Geofences from context and crowd-sourcing

US9936346B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC · US

Inventors

• Emmanouil Koukoumidis · Bellevue, US
• Norm Bryar · Sammamish, US
• Christopher Alme · Seattle, US
• Namita Parab · Redmond, US
• Stephen L. Lawler · Kirkland, US
• Anthony Nino Bice · Seattle, US
• Vanya Avramova · Stockholm, SE

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 28, 2013
• Grant date: Apr 3, 2018
• Expiry date: Nov 28, 2033

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04W4/022
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Architecture that enables the capability to more effectively define and resize geofences to provide improved geofence utility based on rich context and crowd-sourced data. The architecture enables the intelligent placement of geofences based on rich context that includes both user context and ambient context such as the (predicted or implicitly/explicitly defined) user's travel path, mode of transport, the type of the entity to be visited by the user and geofenced, and the user incentive for visiting the entity to be geofenced. The ambient context includes non-user specific information such as external conditions that may limit or thwart user mobility such as traffic and weather conditions. The rich context and crowd-sourced data assist in improving the spatiotemporal accuracy of suggested/constructed geofences thereby creating a “shaped” geofence that is sufficiently defined to approximate the shape of the entity being geofenced with some degree of accuracy.