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1. AUTHENTICATE USER E G AS PART OF SOCIAL NETWORK 510 DOWNLOAD MESSAGES TO USER 512 UPDATE METADATA IF REQUIRED CONTINUE Fig 5 Patent Application Publication Feb 21 2008 Sheet 9 of 9 US 2008 0045236 1 START 520 CREATE MESSAGE 522 CREATE OR OBTAIN METADATA 524 FORM ASSOCIATIONS AUTHENTICATE 526 UPLOAD MESSAGE CONTENT AND METADATA TO I _ SERVER CONTINUE Fig 5b US 2008 0045236 Al METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR GATHERING AND DELIVERING CONTEXTUAL MESSAGES IN A MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM RELATED APPLICATIONS 0001 This application is related to co pending U S patent application Ser No 11 317 473 filed Dec 22 2005 entitled Methods And Apparatus For Organizing And Pre senting Contact Information In A Mobile Communication System and also co pending U S patent application Ser No 11 026 421 filed Jan 31 2004 entitled Method for interacting with automated information agents using con versational queries both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety COPYRIGHT 0002 A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduc tion by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclo sure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever BACKGROUND OF T
2. Moreover it is significant to note that several message clouds can co exist at the same location if desired For example a first virtual cloud for users meeting Criterion A a second cloud for users meeting Criterion B etc may be created Some users meeting Criterion A may also meet Criterion B and hence can access both clouds 0149 In accordance with one embodiment of the inven tion the subset of persons associated with a virtual cloud or group is defined and managed either from the MCD the server 204 or any device connected to the service on the Internet Moreover the user can choose the accessibility of a given tag or type of tag If the grouping function G S 2 is defined to be the set of all possible users given access to a given tag then there are G S possible subsets including G S 2 that can be defined by the user to limit access to the tag where n group or subset number For example subset G n 3 can be the user s travel social network while subset G o n 10 may be their Jabber IM service buddy list The user would be able to check off e g via a list of subsets he she gives access to as well as the tag search preferences allowed The user could also even select indi viduals of a given subset 0150 In accordance with one embodiment of the inven tion a user will enter a region R having set preferences for the type or affiliation of messages he she wishes to receive the preferences for their prove
3. as in the instant messaging services like MSN messenger and to a specific set of tags that a user may define For example if a user s tag is plumbers it may not be desirable to deliver messages associated with that tag to users who have set restaurants as their preference but alternatively may be desirable to deliver such messages to users who have selected as a preference access to all tags 0146 The link between a given virtual cloud or box and the relevant geographical or other type of location location is defined by any number of location based technologies such as without limitation cellular site or cell ID GPS Assisted GPS Enhanced 911 in the U S E112 in Europe Time of Arrival TOA Time Difference of Arrival TDOA Observed Time Difference OTD and Angle of Arrival AOA These technologies are currently being deployed and are ensured to be widely deployed given that governments throughout the world are making such deploy ment mandatory in many cases However it will be recog nized that other techniques including those not yet devel oped or deployed may also be used consistent with the invention 0147 Inthe exemplary embodiment the location data or information becomes metadata associated with the relevant virtual cloud or box Such metadata advantageously allows indexing search and delivery functions to be performed by the service provider or another entity e g third party operator 0148
4. will often incorporate many more than two access points and that multiple servers 204 may also be employed Accordingly FIG 2 is merely illustrative of the broader principles in this regard Additionally FIG 2 shows multiple locations of interest 206a b Locations of interest may be for example restaurants tourist destinations places of business offices clubs shopping centers or other places of interest to one or a group of people Such locations of interest may also be moving locations e g a given user s mobile device PDA etc their car aircraft the moving location of a weekly or periodic event such as a club meeting etc or those specified ad hoc e g a WiFi hotspot or AP STA network Bluetooth piconet etc 0085 In some embodiments of the invention the MCD 200 may interface with only one access point 202 at any given time thus forcing a hard handoff In other embodi ments of the invention MCD 200 may interface simulta neously with two or more access points to allow for soft hand off Other methods for hand off and hand over well known to those of ordinary skill in the wireless and cellular arts are also consistent with various embodiments of the invention 0086 The configuration shown may be for example a cellular telephone network e g 3G GSM or UMTS In that case access points 202 may be base stations that communicate with MCD 200 using modulated RF signals modulated in accor
5. The Bus 250 additionally couples an input system 262 e g network operator provi sioning or configuration station associated display system 264 and network interface 266 to the microprocessor 252 The memory unit 250 typically includes high speed storage elements including random access memory DRAM SRAM read only memory ROM as well as other memory systems including flash memory and disk drive storage 0122 During operation software instructions stored on memory unit 260 in the form of one or more computer programs are applied to the microprocessor 252 which also may contain its own internal program data cache memory which in turn controls input system 262 display system 264 and network interface 266 The display system 264 and input 262 are typically used to configure and control the server Messages and data are exchanged with other systems whether local or remote via one or more network interfaces 266 The software instructions control the various systems and causes message and data to be generated in accordance with the various descriptions and processes described throughout the application Separate dedicated ICs or ASICs may also be used for one or more of these functions such as where a separate network processor NP chipset or suite is used in conjunction with the aforementioned network inter faces and an installed networking or internetworking proto col stack For example the server may include an Ethernet GBE 10 Gig
6. a restaurant the contextual message may include information e g reviews or recommendations about that restaurant The reviews may be from members of the MCD user s social network from a review service to which the user subscribes or even just other subscribers within the carrier service provider network For example Zagat provides restaurant reviews as well as other information about destinations of interest A user could subscribe or sign up for access these reviews and receive the contextual messages when they are proximate to a restaurant for which a review is available This may also be used to alert or prompt them to the existence of the restaurant in the first place Selective filtering based on theme category etc can also be employed e g download all messages relating only to restaurants at or near this location 0100 Other contextual messages could include informa tion about a party or other social event or an observation For example the observation could include a preferred menu selection at the restaurant made by a member of the user s social network e g try the lobster it s great Alternatively the observation could include a historical anecdote about the location 0101 Once the contextual message is received the user can view or store the message or forward it In some cases the user may respond by adding their own comments or other annotations e g camera phone pictures audio
7. a prescribed distance of and 1 a designated irregularly shaped area of the location associated with the contextual message 0025 In yet another variant the method further com prises transmitting a request from the MCD to the contextual message server the request including an affiliation and the request indicating that the contextual message server should send any other or subsequent contextual messages to the MCD that have the same location and affiliation 0026 In a third aspect of the invention a method for operating a mobile communications device MCD is dis closed In one embodiment the method comprises deter mining a location associated with the mobile communica tions device transmitting the location via wireless interface to a message server and receiving a message from the server based at least in part on the location and an affiliation of the mobile communication device In one variant the mobile communications device stores the affili ation and transmits the affiliation to the message server and the location comprises a proximity to a reference point The reference point can be fixed or substantially mobile 0027 Ina fourth aspect of the invention a communica tions network for delivering contextual messages is dis closed In one embodiment the network comprises contex tual message server apparatus adapted to store contextual messages and location and affiliation information associated therewith receive
