CONTEXTUAL PRESENCE SYSTEM AND ASSOCIATED METHODS

• US 20120102073A1
• Filed: 10/24/2011
• Published: 04/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sabse Technologies Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sabse Technologies Inc.
• Inventors: Patel, Yogesh B.
• Granted Patent: US 9,270,490 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Systems and methods dynamically form a context group that has a plurality of members and propagate payload data between the members. A database associates a context identifier (ID) of the context group with a user ID of each member. A context manager, communicatively coupled with the database, receives a join context request containing the context ID and a user ID from each said member, creates the context group, if not existing, within the database in response to the join request, and adds the user ID, if not existing, of each said member to the database in association with the context ID. A payload handler receives payload data from one of said members and propagates the payload data to other said members of the context group.

Claims

1. A contextual presence system (CPS) for dynamically forming a context group having a plurality of members and for propagating payload data between the members, comprising:

a database for associating a context identifier (ID) of the context group with a user ID of each said member;

a context manager, communicatively coupled with the database, for;

receiving a join context request containing the context ID and a user ID from each said member;

creating the context group, if not existing, within the database in response to the join request; and

adding the user ID, if not existing, of each said member to the database in association with the context ID; and

a payload handler for receiving payload data from one of said members and for propagating the payload data to other said members of the context group.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the CPS creates the context group in real-time upon receiving the join context request when the context ID does not exist within the database.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the size and content of the payload data is defined by an application running on a user device that sent the join context request.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user ID is defined by an application running on a user device that sent the join context request.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the context manager validates the join context request using a CPS application ID to identify an application sending the join context request.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the context ID is generated by an application running on a user device that sent the join context request based upon a parameter under control of a user of the device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the user device may join more than one context group.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the database further stores connectivity information of each of the user devices corresponding to said members of the context group.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the payload handler is configured as a plurality of internetworked edge nodes in communication with the context manager, and wherein the payload data is received by a first edge node and propagated to at least one of the other said members via a second of the edge nodes without passing through a server of the context manager.

10. The system of claim 9, the payload handler further comprising a payload manager for storing, on each of the edge nodes, a routing table defining propagation of the payload data based upon connectivity of each said member of the context group.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the edge nodes are geographically distributed.

12. A computer implemented method for dynamically forming a context group, comprising the steps of:

receiving, from a first user device running an application, a first join context request comprising (a) a context ID defined by the application and (b) a first user ID of the first user device; and

creating the context group within a database based upon the context ID and the first user ID directly upon receiving the first join context request.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

receiving, from a second user device running a copy of the application, a second join context request comprising (c) the context ID and (d) a second user ID of the second user device; and

adding the second user ID to the context group by adding the second user ID to the database in association with the context ID.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the steps of receiving the second join context request and adding are repeated for each received additional join context request.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

receiving, from one of the first and second user devices, a payload message comprising (c) payload data, (d) the context ID, and (e) a corresponding one of the first and second user IDs; and

propagating the payload data to corresponding other of said first and second user devices based upon the context ID and the corresponding one of the first and second user IDs.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the steps of receiving the payload data and propagating repeat for each additional payload message.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

receiving, from one of the first and second user devices, a leave context message comprising the context ID and a corresponding one of the first and second user IDs; and

removing said corresponding one of the first and second user IDs from the context group;

wherein the context group is deleted from the database directly upon receiving the leave context message if the removed corresponding one of the first and second IDs was the only ID of the context group.