Systems and methods to identify a predefined geographical region in which a mobile device is located

摘要

Systems and methods including a mobile device determining the coordinates of its location using a location determination system, such as a global positioning system. A database stores the identifiers of cells representative of predefined regions in a hierarchical grid system. A server computer or the mobile device converts the coordinates of the location to one or more cell identifiers at different grid resolution levels and searches the database to find a match between the cell identifiers representing the regions and the cell identifiers representing the location of the mobile device to determine one or more regions in which the mobile device is located. For example, the hierarchical grid system can be constructed in a longitude latitude space of location coordinates, with resolution levels aligned with decimal precision levels of the location coordinates; and the cell identifiers can be constructed from the digits of the longitude and latitude coordinates.

主权项

1. A method implemented in a computing device, the method comprising:
storing, in the computing device, an identifier of a geographical region having a predefined geographical boundary; storing, in the computing device, a set of cell identifiers, each of the cell identifiers identifying a cell that is determined to be within the predefined geographical boundary; receiving, from a mobile device, a location of the mobile device; converting, by the computing device, a set of coordinates of the location of the mobile device to a first cell identifier, wherein the set of coordinates includes longitude and latitude of the location, wherein the converting including
selecting digits from the longitude and the latitude of the location in accordance with a cell resolution level; andcombining the digits selected from the longitude and the latitude of the location into an integer representing the first cell identifier; and determining, by the computing device, whether or not the location of the mobile device is within the geographical region based on searching the set of cell identifiers to determine whether or not the set has the first cell identifier; wherein the selecting of the digits from the longitude and the latitude includes:
selecting digits from integer part of the longitude and a first number of digits from the longitude after the decimal point of the longitude to form an integer representation of the longitude at the cell resolution level; andselecting digits from integer part of the latitude and the same first number of digits from the latitude after the decimal point of the latitude to form an integer representation of the longitude at the cell resolution level.