8. affilia tion and transmitting the contextual message to the mobile communication device via the wireless link 0022 In one variant the mobile communication device location and mobile communication device affiliation infor Feb 21 2008 mation is received by the server from a proxy of the mobile communication device In another variant the mobile com munication device location and mobile communication device affiliation information is received from the mobile communication device by way of a wireless network 0023 In another variant the method further comprises receiving a new contextual message from an external source the new contextual message having associated location and affiliation information and storing the new contextual mes sage for comparison with future mobile communication device location and affiliation information The external source might comprise a second mobile communication device a social networking service restaurant review or guide service etc The contextual messages include meta data the metadata comprising at least one of i provenance information and ii time of creation information 0024 In another variant the act of evaluating comprises matching at least portions of the message location and affiliation with the mobile communication device location and mobile communication device affiliation The matching is performed by determining if the location of the MCD is within at least one of 1
9. algorithms specifically adapted to evaluate the information from each source and the relevance of the source at any given time or context to arrive at an optimized value Myriad different data sources can be used by the system including e g GPS Assisted GPS cellular base station triangulation ranging IP addressing and presence in ad hoc networks Cell ID Enhanced 911 in the U S E112 Europe Time of Arrival TOA Time Difference of Arrival TDOA Observed Time Difference OTD and Angle of Arrival AOA 0065 In one aspect the aforementioned messages left for a user or entity are geographically and logically persis tent in effect hanging over a given location to be retrieved by target users e g interested users those meeting a demographic or other such filtering criteria or those to which the message is particularly directed upon being apprised by their mobile client device that there are one or more messages associated with the location The messages can be identified by their provenance e g their social network or another source depending on the preferences and opt in choices set by users of the service network 0066 In another aspect the present invention allows for communal posting of information and retrieval and updating of information associated with geographical or other locations This information also includes information about the relative distance of social network members from
10. clips etc to the text message This message could be forwarded back to the server for later transmission to other users The message would include the corresponding location informa tion and any affiliation information Such messages will typically include source or provenance information as well 0102 In some instances the message may be ad hoc or pre stored statements from other members of the user s social network about the particular location For example a user could leave a message about an establishment indicat ing it is approved by other members of his her social networking group or that they should stay away or avoid at all cost 0103 Attributes can also include tags which are labels that indicate a topic or other attribute of interest of the user For example a user may be interested in historical churches When the user passes a location with the tag church a contextual message or notice of such a message may be delivered to the user Or a user may be interested in public figure and if a tag associated with that public was associated Feb 21 2008 with the particular location a message would be sent to that user contemporaneously e g Elvis performed here in 1969 0104 Linking between locations may also be used con sistent with the invention For example a user may sign up for a guided tour of a city or facility In this case a user would receive directions to var
11. context in which those systems are presented This contextual information includes inter alia location and affiliation That is each contextual message will also have an associated location field and affiliation field As previously noted location information may be absolute relative based merely on proximity etc These contextual messages are typically text messages generated internally by the network operator or by other entities including other users businesses advertising entities e g Google Ad Server institutions or government entities Other meta information about the message may also be stored including for example the source provenance time of entry and type 0096 In accordance with one embodiment of the inven tion when the server 204 detects an MCD 200 at a particular location it checks the contextual message database for messages associated with that location In some embodi ments of the invention the server 204 will further check the affiliation of the MCD 200 and compare that with the affiliation associated with the contextual message s in the contextual message database These operations may be conducted in a serial manner so as to conserve processing bandwidth since not all locations will match and hence no subsequent affiliation analysis is required in parallel or combinations permutations thereof depending on the par ticular algorithm employed 0097 Ifthe location and affiliat
12. contextual messages and location and affiliation information associated therewith receive mobile communication device MCD location information match contextual messages to said MCD location infor mation and transmit matched contextual messages and at least one MCD adapted to interface with said contextual message server via a wireless link determine said MCD location information transmit said MCD location information to said con textual message server apparatus and receive said matched contextual messages from said server apparatus 35 A mobile communications device MCD adapted for at least receiving contextual messages said mobile commu nication device comprising wireless interface apparatus adapted to communicate data with at least one other device a memory for storing software instructions a microprocessor in data communication with said memory and adapted to execute said software instruc tions and control said wireless interface apparatus wherein said software instructions cause location information to generated and cause said device to receive messages having at least location information that matches that of said gen erated location information 36 The device of claim 35 wherein said device comprises location apparatus adapted to produce said generated loca tion information and said device is further configured to transmit said generated location information to a message server 37 The dev
13. database at the server 204 0155 The process may also be deferred when the user does not update in real location time as previously described 0156 In accordance with another embodiment of the invention the following step are performed when no tags are in existence FIG 55 The first step 520 is creation of the message This may be a real location time process or alter natively a deferred process if not in real location time This step is followed by metadata creation step 522 which can include location information that is automatically added if in real location time or alternatively user coded e g manu ally entered or selected if deferred Similarly a user created tag or tags can be included whether in real location time or deferred 0157 Next the social network s and or individuals to which the user desires to associate the message are authen ticated per step 524 As above this process may be per formed in real location time or deferred 0158 The message metadata and payload are next uploaded to the context server 204 such uploading which can be performed in real location time or deferred as desired step 526 0159 It will also be recognized that the method and apparatus described in co pending U S patent application Ser No 11 317 473 filed Dec 22 2005 entitled Methods And Apparatus For Organizing And Presenting Contact Information In A Mobile Communication System previ ously incorporated by r
