GB2461685A

GB2461685A - Location based service to facilitate the arrangement of face to face meetings

Info

Publication number: GB2461685A
Application number: GB0811944A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Andrew Langstaff
Original assignee: Symbian Software Ltd; Nokia Inc
Current assignee: Nokia Oyj
Priority date: 2008-06-30
Filing date: 2008-06-30
Publication date: 2010-01-13
Also published as: GB0811944D0

Abstract

A location based service which provides a social networking tool to facilitate the efficient arrangement of meetings between friends wherein, messages sent between communication devices are only notified to the users of the receiving devices 120, 130, 140 should the separation between the receiving and transmitting device 110 lie within a target range 150. Separation may be defined in terms of distance or travel time. Notification may be by visual or audio means. At least one of the location of the sending device and the target range may be included in the message itself. A validity period may be associated with the message, within which period the recipient devices recalculate the separation between previously out-of-range devices and notifies the user of the message if the devices have moved within the target range. The location of devices may be determined using GPS.

Description

MESSAGE NOTIFICATION

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to communication devices and associated methods for communicating messages that are only notified to the user if the sending and recipient devices are within a target range of separations.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Social networking tools have recently enjoyed a surge in popularity. They facilitate management of increasingly complex and geographically diverse social networks. A social networking internet website typically provides members with the ability to form links with other members of the site, exchange messages, arrange events, send invitations, form special interest groups, and perform other actions associated with the management of social contacts.

Internet-based social networking web sites provide useful tools for arranging events and sending invitations to contacts in advance of the event. However, they are not so useful when events are organised at short notice and when potential invitees do not have immediate access to the internet. Social networking websites are not well suited for immediate and real-time aria ngements.

Previously, a user overcome by a sudden desire to meet friends while shopping in a town centre would find social networking web sites of little use.

Instead, he would call or message a few contacts that he considers to be most likely to be nearby and would directly question them as to their location.

This is both laborious and time consuming for the user and is also intrusive to his friends -especially since they may be nowhere near the town centre and therefore unable to meet up. Also, since the user will avoid contacting, and therefore disturbing, friends he believes are unlikely to be in the town centre, we may miss an opportunity to meet with a friend who is, unknown to the user, actually nearby.

JGUI provide a system called We Are In Touch (WAIT), through which up to mobile devices exchange their received Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates using Short Message Service (SMS) messages. Each of the mobile devices is then able to plot the locations onto a map displayed to the user, allowing the user to view his location relative to the location of his contacts. However, this map does not provide a satisfactory solution for the person wishing to contact his friends in the town centre -it is laborious for him to open the WAIT application, find his own location on the map, locate and identify those contacts closest to him, memorise their identities whilst he then opens a messaging application, and finally address and send a message to each of them. Furthermore, there since WAIT displays the last received location for each of the contacts, there is no guarantee that these are up to date. Finally, WAIT requires each of the contacts to repeatedly transmit their location by SMS and not only is this costly in terms of network charges and battery life, but it represents a considerable loss of privacy to each contact.

The user looking to meet his friends may be happy to reveal his current position to his contacts, but it is unlikely that each of his friends will be happy to provide him with their location at all times.

What is needed is a system that allows a user to send a message to his contacts without requiring them to disclose their location to him and without disturbing contacts that are not near to the user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a first communication device configured to, in response to the reception of a message from a second device, automatically: determine a separation between the first and second devices; compare the determined separation to a target range of separations; and based on said comparison, notify the message to a user of the first device only if the determined separation lies within the target range.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a method of selectively notifying a user of a first device to a message received from a second device, the method comprising automatically: determining a separation between the first and second devices; comparing the determined separation to a target range of separations; based on said comparison, notifying the message to the user only if the determined separation lies within the target range.

In a third aspect, the present invention provides a second communication device configured to: prepare a message to be sent to a first communication device; embed into said message a target range of separations between the first and second device; and send the message to the first device, wherein, the target range indicates a range of separations within which a user of the first device should be notified of the message.

