Self-adaptive geospatial queries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12524484-B2
Application number	US-202418590129-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2024
Priority date	Dec 29, 2023
Publication date	Jan 13, 2026
Grant date	Jan 13, 2026

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed relating to determining a minimum search region with a threshold number of entities within the minimum search region. In some embodiments, a system selects, based on a location of a user device, a first region, where the location of the device is at a center of the first region. The system executes, based on the first region, a query on a database storing entity locations. The system increases the first region by a specified amount to generate a second search region, where the increasing is based on determining that entities returned by the first query does not satisfy an entity threshold requirement. The system executes, based on the second region, a second query on the database. In response to the second query returning a number of entities that satisfy the threshold requirement, the system causes display, at the device, of the entities returned by the second query.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method related to determining a minimum search region with a threshold number of entities within the minimum search region, comprising:
selecting, by a computer system based on a geographic location of a user computing device and a search region key of a first search region, the first search region, wherein the geographic location of the user computing device corresponds to a center point of the first search region; executing, by the computer system based on the first search region, a first query on a database storing geographic locations of a plurality of entities; the computer system increasing the first search region by a specified amount to generate a second search region, wherein the increasing is performed based on determining that a number of entities returned by the first query does not satisfy an entity threshold requirement; executing, by the computer system based on the second search region, a second query on the database; in response to comparing a geographic location of a second user computing device with the search region key, retrieving, by the computer system, the first search region corresponding to the search region key; executing, by the computer system based on the first search region, a new query on the database storing geographic locations of the plurality of entities; determining, by the computer system, that a number of entities returned by the second query and a number of entities returned by the new query do not satisfy the entity threshold requirement and that the second search region and the first search region are greater than or equal to a specified maximum search region; and causing, by the computer system based on the specified maximum search region being met, display of the entities returned by the second query at the user computing device and the entities returned by the new query at the second user computing device.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing, by the computer system in a database cache, the second search region, including storing the search region with a corresponding search region key, wherein the search region key includes a latitude and a longitude of the geographic location of the user computing device.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
in response to comparing a geographic location of a second user device with the search region key stored in the database cache, retrieving, by the computer system from the database cache, the second search region corresponding to the search region key; and executing, by the computer system, a third query on the database based on the second search region retrieved from the database cache.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first search region is a start search region retrieved by the computer system from a database cache based on identifying a similarity between a search region key of the start search region and the geographic location of the user computing device, wherein the method further comprises:
replacing, by the computer system, a start search region stored in the database cache with the second search region, wherein the replacing includes storing the second search region with a corresponding search region key, wherein the search region key includes a latitude and a longitude of the geographic location of the user computing device.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising prior to causing the display:
decreasing the second search region by a new specified amount, wherein the decreased second search region encompasses a smaller area than an area covered by the second search region.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of entities include a plurality of merchants, wherein the first query and the second query are further executed based on one or more query refinement parameters, and wherein the query refinement parameters include one or more of the following types of parameters: current promotions offered by one or more of the plurality of merchants, whether a user of the user computing device previously interacted with one or more of the plurality of merchants, and whether one or more users corresponding to the user computing device previously interacted with one or more of the plurality of merchants.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and the second queries are k-nearest neighbor (kNN) search queries, and wherein the minimum search region is a circle with a minimum radius that encompasses a number of entities that satisfies the entity threshold requirement.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the computer system, the geographic location corresponding to the user computing device, wherein the determining is performed based on one or more types of the following types of information: a global positioning system (GPS) location of the user computing device, an internet protocol (IP) address of the user computing device, and location information entered by a user into the user computing device.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to detecting, by the computer system, that the user computing device has location tracking blocked, causing display of a prompt to enable location tracking at the user computing device; and determining, by the computer system based on a user of the user computing device enabling location tracking, the geographic location of the user computing device.

10 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by a computer system to perform operations comprising:
comparing a search region key of a start search region stored in a database cache with a geographic location of a user computing device; retrieving, from the database cache based on identifying a similarity between the search region key and the geographic location, the start search region corresponding to the search region key; executing, based on the start search region, a first query on a database storing geographic locations of a plurality of entities; altering, based on determining that a number of entities returned by the first query does not satisfy an entity threshold requirement, the start search region by a specified amount to generate an updated search region; executing, based on the updated search region, a second query on the database; in response to comparing a geographic location of a second user computing device with the search region key stored in the database cache, retrieving, from the database cache, the start search region corresponding to the search region key; executing, based on the start search region, a new query on the database storing geographic locations of the plurality of entities; determining that a number of entities returned by the second query and a number of entities returned by the new query do not satisfy the entity threshold requirement and that the updated search region and the start search region are greater than or equal to a specified maximum search region; and causing, based on the specified maximum search region being met, display of the entities returned by the second query at the user computing device and the entities returned by the new query at the second user computing device.

11 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the geographic locations of the plurality of entities are determined based on one or more of internet protocol (IP) addresses or zip codes of respective ones of the plurality of entities.

12 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise:
replacing the start search region stored in the database cache with the updated search region, wher

Assignees

• Paypal Inc

Inventors

• Luan Xiaojun
• Zhang Pengshan
• Liu Delin
• Sharma Nitin S
• Huang Zhe

Classifications

• G06F16/24575

  using context · CPC title

• G06F16/29

  Geographical information databases · CPC title

• G06F16/9537 Primary

  Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries · CPC title

• G06F16/9574

  of access to content, e.g. by caching · CPC title