APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MATCHING USERS TO GROUPS FOR ONLINE COMMUNITIES AND COMPUTER SIMULATIONS

• US 20130254278A1
• Filed: 03/21/2012
• Published: 09/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: BUHR, Brian Douglas, SANTHOSH, Sreelata
• Granted Patent: US 10,186,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A method includes detecting a first user seeking to join a group, detecting one or more groups recruiting members, retrieving user parameters corresponding to the first user, and retrieving group parameters corresponding to each of the one or more groups. The group parameters may comprise group characteristic data and group requirements. For each group of the one or more groups, the group parameters corresponding to the group are compared against the user parameters corresponding to the first user. A score is determined for each of the one or more groups based on the comparing. One or more selected groups of the one or more groups is recommended to the first user at least in part based on the score. One or more computer programs may be adapted to execute the above steps, and a processor may be configured to perform the above steps.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium storing one or more computer readable programs adapted to cause a processor based system to execute steps comprising:

detecting a first user seeking to join a group;

detecting one or more groups recruiting members;

retrieving user parameters corresponding to the first user;

retrieving group parameters corresponding to each of the one or more groups, wherein the group parameters comprise group characteristic data and group requirements;

for each group of the one or more groups, comparing the group parameters corresponding to the group against the user parameters corresponding to the first user;

determining a score for each of the one or more groups based on the comparing; and

recommending one or more selected groups of the one or more groups to the first user at least in part based on the score.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the user parameters comprise one or more parameters determined by the system.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the user parameters comprise one or more parameters entered by the user.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer readable programs are further adapted to cause the processor based system to execute steps comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one of the one or more selected groups; and

sending a request to join to the at least one of the one or more selected groups.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the one or more computer readable programs are further adapted to cause the processor based system to execute steps comprising:

detecting that the at least one of the one or more selected groups has accepted the request to join; and

adding the first user to the at least one of the one or more selected groups.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer readable programs are further adapted to cause the processor based system to execute steps comprising:

posting information related to the first user or at least one of the one or more selected groups to a website.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer readable programs are further adapted to cause the processor based system to execute steps comprising:

causing information related to the first user or at least one of the one or more selected groups to be transmitted to a plurality of mobile devices.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to perform the steps comprising;

detecting a first user seeking to join a group;

detecting one or more groups recruiting members;

retrieving user parameters corresponding to the first user;

retrieving group parameters corresponding to each of the one or more groups, wherein the group parameters comprise group characteristic data and group requirements;

for each group of the one or more groups, comparing the group parameters corresponding to the group against the user parameters corresponding to the first user;

determining a score for each of the one or more groups based on the comparing; and

recommending one or more selected groups of the one or more groups to the first user at least in part based on the score.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the steps further comprise:

displaying the one or more selected groups to the first user.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a display for displaying the one or more selected groups to the first user.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the displaying the one or more selected groups comprises displaying the one or more selected groups in a report.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the displaying the one or more selected groups comprises displaying the one or more selected groups in one or more clouds.

13. A method comprising:

detecting a first user seeking to join a group;

detecting one or more groups recruiting members;

retrieving user parameters corresponding to the first user;

retrieving group parameters corresponding to each of the one or more groups, wherein the group parameters comprise group characteristic data and group requirements;

for each group of the one or more groups, comparing the group parameters corresponding to the group against the user parameters corresponding to the first user;

determining a score for each of the one or more groups based on the comparing; and

recommending one or more selected groups of the one or more groups to the first user at least in part based on the score.