Communication system, communication method, program and information storage medium

• US 9,220,019 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Issued: 12/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kaido, Kenji, Nishina, Eiichi, Konno, Shohei, Hasekura, Tomohiro, Shichisawa, Takamasa, Tsuchiya, Keigo
• Primary Examiner(s): Nealon, William
• Application Number:
  US13/807,800
• Publication Number:
  US 20130157698A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,637 Days
• Field of Search: 455/457, 455/518, 455/519
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• 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 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

Provided is a communication system for allowing a user to feel the presence of other users existing in the same daily living area without using short-distance wireless communication. The system includes a position coordinate receiving section (80) for obtaining positions from a plurality of user terminals, and a nearby user distributing section (94) for selecting, under the condition that the nearby user distributing section (94) obtains a position of a specified user terminal, one or more of the plurality of user terminals corresponding to the position obtained from the specified user terminal and the positions obtained from the plurality of user terminals and providing the specified user terminal with information on the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals.

Claims

1. A communication system, comprising:

a position obtaining unit that obtains, from each of a plurality of user terminals, a position,

a user terminal selecting unit that selects, under a condition that the user terminal selecting unit obtains a position of a specified user terminal, one or more of the plurality of user terminals corresponding to the position obtained from the specified user terminal and the positions obtained from the plurality of user terminals, and

a display unit of the specified user terminal that displays indicia related to the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals, such indicia including an indication as to a privacy setting of each of the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals;

wherein

as to each of the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals, when the privacy setting indicates a desire for privacy, the indicia indicates a presence of the respective selected user terminal, but does not indicate the position of the respective selected user terminal; and

wherein

the number of indicia indicating a presence but not a position is determined by a calculated sum including both a number of user terminals having a privacy setting indicating a desire for privacy and a number of user terminals having a privacy setting not indicating a desire for privacy.

2. The communication system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storing unit that stores, under a condition that the position obtaining unit obtains a position, identification information of the user terminal from which the position is obtained in association with an area corresponding to the position, into a storage unit,

wherein the user terminal selecting unit obtains, under a condition that the user terminal selecting unit obtains a position of the specified user terminal, the identification information of the user terminal in association with the area corresponding to the position, the identification information being stored in the storage unit.

3. The communication system according to claim 2, wherein, under a condition that the identification information has been stored in the storage unit for more than a predetermined period of time, the storage unit deletes the identification information of the user terminal.

4. The communication system according to claim 2, wherein the user terminal selecting unit includes a unit that obtains identification information of the user terminal, the identification information being stored in the storage unit, in association with an area adjacent to the area corresponding to the position obtained from the specified user terminal.

5. The communication system according to claim 1, further comprising a position display unit that displays a position obtained from the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals.

6. The communication system according to claim 1 comprising the plurality of user terminals,

wherein each of the plurality of user terminals comprises:

a calculating unit that repeatedly calculates a position of itself, and stores the calculated position repeatedly into a position storage unit; and

a transmitting unit that transmits a plurality of calculated positions stored in the position storage unit to a server.

7. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the information providing unit provides the specified user terminal with data for an application program obtained from the selected user terminal.

8. A communication method, comprising:

obtaining, from each of a plurality of user terminals, a position;

selecting, under a condition that a position of a specified user terminal is obtained, one or more of the plurality of user terminals corresponding to the position obtained from the specified user terminal and the positions obtained from the plurality of user terminals; and

displaying in association with the specified user terminal indicia related to the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals, such indicia including an indication as to a privacy setting of each of the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals;

wherein

as to each of the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals, when the privacy setting indicates a desire for privacy, the indicia indicates a presence of the respective selected user terminal, but does not indicate the position of the respective selected user terminal; and

wherein

the number of indicia indicating a presence but not a position is determined by a calculated sum including both a number of user terminals having a privacy setting indicating a desire for privacy and a number of user terminals having a privacy setting not indicating a desire for privacy.

9. A program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium with a set of instructions stored therein that, when executed by a processor cause the steps of:

obtaining, from each of a plurality of user terminals, a position;

selecting, under a condition that a position of a specified user terminal is obtained, one or more of the plurality of user terminals corresponding to the position obtained from the specified user terminal and the positions obtained from the plurality of user terminals; and

displaying in association with the specified user terminal indicia related to the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals, such indicia including an indication as to a privacy setting of each of the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals;

wherein

as to each of the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals, when the privacy setting indicates a desire for privacy, the indicia indicates a presence of the respective selected user terminal, but does not indicate the position of the respective selected user terminal; and

wherein

the number of indicia indicating a presence but not a position is determined by a calculated sum including both a number of user terminals having a privacy setting indicating a desire for privacy and a number of user terminals having a privacy setting not indicating a desire for privacy.

10. A non-transitory information storage medium for storing a program for causing a computer to execute:

obtaining, from each of a plurality of user terminals, a position;

selecting, under a condition that a position of a specified user terminal is obtained, one or more of the plurality of user terminals corresponding to the position obtained from the specified user terminal and the positions obtained from the plurality of user terminals; and

displaying in association with the specified user terminal indicia related to the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals, such indicia including an indication as to a privacy setting of each of the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals;

wherein

as to each of the selected one or more of the plurality of user terminals, when the privacy setting indicates a desire for privacy, the indicia indicates a presence of the respective selected user terminal, but does not indicate the position of the respective selected user terminal; and

wherein

the number of indicia indicating a presence but not a position is determined by a calculated sum including both a number of user terminals having a privacy setting indicating a desire for privacy and a number of user terminals having a privacy setting not indicating a desire for privacy.