LOCAL AND TEMPORAL METHOD AND SYSTEM OF BROADCASTING VIA PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK

• US 20170265046A1
• Filed: 11/24/2015
• Published: 09/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kiwi Technologies India Pvt., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Loud-Hailer, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Jack, Butler, Cimon, Cozza, Luca, Kumar, Sumit, Upadhyay, Alok, Chand, Subhash
• Granted Patent: US 10,448,219 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 Secure pairing of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/20 Master-slave selection or change arrangements

Abstract

A method and system for distributed messaging between a plurality of computer devices using a shortrange wireless communication protocol (SRWP) is disclosed. The communication protocol can be one in which slave devices provide data to master devices. A device automatically establishes master and slave connections with other devices via the protocol as they come into range. A user-entered message is displayed on the device and broadcast by the device over slave connections to other connected devices. Messages received by the device over its master connections are displayed and also rebroadcast to other connected devices. Messages can be displayed for a limited time period during which they fade or otherwise are altered to provide a visual indication of the display lifetime remaining for that message. A relay can be provided to receive an rebroadcast messages to connected devices and inject into the SRWP network from devices outside the network.

Claims

1. A method for distributed messaging between a plurality of computer devices using a short range wireless communication protocol through which slave devices provide data to master devices, the method on a first computer device having a user input and a display comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing at least one slave connection with a first set of remote devices, each remote device in said first set appearing to said first computer device as a master device, each slave connection being associated with a respective one of said remote devices in said first set and wherein the first computer device functions as a slave device when communicating via said slave connections;

(b) establishing at least one master connection with a second set of remote devices, each remote device in said second set appearing to said first computer device as a slave device, each master connection being associated with a respective one of said remote devices in said second set, and wherein the first computer device functions as a master device when communicating via said master connections;

(c) receiving a first incoming message via the user input;

(d) receiving a second incoming message from one of the remote devices in the second set via the respective master connection;

(e) repeating steps (c) and (d) to receive subsequent incoming messages;

(f) displaying at least some of the incoming messages on the display;

(g) generating for at least some of the incoming messages a corresponding outgoing message; and

(h) sending the corresponding outgoing messages to at least one of the remote devices in the first set via the respective slave connections.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein

step (a) comprises the steps of:

broadcasting a connection available message indicating that the first computer device is available to be connected to;

receiving a connection request message from a particular remote device acting as a master device; and

sending a connection acceptance message to said particular remote device acting as a master device;

and step (b) comprises the steps of

receiving a connection available message from a particular remote device acting as a slave device;

sending a connection request message to the particular remote device acting as a slave device if the particular remote device is not already connected as a slave device; and

receiving a connection acceptance message from the particular remote device acting as a slave device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the short range wireless communication protocol is the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of remote devices and the second set of remote devices have at least one device in common, the first computer device thereby having, for each respective remote device in common, both a respective slave connection and a respective master connection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each displayed incoming message has a corresponding display lifetime and each displayed incoming message is displayed only during its respective display lifetime.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein

each displayed incoming message has at least one corresponding visual display attribute which is varied with respect to time remaining in the display lifetime of said respective displayed incoming message, and said varied display attribute providing a visual indication of the time remaining in the display lifetime of said respective displayed incoming message.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the display attribute comprises at least one of color, contrast, transparency, size, and typeface.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein transparency of a respective displayed incoming message is increased with respect to decreasing time remaining in the display lifetime of said respective displayed incoming message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (h) comprises sending each respective outgoing message to each remote device in the first set other than a remote device from which the incoming message corresponding to the respective outgoing message was received.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein in step (h) each respective outgoing message is resent a plurality of times to each of the at least one of the remote devices in the first set.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein in step (h) each respective outgoing message is resent to each of the at least one of the remote devices in the first set only during a rebroadcast window of time.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining if a respective subsequent incoming message is unique relative to a set of prior incoming messages, wherein steps (f), (g), and (h) are performed for the respective subsequent incoming messages only if the message is unique.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the set of prior incoming messages comprises incoming messages received during a preceding window of time of at least a predefined remembrance lifetime.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each displayed incoming message has a corresponding display lifetime and each displayed incoming message is displayed only during its respective lifetime;

