Method, apparatus and system for social networking

• US 8,924,483 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2014
• Issued: 12/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Flybits Inc.
• Original Assignee: Flybits Inc.
• Inventors: Rahnama, Hossein
• Primary Examiner(s): DAILEY, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US14/160,101
• Publication Number:
  US 20140201287A1
• Time in Patent Office: 343 Days
• Field of Search: 709/205, 705/319
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A method, apparatus and system for social networking is provided. In an embodiment, the system comprises a plurality of mobile devices that can directly connect to each other via a peer-to-peer connection. The devices can additionally connect to a server. The server maintains a profile schema which can be used to generate profiles for users for each of the mobile devices.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

at least one network interface configured to communication with other devices over a network;

a matching engine coupled with the network interface and configured to;

activate a scenario-based context related to the device;

obtain profiles representative of other devices available on the network; and

generate matches among selected profiles that are selected based on the scenario-based context; and

a visualization engine coupled with the matching engine and configured to;

create a social map comprising conceptual distances among nodes representing at least some of the matches as a function the scenario-based context; and

cause a device display of a target device to present the social map along with the conceptual distances.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a server.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the scenario-based context depends on a service area location.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a mobile device.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises at least one of the following:

a mobile phone and a computer.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the network interface comprises a wireless interface and the wireless interface supports at least one of the following:

a wireless network, a wired network, a peer-to-peer network, a telephone network, a cellular network, the Internet, an intranet, an 802.11 network, an ad hoc network, a Bluetooth network, a ZigBee network, and a packet switched network.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the social map comprises at least one of the following:

a dynamically updated map, a real-time map, and a spontaneous map.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the matching engine is further configured to obtain the profiles via a web service.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the visualization engine and the matching engine are embodied on the same device.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the profiles comprise weighted attributes.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the matching engine is further configured to select the selected profiles based on the weighted profiles of the profiles.

12. The device of claim 1, wherein the profiles are representative of users of the other devices.

13. The device of claim 10, wherein the matching engine is further configured to select the selected profiles based on a semantic matching operation.

14. The device of claim 1, wherein the device display comprises a touch screen.

15. The device of claim 1, wherein the social map enables the target device to invoke a communication function.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the communication function includes at least one of the following:

a text chat, an email, and a voice communication.

17. The device of claim 1, wherein the conceptual distance is determined as a function common attributes of the selected profile.

18. The device of claim 1, wherein the context includes at last one of the following:

a social context, a conference context, an academic context, and a military context.

19. The device of claim 1, wherein the matching engine is further configured to obtain the profiles based on a shared key among the other devices available on the network.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the shared key is associated with a service area.