Granted Patent B2

US 10,796,247 · App. 14/531,822 · Granted Oct 6, 2020

Inventors: Douglas R. Turk (Santa Monica, CA); Christopher Holt (Bristol, GB); Justin Priestley (Loxley, GB); Ian Nunn (Willingham, GB)

Assignee: WorldAware Inc.

G06Q10/02G06Q10/04G06Q50/14G06Q50/265G06Q50/30

Abstract

Claims (46)

1. A method for tracking a location of users of a travel risk management system during travel, the method comprising:

storing travel itinerary information for a user of the travel risk management system in a user travel database of the system, wherein the travel itinerary information includes user identification information, travel date information for a time period in which the user is traveling, and geographic location information for at least one scheduled destination of the user during the travel time period;

receiving a location message from a mobile device of the user at an application server of the travel risk management system, the location message including an actual location of the user;

comparing the actual location of the user, as determined from the location message, to the at least one scheduled destination of the user included in the travel itinerary information; and

determining, at the application server, whether the actual location of the user is different from the at least one scheduled destination of the user;

updating the at least one scheduled destination of the user included in the stored travel itinerary information with the actual location of the user based on the determination that the actual location of the user is different from the at least one scheduled destination of the user, wherein each geographic location of a plurality of countries is assigned a risk level value, and wherein updating the at least one scheduled destination of the user comprises:

determining a geographic location in which the user is located based on the actual location of the user from the location message; and

determining whether the assigned risk level value for the geographic location in which the user is located is a high risk level value;

updating the at least one scheduled destination of the user with the actual location of the user from the location response message in response to determining that the assigned risk level value for the geographic location in which the user is located is a high risk level value;

determining, at the application server, an occurrence of a risk management event and a geographic area affected by the risk management event;

triggering a risk management response in response to the determination of the risk management event, the risk management response comprising determining, at the application server, whether the at least one updated scheduled location of the user is within the geographic area affected by the risk management event; and

transmitting a notification message to the mobile device of the user when it is determined that the at least one updated scheduled location of the user is within the geographic area affected by the risk management event.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the travel itinerary information is inputted at a computing device of the travel risk management system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stored travel itinerary information is received electronically at an application server of the travel risk management system from a third-party reservation.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting a location request message from the application server of the travel risk management system to the mobile device of the user, wherein the location message is received from the mobile device of the user in response to the location request message.

5. The method of claim 4 , comprising transmitting the location request message to the mobile device of the user when a current time is within the time period of the travel itinerary information in which the user is traveling.

6. The method of claim 4 , comprising:

transmitting the location request message to the mobile device of the user at periodic, scheduled intervals that are not determined based on the time period of the travel itinerary information in which the user is traveling;

comparing a current time to the time period of the travel itinerary information in which the user is traveling in response to receiving the location message; and

comparing the actual location of the user from the location message to the at least one scheduled destination of the user included in the stored travel itinerary information in response to determining that the current time is within the time period of the travel itinerary information in which the user is traveling.

7. The method of claim 1 , the location message from the mobile device of the user is not received in response to a location request message from the application server.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the user location comprises:

determining a previously-scheduled geographic location associated with the at least one scheduled destination of the user included in the stored travel itinerary information, before the at least one scheduled destination is updated with the actual location of the user;

determining whether the assigned risk level value for the previously-scheduled geographic location is a high risk level value; and

updating the at least one scheduled destination of the user with the actual location of the user from the location response message in response to determining that the assigned risk level value for the geographic location in which the user is located is not a high risk level value and that the assigned risk level value for the previously-scheduled geographic location is a high risk value.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising not updating the at least one scheduled destination of the user with the actual location of the user from the location response message in response to determining that the assigned risk level value for the geographic location in which the user is located is not a high risk level value.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium with computer executable instructions for a mobile device of a travel risk management system, wherein the mobile device includes an input device and a memory, the computer executable instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving user activation information input at the input device of the mobile device, wherein the user activation information includes user identification information and an activation code;

storing the user activation information in the memory of the mobile device;

receiving travel itinerary information input at the input device of the mobile device, wherein the travel itinerary information includes travel date information for the time period in which the user is traveling, and geographic location information for at least one destination of the user during the travel time period; and

storing the travel itinerary information in the memory of the mobile device;

determining a current location of the mobile device;

in response to the occurrence of at least one of a plurality of triggering events at the mobile device:

formatting a current location message containing the user identification information and the current location of the mobile device, and

transmitting the location message from the mobile device to an application server of the travel risk management system,

wherein one of the plurality of triggering events is a current time being within the time period in which the user is traveling, and

wherein each geographic location of a plurality of geographic location is assigned a risk level value, and wherein one of the plurality of triggering events is that the user is located within a geographic location having an assigned risk level that is a high risk level value; and

receiving a notification message indicating that the current location of the user is within a geographic location that is assigned a high risk level value.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein one of the plurality of triggering events is the elapsing of a predetermined period of time since the previous occurrence of transmitting the location message from the mobile device to the application server of the travel risk management system, and the computer readable instructions further comprise instructions for determining that the predetermined period of time has elapsed since the previous occurrence of transmitting the location message from the mobile device to the application server.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein one of the plurality of triggering events is the start up of the mobile application on the mobile device, and the computer readable instructions further comprise instruction for detecting the start up of the mobile application.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein one of the plurality of triggering events is the start up of the mobile device, and the computer readable instructions further comprise instructions for detecting the start up of the mobile device.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein one of the plurality of triggering events is the receipt of a location request message from the application server of the travel risk management system, and the computer readable instructions further comprise instructions for detecting the receipt of the location request message from the application server.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , further comprising instructions for

storing the assigned risk level values for the countries in the memory of the mobile device; and

retrieving the assigned risk level value for the geographic location in which the user is located for use in determining whether the assigned risk level value is a high risk level value.

Assignments (9)