wherein the display lifetime is less than the remembrance lifetime.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein step (h) comprises the steps of, for a respective outgoing message:

dividing the respective outgoing message into a plurality of chunks; and

sending each of the plurality of chunks to the at least one of the remote devices in the first set via the respective slave connections.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of chunks is sent to the at least one of the remote devices in the first set in a distributed chunkwise manner.

17. A computer program product directly loadable into the internal memory of a digital computer comprising software code portions for performing the steps of claim 1 when said product is run on a computer.

18. A system for distributed messaging using a short range wireless communication protocol (SRWP) through which slave devices provide data to master devices, the system comprising:

a first computer device including a computer processor, a memory, an RF transceiver, a display, and a user input device;

the memory containing computer instructions to configure the processor of the first computer device to;

(a) establish using the SRWP and the RF transceiver at least one slave connection with a first set of remote devices, each remote device in said first set appearing to said first computer device as a master device, each slave connection being associated with a respective one of said remote devices in said first set and wherein the first computer device functions as a slave device when communicating via said slave connections;

(b) establish using the SRWP and the RF transceiver at least one master connection with a second set of remote devices, each remote device in said second set appearing to said first computer device as a slave device, each master connection being associated with a respective one of said remote devices in said second set, and wherein the first computer device functions as a master device when communicating via said master connections;

(c) receive a first incoming message via the user input device;

(d) receive a second incoming message from one of the remote devices in the second set via the respective master connection;

(e) receive subsequent incoming messages from at least one of the user input device and one of the remote devices in the second set via the respective master connection;

(f) display at least some of the incoming messages on the display;

(g) generate for at least some of the incoming messages a corresponding outgoing message; and

(h) send the corresponding outgoing messages to at least one of the remote devices in the first set via the respective slave connections using the SRWP and the RF transceiver.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein:

the computer instructions to establish slave connections with a first set of remote devices comprise computer instructions to configure the processor to;

broadcast a connection available message indicating that the first computer device is available to be connected to;

receive a connection request message from a particular remote device acting as a master device; and

send a connection acceptance message to said particular remote device acting as a master device;

and the computer instructions to establish master connections with a second set of remote devices comprise computer instructions to configure the processor to;

receive a connection available message from a particular remote device acting as a slave device;

send a connection request message to the particular remote device acting as a slave device if the particular remote device is not already connected as a slave device; and

receive a connection acceptance message from the particular remote device acting as a slave device.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer instructions configure the processor to display each displayed incoming message only during a respective display lifetime for that message.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the computer instructions configure the processor to display vary a visual display attribute of said respective displayed incoming message with respect to time remaining in the display lifetime.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the display attribute comprises at least one of color, contrast, transparency, size, and typeface.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer instructions configure the processor to send each respective outgoing message to each remote device in the first set other than a remote device from which the incoming message corresponding to the respective outgoing message was received.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the computer instructions configure the processor to resend each respective outgoing message a plurality of times to each of the at least one of the remote devices in the first set.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the computer instructions configure the processor to resend each respective outgoing message to each of the at least one of the remote devices in the first set only during a rebroadcast window of time.

26. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer instructions configure the processor to filter out respective subsequent incoming messages which are not unique relative to a set of prior incoming messages during a preceding window of time of at least a predefined remembrance lifetime.

27. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer instructions to configure the processor to send the corresponding outgoing messages comprises computer instructions to configure the processor to:

divide the respective outgoing message into a plurality of chunks; and

send each of the plurality of chunks to the at least one of the remote devices in the first set via the respective slave connections.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the computer instructions configure the processor to send the chunks in a distributed chunkwise manner.