14. factors can accordingly be identified and used as a basis for message delivery For example when a given user is within the location and affiliation target parameters message delivery may occur to that user as well as his her cognitively or logically proximate members e g class mates buddies family members etc irrespective of their location s 0164 Thus methods and apparatus for gathering and delivering context information in a mobile communication system have been described Many other permutations of the foregoing system components and methods may also be used consistent with the present invention as will be rec ognized by those of ordinary skill in the field Users and Business Models 0165 Various types of users will also be able to take advantage of the benefits provided by the above described aspects of the invention For example the service provides an ideal forum for local advertising A merchant in a given geography can provide information to users willing to accept it about their products and services as well as time sensitive real time updates on specials sales limited time or dura tion occurrences etc and can provide multimedia content as well as coupons that the user can use for preferential prices and other advantages if said user decided to frequent the advertising merchant For example in exemplary busi ness model the advertiser and the service provider have an agreement wherein the advertiser
15. invention The process begins at step 400 and at step 402 the MCD transmits a set of affiliations for the MCD Alternatively the affiliations may be maintained in a remote database for use by other systems or at the server where it is periodically updated 0139 At step 404 the location of the MCD is tracked Various methods for performing position tracking have been described throughout this application but typically this tracking uses GPS tracking services triangulation member ship in an ad hoc network etc the use of each which is well known in the art 0140 Atstep 406 the location is transmitted to the central or context server This could take place for example periodically or after a sufficiently large change in location has occurred so as to minimize processing overhead and communication bandwidth requirements 0141 At step 406 the location is transmitted to a central server 204 via the wireless interface At step 407 the MCD transmits a request to receive contextual message In some instances this message will include affiliation or category information This message is typically transmitted in response to user input but may also be generated automati cally based on user preferences In other embodiments of the invention see prior discussions of various message delivery protocols no request may be generated 0142 At step 408 the MCD receives one or more con textual messages and at step 410 the MCD displays
16. is coupled to memory unit 160 via the bus 150 The memory unit 150 typically includes fast access storage elements including Feb 21 2008 random access memory DRAM SRAM read only memory ROM as well as slower access memory systems including flash memory and disk drive storage The bus 150 also electronically couples the keypad system 162 display system 164 position location unit 164 and wireless system 166 to the other components of the system as is well known in the art 0083 During operation software instructions stored in the memory unit 160 are applied to the microprocessor 152 which also may contain its own internal program data cache memory which in turn controls the other components such as the keypad system 162 display system 164 and wireless system 166 The software causes the systems to perform the various functions described throughout this application Separate dedicated ICs or ASICs may also be used for one or more of these functions such as where a separate RF communications chipset or suite is used in conjunction with a host or baseband processor 0084 FIG 2 is a highly simplified block diagram of a mobile network configured in accordance with one embodi ment of the invention A contextual message server 204 is coupled to one or more access points 202 These access points 202 interface with MCD s 200 via a wireless inter face It should be clear that networks especially those of the wireless variety
17. maps available e g navigation CDs etc whereby the user can pinpoint the location being described 0153 In accordance with still another embodiment of the invention the following steps may be performed when existing tags are present FIG 5a The first step 502 is the caching of tag metadata on the user s device e g MCD 100 upon entering a meta area defined by a discrete loca tion coordinate like a city or neighborhood This step is followed by discovery of one or more specific location tags step 504 This discovery process is typically performed by the context server 204 when comparing the tags of the MCD with the tags of a particular contextual message This is followed by step 506 apprising the user of the availability of posted messages from one or more individuals e g in a buddy list social networks to which the user adheres or US 2008 0045236 Al other public source That is the user is notified that contex tual messages are available that match the users location and affiliation 0154 This is followed by authentication of the user as being part of the social network step 508 in the former case Next the information is downloaded in step 510 upon user authentication and or accord The tag is then updated in the case that the user wants to add new information regard ing the location step 512 In one embodiment the user generates his her own message that is forwarded back into the contextual message
18. operating the mobile communications network compris ing detecting a location and an affiliation of said mobile communication device identifying contextual messages in said contextual mes sage server having location and affiliation parameters that match said detected location and affiliation thereby generating a set of identified contextual mes sages and transmitting said set of identified contextual messages from said contextual message server to said mobile communication device 2 The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said affiliation includes membership in a social network 3 The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said affiliation comprises a subscription to a restaurant review service 4 The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said affiliation comprises selection of a historical information tour 5 The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said affiliation is determined based at least in part on a tag 6 The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said contextual message server stores the affiliations of a plural ity of mobile communication devices associated with respective ones of different users of said mobile devices 7 The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said mobile communication device stores at least one affiliation and wherein said mobile communications device is further adapted to transmit said at least one affiliation to said contextual message server 8 The method as set forth i
19. or theme The themes of applications vary broadly across any number of disciplines and functions such as communications instant messaging content man US 2008 0045236 Al agement e commerce transactions brokerage transactions home entertainment calculator etc and one application may have more than one theme The unit of executable software generally runs in a predetermined environment for example the unit could comprise a downloadable Java Xlet that runs within the Java environment 0051 As used herein the term computer program or software is meant to include any sequence or human or machine cognizable steps which perform a function Such program may be rendered in virtually any programming language or environment including for example C C Fortran COBOL PASCAL assembly language markup languages e g HTML SGML XML VOXML and the like as well as object oriented environments such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture CORBA Java including J2ME Java Beans etc and the like 0052 As used herein the term server refers to any computerized component system or entity regardless of form which is adapted to provide data files applications content or other services to one or more other devices or entities on a computer network 0053 As used herein the term speech recognition refers to any methodology or technique by which human or other speech can be interprete
