US Patent 7529639 Location-based novelty index value and recommendation system and method

The invention is a system and method for computing a result for a location, wherein the result indicates how novel it is for a wireless device to occupy a specific location. After determining the location of a wireless device through various means, a Novelty Index Value (NIV) is calculated for the location, and the NIV is then stored into a database. The NIV may then be subsequently used by application programs to compute a desired result from the NIV. Multiple users may utilize and/or share the same NIV values. The NIV may also be used to alter the configuration of a wireless device as well. A recommendation system is also disclosed, wherein user context is utilized along with NIV values to compute particular results for a user.