Identifying future location and providing path crossing indications

Abstract

A user of a mobile device may use the technique to obtain future location-based situation awareness, e.g., a future location route displayed on the user's mobile device. That future location route comprises the user's future locations through time and space, e.g., a set of planned meetings at successive locations in a geographic area. A service that provides the user's mobile device with the future location route may also alert the user of potential threats to the user's planned activities, such as a restaurant being over-booked. On a permission basis, the user's mobile device may also receive a future location route for at least one other person associated with the user in a social network. The other person's future location route may be overlaid on the user's route so that one or both individuals receive advance notifications of their potential to have their respective paths “crossing” during a future time period.

1 . Apparatus, comprising:
 at least one processor; and   computer memory holding computer program instructions executed by the processor to provide:
 first data from which a future location path for a user is adapted to be displayed; and 
 second data from which a future location path for at least one other person is adapted to be displayed overlaid on the future location path for the user, the at least one other person being associated with the user in a social network. 
   
     
     
         2 . An article comprising a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that stores a program, the program adapted to be executed by a machine to provide future location-based situation awareness to a user of a mobile device, the mobile device storing the user's calendar and contact information, the program comprising:
 program code to receive calendar data;   program code to receive contemporaneous location data;   program code to use the received data to calculate, as a series of points, the user's future locations through time and space;   program code to use the series of points to determine a future location route to be traveled by the user between each successive location; and   program code to represent the user's future location route between a departure time and an arrival time.   
     
     
         3 . The article as described in  claim 2  wherein the points are associated with given time intervals. 
     
     
         4 . The article as described in  claim 3  wherein each time interval is 15 minutes. 
     
     
         5 . The article as described in  claim 2  wherein the program includes program code to associate a social group tag with a location along the future location route. 
     
     
         6 . The article as described in  claim 5  wherein the program includes program code to identify a group and constituent members of the group associated with the social group tag. 
     
     
         7 . The article as described in  claim 6  wherein the program includes program code to generate a future location path for at least one constituent member of the group. 
     
     
         8 . The article as described in  claim 7  wherein the program includes program code to overlay the future location path for the at least constituent member of the group on the future location path for the user.