20. 8 wherein said external source comprises a historical information service 21 The method as set forth in claim 12 wherein said act of evaluating comprises matching at least portions of said message location and affiliation with said mobile commu nication device location and mobile communication device affiliation and said matching is performed by determining if the location of the MCD is within at least one of i a prescribed distance of and 11 a designated irregularly shaped area of the location associated with said contextual mes sage 22 The method as set forth in claim 12 wherein said location is received from an MCD directly or indirectly via a wireless cellular interface 23 The method as set forth in claim 12 further compris ing transmitting a request from said MCD to said contextual message server said request including an affiliation and said request indicating that said contextual message server should send any other or subsequent contextual messages to said MCD that have the same location and affiliation 24 A method for operating a mobile communications device MCD comprising determining a location associated with the mobile com munications device transmitting the location via a wireless interface to a message server and receiving a message from said server based at least in part on said location and an affiliation of said mobile communication device 25 The method as set forth in claim 24 wher
21. CDs or other users This affilia tion information may be input by users or downloaded from other websites or information sources for such users Affili ation information may comprise many types of information including but not limited to a buddy list a social net work a membership an interest list nationality regional affiliation a tag a service subscription or literally any other attribute or collection of attributes of the user that will distinguish that user from other users 0094 The server 204 or an associated network entity or database may store the affiliation information of different MCDs 200 as well A particular MCD 200 may upload or synchronize its affiliation information with the server 204 or the server 204 may be the primary storage location for this affiliation information The affiliation information may be associated with an MCD 200 or a particular user and the user would then place his personal information on the MCD to associate it with the particular affiliation information The user may then advantageously move or migrate his her user information from one MCD to another MCD at the user s discretion This could be done using a smart card or for example simply logging in or out of the identity of the MCD 0095 In accordance with one embodiment of the inven tion the server 204 also stores a database of contextual messages for delivery to other nodes or systems based on the particular
22. E 10 100 1000 10000 protocol stack and interface Firewire IEEE 1394 interface USB interface and so forth depending on the desired configuration and functionality of the server The server may also be fitted directly with a wireless interface either directly or indi rectly such as via a cellular MSC or internetworking function IWF Hence modality which can timely deliver the relevant messages to the user can be used consistent with the invention with in band cellular based delivery being only one of a number of different possibili ties Methods 0123 FIG 3 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the server 204 in accordance with one embodiment of the invention The process begins at step 300 and at step 302 the server performs the step of storing one or more contextual Feb 21 2008 messages and associated location and affiliation information The contextual message s is are preferably stored in a contextual message database The server may also store other information about the messages including the prov enance time of entry type or genre test audio visual etc message size in Kb or Mb network routing information associated encryption decryption keys e g public private key pairs digital signatures descriptions of encoding for the message or its attachments e g Real AVC MPEG 2 etc and so forth 0124 At step 304 the server 204 receives position loca tion information and a
23. FILIATION OF THE MCD 307 RECEIVE A REQUEST TO RECEIVE CONTEXTUAL MESSAGES FROM THE MCD 308 TRANSMIT THE MATCHED CONTEXTUAL MESSAGE TO THE MCD 310 RECEIVE A CONTEXTUAL MESSAGE FOR STORAGE IN A CONTEXTUAL MESSAGE DATABASE 312 STORE A CONTEXTUAL MESSAGE IN THE CONTEXTUAL MESSAGE DATABASE 314 Fig 3 Patent Application Publication Feb 21 2008 Sheet 6 of 9 US 2008 0045236 1 5 322 INDEX METADATA DATABASE S FOR UPDATES 324 APPLY RANKING ALGORITHM 326 UPDATE ACCESS PRIVILEGES AND SECURITY 328 REQUIREMENTS MANAGE AND UPDATE PREFERENCES 330 MANAGE AND UPDATE ACCESS RIGHTS 332 UPATE RECORDS INCLUDE LOCATION INFORMATION E G GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATES 334 EVALUATE LOCATION INFORMATION SOURCES CONTINUE Fig 3a Patent Application Publication Feb 21 2008 Sheet 7 of 9 US 2008 0045236 1 START TRANSMITTING A SET OF AFFILIATIONS FOR THE MCD 404 TRACKING THE LOCATION OF THE MCD 406 TRANSMITTING LOCATION TO A CENTRAL SERVER 407 REQUEST CONTEXTUAL MESSAGES 408 RECEIVING A CONTEXTUAL MESSAGE 410 DISPLAYING SAID CONTEXTUAL MESSAGE 412 TRANSMITTING A TEXTUAL MESSAGE INCLUDING AN ASSOCIATED LOCATION AND AFFILIATION 414 Fig 4 Patent Application Publication Feb 21 2008 Sheet 8 of 9 US 2008 0045236 1 START 502 CACHE TAG METADATA E G ON MCD 504 DISCOVER LOCATION TAG IF PRESENT 506 NOTIFY USER OF MATCHING MESSAGES 508
24. HE INVENTION 0003 1 Field of Invention 0004 The present invention is related to the field of mobile communications More particularly the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for gathering and delivering contextual messages in a mobile communi cations network e g cellular telephone network 0005 2 Description of Related Technology 0006 Mobile communications devices MCDs such as cellular telephones smartphones and personal information managers PIMs such as the Blackberry device manu factured by RIM typically exchange messages with one or more other users These messages are typically text mes sages but may also be images video audio or any combi nation thereof MCD users typically receive messages via a wireless interface and view or hear the messages via one or more output devices such as a display screen or speaker Users may generate text messages for transmission to others via a keyboard keypad or other input device e g roller wheel stick mouse etc the use of which is well known in the art These text messages may also include pictures sounds or other media either embedded therein or attached thereto 0007 As noted above the messages exchanged via mobile communication devices are typically exchanged using a wireless interface Communication is typically con ducted over the wireless interface using radio frequency RF electromagnetic signals The RF signals are often proce
25. US 20080045236A1 Patent Application Publication Pub No US 2008 0045236 1 9 United States Nahon et al 43 Pub Date Feb 21 2008 54 METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR GATHERING AND DELIVERING CONTEXTUAL MESSAGES IN A MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM 76 Inventors Georges Nahon San Francisco CA US Gabriel Sidhom Mill Valley CA US Correspondence Address GAZDZINSKI amp ASSOCIATES 11440 WEST BERNARDO COURT SUITE 375 SAN DIEGO CA 92127 21 Appl No 11 506 690 22 Filed Aug 18 2006 Publication Classification 51 Int CL 040 7 20 2006 01 100 104 52 10 8 455 456 1 57 Methods and apparatus for delivering personalized e g contextual messages to a user that meets certain geographic affiliation metadata timing and or or other criteria These messages are geographically and logically persistent and can be left by members of the user s social or buddy network individuals institutions the user s service provider s or even advertisers or others seeking a commercial opportunity These messages can be rendered in the form of voice video audio e g MP3 text and graphics delivered to mobile phones PDA s or other devices with network connectivity Exemplary embodiments of the invention incorporate existing geo localization technologies such as GPS embedded in these mobile platforms or triangulation via signals from the cell
26. a given tagged location 0067 The principles of the present invention can also be extended to 1 non fixed locations e g those determined ad hoc or otherwise yet which can be definitively associated with a geographic or other point of reference as a function of time or other parameter and ii logically proximate locations e g a user centric or logical psychographic frame of reference which can then be converted to a geographic or other frame of reference such as when a target user comes within proximity to a second user s mobile phone a second user s friend s mobile phone a mobile WiFi or Bluetooth node etc 0068 The present invention is also advantageously flex ible in its deployment many if not all of the functions can be performed at a centralized server at a third party site or provider or even on the user s mobile device itself It can also be readily layered on existing systems and even adapted to make use of indigenous protocols of the network and mobile device e g WAP SIP Detailed Description of Exemplary Embodiments 0069 Exemplary embodiments of the apparatus and methods of the present invention are now described in detail While various functions are ascribed herein to various systems and components located throughout a network it should be understood that the configuration shown is only one embodiment of the invention and performing the same or similar functions at other node