29. A method for relaying distributed messaging between a plurality of computer devices using a short range wireless communication protocol (SRWP) through which slave devices provide data to master devices, the method on a relay computer device comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing via the SRWP at least one slave connections with a first set of remote devices, each remote device in said first set appearing to said relay computer device as a master device, each slave connection being associated with a respective one of said remote devices in said first set and wherein the relay computer device functions as a slave device when communicating via said slave connections;

(b) establishing via the SRWP at least one master connections with a second set of remote devices, each remote device in said second set appearing to said relay computer device as a slave device, each master connection being associated with a respective one of said remote devices in said second set, and wherein the first computer device functions as a master device when communicating via said master connections;

(c) receiving a first incoming message from one of the remote devices in the second set via the respective master connection;

(d) generating for the first incoming message a corresponding first outgoing message; and

(e) sending the corresponding first outgoing message to at least one of the remote devices in the first set via the respective slave connections.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising the steps of:

receiving at the relay computer a second incoming message from an external device that is not communicating with the relay computer over the SRWP;

generating for the second incoming message a corresponding second outgoing message; and

sending the corresponding second outgoing message to at least one of the remote devices in the first set via the respective slave connections.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the step of sending the corresponding second outgoing message is performed in response to the occurrence of a predefined trigger condition.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the SRWP is the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol and the relay receives the second incoming message over one of a wired internet connection, a WiFi connection, and a cellular data connection.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein step (e) is repeated a plurality of times.

34. The method of claim 29, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a third incoming message from one of the remote devices in the second set via the respective master connection; and

, if the third incoming message is unique relative to the first incoming message, generating for the third incoming message a corresponding third outgoing message and sending the corresponding third outgoing

message to at least one of the remote devices in the first set via the respective slave connections.

35. A relay for relaying distributed messaging between a plurality of computer devices using a short range wireless communication protocol (SRWP) through which slave devices provide data to master devices, the relay comprising:

a computer processor;

a computer memory; and

a SRWP communication interface;

the computer memory containing computer instructions to configure the processor to;

(a) establish via the SRWP at least one slave connection with a first set of remote devices, each remote device in said first set appearing to said relay computer device as a master device, each slave connection being associated with a respective one of said remote devices in said first set and wherein the relay computer device functions as a slave device when communicating via said slave connections;

(b) establish via the SRWP at least one master connection with a second set of remote devices, each remote device in said second set appearing to said relay computer device as a slave device, each master connection being associated with a respective one of said remote devices in said second set, and wherein the first computer device functions as a master device when communicating via said master connections;

(c) receive a first incoming message from one of the remote devices in the second set via the respective master connection;

(d) generate for the first incoming message a corresponding first outgoing message; and

(e) send the corresponding first outgoing message to at least one of the remote devices in the first set via the respective slave connections.

36. The relay of claim 35, further comprising a second communication interface which does not use the SRWP;

the computer memory containing further computer instructions to configure the processor to;

receive at the relay computer a second incoming message from an external device via the second communication interface;

generate for the second incoming message a corresponding second outgoing message; and

send the corresponding second outgoing message to at least one of the remote devices in the first set via the respective slave connections.

37. The relay of claim 36, wherein the computer instructions configure the processor to send the corresponding second outgoing message in response to the occurrence of a predefined trigger condition.

38. The relay of claim 36, wherein the SRWP is the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol and the second communication interface is one of a wired internet connection, a

WiFi connection, and a cellular data connection.

39. The system of claim 35, wherein the computer instructions configure the processor to send the corresponding first outgoing message a plurality of times.

40. The system of claim 35, further comprising computer instructions that configure the processor to determine if a third incoming message from one of the remote devices in the second set is unique relative to the first incoming message and, if so, to (i) generate for the third incoming message a corresponding third outgoing message and (ii) send the corresponding third outgoing message to at least one of the remote devices in the first set via the respective slave connections.