Method and system for facilitating scheduling using a mobile device

• US 20090298426A1
• Filed: 05/28/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: HELVICK, Richard Eric
• Granted Patent: US 8,401,468 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

A method and system for facilitating scheduling using a mobile device and near field communication (NFC) allows a user of a mobile device integrated with an NFC unit while in the vicinity of a shared resource that is presently unavailable or a residence of a social contact who is presently not home to review a schedule for the shared resource or social contact, and in the case of a shared resource reserve the shared resource at a later time.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating scheduling using a mobile device and near field communication (NFC), comprising the steps of:

bringing a mobile device into proximity with a NFC station whereby a NFC connection is established;

downloading from the NFC station to the mobile device via the NFC connection schedule location information for an entity;

downloading to the mobile device a schedule for the entity using the schedule location information; and

displaying on the mobile device the schedule.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of uploading from the mobile device to the NFC station an access credential.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the NFC station and the entity are collocated.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the schedule location information comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity is a shared resource.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the schedule indicates times when the shared resource is available for reservation.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of uploading from the mobile device a reservation request for the shared resource.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the shared resource is one of a study room, exercise facility, lab facility, recreational facility, computing resource, counseling resource, library resource, technical support resource, tutoring resource or training resource.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity is a social contact of a user of the mobile device.

10. A mobile device, comprising:

a NFC interface;

a wireless network interface;

a user interface; and

a processor communicatively coupled with the NFC interface, the wireless network interface and the user interface, wherein under control of the processor the mobile device displays on the user interface a schedule for an entity downloaded via the wireless network interface using schedule location information for the entity downloaded from a NFC station via the NFC interface.

11. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein under control of the processor the mobile device uploads to the NFC station via the NFC interface an access credential.

12. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the NFC station and the entity are collocated.

13. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the schedule location information comprises a URL.

14. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein under control of the processor the mobile device uploads via the wireless network interface a request to reserve the entity.

15. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the entity is a shared resource.

16. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the entity is a social contact of a user of the mobile device.

17. A NFC station, comprising:

a NFC interface; and

a processor communicatively coupled with the NFC interface, wherein under control of the processor the NFC station downloads to a mobile device via the NFC interface schedule location information for an entity collocated with the NFC station.

18. The NFC station of claim 17, wherein the NFC station downloads the schedule location information upon validating an access credential uploaded from the mobile device via the NFC interface.

19. The NFC station of claim 17, wherein the entity is one of a shared resource or a social contact of a user of the mobile device.

20. The NFC station of claim 17, wherein the schedule location information comprises a URL of a schedule for the entity.