27. access point 202 then the server proxy can apply heuristics or a priori rules regarding the physical location of that MCD relative to the user being served or a fixed location since the location of the access point is known by the server proxy While somewhat less precise than GPS or triangulation this approach advantageously obviates many of the messages between the server and MCDs necessary to update the latter s position Determination of presence within a given ad hoc network can be accomplished by inter alia IP address MAC Bluetooth and WiFi beacon func tions can also be exploited to provide position or proximity information 0092 The MCD location may be reported to the server 204 via messages transmitted over the wireless interface via the access points 202 In other cases the coverage of the access point 202 may be small enough that any communi cation with that access point will constitute being at a particular location In this case the server 204 will monitor for links to that particular access point 202 and take action based thereon Other alternative or out of band commu nication channels may also be used for communication between the MCDs and the access points For example a Feb 21 2008 power control or other ancillary signaling channel or the like not used for in band communications may be used for this purpose 0093 Additionally the MCDs 200 may store affiliation information about other M
28. at the user need not recreate them and can change between them rapidly if desired 0117 In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention the messages are persistent and in effect hang over a given location waiting to be retrieved by interested users upon being apprised by their device that there are one or more messages associated with the location subject to any masking as previously described The messages pref erably are identified by their provenance social network or other source depending on the preferences and opt in choices set by users 0118 Such messages may also have a predetermined or deterministic persistence or lifetime such as where the relevance of the message is of finite duration Hence in one embodiment the server 204 is configured to remove or filter messages based on a persistence parameter e g duration of posting or availability which can be specified by the message sender or source the target user receiver or a union of both 1 Boolean logical This persis tence or duration can also be determined algorithmically e g based on tags or metadata associated with the message either in the form of i explicit duration or persistence parameters present in the metadata or ii evaluation of the metadata e g one or more keywords etc As an example a message relating to a sporting event on Date XX YY ZZ might be filtered based on metadata containing such d
29. ate wherein the local clock reference indicates that Date XX YY ZZ has passed Alternatively the metadata might comprise San Diego Chargers versus San Francisco 49 ers as part of the metadata and the algorithm is configured to consult one or more internal or external sources e g US 2008 0045236 Al schedules for the current football season to determine that this game has already been played and hence the message should be removed 0119 The service preferably allows communal posting retrieval and updating of information associated with geo graphical places This information may also include infor mation about the relative distance of social network mem bers from a given tagged location 0120 The described embodiment is in some aspects similar to services where messages may be left for one s social network It combines IM internet messaging pres ence aspects with the social network elements of recom mendations and the reputation of those making the recom mendation analysis or observation The exemplary embodiment of the service extends and leverages the social tagging paradigm and tagging services previously described such as those offered by Flickr del ico us and Pub Sub for geographic location 0121 FIG 2a is a block diagram of content or contextual server 204 when configured in accordance with one embodi ment of the invention The microprocessor 252 is coupled to memory unit 260 via a bus 250
30. ated Bluetooth network or an AP STA relationship in an 802 11 network These roles can switch as well such as where a Bluetooth master undergoes an identity change during operation 0089 The access point s 202 in such case may also not be part of the underlying cellular network per se but rather merely in communication therewith via a portal gateway router or other such intermediary networking device Other types of ad hoc networks and protocols may be used as well 0090 During operation MCDs 200 perform position or other location functions to determine their absolute or relative location This location may be performed using GPS triangulation or other techniques well know in the art In some embodiments e g wherein relative position is used it may be sufficient to merely know the range to an object irrespective of its exact relative position For example where the system desires to deliver a message or posting to a second user who is proximate to a first moving user it may be sufficient to simply know when the closest point of approach CPA is reached and this falls within a predetermined criterion e g 500 meters 0091 In still other embodiments of the invention the presence of a user s MCD within an ad hoc network 220 222 can be used to provide location information For example if the server 204 or its proxy knows that a given MCD is part of an ad hoc network coupled to a particular WiFi
31. cording to the present invention 0041 FIG 4 is a logical flow chart illustrating an exem plary client side process performed in accordance with one embodiment of the invention 0042 FIG 5a is a logical flow chart illustrating an exemplary embodiment of existing tag metadata process ing according to the invention 0043 FIG 55 is a logical flow chart illustrating an exemplary embodiment of tag processing according to the invention when no existing tags are present DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 0044 Reference is now made to the drawings wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout 0045 As used herein the terms network and bearer network refer generally to any type of telecommunications or data network including without limitation wireless and Radio Area RAN networks hybrid fiber coax HFC networks satellite networks telco networks and data net works including MANs WANs LANs WLANs internets and intranets Such networks or portions thereof may utilize any one or more different topologies e g ring bus star loop etc transmission media e g wired RF cable RF wireless millimeter wave optical etc and or communica tions or networking protocols e g SONET DOCSIS IEEE Std 802 3 ATM X 25 Frame Relay 3GPP 3GPP2 WAP SIP UDP FTP RTP RTCP H 323 etc 0046 As used herein the terms radio area network or RAN refer generally to any wireless net
32. d and converted to an elec tronic or data format or signals related thereto including without limitation MFCC Mel Frequency Cepstral Coef ficients or cochlea modeling phoneme word recognition HMM hidden Markov modeling DTW Dynamic Time Warping or NNs Neural Networks 0054 As used herein the terms microprocessor and digital processor are meant generally to include all types of digital processing devices including without limitation digital signal processors DSPs reduced instruction set computers RISC general purpose CISC processors microprocessors gate arrays e g FPGAs PLDs recon figurable compute fabrics RCFs array processors and application specific integrated circuits ASICs Such digital processors may be contained on a single unitary IC die or distributed across multiple components 0055 As used herein the term integrated circuit IC refers to any type of device having any level of integration including without limitation ULSI VLSI and LSI and irrespective of process or base materials including without limitation Si SiGe CMOS and GaAs ICs may include for example memory devices e g DRAM SRAM DDRAM EEPROM Flash ROM digital processors SoC devices FPGAs ASICs ADCs DACs transceivers memory con trollers and other devices as well as any combinations thereof 0056 As used herein the term memory includes any type of integrated circuit or other s
33. dance with one of the many mobile wireless communication standard many of which have been previously mentioned herein Alternatively the access points 202 may be IEEE 802 11a b g n Wi Fi style access points providing nomadic wireless Internet access The access points 202 may also be 802 16 Wi Max access points that deliver high speed internet access in both fixed or mobiles formats The use of other wireless interfaces including those described throughout this appli cation is consistent with various embodiments of the inven tion Also other network configurations and topologies are consistent with the use of some embodiments of the inven US 2008 0045236 Al tion including non centralized networks satellite based networks or even highly localized PANs personal area networks 0087 The server 204 may be a single machine or process or a network of machines processes functioning together whether physically proximate or disparate A logical com munication stream is established between the corresponding client and server processes either uni directionally or bi directionally as required in order to conserve communica tion bandwidth 0088 As shown in FIG 2 the various mobile devices may form ad hoc networks 220 222 either directly between themselves network 220 or between one or more mobile devices and an access point 202 network 222 For example a master slave relationship may be cre
