Method and system for facilitating group organization using mobile devices

• US 7,882,244 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2008
• Issued: 02/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Helvick, Richard Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky; Moustafa M
• Application Number:
  US12/148,809
• Publication Number:
  US 20090271519A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,014 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-202, 709217-227, 709/228, 455/41.1, 455/41.2
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Method and system for facilitating group organization using mobile devices and near field communication (NFC). Such a method in one aspect comprises the steps of selecting a first member of a group to create resources for the group, creating the resources by the first member using a mobile device belonging to the first member, bringing the mobile device belonging to the first member and a mobile device belonging to a second member of the group into proximity whereby a NFC connection is established between the mobile devices, uploading from the mobile device belonging to the second member to the mobile device belonging to the first member via the NFC connection information about the second member and adding the information about the second member to the resources.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating organization of a group using mobile devices and near field communication (NFC), comprising the steps of:

creating a web page for the group using a mobile device belonging to a first member of the group;

bringing the mobile device belonging to the first member and a mobile device belonging to a second member of the group into proximity whereby a NFC connection is established between the mobile devices;

downloading a link to the web page from the mobile device belonging to the first member to the mobile device belonging to the second member via the NFC connection; and

accessing the web page by the mobile device belonging to the second member using the link.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

uploading authentication information for the second member from the mobile device belonging to the second member to the mobile device belonging to the first member via the NFC connection; and

regulating access of the mobile device belonging to the second member to the web page using the authentication information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises the step of uploading the authentication information for the second member from the mobile device belonging to the first member to a server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating step comprises interacting with a group management system hosted on a server to create the web page using a client application executing on the mobile device belonging to the first member.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the client application is a web browser.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating step comprises interacting with a group management application executing on the mobile device belonging to the first member to create the web page.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating step comprises attempting to interact with a group management system hosted on a server to create the web page using a client application executing on the mobile device belonging to the first member and, after a failed attempt, interacting with a group management application executing on the mobile device belonging to the first member to create the web page.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the link comprises a uniform resource identifier (URI) of the web page.

9. A mobile device belonging to a first member of a group, comprising:

a NFC interface;

a user interface; and

a processor communicatively coupled with the NFC interface and the user interface, wherein under control of the processor the mobile device belonging to the first member creates a web page for the group based at least in part on information about the group input by the first member on the user interface and downloads a link to the web page to a mobile device belonging to a second member of the group via the NFC interface over a NFC connection established between the mobile device belonging to the first member and the mobile device belonging to the second member.

10. The mobile device belonging to the first member of claim 9, wherein under control of the processor the mobile device belonging to the first member uploads authentication information for the second member from the mobile device belonging to the second member via the NFC connection.

11. The mobile device belonging to the first member of claim 10, wherein under control of the processor the mobile device belonging to the first member uploads the authentication information for the second member to a server.

12. The mobile device belonging to the first member of claim 9, further comprising a wireless network interface communicatively coupled with the processor wherein under control of the processor the mobile device belonging to the first member interacts via the wireless network interface with a group management system hosted on a server to create the web page using a client application executing on the mobile device belonging to the first member.

13. The mobile device belonging to the first member of claim 12, wherein the client application is a web browser.

14. The mobile device belonging to the first member of claim 9, wherein under control of the processor the mobile device belonging to the first member executes a group management application to create the web page.

15. The mobile device belonging to the first member of claim 9, further comprising a wireless network interface communicatively coupled with the processor wherein under control of the processor the mobile device belonging to the first member attempts to interact via the wireless network interface with a group management system hosted on a server to create the web page using a client application executing on the mobile device belonging to the first member and, after a failed attempt, executes a group management application to create the web page.

16. The mobile device belonging to the first member of claim 9, wherein the link comprises a URI of the web page.

17. A mobile device belonging to a second member of a group, comprising:

a NFC interface; and

a processor communicatively coupled with the NFC interface; and

a wireless network interface, wherein under control of the processor the mobile device belonging to the second member downloads a link to a web page created for the group from a mobile device belonging to a first member of the group via the NFC interface over a NFC connection established between the mobile device belonging to the first member and the mobile device belonging to the second member and accesses the web page via the wireless network interface using the link.

18. The mobile device belonging to the second member of claim 17, wherein under control of the processor the mobile device belonging to the second member uploads authentication information for the second member to the mobile device belonging to the first member via the NFC connection.

19. The mobile device belonging to the second member of claim 18, wherein access of the mobile device belonging to the second member to the web page is regulated using the authentication information.