Determining logical groups without using personal information

• US 9,094,289 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2013
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Mallet, Vincent, Cheng, Jessica, Fiedel, Noah, Gillum, Eric William, Ramanarayanan, Ganesh, Woods, Nicholas James
• Primary Examiner(s): Lai, Michael C
• Application Number:
  US14/035,333
• Publication Number:
  US 20140032673A1
• Time in Patent Office: 672 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17306 Intercommunication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/287 Visualization; Browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• 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 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• 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 4/08 : User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 : Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 : Processing of subscriber group data
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 : Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 : Version management

Abstract

Systems and methods for the forming of user device groups are presented. First, logical relationship information describing logical relationships among a plurality of users is accessed. Then potential membership of a first user of a first user device in a first group of users is determined based on the logical relationship information, by selecting the first group from a plurality of possible groups, the selecting being based on scores generated, for each of the plurality of possible groups, by a candidate scorer module, the scores based at least partially on information about the first user device, but the scores not being based on any personal information about the first user the first group of users containing a plurality of users, including one or more users who are not logically connected to the first user. Then the first user is added to the first group of users.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

accessing logical relationship information describing logical relationships among a plurality of user devices;

generating, by a candidate scorer module, scores for each of a plurality of possible groups based at least partially on the logical relationship information and information about a first user device, but the scores not being based on any personally identifiable information about a first user of the first user device;

selecting a first group from the plurality of possible groups based on the scores, the first group containing more than one user devices, including both one or more user devices that are not logically connected to the first user device in the accessed logical relationship information and one or more user devices that are logically connected to the first user device in the accessed logical relationship information; and

adding the first user device to the first group.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information about the first user device includes location of the first user device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information about the first user device includes information about gestures made by the first user on the first user device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information about the first user device includes information from one or more sensors on the first user device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more sensors include a thermometer.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more sensors include a gyroscope.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more sensors include an accelerometer.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more sensors include a light meter.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more sensors include a microphone.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more sensors include a camera.

11. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory to store a plurality of modules comprising instructions for execution on the at least one processor, the modules comprising;

a candidate scorer module configured to generate scores for each of a plurality of possible groups based at least partially on the logical relationship information and information about a first user device, but the scores not being based on any personally identifiable information about a first user of the first user device; and

a group candidate indexer module configured to select a first group from the plurality of possible groups based on the scores, wherein the first group contains more than one user devices, including both one or more user devices that are not logically connected to the first user device in the accessed logical relationship information and one or more user devices that are logically connected to the first user device in the accessed logical relationship information and add the first user device to the first group.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the scores generated by the candidate scorer module are based on content sent by the first user device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the scores generated by the candidate scorer module are further based on location of the first user device when the content was sent and locations of other user devices in the plurality of possible groups at times when the other user devices sent content.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the scores generated by the candidate scorer module are further based on current location of the first user device and current locations of other user devices in the plurality of possible groups.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

accessing logical relationship information describing logical relationships among a plurality of user devices;

generating, by a candidate scorer module, scores for each of a plurality of possible groups based at least partially on the logical relationship information and information about a first user device, but the scores not being based on any personally identifiable information about a first user of the first user device;

selecting a first group from the plurality of possible groups based on the scores, the first group containing more than one user devices, including both one or more user devices that are not logically connected to the first user device in the accessed logical relationship information and one or more user devices that are logically connected to the first user device in the accessed logical relationship information; and

adding the first user device to the first group.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the information about the first user device includes location of the first user device.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the information about the first user device includes information about gestures made by the first user on the first user device.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the information about the first user device includes information from one or more sensors on the first user device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the one or more sensors include a microphone.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the one or more sensors include a gyroscope.