In a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a method of sending a message from a second communication device to a first communication device, for selective notification to the user at the first device, the method comprising: preparing, at the second device, the message to be sent to the first communication device; embedding into the message a target range of separations between the first and second devices; and sending the message to the first device, wherein, the target range indicates a range of separations within which a user of the first device should be notified of the message.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings: figure 1 is a schematic illustration of a communication device; and figure 2 illustrates a network of communication devices and users.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Figure 1 shows a mobile phone 100 including a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 10, a memory 20, a keypad 30, a mobile telephony transceiver 40, a Global Positioning System (GPS) component 50, and a display 60. The keypad 30 is capable of receiving input from a user. The mobile telephony transceiver 40 is configured to establish a connection with a remote base station and connect the phone 100 to a telephony network. The CPU 10 is configured to activate the GPS component 50 when positioning data is required by the mobile phone 100. Once activated, the GPS component 50 receives positional data from GPS satellites that it and uses this data to generate a position fix for the phone 100. The display 60 may be used by the phone to provide a user with information about the operation of the phone 100.

An operating system is stored on the phone 100 and is loaded into memory and executed by the CPU 10 upon start up of the phone 100. The operating system may provide a graphical user interface on display 60.

The phone 100 can be used to send and receive messages whose notification to a recipient user depends on the relative location of the sending and receiving phones.

In response to a user instruction to send a message, the GPS component 50 is activated and used to determine the phone's location. Once the phone's location has been determined, this is embedded within a message. The user may enter message content that he wishes to be displayed to recipients, and may also attach calendar information and/or media that he wishes to send.

The message is then addressed to one or more recipients and sent. The message may be sent using SMS, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), e-mail, or any other suitable messaging service.

When receiving a message, the phone 100 first uses the GPS component 50 to determine its location. Once its location is calculated, the phone 100 calculates its separation from the location embedded in the message. Where the separation is a distance, this will involve calculating the distance between the location embedded in the message and the location of the recipient phone. Where the separation is a time taken to travel between these locations, the embedded location and the device's location may be provided to a routing service (local to the recipient phone or on a remote server) that estimates the time required to travel between the two locations. The preferred type of separation may be selected by a user of the recipient phone.

Once the separation between the embedded location and the recipient phone has been determined, this is compared to target range of separations, If the determined separation lies within the target range, the message is notified to the user of the recipient device. If the separation lies outside the target range, the message is not notified to the user, and may be discarded. Alternatively, the message may still be notified to the user even when the separation lies outside the target range, but in a less intrusive way -for example an audio and visual notification may be generated when the separation is within the target range, but only a visual alert outside the range.

The target range is preferably any separation up to a maximum value. This range is directed primarily at the use case where a user wishes to disturb only contacts that are nearby in order to arrange to meet them at short notice.

However, in other use cases different location ranges may be desirable. For example, a user may wish to contact only contacts that have a separation greater than a particu'ar separation.

Consider the use case of a user attending a concert that a subset of his contacts are also attending. On arrival, the user discovers that the concert has been cancelled. The user now wishes to contact and warn those of his contacts that are also attending, but does not wish to disturb those who have already arrived and are therefore aware of the cancellation. By sending a message to all of the subset of contacts but specifying a separation range of greater than 1 km, for example, the user is able to target his message at just those contacts who have not yet arrived.

Since the selection of the target range will vary depending upon context in which the message is sent, in preferred embodiments it is specified by the user sending the message and embedded in it. However, in alternative embodiments the target range is set by a user of the recipient phone or is a default range.

The message itself may include textual or other information entered or selected by the user sending the message. It may additionally provide the recipient with information regarding the position of the sending phone. The notification of the message to the recipient user can include the location embedded in the message, the time the message was sent, the position of the recipient user at the time the message was received, and the determined separation. The recipient may be presented with the option to reply to the sender, for example using a preconfigured message. The preconfigured message may comprise position data for the receiving device.

The sender may address the message to particular contacts by selecting recipients from a list of contacts in an address book stored in the operating system of his phone. Alternatively, the user may select a preconfigured list of contacts to which he wishes to send the message. His phone may store multiple preconfigured lists for this purpose, allowing the user to easily differentiate between different social groups -for example using a separate list for each of colleagues', friends', and family'.

It may be the case that a recipient whose separation from the sender lay outside of the target range when a message was received later moves within the target range. Should this happen soon after the message is sent, it is the message is likely still to be relevant to the recipient and should be notified.

