US 8,135,505 B2Granted

Determining locations of interest based on user visits

AssigneeGroupon, Inc.

InventorsDarren E. Vengroff, Oliver B. Downs

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Abstract

Techniques are described for determining locations of interest based on user visits. In some situations, the techniques include obtaining information about actual locations of users at various times, and automatically analyzing the information to determine particular locations in a geographic area that are of interest, such as for frequent destinations visited by users. After determining a particular location of interest, it may be represented by generating a corresponding location model to describe the geographic subarea or other location point(s) covered by the determined location of interest, and one or more points of interest (e.g., businesses, parks, schools, landmarks, etc.) may be identified that are located at or otherwise correspond to the determined location of interest. In addition, a determined location of interest may be further used in various ways, including to identify later user visits to that location (e.g., to a point of interest identified for the location).

Claims45

Dependent claims

A method for a computing system to determine location-related information of interest, the method comprising:

for each of a plurality of users in a geographic area, obtaining information about travel paths of the user in the geographic area over a period of time, each travel path indicating a sequence of multiple location data points in the geographic area at which the user is located that are recorded by a device of the user having location determination capabilities;
automatically analyzing the obtained information about the travel paths of the plurality of users so as to identify multiple distinct subareas of the geographic area that are frequent destinations of the plurality of users during the period of time, each subarea being identified as a frequent destination based at least in part on the location data points of the travel paths of the plurality of users indicating at least a predefined minimum number of multiple user visits to the subarea that are each of a duration of time that exceeds a predefined minimum length;
for one of the identified subareas of the geographic area, identifying a business whose location is represented by the identified subarea, such that the multiple user visits that are used to identify the subarea correspond to user visits to the identified business;
and
after the identifying of the business, obtaining information about one or more location data points within the geographic area that an indicated user visits at a time after the identifying of the business, and automatically determining that the indicated user visits the identified business based on at least one of the one or more location data points being within the identified subarea for the identified business.

2 more elements

A computer-implemented method for determining location-related information of interest, the method comprising:

for each of one or more users in a geographic area, obtaining information about multiple locations of the user in the geographic area over a period of time based on the user moving within the geographic area;
automatically analyzing the obtained location information for the one or more users to identify one or more distinct subareas of the geographic area that are destinations of interest of the one or more users, each subarea being identified as a destination of interest based at least in part on the obtained location information reflecting multiple user visits to one or more locations within the subarea such that the multiple user visits satisfy one or more specified criteria;
for each of at least one of the identified subareas of the geographic area, identifying a point of interest located at the identified subarea, such that at least some of the multiple user visits that are used to identify the subarea correspond to user visits to the identified point of interest;
and
providing one or more indications of, for each of one or more of the at least one identified points of interest, the identified subarea that corresponds to the point of interest.

2 more elements

A computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing device to determine location-related information of interest, by performing a method comprising:

automatically analyzing obtained information about users in a geographic area to determine one or more locations in the geographic area that are destinations of user interest, the obtained information indicating multiple locations in the geographic area that are visited by multiple users over a period of time, the analyzing including determining the one or more destination locations from the multiple locations based at least in part on multiple user visits to the one or more destination locations that satisfy one or more specified criteria;
and
providing an indication of the determined one or more destination locations in the geographic area.

A computing system configured to determine location-related information of interest, comprising:

one or more memories;
and
a visitization system that is configured to determine location-related information of interest, by:
automatically determining one or more points of interest in a geographic area based at least in part on information that identifies multiple locations in the geographic area that are visited by multiple users over a period of time, the determining of each of the one or more points of interest including, for a group of one or more of the multiple locations visited by the multiple users that is selected as representing a destination of actual user interest, obtaining an identification of the point of interest based on a location of the point of interest in the geographic area corresponding to the selected group of one or more visited locations;
and
providing an indication of the obtained identifications for the one or more determined points of interest in the geographic area.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/150,565Filed 28 Apr 2008 · us provisional application
Priority: 27 Apr 2007
Published: US 2009/0005987 A11 Jan 2009
Granted: 13 Mar 2012
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

G06Q 30/0261
Targeted advertisements: based on user location
G06Q 30/02
Commerce: marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
G06Q 30/0205
Market segmentation: based on location or geographical consideration
H04L 67/306
Profiles: user profiles