Identifying and providing physical social actions to a social networking system

• US 9,621,602 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2013
• Issued: 04/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ryan, Timothy Cameron, Huang, Jialiya, Booth, Paul Henry, McKay, Jonathan Andrew, Moon, Seungwhan, Seger, Margaret-Ann Julia, Millner, Amon Daran, Deng, Peter Xiu, Marra, Christopher John, Thomson, Scott Andrew, Marra, Gregory Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Donabed, Ninos
• Application Number:
  US14/090,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20140149514A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,232 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0024 for multiple sensor units attached to the patient, e.g. using a body or personal area network
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/167 Personality evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6887 mounted on external non-worn devices, e.g. non-medical devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/721 using a separate sensor to detect motion or using motion information derived from signals other than the physiological signal to be measured
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7246 using correlation, e.g. template matching or determination of similarity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Physical social actions are conveniently detected, characterized, and provided to a social networking system. This improves the user experience of the social networking system by more thoroughly recording the social actions of users occurring outside a social graph. This has the effect of extending an open social graph, which typically refers to social actions taken outside the social networking system but within a computer network, to physical social actions. By providing characterized physical social actions to the social networking system, the open social graph is extended to include physical social actions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing, by a social networking system, a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and edges, wherein a node represents a user or an entity and an edge represents one of a connection between users or an interaction between users performed via the social networking system;

storing a plurality of baseline data profiles representing physical social interactions associated with users, wherein the baseline data profiles are created based at least in part on using a machine learning technique and a baseline data profile specifies a physical movement of a sensor;

receiving, from a first sensor associated with a first user, a data profile characterizing an interaction between the first sensor and a second sensor associated with a second user as a function of a physical movement of the first sensor;

receiving a user identifier corresponding to the first user and the data profile characterizing the interaction;

comparing the received data profile characterizing the interaction to the plurality of baseline data profiles to identify a matching baseline data profile responsive to a matching of the physical movement specified by the data profile with the physical movement specified by the matching baseline data profile;

identifying a physical social interaction associated with the first user and the second user based on the matching baseline data profile;

adding a new edge to the social graph of the social networking system, the new edge representing the identified physical social interaction; and

notifying one or more other users of the social networking system that the first user engaged in the physical social interaction with the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a profile of a proximate, contemporaneously detected physical movement by the second user and a user identifier of the second user.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining that the first user and the second user have engaged in a joint physical social interaction based on the proximate, contemporaneously detected physical movement.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the baseline data profile corresponds to a profile generated by the first user and associated by the first user with a corresponding physical social interaction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the baseline data profile corresponds to a plurality of profiles identified as corresponding to a physical social interaction by a plurality of users of the social networking system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the physical social interaction includes identifying a movement profile and the user identifier as a security credential.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second user is one of:

a human user or an inanimate object.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second sensor is associated with the second user that is a book and the identified physical social interaction represents an interaction performed by the first user with the book.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second sensor is associated with the second user that is a door and the identified physical social interaction represents the first user opening the door.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified physical social interaction represents the first user shaking hands with the second user.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

extending a social graph representation of the social networking system to include physical social actions by recording the identified physical interation in the social graph.

12. A method comprising:

storing, by a social networking system, a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and edges, wherein a node represents a user or an entity and an edge represents one of a connection between users or an interaction between users performed via the social networking system;

storing a plurality of baseline data profiles representing physical social interactions associated with users, wherein a baseline data profile specifies a physical movement of a sensor;

receiving at least two data profiles of contemporaneously detected physical movements corresponding to at least two proximately disposed users of a social networking system, the two data profiles comprising a first data profile received from a first sensor and a second data profile received from a second sensor, the two data profiles characterizing a physical social interaction as a function of physical movements of the first and second sensors;

receiving a user identifier corresponding to each of the at least two proximately disposed users of the social networking system;

comparing the received data profiles characterizing the physical social interaction to the plurality of baseline data profiles to identify a matching baseline data profile responsive to a matching of the physical movements specified by the data profiles with the physical movement profiles specified by the matching baseline data profile;

