Location-based interaction with digital works

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9628573-B1
Application number	US-201213461244-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	May 1, 2012
Priority date	May 1, 2012
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

In some implementations, a service provider may enable location-based interaction of a user of a device with at least one of a digital work or another user. For instance, when the service provider determines that the device of the user is at a particular physical location, the service provider may send a communication to notify the user that one or more digital works are available to be accessed at the current physical location of the device. As one example, a digital work may have been virtually left at the location by another user, and the digital work may be available to be accessed by the user currently at the location. As another example, the user may be attending an event and the service provider may offer a digital work related to the event when the user is determined to be at the location of the event.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media maintaining instructions executable by one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving first location information to indicate a first location of a first electronic device corresponding to a first user account;
receiving, from the first electronic device, a first indication that a first portion of a digital work associated with the first user account is being made available to be accessed by at least one other electronic device corresponding to a different user account based on a determination that the at least one other electronic device is determined to be within a threshold distance of the first location;
receiving, from the first electronic device, a second indication that a second portion of the digital is being made available to be accessed by the at least one other electronic device based on a determination that the at least one other electronic device is determined to be within a threshold distance of a second location that is different from the first location;
based at least in part on the indication that the first portion of the digital work and the second portion of the digital work is being made available, disabling access to the digital work for the first electronic device, wherein the disabling access to the digital work for the first electronic device comprises sending an instruction to the first electronic device to remove a copy of the digital work from the first electronic device;
receiving second location information indicating that a second electronic device associated with a second user account is within the threshold distance of the first location;
sending a communication to the second electronic device, based at least in part on the second location information indicating that the second electronic device is within the threshold distance of the first location, the communication indicating that the first portion of the digital work is available to be accessed by the second electronic device;
receiving a request from the second electronic device to access the first portion of the digital work; and
making the first portion of the digital work available for delivery to the second electronic device.

2. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 1 , the operations further comprising disabling access to the digital work for a third electronic device associated with the first user, wherein the disabling access to the digital work for the third electronic device comprises sending an instruction to third electronic device to remove another copy of the digital work from the third electronic device.

3. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 1 , the operations further comprising applying one or more conditions to the delivery of the first portion of the digital work to the second electronic device, wherein at least one of the conditions is satisfied before making the first portion of the digital work available for delivery.

4. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 3 , wherein the one or more conditions include specifying a geographic area within which the first portion of the digital work is to be consumed.

5. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 3 , wherein the one or more conditions are related to at least one of:
an age of a user corresponding to the second user account associated with the electronic device;
a social network affiliation of the user;
a microblog affiliation of the user;
a country in which the digital work is to be accessed;
a country of residence of the user;
an account type of the second user account; or
a profile of the user.

6. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 1 , the operations further comprising, prior to sending the communication to the second electronic device, determining that the first user and the second user are affiliated by at least one of:
being friends or friends of friends in social network; or
being affiliated through a microblog account.

7. A method comprising:
under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions,
receiving, from a first device associated with a first user, a first communication indicating that:
a first portion of a digital work is to be made available to be accessed at a first physical location by at least one other device associated with a different user, wherein the first physical location is different than a current location of the first device, and
a second portion of the digital work is to be made available to be accessed at a second physical location by the at least one other device associated with the different user, wherein the second physical location is different than the first physical location and the current location of the first device;

storing, in association with the first location, location interaction information associated with one or more titles of one or more digital works consumed at the first location by one or more users;
receiving information indicating a third physical location of a second device associated with a second user, the third physical location of the second device being within a threshold distance of the first physical location; and
sending a second communication to the second device indicating at least one of (i) that the first portion of the digital work is available to be accessed by the second device and (ii) at least a title of the one or more titles of the one or more digital works consumed at the first physical location, based at least in part, on the third physical location of the second device.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising making the first portion of the digital work available for delivery to the second device in response to a request from the second device.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 , wherein the information is first information, and further comprising:
receiving second information indicating that the second device is at a fourth physical location different from the third physical location; and
sending a third communication to the second device indicating that the second portion of the digital work is available to be accessed by the second device based, at least in part, on the fourth physical location of the second device being within a threshold distance of the second physical location.

10. The method as recited in claim 7 , wherein:
the first physical location corresponds to a venue;
the sending the second communication corresponds to a timing of an event scheduled at the venue; and
the first portion of the digital work is related to the event.

11. The method as recited in claim 7 , wherein receiving the information indicating the third physical location of the second device includes receiving an image of an item at the third physical location.

12. The method as recited in claim 11 wherein the image of the item is of one or more of:
a barcode;
a physical object at the location;
a sign; or
a landmark.

13. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising, based at least in part on the first communication, disabling access to the digital work for the first device, wherein the disabling access to the digital work for the first device comprises sending an instruction to the first device to remove a copy of the digital work from the first device.

14. An electronic device comprising:
one or more processors;
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media; and
one or more modules maintained on the one or more computer-readable media to

Assignees

• Goodspeed Joshua M
• Killalea Tom
• Mavinkurve Purnima M
• Sullivan Todd
• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Goodspeed Joshua M
• Killalea Tom
• Mavinkurve Purnima M
• Sullivan Todd

Classifications

• H04L67/18 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/021 Primary

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

• H04L67/52 Primary

  specially adapted for the location of the user terminal · CPC title

• H04W4/21

  for social networking applications · CPC title

• H04W4/023

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