Presenting messages associated with locations

• US 9,413,704 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2014
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Park, Seung-Hae, Kim, Hisun
• Primary Examiner(s): Zee, Edward
• Application Number:
  US14/306,099
• Publication Number:
  US 20140298440A1
• Time in Patent Office: 785 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6272 by registering files or documents with a third party
• 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 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• 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 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

A user may express an interest in a set of individuals represented in a set of individual stores (e.g., friends in a social network and colleagues in an academic directory). Such individuals may send to the individual stores messages that are associated with a location, and the user may request, from respective individual stores, a presentation of the locations. According to the techniques presented herein, the messages from the individual stores may be aggregated, and the locations associated with the aggregated messages may be presented in a map, thereby presenting to the user the locations of the messages of the individuals irrespective of from which individual store each message was received. Additionally, the map may present the messages to the user, and upon receiving form the user a reply to a message, may send the message to the individual store from which the message was received.

Claims

1. A method of presenting, on a device having a processor and operated by a user, locations of individuals, wherein the respective individuals are represented in an individual store, the method comprising:

executing, on the processor, instructions that cause the device to;

receive messages respectively indicating a presence of at least one of the individuals at the location;

present to the user a map indicating, for at least one of the individuals, an indicator positioned on the map at the location of the at least one of the individuals as indicated by at least one message; and

responsive to a selection by the user of a selected indicator on the map;

retrieve, from the individual store, at least one contact option for contacting at least one of the individuals represented by the selected indicator, where the contact option identifies an individual contact address for contacting the at least one of the individuals through a particular contact channel, and

present, on the map, the at least one contact option for contacting at least one of the individuals represented by the selected indicator, including, for the respective contact options, the particular contact channel identified by the contact option for contacting at least one of the individuals; and

responsive to a selection by the user of a selected contact option, initiate contact between the user and at least one of the individuals using the individual contact address for the at least one of the individuals through the particular contact channel identified by the selected contact option.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the user currently has a current user location; and

presenting the map further comprises;

presenting the map that includes the current user location of the user and indicators for individuals who are within a limited range of the current user location of the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving the messages further comprises;

receiving messages that respectively indicate a location of at least one of the individuals at a message query frequency; and

presenting the map further comprises;

presenting, on the map, indicators only of individuals from which messages have been received indicating the location of the at least one of the individuals at a location message query frequency that is higher than a message query frequency threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

at least one individual store comprises an individual store interface configured to send the messages that respectively indicate the location of at least one of the individuals; and

receiving the messages from an individual store comprising;

for at least one individual store, invoking the individual store interface to request the messages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the device further comprises a message store that stores the messages;

the instructions further cause the device to, upon receiving a message indicating a location of at least one of the individuals and created at a first time point, store the message with the first time point in the message store; and

generating the map comprising;

upon receiving from the user a request to present the messages, the request received at a second time point after the first time point, retrieve the messages from the message store.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the request from the user specifies a selected time point; and

retrieving the messages from the message store further comprises;

retrieving, from the message store, the messages having a time point within a chronological range of the selected time point.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the instructions further cause the device to identify, for respective locations, a message count of messages indicating a presence of at least one of the individuals at the location; and

generating the map further comprising;

identifying, on the map, the locations having a high message count of messages indicating the presence of the at least one of the individuals at the location.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

respective messages have at least one message property; and

executing the instructions further causes the device to, responsive to a request from the user to limit the map to at least one of the individuals whose location is indicated by messages having at least one selected message property, limit the map to indicators for at least one of the individuals whose location is indicated by at least one message having the at least one selected message property.

9. The method of claim 1, the instructions configured to, upon receiving a new message indicating the location of at least one of the individuals while presenting the map to the user, update the map to present an indicator of the location of the at least one of the individuals indicated by the new message.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the instructions further causes the device to, responsive to a request from the user to limit the map to specifying a selected location, limit the map to indicators of at least one of the individuals associated with messages that are not associated with the selected location.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the device has at least one communication capability;

executing the instructions further causes the device to determine whether respective communication options are compatible with the at least one capability of the device; and

presenting the at least one contact option further comprises;

present to the user only the contact options for contacting at least one of the individuals represented by the selected indicator that are compatible with the at least one communication option of the device.

