Quantifying mobility of mobile devices via a privacy preserving mobility metric

摘要

Embodiments of the invention generate metrics quantifying the mobility of a mobile device without persisting information related to the device's specific location at any given time. Specifically, at multiple intervals, a value of a mobility metric is computed based on the distance between the current location of the mobile device and a previously identified origin location of the mobile device. The values of the mobility metric computed over a period of time quantify the overall mobility of the mobile device. The mobility metric does not provide any information regarding the specific location of the mobile device at any given time.

主权项

1. A method for quantifying the mobility of a mobile device without transmitting the mobile device's location, the method comprising:
providing mobility instructions to the mobile device, the mobility instructions comprising instructions for:
determining an origin location of the mobile device;determining a location of the mobile device at each of a plurality of points in time;computing, at the mobile device, values of a mobility metric indicating the distances between the origin location and the determined locations of the mobile device at the plurality of points in time;selecting from an index of values an index value that maps to the distance between the origin location and the location of the mobile device at a first point in time, the value of the mobility metric being equal to the index value; andtransmitting the values of the mobility metric to a server system; receiving values of the mobility metric at the server system; customizing, at the server system, content for presentation to the mobile device based on at least one value of the mobility metric; and sending the customized content to the mobile device.