Method and system for connecting wireless communications unit users

• US 20110207406A1
• Filed: 04/10/2011
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sejo Pan
• Original Assignee: Sejo Pan
• Inventors: Pan, Sejo
• Granted Patent: US 8,340,707 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42008 Systems for anonymous communication between parties, e.g. by use of disposal contact identifiers

Abstract

A system and method for wireless communications unit users within proximity to make social connections. Users can dynamically discover potential matches in the proximity and interactively find out mutual intentions to socially connect in an anonymous and discreet manner.

Claims

1. A method for a first wireless communication unit (WCU) user to locate or connect with another one or more other WCU users in proximity, comprising:

storing a user-defined profile locally in the first WCU, wherein said profile comprises either a picture of the user of the first WCU, or a description of the user of the first WCU, or both;

wirelessly exchanging said profile of the first WCU directly with that of other WCU'"'"'s in proximity;

displaying to the user of the first WCU a result comprising the received profiles of the WCU'"'"'s in the proximity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeatedly tracking WCU'"'"'s being added to or removed from the proximity and repeatedly tracking any profile change of any WCU in the proximity and refreshing said result displayed to the user of the first WCU.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

allowing the user of the first WCU to discard or select any one or more of the other WCU'"'"'s from said displayed result so that the discarded or not-selected WCU'"'"'s, along with their associated profiles, are removed from said displayed result afterwards.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing the user of the first WCU to create a telecommunication connection, directly without going through any intermediate device, to one or more users of the other WCU'"'"'s displayed in the result.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the telecommunication connection between any two WCU'"'"'s is created by using at least one of the followings:

the device ID'"'"'s of the WCU'"'"'s, the ID'"'"'s associated with software executing on the WCU'"'"'s, and a part of the user-defined profile stored in the WCU'"'"'s.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first WCU blocks incoming telecommunication from all WCU users from reaching the user of the first WCU except for that of a user to whom the user of the first WCU is also trying to establish a telecommunication with.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a telecommunication connection between the user of the first WCU and one target WCU user by connecting the first WCU and the target WCU directly without going through any intermediate device, only when the user of the first WCU and the user of the target WCU both have initiated a telecommunication connection to communicate with each other, otherwise, neither the user of the first WCU nor the target WCU user receives any telecommunication from each other.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing the user of the first WCU to locate or identify one target WCU user in the proximity by wirelessly obtaining at least one of the following pieces of information of the target WCU;

(a) the device ID of the target WCU;

(b) an ID associated with software executing on the target WCU;

(c) a part of, or the whole profile of the target WCU; and

using said obtained information to search a database.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a distance and/or direction reference relative to the user of the first WCU for each of the WCU'"'"'s in said displayed result using at least one of the following;

Received Signal Strength, Time of Flight, and External Positioning Service;

including said distance and/or direction references of each of the WCU'"'"'s in said result displayed to the user of the first WCU.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a match of communication intention to both the user of the first WCU and the user of a second WCU in said displayed result only when the user of the first WCU and the user of the second WCU both have started initiating a connection to each other using their WCU'"'"'s.

11. A wireless communication unit (WCU) for connecting its user with another WCU user in proximity comprising:

a wireless transceiver capable of transmitting and receiving wireless signals;

means for storing a user-defined profile locally in the WCU;

optional means for editing said profile;

software executing on said WCU, said software when executed, causes handshaking of said WCU directly with other WCU'"'"'s in proximity running the same software to exchange said profile;

means for displaying a result comprising the received profiles from other WCU'"'"'s.

12. The WCU of claim 11, further comprising means for discarding at least one received profile from said displayed result and exclude the corresponding WCU from future handshaking.

13. The WCU of claim 11, further comprising means for establishing a telecommunication connection directly between said WCU and one target WCU using one of the followings as means to address each other:

(a) the device ID'"'"'s of the WCU'"'"'s;

(b) the ID associated with software executing on the WCU'"'"'s;

(c) any unique user-defined attribute in the profile of each of the WCU'"'"'s.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising means for establishing a telecommunication connection directly between said WCU and a target WCU only when both WCU'"'"'s have initiated a telecommunication connection to each other.

15. The WCU of claim 11, further comprising means for receiving, storing and making available to its user at least one of the followings:

(a) the device ID of another WCU;

(b) an ID associated with software executing on another WCU;

(c) any part or all of the profile of another WCU.

16. The WCU of claim 11, further comprising means for obtaining a distance and/or direction reference of the source of the signal received from another WCU.

17. The system of claim 11, further comprising means for controlling the effective transmitting and receiving range of said wireless transceiver.