Therefore, in preferred embodiments the determination of the separation and its comparison with the threshold range are periodically repeated after the separation has initially been found to lie out-of-range, and the recipient user is notified of the message should the revised separation is found to lie within the target range. Since it is unlikely that the message will have permanent relevance, these steps are preferably repeated for only a predetermined message validity period. This message validity period may be a default period or a period pre-selected by the recipient user, but since the period for which the message will remain relevant will vary according to its context the validity period is preferably specified by the sending user and embedded into the message, from which it can be extracted by the recipient phone. For example, the user who wishes to meet friends whilst shopping in the town centre may only intend to remain in the town centre for one hour, in which case he would select a message validity period of one hour or less. An advantage of this feature is that it allows a recipient to receive a notification when they move to a position that meets the sending user's criteria, even if they were not in the right position when they first received the message. The validity period allows the sender to define a temporal as well as spatial window for notification, and therefore a potential rendezvous.

In one embodiment, before generating a notification, the phone first checks a do not disturb' mode variable to see whether the recipient user has specified that he or she does not want to be disturbed. If the receiving user has specified a do not disturb' mode, the message is not notified to the user, or a less intrusive notification is made. Although the message may then be deleted, it is preferable that it is retained in memory until the phone is switched out of a do not disturb' mode. On leaving the do not disturb' mode, the phone determines whether its separation from the location in the message is within the target range and whether the message's validity period is still current (if a validity period is used). In the event that both these conditions are satisfied, the message is then notified to the recipient user. An advantage of this feature is that it allows a receiving user to filter notifications if they do not want to be disturbed. What is more, notifications will only be made once the user is happy to be disturbed if the messages are still relevant.

In some embodiments of the invention, the notification is made using a speaker. The notification itself may comprise a voice which describes the location and/or range of the second communication device to the user of the first device. This is be particularly useful when the user is unable or unwilling to view the display of the device -for example when driving or when using headphones to listen to music.

Even in embodiments where the determined separation and the threshold range relate to distances, the recipient device may still determine the time taken to travel between the location in the message and its own location and provide this information to the user as part of the notification. Based upon this information, the recipient can estimate for how long he would need to travel in order to meet up with the sender.

The separation, be it a spatial distance or temporal range, may be calculated by the receiving device or by a remote server in communication with the recipient device. Determining a straight-line distance between the location embedded in the message and the recipient's location requires only a simple geometric calculation and is readily performable at the recipient device.

However, a more meaningful separation can be determined using a route planning function to calculate the actual distance that would need to be travelled and the time required based on knowledge of one or more transport networks. Since route planning is a complex task requiring a large amount of stored data, this may be best performed on a remote server. In some embodiments, when the receiving phone receives the message from the sending phone, it forwards either the whole message or just the embedded location information to the remote server, along with the recipients own location. In response, the server returns the separation between the two locations.

Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary use of the above system. Alan 110 has three friends in his contacts list, Brenda 120, Cohn 130 and Daisy 140. All four friends possess a phone 100 as illustrated in figure 1.

Alan 110 finds himself in town with a few hours to spare and wants to see if any of his friends wish to meet him there. Alan 100 therefore prepares a message inviting his friends to meet him. Alan 110 addresses the message to those friends he wishes to invite, the maximum distance 150 from his present location that the each friend can be in order to be invited, and the period of time he intends the invite to remain open. In fact, he addresses the message to each of Brenda 120, Cohn 130 and Daisy 140, specifies that they must be within 1km (distance 150), and that the invite is valid for 1 hour. Once Alan has finalised the message, Alan's phone calculates Alan's current position using GPS and attaches his GPS co-ordinates to the message. The phone then transmits the message to each of the addressees.

Since Brenda 120 is within the 1km distance 150 specified by Alan 110, a notification is displayed on her device informing her that Alan is nearby and displaying his location and distance. The notification also provides to Brenda an option to reply to Alan 110 to inform him that she intends to meet him. The option may be to automatically dial his telephone number or to automatically prepare a text message to send to him. Brenda 120 may also choose to send her own position to Alan 110 to facilitate the organisation of a meet up.

Brenda 120 chooses to reply by text, informing Alan 110 that she will meet him at the position indicated in his message in 10 minutes.

Cohn's phone is in a do not disturb' mode and so does not notify Cohn 130 of the receipt of Alan's message. However, Cohn 130 takes his phone out of do not disturb mode' after half an hour, at which time Cohn 130 is within the 1km distance 1500 specified by Allan 110. Since this has occurred within the 1 hour validity period specified by Alan 110, Cohn 120 receives a notification that Alan 110 is nearby, including his location and distance. However, Cohn is busy and so chooses to ignore Alan's invite.

