LOCATION-BASED SOCIAL INTERACTION NETWORK

• US 20080086261A1
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Dena Pacific Communications, Inc.
• Original Assignee: IceBreaker, Inc. (DENA Company Limited)
• Inventors: Robinson, Merle, Hennings, Eric
• Application Number:
  US11/855,927
• Publication Number:
  US 20080086261A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/200
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/332 using wireless networks, e.g. cellular phone networks
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/497 Partially or entirely replaying previous game actions
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/87 Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/406 Transmission via wireless network, e.g. pager or GSM
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5566 by matching opponents or finding partners to build a team, e.g. by skill level, geographical area, background, play style
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/572 Communication between players during game play of non game information, e.g. e-mail, chat, file transfer, streaming of audio and streaming of video
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

Systems (and corresponding methods) that enable location-based information to be incorporated within a social networking environment are provided. More particularly, the innovation can track locations and trigger notifications to users with regard to persons of interest within their proximate locale. In aspects, ‘proximate’ can be defined by a user and stored within a personal profile together with other person of interest criteria. By entering this information into a user'"'"'s profile, it can be possible to locate candidates and potential persons of interest.

Claims

1. A system that incorporates location-based services (LBS) into a social networking environment, comprising:

a connection interface component that employs user-defined criterion to identify a plurality of candidates; and

a location-based management component that employs LBS and delivers an alert to a user that identifies locations related to a subset of the plurality of candidates as a function of the location of the user.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a profile generation component that enables the user to define the criterion.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a tracking component that dynamically tracks and updates the location of the user.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a tracking component that dynamically monitors locations of the subset of candidates, wherein the alert reflects location of each of the subset of candidates relative to the location of the user.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a notification component that triggers the alert based upon a distance between the user and the subset of candidates, wherein the distance is one parameter defined in by the user-defined criterion.

6. The system of claim 1, the alert is at least one of a text message, an instant message, an email or a voice call.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a mapping component that generates a map that identifies the location of the user relative to each of the subset of candidates, wherein the alert conveys the map to the user.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a mapping component that identifies a rendering of a plurality of persons of interest in a geographical region, wherein the alert conveys the rendering to the user.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a query component that one of sorts, ranks or orders the subset of candidates, wherein the alert conveys the sorting, ranking or ordering to the user.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a contextual awareness component or a machine learning and reasoning component employs at least one of contextual, a probabilistic or a statistical-based analysis that infers an action that the user desires to be automatically performed

11. A computer-implemented method of incorporating location-based logic into a social networking environment, comprising:

determining a plurality of candidates within a social networking environment, wherein the plurality of candidates are identified based upon user-defined criteria in view of location of the user; and

notifying the user of each location of a subset of the plurality of candidates.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising generating the criteria.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising dynamically determining the user location.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating a map that defines each location of a subset of the plurality of candidates; and

rendering the map to the user.

15. The computer-implement method of claim 11, further comprising:

locking-on to at least one of the plurality of candidates; and

providing directions to the at least one of the plurality of candidates in view of current location of the user.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the directions are at least one of text, graphical or audio directions.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising dynamically tracking location of the user and each of the plurality of candidates.

18. A social interaction system, comprising.

means for determining location of a plurality of persons of interest to a user;

means for determining a preferred location of the user; and

means for notifying the user of a subset of the plurality of persons of interest as a function of their location in view of the preferred location of the user.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising means for dynamically updating the preferred location of the user.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for graphically displaying the location of each of the plurality of persons of interest in view of the preferred user location.