising determining a set of threshold-satisfying places of interest based on a comparison of a second threshold and each respective dwell-based value of the set of dwell-based values. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The medium of claim 5, further comprising: obtaining a set of labels, wherein each of the set of labels is associated with at least one of the first set of geographic places of interest or the second set of geographic places of interest; and indicating the set of labels on a region map comprising the set of geographic places of interest and the set of threshold-satisfying places of interest. ### Claim 7 (depends on 4) The medium of claim 4, the operations further comprising obtaining a first label associated with a first place from the first set of geographic places of interest and a second label associated with a second place from the second set of geographic places of interest, wherein determining the set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles comprises determining that the first label is identical to the second label. ### Claim 8 (depends on 4) The medium of claim 4, the operations further comprising: obtaining internet activity data based on a set of wireless data sessions associated with the subset of the set of mobile computing devices; determining a first set of labels based on the internet activity data; obtaining a second set of labels associated with the second set of geographic places of interest; determining whether a shared label exists between the first set of labels and the second set of labels; and in response to a determination that the shared label exists, indicate a candidate place of interest associated with the shared label on a region map. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, further comprising determining a set of second-association devices based on the subset of the set of mobile computing devices, wherein determining the set of second-association devices comprises determining that each of the set of second-association devices had visited at least one of the set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, wherein determining the set of geographic unit tiles comprises: determining a set of cluster centroids based on the set of location identifiers using clustering; and wherein determining the set of geographic unit tiles comprises determining the set of geographic unit tiles based on the set of cluster centroids. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, wherein each of the set of geographic unit tiles has an area greater than or equal to an area of each of the set of geographic places of interest. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, wherein the subset of the set of mobile computing devices is a first subset of the set of mobile computing devices, and wherein determining the set of dwell-based values comprises: determining, for each respective geographic unit tile, a second subset of the set of mobile computing devices based on a count of the subset of the set of mobile computing devices indicated to have visited the respective geographic unit tile; and determining the subset of the set of mobile computing devices based on a set of ratios of the second subset of the set of mobile computing devices and the first subset of the set of mobile computing devices. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining a set of signal times associated with the set of location identifiers; and determine a visitation sequence based on the set of signal times, wherein the visitation sequence comprises an ordered sequence of geographic unit tiles comprising at least one of the set of geographic places of interest. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, wherein locations associated with the set of location identifiers comprise at least three dimensions. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, wherein the threshold is a first threshold, and wherein operations further comprise: determining a second set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles based on the set of dwell-based values and a second threshold, wherein each of the set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles is associated with a respective dwell-based value that satisfies the second threshold, and wherein the second threshold is greater than the first threshold; and building a zone of co-visited devices based on the set of geographic places of interest and the second set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles. ### Claim 16 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, wherein the set of geographic places of interest comprises a plurality of places of interest, and wherein the threshold is determined based on dwell-based values associated with the set of geographic places of interest. ### Claim 17 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, wherein determining the set of dwell-based values based on the subset of the set of mobile computing devices comprises: obtaining a signal time associated with a first location identifier of a device in the subset of the set of mobile computing devices based on the set of wireless signals, wherein a location associated with the first location identifier is in one of the set of geographic places of interest; determining a temporally-proximate set of locations based on the signal time and a travel time interval, wherein each of the temporally-proximate set of locations have an associated signal time that is within the travel time interval of the signal time; and determining the subset of the set of location identifiers based on the temporally-proximate set of locations. ### Claim 18 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, further comprising filtering the set of wireless signals based on a dwell duration threshold, wherein each of the subset of the set of mobile computing devices are associated with at least one dwell duration that satisfies the dwell duration threshold. ### Claim 19 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, further comprising filtering the set of wireless signals based on a time-of-day interval, wherein each of the set of location identifiers is associated with wireless signal time that is within the time-of-day interval. ### Claim 20 (depends on 1) The medium of claim 1, wherein: determining the set of dwell-based values comprise steps for determining dwell-based values. ### Claim 21 A method comprising: obtaining, with a computer system, a set of geographic places of interest; obtaining, with the computer system, a set of location identifiers of mobile computing devices, the set of location identifiers of the mobile computing devices being based on a set of wireless signals transmitted or received by a set of mobile computing devices; determining, with the computer system, a set of geographic unit tiles based on the set of geographic places of interest; determining, with the computer system, a subset of the set of location identifiers of mobile computing devices based on members of the subset of the set of location identifiers having a respective location associated with a respective location identifier within one of the places of interest; determining, with the computer system, a subset of the mobile computing devices based on the subset of the set of location identifiers of mobile computing devices, wherein each of the subset of the mobile computing devices is associated with one location identifier in the subset of the set of location identifiers of mobile computing devices; determining, with the computer system, a set of dwell-based values based on the subset of the set of mobile computing devices, wherein the set of dwell-based values is based on an amount of mobile computing devices from the subset of the set of mobile computing devices indicated to have visited one of the set of geographic unit tiles outside a boundary of a set of locations associated with the set of location identifiers; determining, with the computer system, a set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles based on the set of dwell-based values and a threshold, wherein the set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles satisfies the threshold; and storing the set of threshold-satisfying geographic unit tiles in the computer system.