SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR POSITION-BASED LOANING OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS TO ELECTRONIC DEVICE USERS

• US 20120050004A1
• Filed: 08/23/2011
• Published: 03/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Concert Technology Corporation
• Original Assignee: Rhonda Enterprises, LLC (Concert Technology Corporation)
• Inventors: Curtis, Scott, Kandekar, Kunal
• Granted Patent: US 9,013,267 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• 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 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Systems and methods for position-based loaning of electronic documents to electronic device users are disclosed herein. According to an aspect, a method may include determining a position of an electronic device. The method may also include determining a registration status associated with the electronic device. Further, the method may include communicating a portion of an electronic document to the electronic device based on the position and the registration status.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a position of an electronic device;

determining a registration status associated with the electronic device; and

communicating a portion of an electronic document to the electronic device based on the position and the registration status.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a first electronic device, and

wherein determining the position comprises determining a position of the first electronic device with respect to a second electronic device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a first electronic device,

wherein determining the position comprises determining whether the first electronic device is positioned within a predetermined distance from a second electronic device, and

wherein the portion of the electronic document is communicated to the first electronic device in response to determining that the first electronic device is positioned within the predetermined distance from the second electronic device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein communicating the portion of the electronic document comprises communicating the portion of the electronic document from the second electronic device to the first electronic device in response to determining that the first electronic device is positioned within the predetermined distance from the second electronic device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein communicating the portion of the electronic document comprises communicating the portion of the electronic document from the second electronic device to a server for delivery to the first electronic device.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving an encryption key for use in communicating the electronic document to the first electronic device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a first electronic device,

wherein determining the position comprises determining whether the first electronic device and the second electronic device are in wireless communication, and

wherein the portion of the electronic document is communicated to the first electronic device in response to determining that the first electronic device and the second electronic device are in wireless communication.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a first electronic device,

wherein determining the position comprises determining whether a signal quality of a wireless communication connection between the first electronic device and a second electronic device is greater than a predetermined signal quality level, and

wherein the portion of the electronic document is communicated to the first electronic device in response to determining that the signal quality of the wireless communication connection between the first electronic device and the second electronic device is greater than the predetermined signal quality level.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a first electronic device,

wherein determining the position comprises:

determining a position coordinate of the first electronic device and a position coordinate of a second electronic device;

determining whether a distance between the position coordinate of the first electronic device and the position coordinate of the second electronic device is less than a predetermined distance, and

wherein the portion of the electronic document is communicated to the first electronic device in response to determining that the distance between the position coordinate of the first electronic device and the position coordinate of the second electronic device is less than the predetermined distance.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a first electronic device,

wherein determining the position comprises:

using a ranging protocol of a wireless communication connection between the first electronic device and a second electronic device to determine a distance between the first and second electronic devices; and

determining whether the distance is less than a predetermined distance, and

wherein the portion of the electronic document is communicated to the first electronic device in response to determining that the distance is less than the predetermined distance.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the registration status comprises:

determining a user identifier associated with the electronic device; and

determining whether the user identifier is registered with at least one of a social network and an electronic document provider, and

wherein the portion of the electronic document is communicated to the electronic device in response to determining that the user identifier is registered with the at least one of the social network and the electronic document provider.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining whether the user identifier is registered comprises:

communicating the user identifier to a server for verification of registration with the at least one of the social network and the electronic document provider; and

receiving verification that the user identifier is registered with the at least one of the social network and the electronic document provider, and

wherein the portion of the electronic document is communicated to the electronic device in response to receipt of the verification.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving verification comprises receiving authorization information associated with the user identifier.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein determining whether the user identifier is registered comprises communicating to the server a password associated with the user identifier.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the portion of the electronic document.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the identified portion comprises one of an identified page, chapter, paragraph, sentence, and image of the electronic document.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating the portion of the electronic document comprises communicating to the electronic device at least a portion of the electronic document that is currently being displayed on another electronic device.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating to the electronic device one or more bookmarks that identify one or more positions within the portion of the electronic document.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating to the electronic device information on restricting use of the portion of the electronic document.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the information restricts use of the portion of the electronic document based on a position of the electronic device with respect to a position of another electronic device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the information restricts use of the portion of the electronic document for a predetermined time period.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a referral credit from an electronic document provider based on communication of the portion of the electronic document to the electronic device.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a first electronic device,

wherein the method further comprises:

determining a social network relation between a first user identifier associated with the first electronic device and a second user identifier associated with a second electronic device; and

determining the portion of the electronic document for communication to the first electronic device based on the social network relation.

24. The method of claim 23, further communicating to the electronic device information on restricting use of the portion of the electronic document based on the social network relation.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the information restricts use of the portion of the electronic document for a predetermined time period.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein communicating the portion of the electronic document comprises communicating the entirety of the electronic document to the first electronic device.

27. An electronic device comprising:

an electronic document manager configured to;

determine a position of an electronic device; and

determine a registration status associated with the electronic device; and

a communications interface configured to communicate a portion of an electronic document to the electronic device based on the position and the registration status.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for performing the following steps:

determining a position of an electronic device;

determining a registration status associated with the electronic device; and

communicating a portion of an electronic document to the electronic device based on the position and the registration status.