US 9,794,358 B1Granted

Inferring the location of users in online social media platforms using social network analysis

AssigneeHRL Laboratories, LLC

InventorDavid A. Jurgens

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

Described is a system for inferring the location of users in online social media platforms using social network analysis. A social network is first extracted from data from at least one social media platform. A mapping is generated from each user to the user's estimated geographical location in the social network, resulting in an estimated location mapping. A mapping is generated from each user to the user's known geographical location, if known, resulting in a known location mapping. The estimated location mapping is updated to match the known location mapping. The location for each user j in the known location mapping is updated in a current estimated location mapping. The final geographical locations of users connected with j are estimated using a geometric median metric. Finally, the final estimated geographical locations of users connected with j are mapped into the social network.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A system for inferring the location of users of online social media platforms, the system comprising:

one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions encoded thereon such that when the instructions are executed, the one or more processors perform operations of:
(a) extracting a social network from data from at least one social media platform, wherein the social network comprises a plurality of users connected through social relationships, and wherein each user in the plurality of users has an identity on each social media platform;
(b) generating a mapping in the social network from each user in the plurality of users to the user's estimated geographical location, resulting in an estimated location mapping Est;
(c) generating a mapping in the social network from each user in the plurality of users having known geographical location data to the user's known geographical location, resulting in a known location mapping SL;
(d) updating the estimated location mapping Est to have the same mapping as the known location mapping SL;
(e) for a user j in the plurality of users having a mapping in the known location mapping SL, updating the location of j in Est′ to be the location in the known location mapping SL, wherein Est′ is an updated individual-location mapping for a current iteration;
(f) repeating operation (e) for each user in the plurality of users;
wherein N is a set of users having a social relationship with user j, and wherein NL is a set of locations;
(g) for each user k in N having a mapping in Est, adding the estimated geographical location of k in Est to NL;
(h) estimating a new geographical location of j using a geometric median metric;
(i) updating Est′ with the new geographical location of j;
(j) iterating through operations (e) through (h) until a stopping criteria is met, wherein the stopping criteria is one of a fixed number of iterations, a number of users who have been located, and a percentage change in users with new geographical locations;
(k) replacing the mappings in Est with those in Est′;
and
(l) mapping users to final, estimated locations based on the mappings in Est.

12 more elements

A computer-implemented method for inferring the location of users of online social media platforms, comprising an act of:

causing one or more processors to execute instructions stored on a non-transitory memory such that upon execution, the one or more processors performs operations of:
(a) extracting a social network from data from at least one social media platform, wherein the social network comprises a plurality of users connected through social relationships, and wherein each user in the plurality of users has an identity on each social media platform;
(b) generating a mapping in the social network from each user in the plurality of users to the user's estimated geographical location, resulting in an estimated location mapping Est;
(c) generating a mapping in the social network from each user in the plurality of users having known geographical location data to the user's known geographical location, resulting in a known location mapping SL;
(d) updating the estimated location mapping Est to have the same mapping as the known location mapping SL;
(e) for a user j in the plurality of users having a mapping in the known location mapping SL, updating the location of j in Est′ to be the location in the known location mapping SL, wherein Est′ is an updated individual-location mapping for a current iteration;
(f) repeating operation (e) for each user in the plurality of users;
wherein N is a set of users having a social relationship with user j, and wherein NL is a set of locations;
(g) for each user k in N having a mapping in Est, adding the estimated geographical location of k in Est to NL;
(h) estimating a new geographical location of j using a geometric median metric;
(i) updating Est′ with the new geographical location of j;
(j) iterating through operations (e) through (h) until a stopping criteria is met, wherein the stopping criteria is one of a fixed number of iterations, a number of users who have been located, and a percentage change in users with new geographical locations;
(k) replacing the mappings in Est with those in Est′;
and
(l) mapping users to final, estimated locations based on the mappings in Est.

12 more elements

A computer program product for inferring the location of users of online social media platforms, the computer program product comprising computer-readable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium that are executable by a computer having a processor for causing the processor to perform operations of:

(a) extracting a social network from data from at least one social media platform, wherein the social network comprises a plurality of users connected through social relationships, and wherein each user in the plurality of users has an identity on each social media platform;
(b) generating a mapping in the social network from each user in the plurality of users to the user's estimated geographical location, resulting in an estimated location mapping Est;
(c) generating a mapping in the social network from each user in the plurality of users having known geographical location data to the user's known geographical location, resulting in a known location mapping SL;
(d) updating the estimated location mapping Est to have the same mapping as the known location mapping SL;
(e) for a user j in the plurality of users having a mapping in the known location mapping SL, updating the location of j in Est′ to be the location in the known location mapping SL, wherein Est′ is an updated individual-location mapping for a current iteration;
(f) repeating operation (e) for each user in the plurality of users;
wherein N is a set of users having a social relationship with user j, and wherein NL is a set of locations;
(g) for each user k in N having a mapping in Est, adding the estimated geographical location of k in Est to NL;
(h) estimating a new geographical location of j using a geometric median metric;
(i) updating Est′ with the new geographical location of j;
(j) iterating through operations (e) through (h) until a stopping criteria is met, wherein the stopping criteria is one of a fixed number of iterations, a number of users who have been located, and a percentage change in users with new geographical locations;
(k) replacing the mappings in Est with those in Est′;
and
(l) mapping users to final, estimated locations based on the mappings in Est.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/210,265Filed 13 Mar 2014 · us provisional application
Priority: 5 Apr 2013
Published: US 2017/0310772 A126 Oct 2017
Granted: 17 Oct 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

H04W 4/21
Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel: for social networking applications
G06Q 10/48
Business processes related to social networking or social networking services: using social graphs
H04L 67/535
Network services: tracking the activity of the user
H04W 4/02
Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor: services making use of location information