The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 10, 2016
Filed:
Oct. 10, 2013
Abdur Chowdhury, San Francisco, CA (US);
Chris Carella, New York, NY (US);
Ben Cherry, San Francisco, CA (US);
Ophir Frieder, Chevy Chase, MD (US);
Eric Jensen, Brooklyn, NY (US);
Tyler Howarth, Sonoma, CA (US);
Matt Sanford, Seattle, WA (US);
Abdur Chowdhury, San Francisco, CA (US);
Chris Carella, New York, NY (US);
Ben Cherry, San Francisco, CA (US);
Ophir Frieder, Chevy Chase, MD (US);
Eric Jensen, Brooklyn, NY (US);
Tyler Howarth, Sonoma, CA (US);
Matt Sanford, Seattle, WA (US);
PUSHD INC., San Francisco, CA (US);
Abstract
A method, system, and/or apparatus for automatically tracking a mobile user using the user's mobile device. This invention is particularly useful in the field of social media, such as for detecting and tracking the location and activity of a user and her community. The method or implementing software application uses or relies upon location information available on the mobile device from any source, such as cell phone usage and/or other device applications. The method provides a tracking functionality that uses less battery power than a GPS system. The method includes a location module configured to receive location transmissions, places the location module into a sleep mode when possible, awakens the location module upon receipt of a location transmission, and determines a location with the location module and the location transmission. These steps are desirably repeated to continually and automatically track the mobile user. The location transmission can be provided by WiFi triangulation and/or a cellular phone system upon crossing a boundary between antennae cells and/or a boundary between a plurality of established and contiguous geofences.