Group Formation Using Anonymous Broadcast Information
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving tokens and corresponding timestamps from devices;
identifying devices that have exchanged one or more tokens at a time, or in a time frame, determined by the timestamps;
identifying users associated with the identified devices; and
creating a group for the identified users.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A number of devices co-located at a geographic location can broadcast and receive tokens. Tokens can be exchanged using a communication link having limited communication range. Tokens that are received by a device can be stored locally on the device and/or transmitted to a trusted service operating remotely on a network. In some implementations, the tokens can be stored with corresponding timestamps to assist a trusted service in matching or otherwise correlating the tokens with other tokens provided by other devices. The trusted service can perform an analysis on the tokens and timestamps to identify devices that were co-located at the geographic location at or around a contact time which can be defined by the timestamps. A group can be created based on results of the analysis. Users can be identified as members of the group and invited to join the group.
-
Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
receiving tokens and corresponding timestamps from devices; identifying devices that have exchanged one or more tokens at a time, or in a time frame, determined by the timestamps; identifying users associated with the identified devices; and creating a group for the identified users. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A method performed by a device, comprising:
-
exchanging tokens with a number of devices; sending the tokens and corresponding timestamps to a trusted service; and receiving from the trusted service, information describing a group of users associated with devices that exchanged tokens. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:
-
receiving tokens and corresponding timestamps from devices; identifying devices that have exchanged one or more tokens at a time, or in a time frame, determined by the timestamps; identifying users associated with the identified devices; and creating a group for the identified users. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:
-
exchanging tokens with a number of devices; sending the tokens and corresponding timestamps to a trusted service; and receiving from the trusted service, information describing a group of users associated with devices that exchanged tokens. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23)
-
Specification