Method for proximity determination between mobile peers while maintaining privacy

• US 8,769,003 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2012
• Issued: 07/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm Innovation Center Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm Innovation Center Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Aggarwal, Ashutosh, Lioy, Marcello V., Khanna, Nitin
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US13/467,806
• Publication Number:
  US 20130304898A1
• Time in Patent Office: 783 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709217-218, 709223-229, 709/250
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• 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

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatus for determining proximity between networked devices without requiring those devices to share location information either because of privacy or because such information cannot be obtained. To do this, access points for a plurality of networked devices are compared, and those devices detecting, or detected by, the same access points are deemed proximal to each other. Software, or features of software, can be initiated on those networked devices that are proximal to other networked devices and the proximal networked devices can be given information enabling them to identify and communicate with each other.

Claims

1. A method of determining proximity between first and second networked devices without the first and second networked devices sharing location information, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server system, from the first and second networked devices, identifications of an access point that both the first and second networked devices detect;

determining, at a proximity component of the server system, that each of the first and second networked devices are searching for and providing, respectively, a common software application, process, or service;

then determining, at the proximity component of the server system that each of the first and second networked devices detect the access point; and

transmitting to at least one of the first or second networked devices, at the server system, a proximity indicator indicating that the first and second networked devices are proximal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second determining is a function of a number of access points detected by the first and second networked devices.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second determining takes into account a signal strength of the access point as measured by at least one of the first or second networked devices.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second determining uses knowledge of a location of the access point.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second determining uses knowledge of a maximum range of the access point.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning a weight to one or more access points and determining the proximity based on a weighted average of access points commonly detected by the first and second networked devices.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising initiating a process on the first and second networked devices if the first and second networked devices are proximal.

8. A non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium, encoded with processor readable instructions to perform a method for determining proximity between at least first and second networked devices without knowledge of their location, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server system, from the first and second networked devices, identifications of an access point that both the first and second networked devices detect;

determining, at a proximity component of the server system, that each of the first and second networked devices detect the access point;

accessing a location of the access point, where the location of the access point indicates that in order for the first and second devices to both detect the access point that the first and second devices are closer to each other than if the access point were in another location;

based on the determining and the accessing, concluding that the first and second networked devices are close enough to be considered proximal; and

transmitting to at least one of the first or second networked devices, a proximity indicator indicating that the first and second networked devices are proximal.

9. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim, 8 further comprising initiating a process on one or both of the first and second networked devices if the first and second networked devices are proximal.

10. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the proximity component facilitates communication between the first and second networked devices if the first and second networked devices are proximal.

11. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the proximity component is further configured to determine if a common application, process, or service is running on both the first and second networked devices.

12. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim, 8 wherein the access point is a WIFI access point.

13. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim, 8 wherein the access point is a BLUETOOTH access point.

14. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim, 8 wherein the access point is a cellular access point.

15. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim, 8 wherein the access point is a default gateway.

16. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim, 8 wherein the access point is a subnet.

17. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim, 8 wherein the access point is a BLUETOOTH-enabled device.

18. A networked device comprising:

a means for receiving from a first networked device identification of a first access point that the first networked device detects;

a means for receiving from a second networked device identification of a second access point that the second networked device detects;

a means for accessing a database of access point locations and determining that the first and second access point are within a same structure;

a means for transmitting a proximity indicator to the first and second networked devices, where the proximity indicator includes data enabling the first and second networked devices to communicate with each other despite the fact that they do not both detect the same access point; and

a means for initiating a network connection between the first and second networked devices using the proximity indicator.

19. A non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium, encoded with processor readable instructions to perform a method for determining proximity between at least first and second networked devices without knowledge of their location, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server system, from the first and second networked devices, identifications of an access point that both the first and second networked devices detect;

determining, at a proximity component of the server system, that each of the first and second networked devices detect the access point;

receiving, at the server system, from the first networked device and from a third networked device, identifications of a second access point that both the first and the third networked devices detect;

determining, at the proximity component of the server system, that each of the first and third networked devices detect the second access point;

then determining, at the proximity component of the server system, based on the first and second determining, that the second and third networked devices are proximal; and

transmitting to at least one of the first or second networked devices, at the server system, a proximity indicator indicating that the first and second networked devices are proximal.

20. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the process is a feature of a software program running on the first networked device.

21. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising determining if both the first and second networked devices have a common software application, process, or service that take proximity as an input argument.

22. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the process only initiates if at least one of the first and second networked devices has a software application, process, or service that takes proximity as an input argument.