Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-31
2003-04-08
Le, Thanh Cong (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S461000, C455S466000, C340S988000, C340S991000, C701S201000, C701S207000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06546257
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to determining the location of a mobile unit, such as a portable telephone, and evaluating a travel pattern as a function of related locations or at least one location as a function of time, and providing geographically relevant information based on the evaluation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Portable telephones, particularly in the form of current cellular telephones, are well known. In addition, several companies have disclosed and are proceeding with plans for a network of low-orbiting satellites which will allow communication from portable telephones from almost anywhere in the world, without relying on the multiple call regions or “cells” in a cellular telephone system. Portable devices which allow a user to determine their location particularly based on various satellite positioning systems, are also now known. Such systems are generally referred to as Global Positioning Systems (“GPS”). These systems use signals from a series of satellites which allow a portable receiver (i.e. a GPS receiver) on earth to determine its position with a fairly high degree of accuracy.
It has also been known to provide user's of portable location devices with geographically relevant information based on the user's current location. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,040 provides travelers having a portable location device with information concerning their immediate needs for travel information or arrangements (for example: reservations and/or entitlement to a discount for the next meal at a roadside eating place or lodgings for the night ahead; current information about goods/services available nearby and/or up ahead along the user's intended or predicted route of travel). Such information is obviously helpful to travelers and has the potential to bring in one-time customers who happen to be passing near a merchant of goods or services (such as hotels, restaurants, and the like).
The invention of the present application realizes that merchants would like to be able to identify potential customers who :might frequently repeatedly be in a particular geographic situation (such as repeatedly traveling near the same business while commuting to and from work). This would enable a number of advantages. For example, merchants could offer special incentives such as volume discounts to such potential customers. Further, it would be worthwhile to invest advertising money to repeatedly target such potential customers with advertising in the hope that over time, they would avail themselves of the merchant's business. Also, since such a potential customer is in the same particular geographic situation, there is an increased chance for an impulse purchase if they have been repeatedly targeted with advertising. For example, it would be worthwhile to known that an individual commutes to and from work past a coffee shop in the morning so as to repeatedly target that individual with advertising relating to that coffee shop. It would also be desirable if any means for tracking an individual's repeated travel patterns was relatively simple and did not facilitate overly intrusive tracking of an individual's location.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention then, provides in one aspect a method of providing geographically relevant promotional information to a predefined location associated with a mobile unit having a transmitter. This aspect may typically be executed at a central base station. The method includes receiving from the mobile unit, at least one transmission which provides information on multiple locations of the mobile unit over a span of time, and an identification of the mobile unit. For example, multiple transmissions which do not themselves carry location information may be received and locations determined by triangulation. Alternatively, the received multiple transmissions may actually carry location information themselves, or a single transmission could be received which carries the multiple location information (such as recorded at the mobile unit over time, then transmitted together). A repeated travel pattern of the mobile unit is determined based on the multiple locations. A promotional identification or information is retrieved from a database of such identifications or information, and provided to the predefined location based at least in part, on the repeated travel pattern. For example, when the repeated travel pattern exhibits an attribute of a predetermined rule associated with a particular promotional identification or information that promotional identification or information is retrieved. Such predetermined rule may, for example, be provided to the database in association with the promotional identification or information. An example of such a rule may be any portable unit user who repeatedly is within a specified distance of a specified location within a specified time frame, or not at a specified location within a specified time frame. In a particular aspect, a promotional identification or information which is associated with a location which is within a predetermined position relative to the repeated travel pattern, is retrieved from a database of locations associated with respective promotional identifications. The retrieved promotional identification or promotion information based on the promotional identification, is provided to the location.
The received transmissions from the mobile unit may carry the location information (for example, as a result of the mobile unit having a position locator which provides such information), or the location information can be determined by some other means based on the received signal (for example, by triangulation). As to the predefined location, this can be any location such as the mobile unit operator's residence or stationary telephone number, or the mobile unit itself. In the case of the residential address, the promotional identification or information can be, for example, printed material which is mailed or otherwise delivered to the operator's residence. In the case where the predefined location is the mobile unit itself, the promotional identification or information can be, for example, information transmitted to the mobile unit (when the mobile unit also includes a receiver). Other predefined locations are possible (such as the identification of a different mobile unit, for example, a portable computer).
The promotional identification or information can be provided to the predefined location based solely on the determined travel pattern or such travel pattern and additional criteria. For example, the promotional identification or information may be actually provided to the mobile unit in response to a received location information transmission indicating the mobile unit is within a predetermined position relative to the location associated with the promotional identification. This can be used, for example, when it is known from the pattern that an operator passes near a given merchant every day, but the merchant has decided that the most effective advertising in that situation would best be delivered every day as the operator passes near the business. An alternative criterion additionally involves receiving from the mobile unit, further multiple location information transmissions over a span of time and an identification of the mobile unit. Form such received additional location information it may be determined that the mobile unit is in the process of currently repeating the previously identified travel pattern, following which the promotional identification or information is transmitted to the mobile unit. When the determined travel pattern has been coordinated with respect to time, this can also be used as a criterion on which to determine when to provide particular promotional identification or information. For example, when it has previously been determined that the operator leaves his residence every day about the same time to go to work, this may be a good time to transmit certain types of promotional information to the operator
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