Location-based notification

Abstract

Location-based notification includes establishment of a rally point and subsequent notification of a user when another user enters the rally point. Senders may set up rally points at various physical locations and specify one or more target recipients that are to be notified when the sender enters the rally point. Target recipients may specify communication settings that dictate whether and / or how they wish to receive notifications under a variety of circumstances. When a sender having a computing device enters a rally point location, a notification is sent from the computing device to a location-based notification service, which notifies each of the target recipients in a manner that complies with the target recipient's individual communication settings.

Description

BACKGROUND[0001]With the proliferation of communication devices and systems, people have multiple communication channels by which they can be reached and by which they can reach their contacts. Although these multiple communication channels provide great flexibility, this flexibility comes at the cost of simplicity. For example, if a person (e.g., the sender) wants to meet another group of people, he has to determine which of the multiple communication channels will be effective to reach each of the intended recipients, each of whom may be reachable by a different channel. Alternatively, he can set up plans well in advance, knowing that over time each of the people invited to a gathering (e.g., the targets) is likely access a communication channel (e.g., email) by which the invitation was provided. That is, if the sender sends an email to a group of contacts a week in advance of a planned meeting, it is likely that all of the contacts will access their email accounts during the week...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0004]This Summary is provided to introduce simplified concepts for location-based notification, which are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. This disclosure relates to location-based notification. Generally, location-based notification includes establishment of a potential meeting location or “rally point” and subsequent notification of a user when another user enters the rally point.

[0005]For example, senders may set up rally points at various physical locations and specify one or more intended recipients or “target recipients” that are to be notified when the sender enters the rally point. Target recipients may specify communication settings that dictate whether and / or how they wish to receive notifications under a variety of circumstances. When a sender having a computing device enters a rally point location, a notification is sent from the computing device to a location-based notification service, which notifies each of the target recipients in a manner that complies with his or her individual communication settings.

[0006]In another example, a location-based notification service may monitor locations of multiple users over time and propose a rally between the multiple users at a location at which the multiple users have met in the past. The proposals may, for example, be automatically generated after passage of a predetermined amount of time since a last meeting, or may be generated at the request of one or more users.

Problems solved by technology

Although these multiple communication channels provide great flexibility, this flexibility comes at the cost of simplicity.

For certain types of people and for certain types of meetings, however, there is no single effective, efficient, and acceptable communication channel.

This technique is efficient for the sender but may not succeed in notifying the targets in a timely manner.

A series of phone calls, on the other hand, may be more effective at notifying the targets, but it is not efficient for the sender and it may be unwanted by the target (e.g., a target may be at work, eating dinner, disinterested in meetings at a particular location, or otherwise not interested in the phone call).

Existing social networking and location tracking services fail to provide appropriate notifications in a manner that reliably gains the target's attention.

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