System and method for creating a viewing social network

• US 8,694,656 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2011
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Douillet, Ludovic, Mihalov, Bryan, Sadja, Aran, Sugiyama, Nobukazu, Tang, Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Mui, Gary
• Assistant Examiner(s): JAHANGIR, KABIR U
• Application Number:
  US13/108,977
• Publication Number:
  US 20120117144A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/203, 709/204, 709/205, 709/206, 709/228
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/562 Brokering proxy services

Abstract

A system and method for detecting a user operating a first client device at an intermediary server communicatively coupled to one or more client devices including the first client device and further communicatively coupled to one or more other intermediary servers each communicatively coupled with one or more other client devices, establishing communication with at least one social networking server maintaining information corresponding to the user comprising one or more of user preferences, a plurality of user connections, and user connection preferences corresponding to each of the plurality of user connections, querying the at least one social networking server for the information, receiving the information and generating a local viewing social network for the user comprising generating a user profile according to the information, detecting one or more local connections and establishing direct communication between the user and at least one of the one or more local connections.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting a user operating a first client device at an intermediary server, wherein the intermediary server is communicatively coupled to one or more client devices including the first client device and further communicatively coupled to one or more other intermediary servers each communicatively coupled with one or more other client devices;

establishing communication with at least one social networking server maintaining information corresponding to the user, the information comprising one or more of user preferences, a plurality of user connections, and user connection preferences corresponding to each of the plurality of user connections;

querying the at least one social networking server for the information;

receiving the information; and

generating a local viewing social network for the user comprising;

generating a user profile according to the information;

detecting one or more local connections of the plurality of user connections operating a client device of the one or more client devices or the one or more other client devices;

establishing direct communication between the user and at least one of the one or more local connections;

receiving a user command from the user via one of keyboard, mouse, touch pad, and game controller, the user command implemented in a first protocol specific to the first client device to perform at least one function at a first one of the at least one social networking server, the at least one function including at least one of chatting, voice messaging, presence inquiries and updates, content sharing and synchronization, and device control and system messages;

generating a command set comprising one or more API calls executable at the first one of the at least one social networking server for performing the at least one function; and

sending the command set to the first one of the at least one social networking server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the user comprises receiving a request to generate the local viewing social network from the user at the first client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user preferences and the user connection preferences comprise multi-media utilization habits.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing direct communication comprises:

notifying the user that the one or more local connections have been detected; and

receiving a user selection of at least one of the one or more local connections from the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the command set is implemented according to HTTP protocol.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the command set comprises looking up the user command in a look up table and determining the one or more commands executable at the first one of the at least one social networking server for performing the function.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing communication with the at least one social networking server comprises:

detecting a user request to connect to the at least one social networking server;

detecting a temporary token from the at least one social networking server corresponding to the user;

contacting the at least one social networking server and exchanging the temporary token to retrieve an actual token, thereby establishing communication with the at least one social networking server with respect to the user.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

redirecting the user to the at least one social networking server; and

receiving the temporary token in response to the user connecting to the at least one social networking server.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an update event from the user; and

generating an update command to be executed by the at least one social networking server, wherein the update command will result in updating the information corresponding to the user at the at least one social networking server according to the update event.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

querying the user for authorization to announce the update event;

generating the update command upon receiving authorization.

11. A system comprising:

one or more intermediary servers communicatively coupled to one another and each of the one or more intermediary servers further communicatively coupled to one or more client devices;

at least one of the one or more intermediary servers comprising a processor configured to perform steps comprising;

detecting a user operating a first client device of the one or more client devices communicatively coupled to the at least one of the one or more intermediary servers;

establishing communication with at least one social networking server maintaining information corresponding to the user, the information comprising one or more of user preferences, a plurality of user connections, and user connection preferences corresponding to each of the plurality of user connections;

querying the at least one social networking server for the information;

receiving the information; and

generating a local viewing social network for the user comprising;

generating a user profile according to the information;

detecting one or more local connections of the plurality of user connections operating a client device of the one or more client devices communicatively coupled to the one or more intermediary servers; and

establishing direct communication between the user and at least one of the one or more local connections;

receiving a user command from the user via one of keyboard, mouse, touch pad, and game controller, the user command implemented in a first protocol specific to the first client device to perform at least one function at a first one of the at least one social networking server, the at least one function including at least one of chatting, voice messaging, presence inquiries and updates, content sharing and synchronization, and device control and system messages;

generating a command set comprising one or more API calls executable at the first one of the at least one social networking server for performing the at least one function; and

sending the command set to the first one of the at least one social networking server.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein detecting the user comprises receiving a request to generate the local viewing social network from the user at the first client device.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the user preferences and the user connection preferences comprise multi-media utilization habits.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the establishing direct communication comprises:

notifying the user that the one or more local connections have been detected; and

receiving a user selection of the at least one of the one or more local connections from the user.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein establishing communication comprises:

detecting a user request to connect to the at least one social networking server;

detecting a temporary token from the at least one social networking server corresponding to the user;

contacting the at least one social networking server and exchanging the temporary token to retrieve an actual token, thereby establishing communication with the at least one social networking server with respect to the user.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to perform the steps comprising:

detecting an update event from the user; and

generating an update command to be executed by the at least one social networking server, wherein the update command will result in updating the information corresponding to the user at the at least one social networking server according to the update event.

17. A tangible non-transitory computer readable medium storing one or more computer readable programs adapted to cause a processor based system to execute steps comprising:

detecting a user operating a first client device at an intermediary server, wherein the intermediary server is communicatively coupled to one or more client devices including the first client device and further communicatively coupled to one or more other intermediary servers each communicatively coupled with one or more other client devices;

establishing communication with at least one social networking server maintaining information corresponding to the user, the information comprising one or more of user preferences, a plurality of user connections, and user connection preferences corresponding to each of the plurality of user connections;

querying the at least one social networking server for the information;

receiving the information; and

generating a local viewing social network for the user comprising;

generating a user profile according to the information;

detecting one or more local connections of the plurality of user connections operating a client device of the one or more client devices or the one or more other client devices; and

establishing direct communication between the user and at least one of the one or more local connections;

receiving a user command from the user via one of keyboard, mouse, touch pad, and game controller, the user command implemented in a first protocol specific to the first client device to perform at least one function at a first one of the at least one social networking server, the at least one function including at least one of chatting, voice messaging, presence inquiries and updates, content sharing and synchronization, and device control and system messages;

generating a command set comprising one or more API calls executable at the first one of the at least one social networking server for performing the at least one function; and

sending the command set to the first one of the at least one social networking server.