GEOGRAPHICALLY LIMITED COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20120089689A1
• Filed: 10/12/2011
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arthur P. Tan
• Original Assignee: Arthur P. Tan
• Inventors: Tan, Arthur P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,984,073 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• 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 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging

Abstract

A geographically limited communications system comprises a server for receiving one or more posts or messages from one or more location-enabled portable devices. The server may store these posts and retrieve them based on location information stored along with the posts. This allows only posts left at a particular location to be viewed by users at that location. In addition, posts may only be left at a user'"'"'s current location in one or more embodiments. The server may notify a user when another user leaves a post near or at one of the user'"'"'s previous posts.

Claims

1. A geographically limited communications system comprising:

one or more communication devices configured to receive from one or more portable devices;

a plurality of posts comprising text, location information, and a user identifier; and

one or more requests comprising a user'"'"'s current location;

one or more storage devices configured to store the plurality of posts;

one or more processors configured to receive the one or more requests and to retrieve one or more of the plurality of posts from the one or more storage devices with location information indicating a location within a vicinity of the user'"'"'s current location; and

wherein the one or more communications devices are configured to transmit the one or more of the plurality of posts retrieved from the one or more storage devices to the one or more portable devices.

2. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine if the one or more of the plurality of posts overlap and to send a notification to one or more users via the one or more communications devices when the one or more of the plurality of posts overlap, the one or more users being identified by the user identifier in the one or more posts that overlap.

3. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the one or more storage devices are configured to store a category identifier for one or more of the plurality of posts.

4. The communications system of claim 3, wherein the one or more communications devices send a notification to a user when the category identifier is stored for the one or more of the plurality of posts, the user being identified by the user identifier in the one or more of the plurality of posts.

5. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the vicinity of the user'"'"'s location is defined by the accuracy of a location detector, the location detector being part of a portable device belonging to the user.

6. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of posts also comprise a range defined by the accuracy of a location detector of the one or more portable devices.

7. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the one or more communication devices are configured to notify one or more users when one or more of the plurality of posts are within one or more predefined geographic areas, the one or more users being identified by the user identifier of the one or more of the plurality of posts within the one or more predefined geographic areas.

8. A geographically limited communications system comprising:

one or more communication devices configured to receive, from one or more portable devices, a plurality of posts comprising text, location information, and a user identifier, the location information identifying a particular geographic location and an area surrounding the particular geographic location;

one or more storage devices configured to store the plurality of posts; and

one or more processors configured to determine if one or more of the plurality of posts have overlapping areas and to generate a notification to one or more users indicating that a new overlapping post has been received by the communications system, wherein the notification is sent to the one or more users via one or more communications devices, the one or more users being identified by the user identifier in the one or more of the plurality of posts that overlap.

9. The communications system of claim 8, wherein the one or more communication devices are configured to receive one or more requests comprising a user'"'"'s current location.

10. The communications system of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors are configured to retrieve one or more of the plurality of posts that are at the user'"'"'s current location using the location information of the plurality of posts, whereby the one or more of the plurality of posts that are retrieved are transmitted to a user at the user'"'"'s current location via the one or more communication devices.

11. A method of communicating in a geographically limited manner comprising:

providing a server configured to receive a plurality of posts comprising location information and a user identifier, wherein the location information identifies a particular geographic location and an area surrounding the particular geographic location;

receiving a user'"'"'s current location from a portable device of the user;

transmitting to the user'"'"'s portable device only one or more of the plurality of posts that are located at the user'"'"'s current location to allow the user to only view the one or more of the plurality of posts that are at the user'"'"'s current location;

determining if one or more of the plurality of posts having overlapping areas;

sending a notification to one or more users identified in the one or more of the plurality of posts having overlapping areas; and

transmitting the one or more posts having overlapping areas to the one or more users to allow the one or more users to view the one or more posts having overlapping areas regardless of a current location of the one or more users.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising receiving a category identifier for one or more of the plurality of posts along with a user identifier, and storing the category identifier along with the user identifier to catalog the one or more of the plurality of posts.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the notification to the one or more users is sent when one or more of the plurality of posts are within a predefined geographic area, the one or more users being identified by the user identifier in one or more of the plurality of posts located within the predefined geographic area.