Method and apparatus for searching for short-distance object

• US 10,278,038 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2017
• Issued: 04/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tencent Technology Shenzhen Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Original Assignee: Tencent Technology Shenzhen Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Inventors: Tian, Yuan, Li, Lin
• Primary Examiner(s): Nealon, William
• Application Number:
  US15/703,603
• Publication Number:
  US 20180007524A1
• Time in Patent Office: 594 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/00 Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism healthcare informatics G16H
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses a method and a computer server for searching for a short-distance object and pertains to the field of mobile terminal technologies. The method includes: receiving a short-distance object search request sent by a target terminal; obtaining location information of the target terminal from the short-distance object search request; separately determining, according to the location information of the target terminal, location information of prestored objects for short-distance object search, and multiple preset distance ranges, objects whose distances from the target terminal fall within each distance range, to obtain one or more objects corresponding to each distance range; separately randomly selecting at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range; and returning the to-be-presented objects to be presented on the target terminal. By means of the present disclosure, effectiveness of a short-distance object search function can be enhanced.

Claims

1. A method for searching for a short-distance object performed at a computer server having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs to be executed by the one or more processors, the method comprising:

receiving a short-distance object search request sent by a target terminal;

obtaining location information of the target terminal from the short-distance object search request;

determining, for each of multiple preset distance ranges, objects whose distances from the target terminal fall within the corresponding distance range according to the location information of the target terminal and location information of prestored objects for short-distance object search to obtain one or more objects corresponding to the corresponding distance range;

randomly selecting at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range; and

returning the to-be-presented objects to be presented on the target terminal in an ascending order of current distances between terminals of the selected to-be-presented objects and the target terminal.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the objects for short-distance object search are user accounts of a social networking application;

and

the determining, for each of multiple preset distance ranges, objects whose distances from the target terminal fall within the corresponding distance range according to the location information of the target terminal and location information of prestored objects for short-distance object search to obtain one or more objects corresponding to the corresponding distance range comprises;

determining, for each of the multiple preset distance ranges, according to the location information, location information of terminals to which prestored user accounts for short-distance object search log in, in user accounts that currently log in and for which differences between times when the user accounts send short-distance object search requests for the last time and a current time are less than a preset time length threshold, user accounts for which distances between terminals to which the user accounts log in and the target terminal fall within the corresponding distance range, to obtain one or more user accounts corresponding to the corresponding distance range.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the randomly selecting at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range comprises:

obtaining a weight corresponding to each distance range;

determining a quantity of to-be-presented objects corresponding to each distance range according to the weight corresponding to the distance range and a preset total quantity of presented objects; and

randomly selecting the at least one to-be-presented object from the objects corresponding to each distance range according to the quantity of to-be-presented objects corresponding to the distance range.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the obtaining a weight corresponding to each preset distance range comprises:

for each distance range, obtaining a quantity of objects that are found by user accounts in a user account library by using short-distance object search requests within the distance range within a preset historical time length, and a quantity of selected objects among the objects that are found by using the short-distance object search requests within the distance range;

for each distance range, determining a ratio of the quantity of objects that are selected within the distance range to the quantity of objects that are found within the distance range; and

determining the weight corresponding to the distance range according to the ratio corresponding to each distance range.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the obtaining a weight corresponding to each distance range comprises:

for each distance range, obtaining a quantity of objects that are found, by using a short-distance object search request, by a target account that logs in to the target terminal within the distance range within a preset historical time length, and a quantity of selected objects among the objects that are found by using the short-distance object search request within the distance range;

for each distance range, determining a ratio of the quantity of objects that are selected within the distance range to the quantity of objects that are found within the distance range; and

determining the weight corresponding to the distance range according to the ratio corresponding to each distance range.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the randomly selecting at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range comprises:

randomly selecting a same quantity of to-be-presented objects from the objects corresponding to each distance range based on a preset total quantity of presented objects.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the receiving a short-distance object search request sent by a target terminal, the method further comprises:

receiving an object blocking request that is sent by the target terminal and that carries an object blacklist, wherein the object blacklist comprises at least one object, wherein

the randomly selecting at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range, and returning the to-be-presented objects to be presented on the target terminal comprises;

randomly selecting the at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range other than the at least one object; and

returning the to-be-presented objects to be presented on the target terminal.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

after returning the to-be-presented objects to be presented on the target terminal;

receiving a second short-distance object search request sent by the target terminal;

obtaining location information of the target terminal from the second short-distance object search request;

determining, according to the location information of the target terminal, location information of prestored objects for short-distance object search, and multiple preset distance ranges, objects whose distances from the target terminal fall within each distance range, to obtain one or more objects corresponding to each distance range;

randomly selecting at least second to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range, the at least second to-be-presented object different from the at least one to-be-presented object corresponding to the previous short-distance object search request; and

returning a second set of to-be-presented objects including the at least second to-be-presented object to be presented on the target terminal.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein a time difference between the short-distance object search request and the second short-distance object search request is less than a predefined threshold.

