USER PROFILE-BASED ASSISTANCE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20120309424A1
• Filed: 05/31/2011
• Published: 12/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Xiao, Hong, Wang, Dongchen, Turner, Andre R., Khushoo, Rahul
• Granted Patent: US 8,750,902 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• 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 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A method including providing a user profile-based assistance service; receiving an assistance request from a subscriber, wherein the assistance request includes geographic information pertaining to a destination of the subscriber; searching a user profiles repository storing user profiles of other subscribers, wherein each user profile includes information indicating a geographic location in which the other subscriber has at least one of lived or worked; selecting candidate user profiles to offer assistance to the subscriber seeking assistance based on a matching between the geographic information pertaining to the destination and a geographic location in which each of the one or more other subscribers at least one of currently lives or works; sending the one or more candidate user profiles to the subscriber; receiving a selection of one of the one or more candidate user profiles; and establishing a communication session between the subscribe and the other selected subscriber.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a user profile-based assistance service;

receiving an assistance request from a subscriber seeking assistance of the user profile-based assistance service, wherein the assistance request includes geographic information pertaining to a destination of the subscriber;

searching a user profiles repository storing user profiles of other subscribers of the user profile-based assistance service, wherein each user profile includes information indicating a geographic location in which another subscriber at least one of lives or works;

selecting one or more user profiles as one or more candidate user profiles to offer assistance to the subscriber seeking assistance based on a matching between the geographic information pertaining to the destination and a geographic location in which each of the one or more other subscribers at least one of currently lives or works;

sending the one or more candidate user profiles to the subscriber seeking assistance;

receiving a selection of one of the one or more candidate user profiles; and

establishing a communication session between the subscriber seeking assistance and the other subscriber associated with the selected candidate user profile.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the assistance request includes information indicating a category of assistance, and each of the user profiles of the other subscribers includes information indicating a category of assistance, and wherein the selecting comprises:

selecting the one or more user profiles as the one or more candidate user profiles based on a matching between the category of assistance included in the assistance request and each category of assistance included in each of the one or more candidate user profiles.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profiles each include information indicating a profession of a subscriber, a name of a subscriber, a length of time as a driver with respect to a subscriber, a length of time in which a subscriber has at least one of currently lived or worked in the geographic location, and a user rating, wherein the user rating is based on other subscribers'"'"' rating of a subscriber'"'"'s performance in providing assistance.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a score for user profiles identified based on the searching of the user profiles repository; and

ranking the scored user profiles based on a calculated score assigned to each user profile, and wherein the selecting comprises;

selecting the one or more user profiles as the one or more candidate user profiles based on a rank associated with each of the one or more candidate user profiles.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the calculating comprises:

assigning a weighted value to each of;

a profession of the subscriber associated with a user profile;

a length of time as a driver of the subscriber associated with the user profile; and

a user rating of the subscriber associated with the user profile; and

totaling the weighted values to calculate the score.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prompting the subscriber to rate the other subscriber when the communication session is terminated;

receiving a user rating of the other subscriber;

calculating a new user rating based on a value associated with the user rating; and

storing the new user rating in the other subscriber'"'"'s user profile.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein user profile-based assistance service pertains to driving assistance, and the method further comprises:

identifying the geographic location of the subscriber;

identifying that the subscriber and the other subscriber are driving; and

sending the geographic location of the subscriber to the other subscriber.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to record a conversation between the subscriber and the other subscriber;

recording the conversation;

storing the recorded conversation, wherein the subscriber can retrieve the recorded conversation upon request.

9. A device comprising:

one or more memories to store instructions; and

one or more processing systems to execute the instructions that configure the one or more processing systems to;

receive an assistance request from a subscriber of a user profile-based assistance service, wherein the assistance request includes geographic information pertaining to a destination of the subscriber;

generate a search query request to search a user profiles repository storing user profiles of other subscribers of the user profile-based assistance service, wherein each user profile includes information indicating a geographic location in which another subscriber at least one of lives or works;

select, from a search result, one or more user profiles as one or more candidate user profiles to offer assistance to the subscriber seeking assistance based on a matching between the geographic information pertaining to the destination and a geographic location in which each of the one or more other subscribers at least one currently lives or works; and

send the one or more candidate user profiles to the subscriber seeking assistance.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the one or more processing systems execute the instructions that further configure the one or more processing systems to:

identify a subscriber availability pertaining to the one or more other subscribers, wherein the subscriber availability is based on subscriber preferences and whether a subscriber is currently active in a network.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein the assistance request includes information indicating a category of assistance, and each of the user profiles of the other subscribers includes information indicating a category of assistance, and wherein when selecting, the one or more processing systems execute the instructions that further configure the one or more processing systems to:

select the one or more user profiles as the one or more candidate user profiles based on a matching between the category of assistance included in the assistance request and each category of assistance included in each of the one or more candidate user profiles.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein each of the user profiles includes information indicating a profession of a subscriber, a name of a subscriber, a length of time in which a subscriber has at least one of currently lived or worked in the geographic location, a length of time as a driver with respect to a subscriber, and a user rating, wherein the user rating is based on other subscribers'"'"' ratings of a subscriber'"'"'s performance in providing assistance, and wherein the device is a server device.