identifying the physical movement profiles as corresponding to the physical social interaction between the two proximately disposed users based on the matching baseline data profile;

adding a new edge to the social graph of the social networking system, the new edge representing the identified physical social interaction; and

communicating the physical social interaction to one or more other users of the social networking system.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein identifying the physical movement profiles as corresponding to a physical social action comprises matching each of the profiles to at least one baseline profile of a physical social interaction.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the baseline profile corresponds to a profile generated by the user and associated by the user with a corresponding physical social interaction.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the baseline profile corresponds to a plurality of profiles identified as corresponding to a physical social interaction by a plurality of users of the social networking system.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein one of the proximately disposed users is inanimate.

17. A system comprising:

a sensor comprising;

a movement sensor associated with a first user for detecting a physical movement of the movement sensor with a proximate sensor associated with another user;

a processor in communication with the movement sensor, the processor for generating a physical movement profile comprising a data profile characterizing the detected interaction as a function of the physical movement;

a local area identity transceiver for transmitting and receiving at least one user identifier; and

a network transceiver for communicating at least one of the physical movement profile and the user identifier; and

a computing device in communication with the sensor, the computing device for;

storing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and edges, wherein a node represents a user or an entity and an edge represents one of a connection between users or an interaction between users performed via the social networking system;

storing a plurality of baseline data profiles representing physical social interactions associated with users, wherein a baseline data profile specifies a physical movement of a sensor;

receiving the physical movement profile from the sensor, the physical movement profile comprising the data profile characterizing an interaction between the sensor and the proximate sensor;

comparing the received physical movement profile to the plurality of baseline data profiles to identify a matching baseline data profile responsive to a matching of the physical movement specified by the data profile with the physical movement specified by the matching baseline data profile;

identifying a physical social interaction corresponding to the physical movement profile based on the matching baseline data profile;

adding a new edge to the social graph of the social networking system, the new edge representing the identified physical social interaction; and

notifying one or more other users of the social networking system that the first user engaged in the physical social interaction with the other user.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the local area identity transceiver is for detecting a user identifier corresponding to the proximate sensor associated with the other user.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the physical social interaction further is associated with the proximate sensor of the other user.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the other user is an establishment.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the account of the social networking system is associated with the sensor by executing a recognized pairing movement.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the sensor further comprises an image capture system.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that includes instructions that, when loaded into memory, cause a processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

storing, by a social networking system, a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and edges, wherein a node represents a user or an entity and an edge represents one of a connection between users or an interaction between users performed via the social networking system;

storing a plurality of baseline data profiles representing physical social interactions associated with users, wherein a baseline data profile specifies a physical movement of a sensor;

receiving, from a first sensor associated with a first user, a data profile characterizing an interaction between the first sensor and a second sensor associated with a second user as a function of a physical movement of the first sensor;

receiving a user identifier corresponding to the first user and the data profile characterizing the interaction;

comparing the received data profile characterizing the interaction to the plurality of baseline data profiles to identify a matching baseline data profile responsive to a matching of the physical movement specified by the data profile with the physical movement specified by the matching baseline data profile;

identifying a physical social interaction associated with the first user and the second user based on the matching baseline data profile;

adding a new edge to the social graph of the social networking system, the new edge representing the identified physical social interaction; and

notifying one or more other users of the social networking system that the first user engaged in the physical social interaction with the second user.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further comprising receiving a profile of a proximate, contemporaneously detected physical movement by the second user and a user identifier of the second user.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 24, further comprising determining that the user and the proximate user have engaged in a joint physical social interaction based on the detected physical movement and the proximate, contemporaneously detected physical movement.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the baseline data profile corresponds to a profile generated by the user and associated by the user with a corresponding physical social interaction.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the baseline data profile corresponds to a plurality of data profiles identified as corresponding to a physical social interaction by a plurality of users of the social networking system.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein identifying a physical social interaction includes identifying a movement profile and the user identifier as a security credential.