User description based on a context of travel

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9307356-B2
Application number	US-201514716805-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 19, 2015
Priority date	Apr 10, 2012
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

A description of a user is estimated based on the context of the user's travel pattern. A disclosed data-processing system continually receives data points originating from the user's cell phone, for example, wherein each data point represents a visit by the user to a particular geolocation, at a particular time. The system then partitions the received data points into groups, wherein the groups represent the different places that the user has visited. The system counts how many data points are in each group. Based on the number of data points in each group, as well as the number of groups, the system then determines the entropy of the received data points that correspond to the particular user, which is also regarded as the entropy of the user's travel pattern. The data-processing system then estimates a user description for the user, based at least in part on the determined user entropy.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a data-processing system comprising one or more processors communicatively coupled to a data store, the data-processing system further comprising memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the data-processing system to:
receive a plurality of data points that correspond to a first user, wherein each data point in the plurality of data points represents a visit by the first user, the visit occurring at one or both of i) a determinable geolocation and ii) a determinable time;
determine an entropy of the plurality of data points, based at least in part on a number of places to which the data points in the plurality of data points correspond; and
cause a signal indicating an action to be performed, wherein the action to be performed is based at least in part on the determined entropy.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the data-processing system to:
estimate a description of the first user, wherein the description is based at least in part on the determined entropy, and wherein the estimating corresponds to the action to be performed.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the data-processing system to:
quantify a predictability of the first user, wherein the description is based at least in part on the determined entropy, and wherein the quantifying corresponds to the action to be performed.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the data-processing system to:
generate a message with content that is based at least in part on the determined entropy, and wherein the generating corresponds to the action to be performed; and
transmit the message to the first user and/or one or more other users.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the instructions further cause the data-processing system to:
identify a first user segment based at least in part on the determined entropy; and
associate the one or more other users with the identified first user segment;
wherein the message is transmitted to the one or more other users.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the data-processing system to:
determine a first entropy of the plurality of data points, based at least in part on a number of places to which the data points in the plurality of data points correspond in relation to a predetermined first non-empty set of places that can be visited;
determine a second entropy of the plurality of data points, based at least in part on a number of different places to which the data points in the plurality of data points correspond in relation to a predetermined second non-empty set of places that can be visited, wherein the places in the predetermined first non-empty set of places and the places in the predetermined second non-empty set of places are of different geographic size; and
cause a second signal indicating a second action to be performed, wherein the action to be performed is based at least in part on one or both of i) the determined first entropy and ii) the determined second entropy.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determined entropy of the plurality of data points corresponds to a predetermined first daypart, and wherein the action to be performed is based at least in part on the determined entropy for the predetermined first daypart.

8. One or more non-transitory, processor-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by a data-processing system, cause the data-processing system to:
receive a plurality of data points that correspond to a first user, wherein each data point in the plurality of data points represents a visit by the first user, the visit occurring at one or both of i) a determinable geolocation and ii) a determinable time;
determine an entropy of the plurality of data points, based at least in part on a number of places to which the data points in the plurality of data points correspond; and
cause a signal indicating an action to be performed, wherein the action to be performed is based at least in part on the determined entropy.

9. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the data-processing system to:
estimate a description of the first user, wherein the description is based at least in part on the determined entropy, and wherein the estimating corresponds to the action to be performed.

10. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the instructions further cause the data-processing system to:
quantify a predictability of the first user, wherein the description is based at least in part on the determined entropy, and wherein the quantifying corresponds to the action to be performed.

11. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the data-processing system to:
generate a message with content that is based at least in part on the determined entropy, and wherein the generating corresponds to the action to be performed; and
transmit the message to the first user and/or one or more other users.

12. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further cause the data-processing system to:
identify a first user segment based at least in part on the determined entropy; and
associate the one or more other users with the identified first user segment;
wherein the message is transmitted to the one or more other users.

13. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the data-processing system to:
determine a first entropy of the plurality of data points, based at least in part on a number of places to which the data points in the plurality of data points correspond in relation to a predetermined first non-empty set of places that can be visited;
determine a second entropy of the plurality of data points, based at least in part on a number of different places to which the data points in the plurality of data points correspond in relation to a predetermined second non-empty set of places that can be visited, wherein the places in the predetermined first non-empty set of places and the places in the predetermined second non-empty set of places are of different geographic size; and
cause a second signal indicating a second action to be performed, wherein the action to be performed is based at least in part on one or both of i) the determined first entropy and ii) the determined second entropy.

14. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the determined entropy of the plurality of data points corresponds to a predetermined first daypart, and wherein the action to be performed is based at least in part on the determined entropy for the predetermined first daypart.

15. A method comprising:
receiving by a data-processing system a plurality of data points that correspond to a first user, wherein each data point in the plurality of data points represents a visit by the first user, the visit occurring at one or both of i) a determinable geolocation and ii) a determinable time;
determining by the data-processing system an entropy of the plurality of data points, based at least in part on a number of places to which the data points in the plurality of data points correspond; and
causing by the data-processing system a signal indicating an action to be performed, wherein the action to be performed is based at least in part on the det

Assignees

• Yellowpages Com Llc

Inventors

• Rosenberg David

Classifications

• H04L67/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/18

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W8/183

  Processing at user equipment or user record carrier · CPC title

• H04W4/02 Primary

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04L67/535

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title