Virtual calling card system and method

• US 7,373,609 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2006
• Issued: 05/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ranganath, Rama, Mesgar, Eugene, Saretto, Cesare John, Zarahovsky, Eugene, Sanders, Erica, Murarka, Neel Ishwar, Vert, John, Zaner, Melora, Stone, Linda, Mulcahy, Kathleen, Savage, Tammy, Chung, Eun-Kyung
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu; Kieu D.
• Application Number:
  US11/279,357
• Publication Number:
  US 20060168544A1
• Time in Patent Office: 763 Days
• Field of Search: 715/751, 715/752, 715/753, 715/758, 709/204
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2462 Approximate or statistical queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3346 using probabilistic model
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

A novel virtual calling card system and method aid in the formation of online relationships, serving as an introduction tool and as a contact mechanism. The calling card is an exchangeable entity that is automatically updated, ensuring that the recipient or viewer sees the most current version of the card. The card may display an aspect ratio that is the same as that of a traditional business card, and has a front side and a reverse side. Furthermore, the card provides a number of avenues for the card owner to express themselves, including an array of affiliation symbols, a most recent mood symbol, and a text field. The reverse side of the card can display a representation of the owner'"'"'s social network, so that the recipients of the card may identify common friends and associates. Thus, the sewer-based card exchange appears to users as an exchange in the physical world.

Claims

1. A system comprising components embodied on a computer-readable storage medium that when executed on a processor facilitate generating a graphical user interface for a virtual calling card, comprising:

a first display component that displays a front side of the virtual calling card and a plurality of active controls therein, wherein the plurality of active controls comprises a pass control and at least one of an add control, a chat button, an edit control, and a flip control, and wherein selection of the pass control automatically updates the calling card; and

a second display component that displays a social network of a user represented by the virtual calling card on a reverse side of the virtual calling card, wherein the social network comprises a plurality of users who have received the virtual calling card and a degree of separation between the users in the network, the degree of separation is based at least in part on the path by which the virtual calling card was passed to the users in the network.

2. The system of claim 1, the social network is organized according to known preferences of a user.

3. The system claim 2, the flip control initiates the second display component to display the reverse side of the virtual calling card.

4. The system of claim 1, the first display component further employed to display at least one user-defined attribute associated with the user on the front side of the virtual calling card.

5. The system of claim 4, the at least one user-defined attribute comprises at least one of the user'"'"'s character, the user'"'"'s name, an indication of the user'"'"'s most recent mood, a background image, a text area, and affiliation symbols.

6. The system of claim 5, the text area comprises at least one of images, video, and formatted text.

7. The system of claim 6, the formatted text formatted using Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) tags.

8. The system of claim 1, the first display component further comprises a user preference component that allows the user to modify user-defined attributes.

9. The system of claim 1, the second display component further comprises a social network component that retrieves information associated with the social network of the user from at least one computer system.

10. A computer implemented method for generating a graphical user interface for a virtual calling card, comprising:

providing a plurality of active controls on a front side of the virtual calling card, wherein the plurality of active controls comprises a pass control and at least one of an add control, a chat button, an edit control, and a flip control, and wherein selection of the pass control automatically updates the calling card;

displaying at least one user-defined attribute on the front side of the virtual calling card; and

displaying social network information on a reverse side of the virtual calling card, wherein the social network information comprises a plurality of recipients of the virtual calling card and a degree of separation between the recipients, the degree of separation is based at least in part on the recipients in the path by which the virtual calling card was passed to the recipients in the network.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising modifying at least one user-definable attribute according to inputs from a user.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising updating a stored version of the virtual calling card.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising suppressing at least one user-definable attribute associated with a user.

14. The method of claim 10, displaying social network information on a reverse side of the virtual calling card further comprises organizing the social network according to known preferences of a user.

15. The method of claim 10, displaying social network information further comprises retrieving a list of contacts from at least one computer system.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising compiling the list of contacts from a central data store reachable via a computer network.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising obtaining the list of contacts from an online application.

18. The method of claim 10, displaying social network information further comprises presenting statistical information associated with the social network of the user.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising caching the virtual calling card as an XML entity.

20. A computer-readable medium having thereon computer-readable instructions for generating a graphical library interface for viewing and manipulating virtual calling cards comprising,

a library interface for viewing and manipulating at least one virtual calling card, the at least one virtual calling card displays a plurality of active controls on the front side thereon, wherein the plurality of active controls comprises a pass control and at least one of an add control, a chat button, an edit control, and a flip control, and wherein selection of the pass control automatically updates the calling card;

and

a social network interface for displaying a social network on the reverse side of the at least one virtual calling card indicating a plurality of users who have received a virtual calling card and a degree of separation between the users in the network, the degree of separation is based at least in part on the users in the path through the network between two users.