GB2423889A

GB2423889A - Ascertaining the proximity of selected mobile phone users

Info

Publication number: GB2423889A
Application number: GB0504572A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Hugh Wright
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2005-03-04
Filing date: 2005-03-04
Publication date: 2006-09-06
Also published as: GB0504572D0

Abstract

A mobile phone user ("Prox Caller") sends out a call ("Prox Call") 4 to individuals or groups of people ("Prox Friends"), such as friends, colleagues or acquaintances, to find out if they are near by. If the Prox Friends have activated Prox Response on their mobile phones 5, the mobile phone service provider will check which Prox Friends are within the range specified by the Prox Caller 6 and send the Prox Responses along with approximate distances to the Prox Caller 8. The Prox Responses are stored and can be viewed by the Prox Caller showing the Prox Friends in range who have responded 10.

Description

Page 1 A process for ascertaining mobile phone user proximity

Introduction

This invention is a new process which allows a mobile population to easily find out if friends, colleagues or acquaintances are close by, using mobile phone technology. Mobile phone users ("Prox Callers") would be able to send out a call ("Prox Call") to people, or groups of people (Prox Friends"). The Prox Caller would receive back a list of Prox Friends who were within a specified range with their approximate distance away from the Prox Caller.

Operation of the Proximity Call process Proximity Call process See figure 1.

Step 1. Process start. The user decides they want to determine which of their Prox Friends is close by. See also figures 2 and 3 for an illustration of how this could be displayed on the mobile phone.

Step 2. Prox Call send, select Prox Friends. The Prox Caller selects the Prox Friends they want to find. This is achieved by searching through the mobile phone address book and selecting users from it See also figures 4 and 5 for an illustration of how this could be displayed on the mobile phone.

In addition there will be a new function of the address book so that the user can place entries into groups, for example "Friends", "Colleagues", "Football Team" etc, enabling them to select all users within the given group in a single step.

Step 3. Prox Call send, select range. The Prox Caller then decides how near the Prox Friends need to be for a positive response to be generated, that is they select the range.

Initially it is suggested that this is set to a default of 3 miles or 5 kilometres, with the ability to select any range up to 60 miles or 100 kilometres, and for ranges less than 10 miles or 15 kilometres the ability to specify a range with one decimal place, above these distances the range being set to whole miles or kilometres. See also figure 6 for an illustration of how this could be displayed on the mobile phone.

Step 4. Prox Call send. The Prox Caller now presses send. See also figure 6 for an illustration of how this could be displayed on the mobile phone. The Prox Call is placed into the caller's mobile phone service provider network and transmifted to other mobile phone service provider networks as required.

Step 5. Prox Call settings. The mobile phone service provider companies check whether the Prox Friends who have been called have activated Prox Response on their mobile phones, which could be done within the mobile phone settings. The default being that Prox Response would not be activated. See also figures 7 and 8 for an illustration of how this could be displayed on the mobile phone.

Step 6. Location check. For those Prox Friends who have activated Prox Response the mobile phone service providers then do a check on which of these Prox Friends are within the specified range of the Prox Caller. This makes use of the network service providers' function of being able to locate mobile phones to within a certain degree of accuracy.

Page 2 Step 7. Prox Query. Prox Friends who have activated Prox Response and are within the specified range then receive a message similar to: "Prox call from <Proximity Caller number, or name if in mobile phone address book> distance approximately <x> miles away, at hh:mm on dd/mm/yyyy - Respond?" See also figures 9 and 10 for an illustration of how this could be displayed on the mobile phone.

Prox messages not responded to with a "Yes" remain in the receiving user's Text Message lnbox until deleted and can be responded with a "Yes" later if the Prox Friend chooses to do so.

Step 8. Prox Response. As positive responses from Prox Friends are received back by the Prox Caller's mobile phone service provider these are sent back to the Prox Caller Step 9. Default Responses. Prox Friends can set default responses to Prox Calls from different Prox Callers in the Call Settings. They can choose to "always reject", "always accept", or "always check whether to acknowledge". The default is "always check whether to acknowledge", see also figures 11 and 12 for an illustration of how this could be displayed on the mobile phone.

Where a Prox Friend has selected "always accept" or "always reject" against a particular Prox Caller, the Prox Query (Step 7) is not needed, the mobile phone service providers can immediately provide a response confirming if the user is in range, or a null response if the user is out of range.

Step 10. Prox Call results. When a Prox Response is received by the Prox Caller a display notifies them, see also figure 13 for an illustration of how this could be displayed on the mobile phone. They can then choose to show all the Prox Call results from the Prox Call that resulted in the response, taking them to the screen such as that shown in figure 16, or just to exit until more results are received.

The responses to the Prox Calls are stored and can then be viewed or retrieved showing the Prox Friends in range who have responded, and their distance away. See figures 15 and 16.

Prox Call results can also be deleted via an intermediate step between that shown in figures and 16 which provides the user with "view results" and "delete" options.

The results could be displayed more graphically as mobile phone assisted user location services improve.

Passive query process With this process users are immediately notified if selected Prox Friends come within a specified range. This requires the mobile phone service providers to track the locations of each selected Prox Friend with a database trigger once the users come within the specified range of each other. This can be implemented by an additional option "notify when within range" within the screen such as that illustrated in figure 12. When this option is selected the user is then prompted for a range. The user will only be notified about Prox Friends coming into range where the Prox Friend has selected "Always accept" as a default response against that particular user, see figure 12.

Claims

Page 3 Claims I A process using the capabilities of mobile phones to

provide a new function for mobile phone users to ascertain their approximate distance from other selected mobile phone users.
2. A process as claimed in Claim I where the functions result in substantially the same result.
3. A process substantially as described above and illustrated in the accompanying drawings