Peer-to-peer location-based messaging

• US 10,009,301 B1
• Filed: 01/02/2018
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CPMR Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Spearhead, Inc.
• Inventors: Cheng, Kit Ning, Kandial, Simon, Singh, Harjeet
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Mong-Thuy
• Application Number:
  US15/860,052
• Time in Patent Office: 175 Days
• Field of Search: 4554563
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/16 Real estate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• 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 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• 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 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• 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

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for peer-to-peer location-based messaging. In some implementations, a mobile device selectively displays displayable messages associated with beacons corresponding to specific locations that the mobile device visits. The mobile device can extract identifiers from wireless messages from beacons and determine whether to display a message corresponding to a beacon based on filter parameters of a user and data indicating characteristics of a property where a beacon is located. The displayable messages corresponding to beacons can be messages users who associated with the beacons have previously designated for presentation upon detection of the beacons. The mobile device can displays the displayable message for a beacon while the mobile device is a detection range to receive the wireless message from the beacon.

Claims

1. A method performed by a mobile device, the method comprising:

providing, by the mobile device, a user interface of an application, the user interface comprising interactive filter elements configured to receive user input specifying physical characteristics of real estate properties, the physical characteristics comprising one or more of a size, an amount of interior space, or a number of rooms;

receiving, by the mobile device, user input that specifies filter parameters for one or more of the interactive filter elements, the user input specifying a value or range of values for at least one of the physical characteristics of real estate properties;

sending, by the mobile device, the filter parameters to a server system in association with user identification data that identifies a user of the mobile device, the filter parameters indicating the specified value or range of values for the at least one of the physical characteristics of the real estate properties;

detecting, by the mobile device, a plurality of beacons by receiving a wireless message from each of the beacons, each of the wireless messages including an identifier for the beacon that transmitted the wireless message, each of the beacons corresponding to a different real estate property and being located at the corresponding real estate property;

extracting, by the mobile device, the identifiers for the beacons from the wireless messages;

transmitting, by the mobile device, the extracted identifiers for the beacons to the server system;

receiving, by the mobile device, displayable messages from the server system for at least some of the extracted identifiers; and

selectively displaying, by the mobile device, displayable messages associated with the extracted identifiers based on the filter parameters and data indicating characteristics of the real estate properties where the beacons are located, wherein, for each of the displayable messages, the mobile device displays the displayable message while the mobile device is in a detection range to receive the wireless message from the beacon corresponding to the displayable message.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for each of the displayable messages, receiving the displayable message from the server system over a communications network in response to transmitting the extracted identifier for the beacon corresponding to the displayable message;

wherein each of the displayable messages describes characteristics of the real estate property corresponding to the beacon.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting the identifiers comprises extracting an identifier from the wireless message from each of the beacons in the plurality of beacons;

wherein transmitting the extracted identifiers comprises transmitting the extracted identifiers for each of the beacons in the plurality of beacons;

wherein selectively displaying the displayable messages comprises (i) displaying a displayable message for only a subset of the beacons detected by the mobile device, each of the beacons in the subset being associated with a displayable message describing characteristics that satisfy the one or more filter parameters, and (ii) not displaying a message for one or more beacons detected by the mobile device that are associated with a displayable message that describing characteristics that do not satisfy the one or more filter parameters.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, by the mobile device and from the server system, a different displayable message for each of the beacons in the set of beacons, each of the different displayable messaged describing characteristics of the real estate property corresponding to the beacon; and

evaluating, by the mobile device, each of the different displayable messages to determine whether the displayable message describes characteristics that satisfy the filter parameters;

wherein selectively displaying the displayable messages comprises displaying only the displayable messages that the mobile device determined to describe characteristics that satisfy the filter parameters.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, by the mobile device, pre-filtered messages from the server system, the pre-filtered messages including a different displayable message for each of the beacons in the subset, and the pre-filtered messages excluding displayable messages for beacons that were detected by the mobile device but have corresponding displayable messages that do not describe characteristics that satisfy the filter parameters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting, by the mobile device, a plurality of beacons by receiving a wireless message from each of the beacons comprises:

receiving the wireless messages over a Bluetooth wireless interface.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting, by the mobile device, a plurality of beacons by receiving a wireless message from each of the beacons comprises:

determining a signal strength at which a particular message is received;

determining that the signal strength satisfies a threshold; and

designating the particular beacon as detected in response to determining that the signal strength satisfies the threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the server system, an additional message that identifies a real estate property corresponding to a beacon that the mobile device did not detect, the additional message being provided based on the filter parameters sent by the mobile device; and

displaying the additional message on a display of the mobile device.

