Interpersonal Spacetime Interaction System

• US 20110167125A1
• Filed: 09/14/2009
• Published: 07/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dimitris Achlioptas
• Original Assignee: Dimitris Achlioptas
• Inventors: Achlioptas, Dimitris
• Granted Patent: US 9,158,774 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/489 using time information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

The present innovation provides a method of establishing a connection between two individuals using an interpersonal spacetime interaction system, including enabling a first user to specify a spacetime event and to provide annotations for the spacetime event, maintaining a spacetime database comprising data objects, each data object corresponding to a spacetime event, querying a spacetime database, using a query that includes at least a specification of a desired spacetime event, said query being initiated by a second user, retrieving information from those data objects in the spacetime database whose corresponding spacetime events are proximate to the desired spacetime event, and providing the retrieved information to the second user.

Claims

1. A method of establishing a connection between two individuals using an interpersonal spacetime interaction system, comprising:

(a) enabling a first user (1) to specify a spacetime event wherein a spacetime event comprising a subset of spacetime, the specification of which includes a spatial portion and a temporal portion, and (2) to provide annotations for the spacetime event;

(b) maintaining a spacetime database comprising data objects, each data object corresponding to a spacetime event, including (1) the specification of the spacetime event, (2) a designation of an owner of the data object, and (3) the annotations for the spacetime event;

(c) querying a spacetime database, using a query that includes at least a specification of a desired spacetime event, said query being initiated by a second user;

(d) retrieving information from those data objects in the spacetime database whose corresponding spacetime events are proximate to the desired spacetime event; and

(e) providing the retrieved information to the second user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each spacetime event corresponds to one or more parallelepipeds or one or more cylinders in a three dimensional coordinate system in which two of the dimensions are spatial and refer to points on the surface of the earth and the third dimension is time.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each spacetime event corresponds to a parallelepiped in a three dimensional coordinate system in which the spatial portion of the spacetime event is a two dimensional rectangular area on the surface of the earth and the temporal portion is a time interval.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein a spacetime event is proximate to the desired spacetime event if the center of its spatial portion lies inside the rectangular area of the spatial portion of the desired spacetime event, and the time interval of the temporal portion of the spacetime event intersects with the temporal portion of the desired spacetime event.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein said annotations include a privacy setting to designate the data object as public or private, and wherein said retrieving information for each data object comprises:

determining that the data object is designated as private; and

determining that there already exists in the spacetime database a data object owned by the second user for which the center of the spatial portion of its corresponding spacetime event lies inside the rectangular area of the spatial portion of the desired spacetime event.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein said enabling a first user to specify a spacetime event comprises receiving an indication from the first user of the center of the spatial portion of the spacetime event on an interactive map.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein said enabling a first user to specify a spacetime event comprises receiving a selection of a date, a start time of the time interval and a stop time of the time interval to specify the temporal portion of the spacetime event.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein the spatial portion of the desired spacetime event corresponds to a visible portion of an interactive map.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

maintaining a user database comprising records for users, each record including an electronic address and a personal photo;

retrieving from the user database personal photos of the owners of those data objects in the spacetime database whose corresponding spacetime events are proximate to the desired spacetime event;

displaying the retrieved personal photos to the second user;

enabling the second user to select a personal photo from among the displayed personal photos; and

providing to the second user the electronic address that corresponds to the selected personal photo.

10. A system for establishing a connection between two individuals using an interpersonal spacetime interaction system, comprising:

(a) a website that enables a first user (1) to specify a spacetime event wherein a spacetime event comprising a subset of spacetime, the specification of which includes a spatial portion and a temporal portion, and (2) to provide annotations for the spacetime event;

(b) a spacetime database for storing data objects, each data object corresponding to a spacetime event, including (1) the specification of the spacetime event, (2) a designation of an owner of the data object, and (3) the annotations for the spacetime event;