34. dentify at least one message from the database based at least in part on the affiliation and the location information and transmit at least a portion of the at least one matching message to the at least one mobile communication device 0033 In one variant the affiliation comprises a search term and the identification of the at least one message comprises identifying the at least one message via the search term matching metadata associated therewith 0034 These and other features of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0035 FIG 1 is a plan view of an exemplary mobile communications device useful with the present invention 0036 FIG 1a is a functional block diagram of a mobile communications device configured in accordance with one embodiment of the invention 0037 FIG 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary mobile communications network configured according to one embodiment of the invention 0038 FIG 2a is a functional block diagram of a contex tual information server configured in accordance with one embodiment of the invention Feb 21 2008 0039 FIG 3 is a logical flow chart illustrating an exem plary server side process utilized in accordance with one embodiment of the invention 0040 FIG 3 is a logical flow chart illustrating exemplary method of operating a server ac
35. determine the location of the MCD based on the communication of data a memory for storing software instructions microproces sor in data communication with the memory and adapted to execute the software instructions and control the wireless interface apparatus wherein the software instructions cause the device to receive messages having at least location information that matches that of the of the location deter mined by the at least one other device 0030 In one variant the at least one other device com prises a wireless network node and the determination of the location of the MCD comprises determining membership in an ad hoc wireless network 0031 In another variant the at least one other device comprises a cellular network base station or mobile switch ing center MSC 0032 In a sixth aspect of the invention a contextual message server for storing contextual messages is disclosed In one embodiment the contextual message server com prises memory configured to store software instructions a microprocessor in communication with the memory and configured to execute the software instructions wherein the software instructions cause the microprocessor to maintain a database of contextual messages and associated locations and affiliations receive mobile communication device loca tion information determine an affiliation for at least one mobile communication device for which the location infor mation has been received i
36. e position of a device user or object location For example coordinates for a position determination or fix may comprise a set of Global Positioning System GPS or Universal Transverse Mercator UTM coordi nates latitude longitude polar coordinates or a triangula tion via cellular base stations or wireless access points beacons celestial reference or even a LORAN or similar navigation device fix Coordinates for a position estimation EP may come from other devices such as passive inertial navigation systems e g Electrostatically Supported Gyro scopic Navigator or ESGN or extrapolation from a previ ous fix based on speed direction etc Similarly location prediction can be accomplished according to any number of methods such as extrapolation based on a set of input parameters e g speed direction etc or personal track ing approaches such as without limitation that described in United States Patent Publication No 20050143909 to Orwant published Jun 30 2005 entitled Technique for collecting and using information about the geographic posi tion of a mobile object on the earth s surface which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety As described in greater detail subsequently herein the term location may include coordinates or position but is also much broader and may include without limitation actual or physi cal proximity psychographic proximity and so forth Ove
37. eference herein may be used con sistent with the present invention These methods and asso ciated apparatus provide enhanced user contact and preference management and display in a mobile communi cations environment In one embodiment a mobile network and associated user or client devices e g cellular phones PDAs etc are configured to provide each mobile user with highly relevant and timely information regarding that user s contacts family buddies and locations of interest The invention advantageously displays this information in an easy to use and readily perceived format thereby overcom ing the disabilities of prior art menu based and rolodex contact management systems Multiple functions can also be invoked using this display format such as initiating a communication channel e g cellular phone call contact status determination and indication of physical or geo graphic proximity 0160 The aforementioned display format is also scale agnostic in the sense that it can accommodate contacts or clusters at a variety of different physical locations without the scale related issues pervasive in prior art map based solutions 0161 The present invention can also be adapted to make use of the concept of proximity While one specific instance of proximity comprises determination of a physical or actual distance as previously described the invention is Feb 21 2008 equally applicable to use of cog
38. ein said mobile communications device stores said affiliation and transmits said affiliation to said message server 26 The method as set forth in claim 24 wherein said location comprises a proximity to a substantially mobile reference point Feb 21 2008 27 The method as set forth in claim 24 wherein said affiliation is stored on a server remote from MCD 28 The method as set forth in claim 24 wherein said affiliation comprises membership in a social network 29 The method as set forth in claim 24 wherein said affiliation comprises a subscription service 30 The method as set forth in claim 24 wherein said message comprises a contextual message and said MCD further transmits a request to receive said contextual mes sage in response to input from a user of said MCD 31 The method as set forth in claim 30 wherein said request includes affiliation information 32 The method as set forth in claim 24 further compris ing transmitting a distance preference said distance prefer ence indicating a threshold distance within which said MCD should receive said message 33 The method as set forth in claim 24 wherein a user of said MCD determines preferences for i the type of mes sages it wishes to receive ii the for the provenance of the messages and iii the extent of content received initially 34 A communications network for delivering contextual messages comprising contextual message server apparatus adapted to store
39. ep 312 the server 204 performs the step of storing the contextual message in the contextual message database The process terminates at step 314 0133 By matching contextual messages and MCDs by location and afflation and transmitting those messages to the MCD the process shown in FIG 3 advantageously allows users to receive user information based on context Further more the process allows a service to be provided whereby a virtual message cloud is associated with a given location whether such location is stationary moving changing in character or composition etc By controlling for affiliation users are more likely to receive message that are useful to them and the opportunity for subscription based messaging services is created 0134 While the embodiment of the invention described in FIG 3 matches contextual messages and MCDs 200 for both for location and affiliation other embodiments of the invention may match for location or affiliation only or one or more of these attributes with other attributes with other parameters 0135 In accordance with another embodiment of the invention the server 204 may operate in accordance with the following steps FIG 3a The first step 322 comprises the ongoing indexing of available metadata databases so as to provide updated information Next a ranking algorithm or other such mechanism is used step 324 to present results in a specified order or format e g in the order of re
