Providing points of interest to user devices in variable zones

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11115781-B2
Application number	US-201916719855-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2019
Priority date	Mar 5, 2013
Publication date	Sep 7, 2021
Grant date	Sep 7, 2021

Abstract

Receiving point of interest zones and alerts on user devices comprises communicating, by a user computing device to a remote computing device, a request for point of interest data corresponding to points of interest within a proximity of the user device; presenting the received point of interest data; identifying a particular point of interest; and outputting an alert regarding the particular point of interest. Receiving point of interest zones on user devices comprises communicating a request for point of interest data; receiving the point of interest data from the remote network device wherein a size of the point of interest zone is determined based on a density of points of interest in the proximity of the user, and wherein the shape of the point of interest zone is expanded in a direction of travel and contracted in the opposite direction; and presenting the received point of interest data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system comprising:
a user computing device; and
one or more processors;
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
detecting that a location of the user computing device is within a configured range of a point of interest;
determining an alert format that specifies that an alert comprises one or more of a visual notification, an audible alert, or a tactile alert based on at least one of a time since a last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of the point of interest or a number of times that the user computing device has been detected within the configured range of the point of interest in a configured period of time; and
providing, by the user computing device, the alert based on the alert format.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein determining the alert format comprises referencing an alert schedule to select the alert format, the alert schedule defining a plurality of potential alert formats that differ based on the time since the last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of the point of interest.

3. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein determining the alert format comprises referencing an alert schedule to select the alert format, the alert schedule defining a plurality of potential alert formats that differ based on the number of times that the user computing device has been detected within the configured range of the point of interest in the configured period of time.

4. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein:
determining the alert format comprises determining that the user computing device has not been detected within the configured range of the point of interest in the configured period of time; and
providing, by the user computing device, the alert based on the determined alert format comprises providing the audible alert in response to determining that the user computing device has not been detected within the configured range of the point of interest in the configured period of time.

5. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein:
determining the alert format comprises determining that the time since the last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of the point of interest is greater than a configured time; and
providing, by the user computing device, the alert based on the determined alert format comprises providing at least one of the visual notification or the tactile alert without providing the audible alert in response to determining that the time since the last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of the point of interest is greater than a configured time.

6. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein:
determining the alert format comprises determining that the time since the last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of the point of interest is greater than a configured time; and
providing, by the user computing device, the alert based on the determined alert format comprises providing the audible alert in response to determining that the time since the last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of the point of interest is greater than the configured time.

7. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein:
determining the alert format comprises determining that the time since the last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of the point of interest is less than a configured time; and
providing, by the user computing device, the alert based on the determined alert format comprises providing at least one of the visual notification or the tactile alert without providing the audible alert in response to determining that the time since the last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of the point of interest is less than the configured time.

8. The computing system of claim 1 , further comprising a point of interest location computing system, and wherein the operations further comprise:
communicating, from the user computing device to the point of interest location computing system, a request for point of interest data corresponding to points of interest within a proximity of the user computing device, the request comprising location data associated with the user computing device; and
receiving, at the user computing device and from the point of interest location computing system, point of interest data describing a point of interest zone defined by the point of interest location computing system and a plurality of nearby points of interest within the point of interest zone, wherein the plurality of nearby points of interest comprises the point of interest.

9. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the point of interest data received at the user computing device and from the point of interest location computing system comprises respective marketing data, identity data, and location data for each of the plurality of nearby points of interest.

10. A method comprising:
detecting, by one or more computing devices, that a location of a user computing device is within a configured range of a point of interest;
determining, by the one or more computing devices, an alert format that specifies that an alert comprises one or more of a visual notification, an audible alert, or a tactile alert based on at least one of a time since a last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of the point of interest or a number of times that the user computing device has been detected within the configured range of the point of interest in a configured period of time; and
providing, by a user computing device of the one or more computing devices, the alert based on the alert format.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein determining the alert format comprises referencing, by one or more computing devices, an alert schedule to select the alert format, the alert schedule defining a plurality of potential alert formats that differ based on the time since the last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of the point of interest.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein determining the alert format comprises referencing, by one or more computing devices, an alert schedule to select the alert format, the alert schedule defining a plurality of potential alert formats that differ based on the number of times that the user computing device has been detected within the configured range of the point of interest in the configured period of time.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
determining the alert format comprises determining, by one or more computing devices, that the user computing device has not been detected within the configured range of the point of interest in the configured period of time; and
providing, by the user computing device, the alert based on the determined alert format comprises providing, by the user computing device, the audible alert in response to determining that the user computing device has not been detected within the configured range of the point of interest in the configured period of time.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
determining the alert format comprises determining, by one or more computing devices, that the time since the last time that the user computing device was detected within the configured range of t

Assignees

• Google Llc

Inventors

• Wang Xiaohang
• Shamsi Farhan
• Okshtein Yakov
• SINGLETON David
• Gresham Douglas Alexander
• Newberger Alan
• Zhang Lixin

Classifications

• H04L67/55

  Push-based network services · CPC title

• H04W4/021

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title

• H04W4/029

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title

• G01C21/3679

  Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities (G01C21/3611 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04W4/02

  Services making use of location information · CPC title