10. A server, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory; and

one or more programs stored in the memory, the one or more programs being configured to be executed by the one or more processors and cause the server to perform a plurality of operations including;

receiving a short-distance object search request sent by a target terminal;

obtaining location information of the target terminal from the short-distance object search request;

determining, for each of multiple preset distance ranges, objects whose distances from the target terminal fall within the corresponding distance range according to the location information of the target terminal and location information of prestored objects for short-distance object search to obtain one or more objects corresponding to the corresponding distance range;

randomly selecting at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range; and

returning the to-be-presented objects to be presented on the target terminal in an ascending order of current distances between terminals of the selected to-be-presented objects and the target terminal.

11. The server according to claim 10, wherein the randomly selecting at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range comprises:

obtaining a weight corresponding to each distance range;

determining a quantity of to-be-presented objects corresponding to each distance range according to the weight corresponding to the distance range and a preset total quantity of presented objects; and

randomly selecting the at least one to-be-presented object from the objects corresponding to each distance range according to the quantity of to-be-presented objects corresponding to the distance range.

12. The server according to claim 11, wherein the obtaining a weight corresponding to each preset distance range comprises:

for each distance range, obtaining a quantity of objects that are found by user accounts in a user account library by using short-distance object search requests within the distance range within a preset historical time length, and a quantity of selected objects among the objects that are found by using the short-distance object search requests within the distance range;

for each distance range, determining a ratio of the quantity of objects that are selected within the distance range to the quantity of objects that are found within the distance range; and

determining the weight corresponding to the distance range according to the ratio corresponding to each distance range.

13. The server according to claim 11, wherein the obtaining a weight corresponding to each distance range comprises:

for each distance range, obtaining a quantity of objects that are found, by using a short-distance object search request, by a target account that logs in to the target terminal within the distance range within a preset historical time length, and a quantity of selected objects among the objects that are found by using the short-distance object search request within the distance range;

for each distance range, determining a ratio of the quantity of objects that are selected within the distance range to the quantity of objects that are found within the distance range; and

determining the weight corresponding to the distance range according to the ratio corresponding to each distance range.

14. The server according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise:

before receiving a short-distance object search request sent by a target terminal;

receiving an object blocking request that is sent by the target terminal and that carries an object blacklist, wherein the object blacklist comprises at least one object, wherein

randomly selecting the at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range other than the at least one object; and

returning the to-be-presented objects to be presented on the target terminal.

15. The server according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise:

after returning the to-be-presented objects to be presented on the target terminal;

receiving a second short-distance object search request sent by the target terminal;

obtaining location information of the target terminal from the second short-distance object search request;

determining, for each of the multiple preset distance ranges, objects whose distances from the target terminal fall within the corresponding distance range according to the location information of the target terminal and location information of prestored objects for short-distance object search to obtain one or more objects corresponding to the corresponding distance range;

randomly selecting at least second to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range, the at least second to-be-presented object different from the at least one to-be-presented object corresponding to the previous short-distance object search request; and

returning a second set of to-be-presented objects including the at least second to-be-presented object to be presented on the target terminal.

16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, storing a plurality of computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions being executed by one or more processors of a computer server that is communicatively connected to a plurality of terminal devices to perform a plurality of operations including:

receiving a short-distance object search request sent by a target terminal;

obtaining location information of the target terminal from the short-distance object search request;

determining, for each of multiple preset distance ranges, objects whose distances from the target terminal fall within the corresponding distance range according to the location information of the target terminal and location information of prestored objects for short-distance object search to obtain one or more objects corresponding to the corresponding distance range;

randomly selecting at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range; and

returning the to-be-presented objects to be presented on the target terminal in an ascending order of current distances between terminals of the selected to-be-presented objects and the target terminal.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 16, wherein the randomly selecting at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range comprises:

obtaining a weight corresponding to each distance range;

determining a quantity of to-be-presented objects corresponding to each distance range according to the weight corresponding to the distance range and a preset total quantity of presented objects; and

randomly selecting the at least one to-be-presented object from the objects corresponding to each distance range according to the quantity of to-be-presented objects corresponding to the distance range.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 16, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise:

before receiving a short-distance object search request sent by a target terminal;

receiving an object blocking request that is sent by the target terminal and that carries an object blacklist, wherein the object blacklist comprises at least one object, wherein

randomly selecting the at least one to-be-presented object from the one or more objects corresponding to each distance range other than the at least one object; and

returning the to-be-presented objects to be presented on the target terminal.