Anonymous POI Location Verification via App Usage Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional geocoding systems for determining Point of Interest (POI) locations are inaccurate due to uneven geographic features, and they often provide less meaningful information to users by directing them to the center of a POI instead of a more relevant location, such as a lobby, and lack privacy protection by collecting user-specific data.
Innovation Solution
A POI location determination system using anonymous application usage data to verify and filter geographic coordinates, providing more accurate and user-friendly information by identifying the most useful location within a POI, such as a lobby, while maintaining user privacy by not requiring any specific user information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If address interpolation is used for geocoding, then POI locations can be determined automatically, but the accuracy of POI locations deteriorates due to uneven geographic features
Solution Approach 1:
The system collects actual user location data from mobile devices and uses this feedback to verify and correct POI locations. When users check-in at locations, the system compares these real-world positions with interpolated locations and adjusts the POI database accordingly, creating a continuous improvement loop that enhances accuracy while maintaining automated processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces user check-in data as an intermediary element between the address interpolation process and the final POI location determination. This intermediary layer of real user positions acts as a verification mechanism that bridges the gap between automated interpolation and actual ground truth locations.
2Reliability
If POI center location is provided, then the geocoding is technically correct, but the information becomes less meaningful to users who need directional guidance to specific functional areas
Solution Approach 1:
The system enhances POI information by adding local quality distinctions through functional areas. Instead of providing a single generic center location, the patent divides POIs into multiple functional zones (e.g., lobby, parking, entrance) with specific coordinates for each, allowing users to navigate to the precise area that meets their needs while maintaining the overall structural correctness of the geocoding.
3Measurement precision
If user-specific data is collected to improve POI location accuracy, then location determination can be enhanced, but user privacy protection deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes personally identifiable information from the collected location data. User positions are collected for verification purposes, but all identifying information is stripped away, leaving only anonymized location coordinates that contribute to accuracy improvement without creating privacy risks.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses users' own check-in data to improve the POI database for the benefit of all users, without requiring external data collection or sharing. Each user's location information serves to enhance the overall system accuracy while the user themselves benefits from improved navigation, creating a self-reinforcing privacy-preserving mechanism.
Data Source
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AI summary
Techniques of determining a point of interest (POI) location using anonymous application usage data are described. A POI location determination system can determine geographic coordinates of a POI based on anonymous application usage data received from multiple mobile devices. The system can associate an application program with a POI. The anonymous application usage data can include an identifier or a category of the application program launched by the mobile devices, and a device location of each mobile device at time of launching the application program. Based on the device locations, the system can determine that launching of the application program is concentrated in a geographic area. The system can designate a centroid of the geographic area as a location of the POI.