12. A device that presents a map of individuals having an association with a user, the device comprising:

a processor;

a display; and

a memory storing;

an individual store indicating, for respective individuals, at least one contact option; and

instructions that, when executed on the processor, cause the device to;

receive messages respectively indicating a presence of at least one of the individuals at a location;

present, on the display, a map indicating, for at least one of the individuals, an indicator positioned on the map at the location of the at least one of the individuals as indicated by at least one message; and

responsive to a selection, by the user, of a selected indicator on the map;

retrieve, from the individual store, the at least one contact option for contacting at least one of the individuals represented by the selected indicator, where the respective at least one contact option identifies an individual contact address for contacting the individual through a particular contact channel, and

present, on the map, the at least one contact option for contacting at least one of the individuals represented by the selected indicator, including, for the respective contact options, the particular contact channel identified by the contact option for contacting at least one of the individuals; and

responsive to a selection, by the user, of a selected contact option for at least one of the individuals represented by the selected indicator, initiate contact between the user and the at least one of the individuals using the individual contact address for the individual through the particular contact channel identified by the selected contact option.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein:

respective messages also include an expression composed by at least one of the individuals; and

presenting the map to the user further comprises;

presenting on the map, associated with the respective indicators, the expression composed by the at least one of the individuals and included in the message indicating the location of the at least one of the individuals.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein, for at least one message, the expression composed by the at least one of the individuals indicates the location of the message.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein, for at least one message, the location of the message is indicated by metadata indicating the location of the user at the time of composing the message.

16. The device of claim 12, wherein:

the device further includes a current locator that locates a current location of the device; and

presenting the map further comprises;

presenting, on the map, an indicator of the user and positioned at the current location of the device.

17. A device that presents a map of individuals having an association with a user, the device comprising:

a processor;

a display; and

a memory storing;

instructions that, when executed on the processor, cause the device to;

associate respective individuals with a stored location of the individual;

responsive to a message indicating a presence of at least one of the individuals at a selected location, set the stored location of the at least one of the individuals to the selected location;

present, on the display, a map comprising indicators for at least one of the individuals, where respective indicators are positioned on the map at the stored location of the at least one of the individuals; and

responsive to a selection, by the user, of a selected indicator on the map;

determine at least one contact option for contacting at least one of the individuals represented by the selected indicator, where the contact option identifies an individual contact address for contacting at least one of the individuals through a particular contact channel;

present, on the map, the at least one contact option for contacting at least one of the individuals represented by the selected indicator; and

responsive to a selection, by the user, of a selected contact option for at least one of the individuals represented by the selected indicator, initiate contact between the user and the at least one of the individuals using the individual contact address for the individual through the particular contact channel identified by the selected contact option.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein:

the device further comprises at least one contact capability; and

presenting the at least one contact option further comprises;

for respective contact options, determining whether the contact option is compatible with the at least one contact capability of the device; and

presenting, on the map, only contact options for contacting at least one of the individuals that are compatible with the at least one contact capability of the device.

19. The device of claim 17, wherein:

respective messages are submitted by at least one of the individuals to an individual store; and

updating the stored location of at least one of the individuals further comprises;

querying the individual store for messages composed by at least one of the individuals that indicate the selected location of the at least one of the individuals; and

responsive to receiving a message from the individual store indicating a presence of at least one of the individuals at a selected location, set the stored location of the at least one of the individuals to the selected location.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein:

respective messages are composed by at least one of the individuals to one of at least two individual stores;

querying the individual store further comprises;

querying the at least two individuals stores for messages composed by the at least one of the individuals that indicate the selected location of the at least one of the individuals; and

presenting the map further comprises;

presenting, on the display, a map comprising indicators for respective individuals, where respective indicators are positioned on the map at the stored location of at least one of the individuals and also indicate the individual store from which the message indicating the stored location of the at least one of the individuals was received.

21. The device of claim 17, wherein:

respective messages that indicate the selected location of at least one of the individuals were created at a message time; and

presenting the map further comprises;

presenting, on the display, a map comprising indicators for respective individuals, where respective indicators are positioned on the map at the stored location of at least one of the individuals, and where the message time of the message indicating the stored location of at least one of the individuals is within a time threshold of a current time.