Collecting implicit information for determining context of event actions

• US 8,599,801 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2007
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Baio, Andrew, Wascovich, Daniel James, Ho, Edward, Ott, Edward Stanley IV, Luk, Gordon David Jr., Hayashi, Nathanael Joe, Trevor, Jonathan James, Lin, Leonard, Fukuda, Matthew, Quoc, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, David Q
• Application Number:
  US11/670,400
• Publication Number:
  US 20080186926A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,497 Days
• Field of Search: 715/753
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06

Abstract

A device, system, and method are directed towards determining a start and/or an end time for a spontaneous event. A mobile device user creates a group for the spontaneous event, and sends the members an invite. During the event, members share media content and/or text messages with other members. Based, in part, on a flow of media content and/or text messages between the members, a determination of a start time and/or end time of the spontaneous event is automatically performed. The start time may be based on when the group is created and/or revised when a flow rate of the media content and/or messages exceed a threshold. The end time may be based on the flow rate being less than another threshold. The location of the spontaneous event may also be determined based on a location of the member'"'"'s mobile devices during the event.

Claims

1. A server device to manage a mobile communication, comprising:

a transceiver to send and receive data over a network; and

a processor that is operative to perform actions, comprising;

creating a group associated with a spontaneous event, wherein the spontaneous event comprises a gathering of people in a physical location;

receiving a membership to the spontaneous event, wherein each member is associated with a mobile device;

receiving at least one text message or media content message during the spontaneous event;

distributing to each member'"'"'s mobile device the at least one text message or media content message during the spontaneous event, and further posting at least the media content message to a website associated with the spontaneous event;

determining an initial start time and an end time associated with the spontaneous event, based on receiving the at least text message or media content message; and

determining a revised start time as when a flow rate of messages shared between members of the group exceeds, a threshold during the spontaneous event, wherein the messages shared between members includes messages received from one member of the group that are distributed to other members of the group.

2. The server device of claim 1, wherein determining the initial start time of the spontaneous event further comprises:

determining the initial start time based on at least one of when the first message is received or when the group is created; and

revising the initial start time based on at least data extracted from at least one text message.

3. The server device of claim 1, wherein determining the end time of the spontaneous event further comprises:

determining the end time based on receiving less than a threshold of messages over a period of time.

4. The server device of claim 1, wherein the processor is operative to perform actions, further comprising:

determining a physical location of the spontaneous event based on a location of at least one mobile device during the spontaneous event, or from data within the at least one text message; and

posting of the physical location at the website.

5. The server device of claim 1, wherein the processor is operative to perform actions, further comprising:

receiving, from a member, information about the spontaneous event, after the end or the spontaneous event; and

posting the information at the website, wherein the information about the spontaneous event is organized based, in part, on the start or end time of the spontaneous event.

6. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for sharing of event information over a network, the computer-executable instructions when installed onto a computing device enable the computing device to perform actions comprising:

creating a group associated with a spontaneous event, wherein the spontaneous event comprises a gathering of people in a physical location;

receiving a membership to the spontaneous event, wherein each member is associated with a mobile device;

receiving at least one text message or media content message during the spontaneous event;

distributing to each member'"'"'s mobile device the at least one text message or media content message during the spontaneous event;

determining an initial start time and an end time associated with the spontaneous event, based on receiving the at least one text message or media content message; and

determining a revised start time as when a rate of sharing of messages exceeds a threshold during, the spontaneous even, wherein the sharing of messages includes messages received from one member of the group that are distributed to other members of the group.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein determining the end time further comprises determining the end time based on a rate of sharing of messages being less than a threshold, wherein the end time is determined to be alter the start time.

8. A mobile device for sharing information, comprising:

a memory component for storing data; and

a processing component for executing data that enables actions, comprising;

creating a membership group to a spontaneous event of a gathering of people in a physical location;

sharing, during the event, at least one of media content or text message to at least one other mobile device associated with a member of the group, wherein sharing or the media content further comprises enabling automatic posting of the media content to a website associated with the event independent of further actions by the mobile device;

enabling a determination of an initial start time or an end time of the spontaneous event based on the sharing of the at least one media content or text message; and

determining a revised start time as when a rate of sharing of messages exceeds a threshold during the spontaneous event, wherein the sharing of messages includes messages received from one member of the group that are distributed to other members of the group.

9. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein enabling a determination of an end time further comprises determining the end time based on a time associated with receiving a last message, wherein the last message is determined based on receiving no messages for a threshold period of time for the group.

10. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the actions further comprise:

enabling a determination of a location of the event based on providing a physical location of the mobile device during sharing of messages associated with the event.

11. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein sharing of the media content further comprises sending the media content using. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

12. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein enabling a determination of an initial start time further comprises:

determining the initial start time for the spontaneous event based on at least one of sharing of a first message with the members, when the membership is created, when a number of media content messages is shared that exceeds a threshold value, or data within the text message.

13. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein sharing the media content further comprises automatically annotating the media content based at least in part on a physical location of the mobile device, a time, an identity of member of the group.

14. A method for managing a mobile communication, comprising:

establishing a group associated with a spontaneous event, wherein each member of the group is associated with a mobile device, the spontaneous event being a gathering of people in a physical location;

sharing among the group during, the spontaneous event at least one of a text message or media content message using at least one of the mobile devices;

determining an initial start time and an end time associated with the spontaneous event, based on the sharing of the text message or media content message; and

determining a revised start time as when a rate of sharing of messages exceeds a threshold during the event, wherein the sharing of messages includes messages received from one member of the group that are distributed to other members of the group.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

modifying the membership to the group during .the spontaneous event.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein determining the end time is based on receiving less than a threshold of messages over a period of time.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein determining the initial start time is based on at least one of when the first, message is received or when the group, is created or based on data extracted from at least one text message.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein sharing the media content message further comprises sending to each member'"'"'s mobile device at least one of the media content or a link to a location at a server where the media content is accessible.

19. A computer-readable storage medium configured to include program instructions for performing the method of claim 14.

20. An apparatus to manage a mobile communication, comprising:

a transceiver to send and receive data over a network;

means for communicating an occurrence of an event of a gathering of people in a physical location;

means for sharing messages, including media content, during the event;

means for determining an initial start time and an end time of the event based, in part, on a flow of the shared messages during the event; and

means for determining a revised start time based on sharing of messages at a flow rate above a threshold during the event, wherein the sharing of messages includes messages received from one member of a group that are distributed to other members of the group.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the means for determining the initial start time and the end time further comprises:

means for determining the end time based on sharing of messages at a flow rate below second threshold after sharing messages at a flow rate above the threshold.