User-selected tags for annotating geographic domains containing points-of-interest

摘要

A location-based service is provided that allows a user of a mobile device to tag and track the places he or she visits and share these places with social networking members. To implement this service a system receives location information from the user's location-aware mobile device over a wireless network. The location information identifies various locations or other points-of-interest that the user has visited. Based on this information the system determines a geographical domain that encompasses at least some of the locations the user has visited. Once a geographic domain has been determined it is presented to the user via the mobile device. The user is prompted to tag the geographical domain with an annotation that describes the geographic domain. The system stores the geographical domain and the annotation associated therewith so that it can be searched and accessed or retrieved by the user or members of the user's social network.

主权项

1. A method for providing enhanced location information concerning a mobile user, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving information from a mobile device of a user identifying a plurality of locations the user has visited; filtering out locations from the received information that the user has not visited within a predetermined period of time; clustering at least a predefined minimum number of the filtered locations that are all located within a predefined distance of one another, the predefined minimum number being equal to at least two; determining a geographical domain that encompasses at least the predefined minimum number of clustered and filtered locations the user has visited; presenting the geographical domain to the user via the mobile device; prompting the user via the mobile device to tag the geographical domain with an annotation, the clustering being performed in a manner so that each of the predefined minimum number of locations in the geographical domain commonly shares the annotation, the prompting including presenting a list of predefined annotations from which the user may choose to describe the geographical domain; and storing the geographical domain and the annotation associated therewith for subsequent retrieval.