Granted Patent B2

US 10,419,883 · App. 16/050,982 · Granted Sep 17, 2019

Inventors: Timothy W. Jenkins (San Jose, CA); Arash Saffarnia (Belmont, CA); Prashant Chaudhary (Santa Clara, CA); Gautham Anil (Fremont, CA)

Assignee: 4INFO, INC.

H04W4/025H04L61/2007H04W4/029H04W4/33H04W64/00H04L61/2514

Abstract

Claims (52)

1. A method of associating a plurality of mobile devices to one of a plurality of defined geographic areas that includes a plurality of households, the method comprising:

for each selected mobile device of a plurality of mobile devices

receiving a plurality of latitude-longitude pairs for the selected mobile device, the latitude-longitude pairs corresponding to a location of the selected mobile device during a time period;

organizing the plurality of latitude-longitude pairs into a plurality of clusters, the clusters corresponding to geographic regions visited by the selected mobile device during the time period;

calculating a score for each cluster, the score representing a likelihood that a user of the selected mobile device resides in a household within the cluster;

identifying a location of the user's household to be within the one of the plurality of geographic areas corresponding to the cluster having the highest score; and

associating the mobile device with the one of the plurality of geographic areas having the highest score, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a timestamp and a first IP address from the selected mobile device;

associating the first IP address with a first household in the one of the plurality of geographic areas associated with the selected mobile device;

receiving a plurality of data sets including IP addresses and corresponding timestamps for a plurality of computing devices;

determining a matched group of computing devices that have the same IP address as the first IP address; and

associating the matched group of computing devices to the first household and to the same one of the plurality of geographic areas associated with the selected mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining a matched group of computing devices that have the same IP address as the first IP address comprises matching the IP address of one or more of the plurality of computing devices to the first IP address when the timestamp of the data set for the computing device is within a certain time duration of the timestamp from the selected mobile device.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising receiving user input indicating the time duration.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the time duration is determined at least in part by the time of day.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the time duration is determined at least in part by the location information of the selected mobile device.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising increasing the time duration when the location information of the selected mobile device indicates the mobile device is substantially stationary.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the latitude-longitude pairs are obtained using a technique selected from the group consisting of global positioning with a global positioning system, cellular triangulation, and/or WiFi identification.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the time period is selected from an hour, a day, a week, or a month.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the latitude-longitude pairs are associated with an ad request sent by the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the score comprises applying a weight based on at least one of a time and a location associated with a longitude-latitude pair.

11. A system for associating a mobile device to a household, the system comprising:

a data storage device operating on a server computer, the data storage device storing a plurality of latitude-longitude pairs for a mobile device, the latitude-longitude pairs corresponding to a location of the mobile device during a time period; and

an electronic hardware processor configured for executing computer-readable instructions that, when executed:

for each selected mobile device of a plurality of mobile devices

receive a plurality of latitude-longitude pairs for the selected mobile device, the latitude-longitude pairs corresponding to a location of the selected mobile device during a time period;

organize the plurality of latitude-longitude pairs into a plurality of clusters, the clusters corresponding to geographic regions visited by the selected mobile device during the time period;

calculate a score for each cluster, the score representing a likelihood that a user of the selected mobile device resides in a household within the cluster;

identify a location of the user's household to be within the one of the plurality of geographic areas corresponding to the cluster having the highest score; and

associate the mobile device with the one of the plurality of geographic areas having the highest score, wherein the electronic hardware processor is further configured for executing computer-readable instructions that, that when executed cause the processor to:

retrieve a timestamp and a first IP address from the selected mobile device;

associate the first IP address with a first household in the one of the plurality of geographic areas associated with the selected mobile device;

retrieve a plurality of data sets including IP addresses and corresponding timestamps for a plurality of computing devices;

determine a matched group of computing devices that have the same IP address as the first IP address; and

associate the matched group of computing devices to the first household and to the same one of the plurality of geographic areas associated with the selected mobile device.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein determining a matched group of computing devices that have the same IP address as the first IP address comprises matching the IP address of one or more of the plurality of computing devices to the first IP address when the timestamp of the data set for the computing device is within a certain time duration of the timestamp from the selected mobile device.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the latitude-longitude pairs are obtained using a technique selected from the group consisting of global positioning with a global positioning system, cellular triangulation, and/or WiFi identification.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the latitude-longitude pairs are associated with an ad request sent by the mobile device.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein calculating the score comprises applying a weight based on at least one of a time and a location associated with a longitude-latitude pair.

16. A non-transitory computer program product embodied on a computer-readable medium and comprising instructions that, when executed by a system of one or more processors, cause the system to perform operations comprising:

for each selected mobile device of a plurality of mobile devices

receiving a plurality of latitude-longitude pairs for the selected mobile device, the latitude-longitude pairs corresponding to a location of the selected mobile device during a time period;

organizing the plurality of latitude-longitude pairs into a plurality of clusters, the clusters corresponding to geographic regions visited by the selected mobile device during the time period;

calculating a score for each cluster, the score representing a likelihood that a user of the selected mobile device resides in a household within the cluster;

identifying a location of the user's household to be within the one of the plurality of geographic areas corresponding to the cluster having the highest score; and

associating the mobile device with the one of the plurality of geographic areas having the highest score, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a timestamp and a first IP address from the selected mobile device;

associating the first IP address with a first household in the one of the plurality of geographic areas associated with the selected mobile device;

receiving a plurality of data sets including IP addresses and corresponding timestamps for a plurality of computing devices;

determining a matched group of computing devices that have the same IP address as the first IP address; and

associating the matched group of computing devices to the first household and to the same one of the plurality of geographic areas associated with the selected mobile device.

17. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 16 , wherein said determining a matched group of computing devices that have the same IP address as the first IP address comprises matching the IP address of one or more of the plurality of computing devices to the first IP address when the timestamp of the data set for the computing device is within a certain time duration of the timestamp from the selected mobile device.

Assignments (9)

Continuity (2)

Cited By (1)

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