13. The device of claim 9, wherein the one or more processing systems execute the instructions that further configure the one or more processing systems to:

calculate a score for each of the user profiles that is identified based on the search result of the user profiles repository; and

rank each of the scored user profiles based on a calculated score assigned to each user profile, and wherein when selecting, the one or more processing systems execute the instructions that further configure the one or more processing systems to;

select the one or more user profiles as the one or more candidate user profiles based on rank associated with each of the one or more candidate user profiles.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein when calculating, the one or more processing systems execute the instructions that further configure the one or more processing systems to:

assign a weighted value to each of;

a profession of the subscriber associated with a user profile;

a length of time in which the subscriber, associated with the user profile, has been at least one of currently living or working in the geographic location; and

a user rating of the subscriber associated with the user profile; and

total the weighted values to calculate the score.

15. A method comprising:

receiving a request for assistance from a subscriber of a user profile-based assistance service;

generating a help request that includes a destination of the subscriber;

sending the help request to another device;

receiving, in response to the help request, one or more user profiles associated with one or more other subscribers, in which the one or more user profiles are one or more candidates to offer assistance to the subscriber seeking assistance, and their candidacy is based on a matching between the geographic information pertaining to the destination and a geographic location in which each of the one or more other subscribers at least one of currently lives or works;

receiving a selection of one of the one or more user profiles;

generating an assistance request based on the selection;

sending the assistance request to another subscriber associated with the one of the one or more user profiles; and

establishing a communication session with the other subscriber.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving destination information from the subscriber;

sending the destination information of the subscriber to the other subscriber;

prompting the subscriber to rate the other subscriber'"'"'s performance in providing assistance;

receiving the subscriber'"'"'s rating of the other subscriber; and

sending the subscriber'"'"'s rating to the other device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the communication session is a vehicle-to-vehicle communication session and the user profile-based assistance service includes vehicular road assistance.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the one or more user profiles includes information indicating a profession of a subscriber, a name of a subscriber, a length of time as a driver with respect to the destination and a subscriber, and a user rating, wherein the user rating is based on other subscribers'"'"' ratings of a subscriber'"'"'s performance in providing assistance.

19. A device comprising:

a display;

one or more memories to store instructions; and

one or more processing systems to execute the instructions that configure the one or more processing systems to;

receive a request for assistance from a subscriber of a user profile-based assistance service;

generate a help request that includes a destination of the subscriber;

send the help request to another device;

receive, in response to the help request, one or more user profiles associated with one or more other subscribers, wherein the one or more user profiles are one or more candidates to offer assistance to the subscriber seeking assistance, and their candidacy is based on a matching between the geographic information pertaining to the destination and a geographic location in which each of the one or more other subscribers at least one of currently lives or works;

receive a selection of one of the one or more user profiles;

generate an assistance request based on the selection;

send the assistance request to another subscriber associated with the one of the one or more user profiles; and

establish a communication session with the other subscriber.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the device is one of a vehicular communication system or a mobile device, and wherein each of the one or more user profiles includes information indicating a profession of a subscriber, a name of a subscriber, a length of time in which a subscriber has been at least one of currently living or working in the geographic location, an image of a subscriber, and a user rating, wherein the user rating is based on other subscribers'"'"' ratings of a subscriber'"'"'s performance in providing assistance.

21. The device of claim 20, further comprising:

speech recognition logic to recognize and execute vocal commands from the subscriber; and

speech synthesis logic to vocalize the information included in each of the one or more user profiles.

22. The device of claim 19, wherein the request for assistance includes information indicating a category of assistance, wherein the category pertains to restaurants or shopping.

23. The device of claim 19, wherein the help request includes the subscriber'"'"'s preference pertaining to one of a profession of a subscriber or an age of a subscriber.

24. A tangible computer-readable medium storing instructions executable by a computational device to:

receive a request for assistance from a subscriber of a user profile-based assistance service;

generate a help request that includes a destination of the subscriber;

send the help request to another device;

receive, in response to the help request, one or more user profiles associated with one or more other subscribers, wherein the one or more user profiles are one or more candidates to offer assistance to the subscriber seeking assistance, and their candidacy is based on a matching between the geographic information pertaining to the destination and a geographic location in which each of the one or more other subscribers at least one of currently lives or works;

receive a selection of one of the one or more user profiles;

generate an assistance request based on the selection;

send the assistance request to another subscriber associated with the one of the one or more user profiles; and

establish a communication session with the other subscriber.