Daisy 140 is 2km away from Alan 110 when receiving Alan's invite and is outside the area 160 defined by the 1km distance 150 specified by Allen 110.

As a result, Daisy's phone does not notify Daisy 140 upon receipt of Alan's message. However, 45 minutes later, Daisy has walked to within 1km of the location embedded in Alan's message. As this occurs within the 1 hour validity period specified by Alan 110, Daisy 140 is then notified of the message, including the embedded location and the time the message was sent. Daisy realises that Alan's invite is 45 minutes old but hopes to catch Alan 110 so she selects the option to automatically dial Alan's number so that she can talk to Alan 110 immediately.

Although the present invention has been described in the context of mobile phones, it is equally applicable to other forms of mobile communication device, such as personal digital assistants and laptops. Similarly, although the devices' locations are described as obtained using GPS, they may equally be obtained using other location methods, for example by cell-based triangulation.

The applicant hereby discloses in isolation each individual feature described herein and any combination of two or more such features, to the extent that such features or combinations are capable of being carried out based on the present specification as a whole in the light of the common general knowledge of a person skilled in the art, irrespective of whether such features or combinations of features solve any problems disclosed herein, and without limitation to the scope of the claims. The applicant indicates that aspects of the present invention may consist of any such individual feature or combination of features. In view of the foregoing description it will be evident to a person skilled in the art that various modifications may be made within the scope of the invention.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A first communication device configured to, in response to the reception of a message from a second device, automatically: determine a separation between the first and second devices; compare the determined separation to a target range of separations; and based on said comparison, notify the message to a user of the first device only if the determined separation lies within the target range.
2. The device of claim 1, wherein the first device is further configured to: extract the location of the second device from the message; and determine the separation between the first and second devices using the extracted location of the second device.
3. The device of claim I or claim 2, wherein the first device is further configured to: extract the target range of separations from the message.
4. The device of any preceding claim, wherein notifying the message to the user comprises notifying the user of the determined separation.
5. The device of any preceding claim, wherein notifying the message to the user comprises presenting the user with an option to communicate with the user of the second device.
6. The device of any preceding claim, further comprising a display, and wherein the notification is a visual notification on the display.
7. The device of any preceding claim, further comprising a speaker, and wherein the notification is audio notification over the speaker.
8. The device of any preceding claim, further comprising means for determining the first device's location, and wherein the device is further configured to: use the location determining means to determine its device's location, determine the separation between the first and second devices based upon the determined location of the first device.
9. The device of claim 8, wherein the location determining means is a satellite positioning system receiver.
10. The device of any preceding claim, wherein the determined separation is the spatial distance of the second device from the first device.
11. The device of any of claims 1 to 9, wherein the separation is the estimated time required to travel from the location of the first device and the location of the second device.
12. The device of any preceding claim, wherein the target range is the range of separations less a threshold value.
13. The device of any preceding claim, further comprising: if the determined separation is outside the target range: storing the message in the device; periodically re-determine the separation between the first and second devices; compare the re-determined separation to the target range; based on said comparison, notify the message to the user if the re-determined separation lies within the target range.
14. The device of any preceding claim, further configured to: extract a message validity period from the message; notify the message to the user only if the validity period has not yet expired.
15. The device of any preceding claim, being a mobile phone.
16. A method of selectively notifying a user of a first device to a message received from a second device, the method comprising automatically: determining a separation between the first and second devices; comparing the determined separation to a target range of separations; based on said comparison, notifying the message to the user only if the determined separation lies within the target range.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising: extracting the location of the second device from the message and; determining the separation between the first and second devices using the extracted location of the second device.
18. The method of claim 16 or claim 17, further comprising: extracting the target range of separations from the message.19. A second communication device configured to: prepare a message to be sent to a first communication device; embed into said message a target range of separations between the first and second device; and send the message to the first device, wherein, the target range indicates a range of separations within which a user of the first device should be notified of the message.
19. A second communication device configured to: prepare a message to be sent to a first communication device; embed into the message a target range of separations between the first and second devices; and send the message to the first device, wherein, the target range indicates a range of separations within which a user of the first device should be notified of the message.
20. A method of sending a message from a second communication device to a first communication device, for selective notification to the user at the first device, the method comprising: preparing, at the second device, the message to be sent to the first communication device; embedding into the message a target range of separations between the first and second devices; and sending the message to the first device, wherein, the target range indicates a range of separations within which a user of the first device should be notified of the message.