Ad hoc wireless social networking

• US 9,173,245 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bill, David S.
• Primary Examiner(s): DOAN, KIET M
• Application Number:
  US13/615,577
• Publication Number:
  US 20130170393A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,139 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.1, 455/456.1, 455/450, 455/456.2, 455/435.1, 455/47, 455/456.3, 455/414.2, 370/254, 370/338, 370/230, 370/329, 705/3, 705/1, 705/67, 705/319, 705/14.53, 709/219, 709/204, 340/539.11, 340/254
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• 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 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A first device may communicate by joining a wireless mesh network that includes at least one wireless device configured to operate a wireless routing protocol, discovering a group of other wireless devices configured to participate in the wireless mesh network, and accessing an interest metric for a second wireless device in the group of other wireless devices. The interest metric is based in part on a network topology from the wireless mesh network. The interest metric is related to an interest threshold and it is determined whether relating the interest metric to the interest threshold supports enabling messaging communications. If so, messaging communications may be enabled.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

discovering, by a first wireless device, a second wireless device in a wireless mesh network;

accessing, by the first wireless device, a social interest metric for the second wireless device, the social interest metric indicating a plurality of social characteristics of a user of the second wireless device;

determining whether the social interest metric meets a predetermined criteria;

determining a number of hops between the first wireless device and the second wireless device;

if the social interest metric meets the predetermined criteria and the second device is within a predetermined number of hops of the first wireless device, enabling messaging communications to be exchanged between the first wireless device and the second wireless device; and

if the social interest metric does not meet the predetermined criteria, disabling, by the first wireless device, messaging communications from being exchanged between the first wireless device and the second wireless device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein discovering the second wireless device in the wireless mesh network comprises one of:

receiving a response to a broadcasted device advertisement or querying a wireless router.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the social interest metric for the second wireless device comprises accessing a social interest metric that indicates whether the user of the second wireless device is included in a co-user list.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the social interest metric for the second wireless device comprises accessing a social interest metric that indicates one or more neighbor characteristics for the user of the wireless device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the social interest metric for the second wireless device comprises accessing a social interest metric that indicates whether the user of the second wireless device is available to participate in instant messaging.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein accessing the social interest metric that indicates whether the user of the second wireless device is available to participate in instant messaging comprises accessing a social interest metric that indicates whether the second wireless device has peer-to-peer instant messaging capabilities.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining, by one or more processors, whether the social interest metric meets the predetermined criteria comprises:

relating the social interest metric to a social interest threshold; and

determining whether the relation between the social interest metric and the social interest threshold supports enabling message communication with the second wireless device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined criteria is a set of keywords specified by the first user.

9. A computer program product for use at a first wireless device, the computer program product comprising one or more non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the first wireless device to perform a method, including the following:

discover a second wireless device in a wireless mesh network;

access a social interest metric for the second wireless device, the social interest metric indicating a social characteristic of a user of the second wireless device;

determine whether the social interest metric meets a predetermined criteria;

determine a number of hops between the first wireless device and the second wireless device;

if the social interest metric meets the predetermined criteria and the second device is within a predetermined number of hops of the first wireless device, enable messaging communications to be exchanged between the first wireless device and the second wireless device; and

if the social interest metric does not meet the predetermined criteria, disable, by the first wireless device, messaging communications from being exchanged between the first wireless device and the second wireless device.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to discover the second wireless device in the wireless mesh network comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to perform one of:

receive a response to a broadcasted device advertisement or query a wireless router.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to access the social interest metric for the second wireless device comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to access a social interest metric that indicates whether the user of the second wireless device is included in a co-user list.

12. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to access the social interest metric for the second wireless device comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to access a social interest metric that indicates one or more neighbor characteristics for the second wireless device.

13. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to access the social interest metric for the second wireless device comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first client device to access a social interest metric that indicates whether the user of the second wireless device is available to participate in instant messaging.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to access the social interest metric that indicates whether the user of the second wireless device is available to participate in instant messaging comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to access a social interest metric that indicates whether the second wireless device has peer-to-peer instant messaging capabilities.

15. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to determine whether the social interest metric meets the predetermined criteria comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the first wireless device to:

relate the social interest metric to a social interest threshold; and

determine whether the relation between the social interest metric and the social interest threshold supports enabling message communication with the second wireless device.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the predetermined is a set of keywords specified by the first user.

17. A method comprising:

discovering, by a first wireless device, a second wireless device in a wireless mesh network using a peer propagation technique;

accessing a social interest metric for the second wireless device, the social interest metric indicating one or more social characteristics of the second wireless device and a user of the second wireless device;

determining whether the social interest metric satisfies a social interest metric threshold;

determining a number of hops between the first wireless device and the second wireless device;

if the social interest metric satisfies the social interest metric threshold and the second device is within a predetermined number of hops of the first wireless device, enabling messaging communications to be exchanged between the first wireless device and the second wireless device; and

if the social interest metric does not meet the social interest metric threshold, disabling, by the first wireless device, messaging communications from being exchanged between the first wireless device and the second wireless device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein accessing a social interest metric for the second wireless device comprises accessing a social interest metric that indicates one or more neighbor types and sub-types for the user of the second wireless device.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein determining, by one or more processors, whether the social interest metric satisfies a social interest metric threshold comprises determining if another user has social interests similar the social interests of the user of the second wireless device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein if the social interest metric satisfies the social interest metric threshold, enabling messaging communications to be exchanged with the wireless device comprises if the another user and the user have similar social interests, enabling messaging communications to be exchanged with the second wireless device.