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US 10,380,664 B2Granted
Creation and use of public and private groups in a location sharing application
OwnerBryan Gardner Trussel, James Stanton +3inventors
InventorsBryan Gardner Trussel, James Stanton, Steve Miller, Craig Link, Yahor Pushkin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mobile application uses computer-readable instructions for exchanging, viewing or providing location sharing information in a context of a public group, a private group or both. The location sharing information may be made available to aid or enhance commerce-related activities performed by a merchant, a consumer or both. In another embodiment, a method for authenticating a private group permits an authenticating user to restrict the private group and selectively allow subsequent participants restricted access to the private group.
Claims17
A computer-implemented method for sharing user location information, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a server comprising at least a central processing unit, from a sender device over the internet:
- the user location information specifying a real-time location of a user, for access by a specified group,
- wherein the real-time location of the user is retrieved by an integrated location sharing application of a mobile device that retrieves the user location information based on data from a GPS module of the mobile device;
- and
- an instruction indicating a duration of time in which the user location information is shareable;
- appending one or more tags that, when appended, become one or more appended tags, wherein at least one of the one or more appended tags provides additional information, about the user of the sender device, that was provided separately from the user location information;
- adding the user of the sender device to the specified group by associating an identifier for the user of the sender device with an identifier for the specified group in a data structure maintained at the sever;
- for at least one participant of the specified group that is not the user of the sender device, determining that the at least one participant is expected to have an interest in at least one tag,
- wherein the determining is based on identifying a match between:
- (A) search parameters set by the at least one participant or profile characteristics for the at least one participant, and
- (B) the one or more appended tags;
- determining that a current time is within the duration of time;
- and
- in response to the determining that the at least one participant is expected to have an interest and that the current time is within the duration of time, providing, to the at least one participant, access to the user location information.
11 more elements
A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a procedure for sharing user location information, the procedure comprising:
- receiving, at a server comprising at least a central processing unit, from a sender device over the internet:
- the user location information specifying a real-time location of a user, that is accessible by a specified group,
- wherein the real-time location of the user is retrieved by an integrated location sharing application of a mobile device that retrieves the user location Information based on data from a GPS module of the mobile device;
- and
- one or more appended tags, wherein at least one of the one or more appended tags provides additional information about the sender device or a user of the sender device;
- adding the user of the sender device to the specified group by associating an identifier for the user of the sender device with an identifier for the specified group in a data structure maintained at the sever;
- for at least one participant of the specified group that is not the user of the sender device, determining that the at least one participant is expected to have an interest in the at least one tag,
- wherein the determining that the at least one participant is expected to have an interest in the at least one tag is based on identifying a match between:
- (A) search parameters set by the at least one participant or profile characteristics for the at least one participant, and
- (B) the one or more appended tags;
- and
- in response to the determining that the at least one participant is expected to have an interest, providing, to the at least one participant, access to the user location information,
- wherein the server receives an instruction indicating a duration of time during which the user location information is shareable;
- wherein the procedure further comprises determining that a current time is within the duration of time;
- and
- wherein the providing, to the at least one participant, the access to the user location information, is further in response to the determining that the current time is within the duration of time.
13 more elements
A system for sharing user location information, the system comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
- receiving, over the internet from a sender device comprising at least a central processing unit:
- the user location Information specifying a real-time location of a user, that is accessible by a specified group,
- wherein the real-time location of the user is retrieved by an integrated location sharing application of a mobile device that retrieves the user location information based on data from a GPS module of the mobile device;
- and
- one or more appended tags, wherein at least one of the one or more appended tags provides additional information about a user of the sender device;
- adding the user of the sender device to the specified group by associating an identifier for the user of the sender device with an identifier for the specified group in a data structure maintained at the sever;
- for at least one participant of the specified group that is not the user of the sender device, determining that the at least one participant is expected to have an Interest in the at least one tag;
- and
- in response to the determining that the at least one participant is expected to have an interest, providing, to the at least one participant, access to the user location information
- wherein the server receives an instruction indicating a duration of time during which the user location information is shareable;
- and
- wherein the operations further comprise determining that a current time is within the duration of time;
- and
- wherein the providing, to the at least one participant, the access to the user location information, is further in response to the determining that the current time is within the duration of time.
14 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.