Group formation using anonymous broadcast information

#This subject matter is generally related to data communications between electronic devices.

#Social networking has revolutionized the way people communicate and share information with one another. Online social networks are communities of individuals who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Many social network services are web-based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging and discussion groups. Social network websites typically provide tools and communication infrastructures for organizing and managing social networks.

#During private or public events (e.g., concert, tradeshows, business meetings, weddings, rallies), a typical individual may have many brief contacts with individuals for which they would like to have further correspondence post event. With conventional social network websites, the individual would have to collect personal information from the contacts, manually create a social network on the social network website and invite the contacts to join. Some of the contacts, however, may not be registered with the social network website, and will have to register before joining the social network.

#FIG. 1 illustrates an example system that allows group formation based on anonymous broadcast information.

#FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an example process performed by a trusted service to form groups.

#FIG. 3A is a flow diagram of an example process performed by a device for broadcasting tokens to other devices.

#FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 100 that allows group formation based on anonymous broadcast information. In some implementations, the system 100 generally includes one or more groups 102 coupled to a trusted service 104 through one or more networks 108 (e.g., the Internet, wireless network). In the example shown, the group 102a includes a set of devices 112a . . . 112c and the group 102b includes a set of devices 116a . . . 116c. The group 102a also includes an access device 114, for providing the devices 112 with access to the network 108. The group 102b includes an access device 118, for providing the devices 116 with access to the network 108.

#The devices 112 can be any device capable of communicating with another device, including but not limited to: notebook computers, desktop computers, mobile phones, smart phones, email devices, set-top boxes, game consoles, personal digital assistants (PDAs), media players, digital cameras, video cameras, etc. The access devices 114, 118 can be any device capable of providing access to a network, including but not limited to: routers, hubs, interface cards, host computers and any one of the devices 112, 116 described above. One or more of the devices 112 can have access to the external network 108, either directly or indirectly through the access devices 114, 118. Internet Protocol (e.g., IPv4) can be used for external communication with network resources, such as the trusted service 104 and one or more content providers 106.

#In some implementations, the devices 112, 116 in group 102a can exchange tokens while within transmission range of each other. The access devices 114, 118 can also exchange tokens with the devices 112, 116, respectively. For example, the device 112a can exchange tokens with devices 112b and 112c, as well as access device 114. Similarly, the device 112b can exchange tokens with devices 112a and 112c, as well as access device 114. The device 112c can exchange tokens with the devices 112a and 112b, as well as the access device 114. The access device 114 can exchange tokens with any of the devices 112a, 112b and 112c. The devices 116 and access device 118 in group 102b have similar capabilities and need not be described here.