40. essages may be left by members of the user s social network individuals busi nesses universities other institutions advertisers and so forth Messages can be voice video text and graphics delivered to mobile phones PDA s or other devices with wireless connectivity although it will be recognized that wireline connectivity may be used to practice the invention as well such as where the user plugs into or logs onto a centralized communication node or device 0116 As noted above in some embodiments of the invention the contextual messages are not delivered unless the user issues a request from the MCD so called deliver permissive That is the user would arrive at a particular location and then issue an affirmative request or fail to acknowledge a ping or query from the server for such delivery within a prescribed period of time etc for any contextual messages The request issued by the user may be for just a certain type of message e g those from a particular source those of particular genre as indicated by an associated message identification code or descriptor for just the titles sources of some or all of the messages or for all messages with an affiliation shared by said user The messages would then be delivered to the user for viewing on the MCD according to this delivery filter or mask function Such masks can also be pre stored within the server and or MCD e g Profile 1 Profile 2 etc so th
41. ffiliation information as required for an MCD Note that as used here the term MCD may include one or multiple MCDs the information need not be processed on a per MCD basis where one or more common parameters e g common membership in a delivery group service providers filters masks etc exist between the MCDs 0125 The information may be received in many ways including but not limited to by way of messages from the MCD 200 or from the particular access point with which the MCD is communicating The server 204 may also receive information by retrieval from a database including an affili ation database for a set of MCDs The database may be local or remote and may be identified by the MCD in some instances 0126 Remote or secondary sources of position location information may also be used such as where a remote satellite network provides information about subscribers via a satellite or terrestrial data channel This approach provides substantial independence between the MCD location and the subscriber network e g in cases where the subscriber network may not have the capacity to perform or transmit position location information 0127 At step 306 the server 204 matches the location and affiliation of a contextual message with the current location and affiliation of the MCD That is the server identifies one or more contextual messages in its contextual message database with the same affiliation and location specificat
42. h such processing can be applied at one or more intermediary nodes of the network e g at the AP or at the MCD itself 0131 The user may then view the message s using the MCD In some cases step 308 is performed in response the request received in step 307 When that request contains particular affiliations or other masking criteria only the contextual messages matching those affiliations or criteria are transmitted In other embodiments of the invention the message are transmitted automatically without receipt for a request In still other embodiments of the invention there may be some requestable messages and other automatic messages stored by server 204 0132 At step 310 the server may optionally receive another contextual message for storage in a contextual message database The contextual message will preferably include an associated location and affiliation which will also be stored in the contextual message database along with any other meta data such as provenance time of entry etc The contextual message may be generated by an MCD user e g a reply or bounceback message or unique user generated message or it may be received from another entity for distribution to other users For example an entity associated with any of the various messages services directions res taurant review etc described throughout this application may provide contextual messages to the server 204 for delivery to other users At st
43. hese messages may be other MCDs or may be computer systems such as desktop or laptop personal computers whether in network or in another network Audio and or visual messages may also be generated by the camera or the microphone inputs for transmission to other systems 0078 MCD 100 may also receive text messages from other users via one or more of its interfaces including the wireless interfaces These text messages may then be viewed on display 102 The messages may also be stored for later viewing Audio or visual messages may also be heard via a speaker or earphone headset etc or viewed on the display 102 Messages may be stored for later review 0079 The MCD 100 preferably interfaces with a base station or other access point via radio frequency electro magnetic signals RF signals that are modulated in accor dance with one or more communications standards or pro tocols Examples of useful standards include inter alia GSM CDMA 2000 W CDMA TDMA 15 54 and 15 136 PCS UMTS EDGE and IEEE 802 16 802 15 or 802 11 The use of other standard or non standard wireless interfaces e g EPCGEN2 compliant RFID is also consistent with other embodiments of the invention which is in no way limited to any particular standard or air interface Alternate embodiments for example may use GHz band satellite transceivers or infrared laser or magnetic inductance inter faces 0080 Typically the MCD 100 includes a micro
44. hose of ordinary skill that other business models including those tailored to or customized for the recommender s profile may be used as well 0169 Another possible class of user is the institutional user The institutional user may be a non profit institution government entity health care system etc that will pay a subscription fee typically tiered for the size of the radius and or the number of locations covered There may also be some preferential treatment for those institutions providing high value content In this area there are potentially part nership opportunities for the network or service provider with special content providers such as say museums 0170 Likewise the foregoing institutional users may also comprise content or advertising sources as well as users such as where messages pushed to the context server 204 are generated by the same entity which also maintains a sub scription with the service provider For example a health care provider e g hospital may have a subscription for its location wherein patients or visitors of the hospital can selectively receive targeted advertising useful content etc while at the same time the hospital can push advertising or other messages to the same or other locations e g places such as doctor s offices pharmacies etc where people might find such messages useful 0171 It will be recognized that while certain aspects of the invention are described in ter
45. ice of claim 35 further comprising at least one affiliation 38 The device of claim 37 wherein said messages comprise contextual messages the context of which is determined based at least in part on said generated location information and said affiliation US 2008 0045236 Al 39 The device of claim 38 wherein said generated location information comprises the geographic location of the mobile communication device 40 The device of claim 36 wherein said location appa ratus comprises ranging apparatus adapted to determine proximity of said MCD to at least one of a fixed or moving location 41 The device of claim 36 wherein said location appa ratus comprises a satellite based transceiver 42 The device of claim 35 wherein said wireless inter face apparatus is adapted to communicate data with said at least one other device said at least one other device being adapted to determine the location of said MCD based on said communication of data 43 The device of claim 42 wherein said at least one other device comprises a wireless network node and said deter mination of the location of said MCD comprises determin ing membership in an ad hoc wireless network 44 The mobile communications device MCD of claim 42 wherein said at least one other device comprises a cellular network base station or mobile switching center MSC 45 A contextual message server for storing contextual messages said contextual message server compri
46. idual at this location can be delivered For example information about the weather conditions at the location the time of day the attributes of the day week end or week day and season local businesses etc could be used to deliver context relevant messages from friends or from advertisers As noted above information from the user s calendar and the contacts list of the device to make contextual decisions For example the fact that a user is at this particular location to meet friends of business contacts can be used to push messages relevant to this context At any time the user can proactively decide via user input to have the message service active and if so at what level of activity or to mute it 0152 In accordance with another embodiment of the invention when the user wants to leave messages relating to a particular location he she can connect to the context server 204 such as through the Internet the GSM or CDMA voice network WAP service or the SMS number to leave text voice video image or voice content These options are also available when the user desires to defer the creation editing and uploading of content for a particular location to at time when the user is not at the location The geo location information can be entered manually along with the content created by the user or a reply or bounceback approach of the type previously described used There are today many electronic services databases and
