Method and apparatus for automatically determining communities of interest, for use over an ad-hoc mesh network, based on context information

• US 9,350,809 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2011
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Leppnen, Kari Juhani, Turunen, Markku Tapio, Kiukkonen, Niko Tapani, Sillasto, Eero Jari Juhani
• Primary Examiner(s): JEAN GILLES, JUDE
• Application Number:
  US13/050,358
• Publication Number:
  US 20120197988A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,895 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-204, 709/218, 709/219, 709/210, 709/207
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1854 with non-centralised forwarding system, e.g. chaincast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1895 for short real-time information, e.g. alarms, notifications, alerts, updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/203 for converged personal network application service interworking, e.g. OMA converged personal network services [CPNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

An approach is provided for methods and apparatus for efficiently and effectively determining communities of interest for a user, for use over an ad-hoc mesh network, based on context information associated with user devices. Context information of a device is accessed. The context information is processed to determine one or more themes associated with the context information. One or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes are determined, the one or more communities of interest having respective community identifiers corresponding therewith. The device is associated with at least one of the communities of interest relating to the one or more themes, based at least in part on the corresponding community identifiers, for accessing awareness information related to one or more of the communities of interest associated with the device. Further, the availability of at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device can be identified via the ad-hoc mesh network, based at least in part on the corresponding community identifiers, and awareness information can be accessed, based at least in part on the availability of the at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device.

Claims

1. A method comprising facilitating a processing of and/or processing, by a processor, (1) data and/or (2) information and/or (3) at least one signal, the (1) data and/or (2) information and/or (3) at least one signal based, at least in part, on the following:

context information of a device;

a processing of the context information to determine one or more commonly used terms within the context information, wherein the one or more commonly used terms indicate one or more themes;

at least one determination of one or more communities of interest based, at least in part, on at least one of the one or more commonly used terms, the one or more communities of interest having respective community identifiers corresponding therewith; and

at least one determination to associate the device with at least one of the one or more communities of interest based, at least in part, on the corresponding community identifiers, for accessing awareness information related to one or more of the one or more communities of interest associated with the device.

2. A method of claim 1, wherein the (1) data and/or (2) information and/or (3) at least one signal are further based, at least in part, on the following:

at least one determination to identify, via an ad-hoc mesh network, availability of at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device, based at least in part on the corresponding community identifiers; and

at least one determination to access the awareness information, based at least in part on the availability of the at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device.

3. A method of claim 1, wherein the determining the one or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes comprises applying a hash function to the commonly used terms.

4. A method of claim 1, wherein the determining the one or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes comprises comparing the commonly used terms against a database of predetermined key terms associated with respective predetermined communities of interest.

5. A method of claim 1, wherein the processing of the context information comprises identifying predetermined key terms within the context information, and wherein the determining the one or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes is based at least in part on at least one of the predetermined key terms.

6. A method of claim 5, wherein the determining the one or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes comprises comparing the predetermined key terms occurring within the context information against a database of predetermined key terms associated with respective predetermined communities of interest.

7. A method of claim 1, wherein the processing of the context information comprises determining one or more of characteristics and preferences of a user of the device based at least in part on the context information, and wherein the determining the one or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes is based at least in part on at least one of the determined characteristics and/or preferences of the user.

8. A method of claim 1, wherein the (1) data and/or (2) information and/or (3) at least one signal are further based, at least in part, on the following:

a flooding message corresponding with at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device, based at least in part on the corresponding community identifiers, wherein the at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device relates to one or more of a product, a service, a manufacturer, and a store.

9. A method of claim 8, wherein the (1) data and/or (2) information and/or (3) at least one signal are further based, at least in part, on the following:

at least one determination to provide, to a second device, information associated with one or more of the at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device, the corresponding community identifiers, and the context information.

19. A method of claim 1, wherein the awareness information includes information about one or more users or one or more other devices within a local environment of the device.

20. A method of claim 1, wherein the one or more commonly used terms are determined based on a predetermined frequency of the occurrence of a term in the context information.

21. A method of claim 20, wherein the predetermined frequency is based on statistical analyses or user defined.

10. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code for one or more programs,

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following,

determine to access context information of a device;

process and/or facilitate a processing of the context information to determine one or more commonly used terms within the context information, wherein the one or more commonly used terms indicate one or more themes;

determine one or more communities of interest based, at least in part, on at least one of the one or more commonly used terms, the one or more communities of interest having respective community identifiers corresponding therewith; and

determine to associate the device with at least one of the one or more communities of interest based, at least in part, on the corresponding community identifiers, for accessing awareness information related to one or more of the one or more communities of interest associated with the device.

11. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

determine to identify, via an ad-hoc mesh network, availability of at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device, based at least in part on the corresponding community identifiers; and

determine to access the awareness information, based at least in part on the availability of the at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device.

12. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the determining the one or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes comprises applying a hash function to the commonly used terms.

13. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the determining the one or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes comprises comparing the commonly used terms against a database of predetermined key terms associated with respective predetermined communities of interest.

14. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing of the context information comprises identifying predetermined key terms within the context information, and wherein the determining the one or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes is based at least in part on at least one of the predetermined key terms.

15. An apparatus of claim 14, wherein the determining the one or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes comprises comparing the predetermined key terms occurring within the context information against a database of predetermined key terms associated with respective predetermined communities of interest.

16. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing of the context information comprises determining one or more of characteristics and preferences of a user of the device based at least in part on the context information, and wherein the determining the one or more communities of interest relating to the one or more themes is based at least in part on at least one of the determined characteristics and/or preferences of the user.

17. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

receive a flooding message corresponding with at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device, based at least in part on the corresponding community identifiers, wherein the at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device relates to one or more of a product, a service, a manufacturer, and a store.

18. An apparatus of claim 17, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

determine to provide, to a second device, information associated with one or more of the at least one of the communities of interest associated with the device, the corresponding community identifiers, and the context information;

user interface circuitry and user interface software configured to facilitate user control of at least some functions of the mobile phone through use of a display and configured to respond to user input; and

a display and display circuitry configured to display at least a portion of a user interface of the mobile phone, the display and display circuitry configured to facilitate user control of at least some functions of the mobile phone.