Location-based place determination using online social networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10003922-B2
Application number	US-201715432457-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 14, 2017
Priority date	Nov 6, 2015
Publication date	Jun 19, 2018
Grant date	Jun 19, 2018

Abstract

In one embodiment, one or more computing devices of an online social network, receives, from a mobile-client system, geographic-location information associated with the mobile-client system. The one or more computing devices identify multiple candidate place-entities associated with the online social network that correspond to the geographic-location information, where each candidate place-entity is associated with a particular geographic location. The method also includes determining, for each candidate place-entity, a confidence score based on the geographic-location information associated with the mobile-client system, where the confidence score represents a probability that the first user is located at the candidate place-entity. A location-probability distribution associated with the candidate place-entity can also be used to calculate the confidence score. The one or more computing devices send, to the mobile-client system, information associated with one or more of the candidate place-entities based on their respective confidence scores.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing devices:
receiving, from a mobile-client system of a first user, geographic-location information associated with the mobile-client system;
calculating, for each of a plurality of candidate place-entities corresponding to the geographic-location information, a confidence score based on both the geographic-location information and social-graph information associated with the first user, wherein the confidence score represents a probability that the mobile-client system is located at the candidate place-entity; and
sending, to the mobile-client system, information associated with one or more of the candidate place-entities based on their respective confidence scores.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the geographic-location information comprises a latitude-longitude pair determined based on one or more signals received by the mobile-client system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the geographic-location information comprises signal-information associated with one or more signals received by the mobile-client system, the signals comprising a Global Positioning System (GPS) signal, a Wi-Fi signal, a BLUETOOTH signal, a cellular signal, or a near field communication (NFC) signal.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the signal-information comprises a signal strength of one of the signals or an identifier of a device that sent one of the signals.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the geographic-location information comprises a check-in via the online social network by a first user of the mobile-client system.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular geographic location associated with each identified candidate place-entity is within a threshold distance of a geographic location of the mobile-client system.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, wherein a first user of the mobile-client system corresponds to a first node in the social graph and the plurality of candidate place-entities corresponds to a plurality of second nodes in the social graph, respectively.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the confidence score is further based on social-graph information associated with a second user of the online social network, the second user being within a threshold degree of separation from the first user.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the confidence score is further based on a location-probability distribution associated with the candidate place-entity.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the location-probability distribution associated with the candidate place-entity comprises a point, the point corresponding to the particular geographic location of the candidate place-entity; and
the confidence score is further based on a distance between the point and a geographic location of the mobile-client system.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the location-probability distribution associated with the candidate place-entity comprises a power-law distribution centered at a point, the point corresponding to the particular geographic location of the candidate place-entity; and
the confidence score is further based on a value of the power-law distribution at a geographic location of the mobile-client system.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the location-probability distribution associated with the candidate place-entity comprises a kernel density estimate corresponding to a probability density associated with the candidate place-entity; and
the confidence score is further based on a value of the kernel density estimate at a geographic location of the mobile-client system.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the location-probability distribution associated with the candidate place-entity comprises a polygon representing a shape of the candidate place-entity; and
the confidence score is further based on a geographic location of the mobile-client system with respect to the polygon.

14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving, from the mobile-client system, a user selection of one of the candidate place-entities sent to the mobile-client system; and
recalculating, based on the received selection, the location-probability distribution associated with one or more of the candidate place-entities sent to the mobile-client system.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a plurality of new geographic-location information associated with a new place-entity, the new geographic-location information sent by a respective plurality of other mobile-client systems associated with a respective plurality of other users of the online social network;
generating, in a social graph, a new social-graph node corresponding to the new place-entity, the social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes; and
creating an edge between the new social-graph node and each node associated with each of the plurality of other users.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information sent to the mobile-client system comprises an advertisement associated with one of the candidate place-entities based on its respective confidence score.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information sent to the mobile-client system comprises a suggestion to a first user of the mobile-client system to perform an action associated with one of the one or more candidate place-entities.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein each candidate place-entity represents a particular physical place located at a particular geographic area.

19. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:
receive, from a mobile-client system of a first user, geographic-location information associated with the mobile-client system;
calculate, for each of a plurality of candidate place-entities corresponding to the geographic-location information, a confidence score based on both the geographic-location information and social-graph information associated with the first user, wherein the confidence score represents a probability that the mobile-client system is located at the candidate place-entity; and
send, to the mobile-client system, information associated with one or more of the candidate place-entities based on their respective confidence scores.

20. A system comprising: one or more processors; and a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to:
receive, from a mobile-client system of a first user, geographic-location information associated with the mobile-client system;
calculate, for each of a plurality of candidate place-entities corresponding to the geographic-location information, a confidence score based on both the geographic-location information and social-graph information associated with the first user, wherein the confidence score represents a probability that the mobile-client system is located at the candidate place-entity; and
send, to the mobile-client system, information associated with one or more of the candidate place-entities based on their respective confidence scores.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein the geographic-location information comprises a latitude-longitude pair determined based on one or more signals recei

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Kalis Jan
• Moore Justin
• Kodovsky Jan
• Adcock Aaron Bryan
• Rothermel Danielle
• Wang Zhong

Classifications

• H04W4/023 Primary

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title

• H04L51/32

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L51/52

  for supporting social networking services · CPC title

• H04W4/02

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04W4/029

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title