LOCATION-AWARE INSTANT MESSAGING

• US 20090319616A1
• Filed: 06/19/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Corporate Services Group Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: LEWIS, Joseph Barry II, PATEL, Biren, SIVALINGHAM, Sanjeevan
• Granted Patent: US 8,655,960 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• 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: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A method includes receiving, at a carrier network provider, a request from a requestor'"'"'s mobile device to locate an instant messaging (IM) friend from the requestor'"'"'s IM friends list; authenticating the request for use of location-based services on the carrier network; receiving geographic location coordinates from the requestor'"'"'s mobile device; adding random error to the geographic location coordinates; sending the request to locate an IM friend and the geographic location coordinates with random error to an IM portal; receiving a list of the requestor'"'"'s IM friends within a particular region near the geographic location coordinates with random error; and sending to the requestor'"'"'s mobile device the list of IM friends within the particular region near the geographic location coordinates with random error.

Claims

1. A computing device-implemented method comprising:

receiving a request from a requestor mobile device to locate an instant messaging (IM) friend from an instant messaging (IM) friends list associated with the requestor mobile device;

authenticating the request for use of location-based services;

receiving geographic location coordinates from the requestor mobile device;

adding random error information to the geographic location coordinates;

sending the request to locate an instant messaging (IM) friend and the geographic location coordinates with random error to an instant messaging (IM) portal;

receiving a list of instant messaging (IM) friends associated with the requestor mobile device within a particular region near the geographic location coordinates with random error information; and

sending to the requestor mobile device the list of instant messaging (IM) friends within the particular region near the geographic location coordinates with random error information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving cell site information from the requestor mobile device; and

sending ephemeris data to the requestor mobile device based on the cell site information.

3. The method of claim 1, where the instant messaging (IM) portal stores location-based data associated with one or more mobile instant messaging (IM) subscribers.

4. The method of claim 3, where the location-based data for the one or more mobile instant messaging (IM) subscribers includes random error information generated prior to the location-based data for the one or more mobile instant messaging (IM) subscribers sent to the instant messaging (IM) portal.

5. The method of claim 1, where adding random error information includes altering the geographic location coordinates to a default coordinate within a defined region based on a configurable maximum error limit.

6. The method of claim 1, where adding random error information includes altering the geographic location coordinates to include an error vector comprising a sum of random error vectors associated with particular geographical points.

7. The method of claim 1, where the particular region is a radius from the location of the requestor mobile device that is selected by a requester.

8. The method of claim 1, where the requestor mobile device defines a sub-group of instant messaging (IM) friends based on the list of instant messaging (IM) friends within the particular region near the geographic location coordinates with random error information.

9. A system, comprising:

an instant messaging (IM) gateway to;

receive a request to locate an instant messaging (IM) friend from an IM friends list associated with a requestor mobile device,

receive geographic location coordinates from the requestor mobile device,

add random error to the geographic location coordinates,

send the request to locate an IM friend and the geographic location coordinates with random error to an IM portal, and

receive from the IM portal a list of IM friends within a particular region near the geographic location coordinates with random error.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a location proxy server to authenticate a request for use of location-based services from a requestor mobile device; and

a position determining entity to receive cell site information from the requestor mobile device and send ephemeris data to the requestor mobile device based on the cell site information.

11. The system of claim 9, where the IM gateway further:

receives geographic location coordinates from an IM friend'"'"'s mobile device,

adds random error to the geographic location coordinates of the IM friend'"'"'s mobile device, and

sends the geographic location coordinates with random error, associated with the IM friend'"'"'s mobile device, to the IM portal.

12. The system of claim 9, where the IM portal stores location-based data for one or more IM friends.

13. The system of claim 9, where the random error includes configurable maximum error limit.

14. The system of claim 9, where the particular region is a radius from the location of the requestor device that is selected by a requestor.

15. The system of claim 9, where the list of IM friends within the particular region near the geographic location coordinates with random error includes a map of a region that include indications of a location of each IM friend in a particular region.

16. The system of claim 9, where the requestor mobile device defines a sub-group of IM friends based on the list of IM friends within the particular region near the geographic location coordinates with random error.

17. A computer-readable memory comprising computer-executable instructions, the computer-readable memory comprising:

one or more instructions for receiving a request from a requestor'"'"'s mobile device to locate an instant messaging (IM) friend from an IM friends list associated with the requestor'"'"'s mobile device;

one or more instructions for sending ephemeris data to the requestor'"'"'s mobile device based on cell site information from the requestor'"'"'s mobile device;

one or more instructions for receiving geographic location coordinates from the requestor'"'"'s mobile device;

one or more instructions for adding random error to the geographic location coordinates;

one or more instructions for sending the request to locate an IM friend and the geographic location coordinates with random error to an IM portal;

one or more instructions for receiving a list of IM friends, associated with the requestor'"'"'s mobile device within a particular region near the geographic location coordinates with random error; and

one or more instructions for sending to the requestor'"'"'s mobile device the list of IM friends within the particular region near the geographic location coordinates with random error.

18. The computer-readable memory of claim 17, further comprising:

one or more instructions for authenticating the request for use of location-based services.

19. A system comprising:

means for receiving a request from a mobile device to locate an instant messaging (IM) friend within a particular range of the mobile device;

means for receiving geographic coordinates from the mobile device;

means for adding random error to the geographic coordinates;

means for sending the request and the geographic coordinates with random error to an IM portal;

means for receiving a list of IM friends within the particular range of the mobile device based on the geographic coordinates with random error; and

means for sending to the mobile device the list of IM friends within the particular range.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

means authenticating the request from the mobile device to locate an instant messaging (IM) friend within a particular range of the mobile device;

means for receiving cell site information from the mobile device; and

sending ephemeris data to the mobile device based on the cell site information.