Group formation using anonymous broadcast information
US8359643B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 18, 2008 |
| Grant date | Jan 22, 2013 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 14, 2029 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04W84/18
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A number of devices co-located at a geographic location can broadcast and receive tokens. Tokens can be exchanged using a communication link having limited communication range. Tokens that are received by a device can be stored locally on the device and/or transmitted to a trusted service operating remotely on a network. In some implementations, the tokens can be stored with corresponding timestamps to assist a trusted service in matching or otherwise correlating the tokens with other tokens provided by other devices. The trusted service can perform an analysis on the tokens and timestamps to identify devices that were co-located at the geographic location at or around a contact time which can be defined by the timestamps. A group can be created based on results of the analysis. Users can be identified as members of the group and invited to join the group.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.