(c) a web interface for;

querying a spacetime database, using a query that includes at least a specification of a desired spacetime event, said query being initiated by a second user;

retrieving information from those data objects in the spacetime database whose corresponding spacetime events are proximate to the desired spacetime event; and

providing the retrieved information to the second user.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein each spacetime event corresponds to one or more parallelepipeds or one or more cylinders in a three dimensional coordinate system in which two of the dimensions are spatial and refer to points on the surface of the earth and the third dimension is time.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein each spacetime event corresponds to a parallelepiped in a three dimensional coordinate system in which the spatial portion of the spacetime event is a two dimensional rectangular area on the surface of the earth and the temporal portion is a time interval.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein a spacetime event is proximate to the desired spacetime event if the center of its spatial portion lies inside the rectangular area of the spatial portion of the desired spacetime event, and the time interval of the temporal portion of the spacetime event intersects with the temporal portion of the desired spacetime event.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein said annotations include a privacy setting to designate the data object as public or private, and wherein said retrieving information for each data object comprises:

determining that the data object is designated as private; and

determining that there already exists in the spacetime database a data object owned by the second user for which the center of the spatial portion of its corresponding spacetime event lies inside the rectangular area of the spatial portion of the desired spacetime event.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein said enabling a first user to specify a spacetime event comprises receiving an indication from the first user of the center of the spatial portion of the spacetime event on an interactive map.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein said enabling a first user to specify a spacetime event comprises receiving a selection of a date, a start time of the time interval and a stop time of the time interval to specify the temporal portion of the spacetime event.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the spatial portion of the desired spacetime event corresponds to a visible portion of an interactive map.

18. The system of claim 10 further comprising:

a user database for maintaining records for users, each record including an electronic address and a personal photo;

a web interface for retrieving from the user database personal photos of the owners of those data objects in the spacetime database whose corresponding spacetime events are proximate to the desired spacetime event;

a network device for displaying the retrieved personal photos to the second user; and

a web interface for

enabling the second user to select a personal photo from among the displayed personal photos; and

for

providing to the second user the electronic address that corresponds to the selected personal photo.

19. A method for bringing finders of objects into contact with losers of objects using an interpersonal spacetime interaction system, comprising:

(a) enabling a user to specify a spacetime event for a found item wherein a spacetime event is a subset of spacetime, the specification of which includes a spatial portion that corresponds to where an item was found and a temporal portion that corresponds to when an item was found;

(b) enabling a user (1) to specify a spacetime event for a lost item wherein the spatial portion of the spacetime event corresponds to where an item was lost and a temporal portion that corresponds to when an item was lost, and (2) to provide annotations for the spacetime event;

(c) maintaining a spacetime database comprising two types of data objects;

loser data objects, each loser data object corresponding to a spacetime event for a lost item, including (1) a unique identifier for the data object, (2) a specification of the spacetime event, (3) a designation of an owner of the loser data object, and (4) the annotations for the spacetime event; and

finder data objects, each finder data object corresponding to a spacetime event for a found item, including (1) a specification of the spacetime event, (2) a designation of an owner of the finder data object, and (3) a list of unique identifiers of loser data objects that tracks notifications of loser data objects;

(d) maintaining a user database comprising a record for each user, including an electronic address for the user;

(e) querying the spacetime database for matching loser data objects, wherein the matching loser data objects comprise at least one loser data object whose corresponding spacetime event intersects with the spacetime event of a designated finder data object;

(f) eliminating from the matching loser data objects those loser data objects whose unique identifiers are already included in the list unique identifiers of loser data objects of the designated finder data object;

(g) electronically notifying the owner of the designated finder data object of each matching loser data object; and

(h) updating the list of unique identifiers of loser data objects of the designated finder data object to include the unique identifier for each matching loser data object.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the spatial portion of a spacetime event for a lost item is a union of one or more parallelepipeds, each parallelepiped specified in a three dimensional coordinate system in which two of the dimensions are spatial and refer to points on the surface of the earth.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the spatial portion of a spacetime event for a found object is a point in space and the temporal portion of the spacetime event is a time interval.

22. The method of claim 19 wherein said annotations for a spacetime event for a lost item include a title and a description of the lost item.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said electronically notifying comprises sending an email message to the owner of the designated finder data object message, the email message including said title, said description of the lost item and the electronic address of the owner of the loser data object.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein said electronically notifying comprises sending a text message to the owner of the designated finder data object, the text message including said title and, said description of the lost object and the electronic address of the owner of the loser data object.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein said electronically notifying comprises sending an email message to the owner of the designated finder data object message, the email message including said title and a hyperlink to a web page that displays said description of the lost object.