Social networking of mobile devices

• US 9,288,638 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2009
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Ankolekar, Anupriya, Wilkinson, Dennis Matthews, Huberman, Bernardo, Szabo, Gabor Janos, Wu, Fang
• Primary Examiner(s): SAMS, MATTHEW C
• Application Number:
  US13/148,582
• Publication Number:
  US 20110319058A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,577 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/20 Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

A method for social networking of mobile devices based upon telephone numbers of the mobile devices includes receiving user profile information and telephone numbers of contacts from a plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices; at least one of creating and updating respective user profiles based upon the telephone numbers of the users'"'"' mobile devices and the received profile information; identifying relationships among the users based at least upon the contacts contained in the contacts information; and establishing a social network group including at least two of the users based upon the identified relationships among the users.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium on which is embedded one or more computer programs for implementing a method for social networking of mobile devices based upon telephone numbers of the mobile devices, said one or more computer programs comprising a set of instructions for:

receiving user profile information and telephone numbers of contacts from a plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices;

identifying the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices based upon their respective telephone numbers;

at least one of creating and updating respective user profiles based upon the telephone numbers of the users'"'"' mobile devices and the received profile information;

identifying relationships among the users based at least upon the contacts contained in contacts information of the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices;

establishing a social network group including at least two of the users'"'"' mobile devices by grouping the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices based upon the identified relationships among the users;

classifying the users into a plurality of categories in the social network group;

and

causing communication of data pertaining to at least one of calls and texts made through the first user'"'"'s mobile device of the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices to a second user'"'"'s mobile device of the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices dependent upon whether the second user belongs to a first category of the plurality of categories.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 1, said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:

communicating information pertaining to the first user in the social network group to at least one other user'"'"'s mobile device in the social network group, the information to include identification of contacts stored in the first user'"'"'s mobile device arranged into various categories.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 1, said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:

receiving log information, the log information comprising at least one of call log information and text log information from the users'"'"' mobile devices;

determining strengths of relationships between each of the users based upon the at least one of the call log information and the text log information;

classifying the users with respect to each other into the plurality of categories in the social network group based upon at least one of the determined strengths of the relationships between the plurality of users, explicit groups made by the user, and one or more characteristics of interactions between the user and the plurality of users;

arranging the contacts in a ranked order list according to the categories into which the contacts have been classified; and

communicating different types of information to the users based upon the categories into which the users fall with respect to each other.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 3, said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:

tracking the one or more characteristics of interactions of the at least one of calls and texts made through the first user'"'"'s mobile device from the received at least one of call log information and text log information of the first user'"'"'s mobile device; and

communicating the tracked one or more characteristics of interactions and the tracked at least one of calls and texts made through the first user'"'"'s mobile device to a second user'"'"'s mobile device.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 1, said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:

receiving a request from the first user to connect to the second user;

communicating the request to the second user'"'"'s mobile device;

receiving an indication as to whether the second user accepted or denied the request; and

connecting the first user to the second user in response to receipt of an indication that the second user accepted the request to connect to the first user.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 5, said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:

determining whether a user profile of the second user has been created; and

wherein communicating the request to the second user further comprises communicating the request to the second user in response to a determination that the user profile of the second user has been created.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 1, said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:

receiving updated profile information from a user'"'"'s mobile device; and

communicating the updated profile information to mobile devices of the users in the social network group.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 1, said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:

receiving preferences from the plurality of users, wherein the preferences define the information that is made available to mobile devices of the users in the social network group and to persons outside of the social network group.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 1, said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:

receiving location information from the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices;

tracking locations of plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices;

communicating the tracked locations of one or more of the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices to mobile devices of the users in the social network group; and

communicating an alert when the first user'"'"'s mobile device is within a predetermined proximity the second user'"'"'s mobile device.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 1, said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:

ordering the contacts based upon a relative strength of the identified relationships with the contacts; and

causing the contacts to be displayed based upon the relative strength of the identified relationships.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 3, said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:

causing a private profile to display to users within the social network group; and

causing a public profile to display to users outside the social network group.

12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a set of program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive user profile information and telephone numbers of contacts from a plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices;

identify the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices based upon their respective telephone numbers;

at least one of create and update respective user profiles based upon the telephone numbers of the users'"'"' mobile devices and the received user profile information;

identify relationships among users of the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices based at least upon contacts contained in the contacts information;

classify the users with respect to each other into a plurality of categories based upon at least one of strengths of the relationships between the plurality of users, groupings made by the user, and a characteristic of interactions between the user and the plurality of users;

order the contacts based upon the strengths of the identified relationships with the contacts;

establish a social network group including at least two of the users'"'"' mobile devices by grouping the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices based upon the identified relationships among the users;

receive at least one of call log information and text log information from the users'"'"' mobile devices;

track at least one of calls and texts made through a first user'"'"'s mobile device from the received at least one of call log information and text log information of the first user'"'"'s mobile device; and

communicate the tracked at least one of calls and texts made through the first user'"'"'s mobile device to a second user'"'"'s mobile device dependent upon whether the second user'"'"'s mobile device belongs to a particular category in the social network group.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium on which is embedded a set of instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive user profile information and telephone numbers of contacts from a plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices;

identify the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices based upon their respective telephone numbers;

at least one of create and update respective user profiles based upon the telephone numbers of the users'"'"' mobile devices and the received profile information;

identify relationships among the users based at least upon contacts contained in contacts information of the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices;

establish a social network group including at least two of the users'"'"' mobile devices by grouping the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices based upon the identified relationships among the users;

arrange the contacts in a ranked order list according to categories into which the contacts are classifiable with respect to each other;

track data of the social network group based on the identified relationships, the data comprising log information of at least one of calls and texts made through a first user'"'"'s mobile device of the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices; and

communicate the data to a second user'"'"'s mobile device of the plurality of user'"'"'s mobile devices dependent upon whether the second user'"'"'s mobile device belongs to a particular category in the social network group.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 13, wherein the set of instructions to cause the processor to communicate the data causes the processor to:

communicate locations of one or more of the plurality of users'"'"' mobile devices of the users in the social network group; and

communicate an alert when the first user'"'"'s mobile device is within a predetermined proximity of the second user'"'"'s mobile device.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 13, wherein the set of instructions cause the processor to:

receive the log information from the users'"'"' mobile devices;

determine strengths of relationships between each of the users based upon the log information;

classify the users with respect to each other into a plurality of categories based upon at least one of the strengths of the relationships between the plurality of users groupings made by the user, and a characteristic of interactions between the user and the plurality of users.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 13, wherein the set of instructions to cause the processor to:

cause the contact information, status information of the first user'"'"'s mobile device, and the strengths of the relationships to display on the second user'"'"'s mobile device.