LOCATION BASED CONTENT FILTERING AND DYNAMIC POLICY

• US 20120272287A1
• Filed: 04/20/2011
• Published: 10/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: KUHLKE, Matthew Robert, GATZKE, Alan Darryl
• Granted Patent: US 8,789,133 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

In one implementation, a social media device receives social interaction data including an identity of neighboring mobile devices that have been within a physical proximity of an object mobile device. The social media device hosts a social network service and provides content to a user associated with the object mobile device according to the identity of more neighboring mobile devices. The user of the object mobile device may opt to receive content only from those users that are identified in the social interaction data. The user of the object mobile device may opt to permit only those users that are identified in the social interaction data to receive content generated by the user of the object mobile device. The user may opt to alter the status policy seen by other users so that only users that are identified in the social interaction data see the user as available or online.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing a list of social media contacts;

receiving social interaction data at a controller including an identity of one or more neighboring mobile devices that have been within a physical proximity of an object mobile device;

matching the identity of one or more neighboring mobile devices to the list of social media contacts; and

transmitting social media content to a user associated with the object mobile device according to the identity of the one or more neighboring mobile devices matched with the list of social media contacts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the social interaction data is received from the object mobile device and the social interaction data is indicative of being collected by the object mobile device in response to a user input.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the social interaction data is received from the object mobile device and the social interaction data is indicative of being collected by the object mobile device dynamically based on signals received from the one or more neighboring mobile devices.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the signals are generated using radio frequency identification, ad-hoc network, Wi-Fi, or infrared.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the social interaction data includes an amount of time each of the one or more neighboring devices is within the physical proximity of the object mobile device, wherein the amount of time is measured by the object mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the social interaction data is received at the controller from a memory, the method further comprising:

receiving, at a communication interface, location data from the object mobile device and the one or more neighboring devices;

calculating the social interaction data from the location data; and

storing the social interaction data in the memory.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

updating the social media content provided to the user based on updated location data received at a predetermined interval.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the social media content of the user associated with the object mobile device is a news feed filtered according to a list of the one or more neighboring mobile devices to limit the news feed to online only contacts of the user or exclude online only contacts from the news feed.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying a policy to the social media content of the user associated with the object mobile device to limit access to users associated with the one or more neighboring mobile devices.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating an available status of the object mobile device to users associated with the one or more neighboring devices; and

communicating an unavailable status of the object mobile device to users not associated with the one or more neighboring devices.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a memory storing social media content associated with a user; and

a controller configured to receive social interaction data including an identity of one or more neighboring mobile devices that have been within a physical proximity of a mobile device associated with the user, and filter the social media content associated with the user according to the identity of the one or more neighboring mobile devices.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the social interaction data is received from the object mobile device, the social interaction data indicative of being collected by the object mobile device in response to a user input.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the social interaction data received is indicative of being collected dynamically by the object mobile device based on signals received from the one or more neighboring mobile devices.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to calculate the social interaction data from location data received from the mobile device and the one or more neighboring devices and send the social interaction data to the memory.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to filter a news feed according to a list of the one or more neighboring mobile devices to limit the news feed to real world contacts or exclude real world contacts from the news feed.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to apply a policy to the content of the user associated with the object mobile device to limit access to users associated with the one or more neighboring mobile devices.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to communicate an available status of the object mobile device to users associated with the one or more neighboring devices and communicates an unavailable status of the object mobile device to other users, wherein the other users are contacts of the user associated with the object mobile device but not associated with the one or more neighboring devices.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with software comprising computer executable instructions and when the software is executed operable to:

receive location data from a plurality of mobile devices;

calculate social interaction data for the plurality of mobile devices according to a time each of the plurality of mobile devices has been within a predetermined distance of another of the plurality of mobile devices; and

provide content to a user associated with one of the plurality of mobile devices according to the social interaction data.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, further operable to:

restrict content viewable by the user associated with the one of the plurality of mobile devices, wherein the content is associated with mobile devices that have not been within the predetermined distance for the predetermined time.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, further operable to:

communicate an available status of the user associated with the one of the plurality of mobile devices to users included in the social interaction data; and

communicate an unavailable status of the user associated with the one of the plurality of mobile devices to users not included in the social interaction data.