Where, is a company who has just been awarded what they call the “Mother of All Geofencing Patents”. For those unfamiliar with Geofencing, it is the ability to define a virtual area around a business in which users running specific software on their phone will be alerted about a deal when they walk through the virtual fence. As well as being a static location of a couple of blocks (for example), it could also be a moving Geofence and attached to a device or product.
This patent could send targeted ads to users walking in to specific areas or could also be used to transmit coupon codes when users walk nearby a shop with offers in.
Provided herein are methods and systems relating to location-based services such as social networking, providing demographic information, tracking mobile devices, providing business information, providing an adaptable user interface, remotely effecting a change on a portable electronic device, providing a geofence, outputting location-based information on a mobile device, varying transmissions to and from a mobile device, providing location-based alerts, verifying transactions and tailoring information to the behavior of a user.
The patent was applied for back in 2005 and has finally been approved. The company has been providing services for several years now and has around 4 million active users.
Via: TechCrunch
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.