9. A method performed by a server system, the method comprising:

providing, by the server system, a registration interface for registering individual beacons with a respective real estate property and a respective message to be provided upon detection of the beacon;

receiving, by the server system, registration data provided through the interface by a user associated with a particular beacon, the registration data specifying a real estate property corresponding to the particular beacon and a message corresponding to the particular beacon, wherein the message describes characteristics of the real estate property;

in response to receiving the registration data, assigning, by the server system, the message indicated by the registration data for presentation to mobile devices that detect a wireless message transmitted by the particular beacon;

storing, by the server system, the message in association with an identifier for the particular beacon;

receiving, by the server system and from a mobile device, (i) filter parameters that a user of the mobile device entered through a user interface of the mobile device, the filter parameters specifying a value or range of values for at least one physical characteristic of real estate properties, wherein the at least one physical characteristic is a size, an amount of interior space, or a number of rooms, and (ii) an identifier corresponding to the user or the mobile device;

storing, by the server system, the filter parameters in association with the received identifier corresponding to the user or the mobile device;

receiving, by the server system, a message from a mobile device, the message indicating the identifier for the particular beacon; and

in response to receiving the message indicating the identifier for the particular beacon, sending, by the server system and to the mobile device, the message corresponding to the particular beacon for display while the mobile device is in a geographic range to receive the wireless message transmitted by the particular beacon.

10. The method of claim 9,

wherein receiving the message indicating the identifier for the particular beacon comprises receiving the identifier for the particular beacon in association with the user identifier for the user of the mobile device;

wherein the method further comprises, in response to receiving the message from the mobile device, determining that characteristics of the real estate property associated with the particular beacon satisfy the filter parameters for the user of the mobile device; and

wherein sending the message corresponding to the particular beacon is performed based on determining that characteristics of the real estate property associated with the particular beacon satisfy the filter parameters for the user of the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the server system, sets of filter parameters from each of multiple different mobile devices;

storing, by the server system, the sets of filter parameters in association with user identifiers for users of the multiple different mobile devices;

receiving, by the server system, data for each of the multiple different mobile devices indicating identifiers of beacons detected by the mobile device;

identifying, by the server system, one or more real estate properties corresponding to wireless beacons associated with a particular agent user;

identifying, by the server system, users whose filter parameters are satisfied by at least one of the one or more real estate properties and who are currently located in a geographic area that includes the one or more real estate properties; and

providing, by the server system and to an electronic device associated with the particular agent user, information that describes the identified users.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein providing the information to the agent user comprises:

indicating a count of the identified users;

indicating a count of the identified users whose filter parameters are satisfied by a particular one of the one or more real estate properties;

indicating a specific user of the identified users who is currently located at a particular real estate property of the one or more real estate properties and whose filter parameters are satisfied by the particular real estate property;

providing an indication of filter parameters of one or more of the identified users or an aggregate measure of filter parameters for multiple of the identified users;

or

indicating, for one or more of the identified users, a number of visits to at least one of the one or more real estate properties or a duration of visits to at least one of the one or more real estate properties.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

providing, to the electronic device associated with the particular agent user, data causing the electronic device to provide a user interface enabling the particular agent user to initiate communication with one or more of the identified users;

receiving, from the electronic device, user interaction data indicating interaction with the user interface; and

in response to the interaction data, initiating communication between the particular agent user and one or more of the identified users.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to receiving the message from the mobile device indicating the identifier for the particular beacon, determining that the filter parameters for a first user associated with the mobile device are satisfied by the characteristics of the real estate property corresponding to the particular beacon;

identifying an agent user associated with the particular beacon; and

providing a notification to an electronic device of the identified agent user while the mobile device of the first user is located to detect the wireless message from the particular beacon.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to receiving the message from the mobile device indicating the identifier for the particular beacon;

accessing data indicating previous visits to real estate properties by the user of the mobile device, the previous visits being determined based on detection of identifiers for beacons corresponding to the real estate properties; and

providing data describing the previous visits to an agent user associated with the particular beacon.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the server system, filter parameters from each of multiple different mobile devices;

storing, by the server system, the filter parameters in association with user identifiers for users of the multiple different mobile devices;

identifying an event scheduled to be held at a particular real estate property;

selecting a set of users to invite to the event based on the stored filter parameters; and

providing, to each of the selected users, an invitation to the event.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising

identifying, based on data indicating beacon identifiers provided by mobile devices, users that have visited a particular real estate property within a particular period of time;

and

causing an invitation to an event to be provided to each of the identified users for which the particular real estate property satisfies the filter criteria for the user.

18. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining an identifier for the real estate property corresponding to the particular beacon; and

using the determined identifier to obtain, from a third-party server, data describing characteristics of the real estate property corresponding to the particular beacon;

wherein sending the message corresponding to the particular beacon comprises sending a message indicating one or more of the characteristics of the real estate property indicated by the obtained data.