47. ion as that of the MCD s currently being pro cessed 0128 At step 307 the server 204 receives a request to receive contextual message from the MCD This is typically generated by the MCD and transmitted to the server via the wireless interface although this step may be automated or accomplished via a server initiated process For example one alternate embodiment comprises the MCD or access node e g cellular base station WiFi AP etc periodically transmitting location information to the server 204 and the server analyzing this information to identify contextual matches Upon detecting a match and hence download opportunity the server 204 may then initiate a downstream message to the MCD or base station AP etc to alert the user to the presence of the message s This can be a separate textual or other message pop up window or simply signal ing e g such as where an icon on the user s display is illuminated begins blinking etc or another GUI or audible mechanism of the type well known in the art 0129 The aforementioned MCD initiated request may include a particular set of affiliations for which message are being requested 0130 At step 308 the server 204 transmits the matched contextual message s to the MCD subject to any filtration or masking Ideally the filtration or masking is applied at US 2008 0045236 Al the server end thereby mitigating wasted downstream com munications bandwidth althoug
48. ion of a given message or group of messages messages may be bundled beforehand based on location affiliation as well match the location and an affiliation on the MCD 200 then server 204 transmits the contextual message to that MCD preferably by way of the wireless network and link The message is then viewed by the user of the MCD and or stored for later use It may also be forwarded to another entity e g proxy for the MCD etc US 2008 0045236 Al 0098 In some variants the server 204 will first transmit a short notice to the MCD 200 that contextual messages matching the users current location and affiliations are available The user would then have the option via input to the MCD to receive the entire message The user may also elect to receive a short summary or title of the message s indication of source 1 who posted it and so forth in order to enable them to decide whether to download it or not The server 204 would then forward the contextual message when the request to receive the message was received typically via the wireless interface although another signal ing interface or mechanism may be used e g SMS mes sage WAP push etc 0099 Often the contextual message comprises a text message with information related to the place where the MCD 200 is located Additionally the contextual message may also be associated with affiliation that is shared by the MCD For example if the MCD 200 is located near
49. ionality Mobile Communications Device and Network 0073 FIG 1 is a simplified block diagram of a mobile communications device configured in accordance with one embodiment of the invention The mobile communications device MCD 100 is a computerized device that includes a keypad 104 or other input device such touch screen or pen based input or speech recognition capability for the input of information such as telephone numbers messages and contacts names Other input system such as scroll wheel miniature joystick or jog dial not shown may also be used the construction and use of which is well known in the art 0074 A display 102 is also provided on the MCD 100 for viewing information which may include for example text graphics iconic representations video etc The display device may be for example LCD thin film transistor TFT plasma or even a cathode ray tube CRT of the type well known in the art The display may also comprise soft function keys SFKs with touch screen capability generated by the MCD for implementing various functions such as entering various operating modes shortcuts etc MCD also include digital camera 106 that is used to capture digital images for storage on the phone or transmission to others Camera 106 may also be used to take video for streaming or video clips that may be stored and exchanged later 0075 An audio card or module with speaker s earpiece headset jack etc may a
50. ious locations of interests e g Via text message or other communication mode along with information about those locations when the user arrived This service could also be used for museums zoos or other places of interest These messages may be time staggered and or sequenced in a particular order or deliv ered en masse 0105 Affiliation data under the present invention can also include user specific or user customized information and attributes to assist in delivering relevant contextual mes sages from friends advertisers etc 0106 The attributes can also include information from the user s calendar and or contacts list in the MCD 200 For example if a person on the users contact or buddy list is located in close proximity to the current location a contex tual message can be generated informing the user of an opportunity to meet that user The user s calendar or date book functions can also be accessed either locally at the MCD or remotely if such information is uploaded to the contextual server to determine of a scheduling conflict exists This can be two way in nature 1 both the user and the contact buddy calendar functions can be accessed to determine if a conflict exists for either person 0107 The user may at any time elect to decide to dis cretionally or completely activate or deactivate the contex tual messaging service e g turn off after 6 00 pm turn on only when within X miles of downtown Sa
51. is so called social network ing Social networking sites include e g MySpace LinkedIn Friendster Getmylook and aSmall World These social networking sites allow people to exchange information and messages with one another and may be organized around the interests or attributes of their users For example LinkedIn is focused on business inter ests and connections MySpace is more general but has some focus on music Getmylook has a fashion focus and aSmallWorld is an exclusive invitation only network designed for socialites and other Jet Set people These social networking sites have become highly popular and are used to exchange all sorts of information that is of interest to their members 0011 Another popular Internet service is tag based information storage The most well know of these tag based storage sites is Flickr Flickr is a tag based digital photo graph site that allows people to store their photos with test tags that describe some attribute of the picture and can be searched on by other users That is a tag in this context comprises a word or other identifier that may be searched on by other users to find material of interest e g metadata 0012 Friend contact services are also known in the prior art For example the service provided by Dodgeball com Google Inc allows users to contact their friend via text messaging users enter their friend or buddy lists and the
52. levance based on requesting user as well as other parameters e g conditions associated with the relevant business model s used for public message contributors such as advertisers governments public association universities and individu als 0136 Next in step 326 access rights and security aspects relating to the message s are managed and updated as required For example user authentication rules or protocols are implemented messages encrypted or public private key pairs digital IDs etc issued and so forth Preferences of Feb 21 2008 entities using the service are then managed and updated step 328 and any access or other rights associated with messages that are in the purview of the service are managed step 330 This step 330 may include for example access preferences imposed by a receiving entity while step 326 primarily takes into consideration the entity originating the message 0137 Data records are then updated and geographical coordinates when the message is created or edited in real location time is included step 332 Identification of best available geographical location technology can also be con ducted if desired step 334 such as where an algorithm is used to evaluate or determine the highest accuracy or least bandwidth consumptive approach available for use by the service 0138 FIG 4 is a flow chart illustrating the steps per formed by an MCD 100 in accordance with one embodiment of the
53. lso be provided as part of the MCD 100 such as for listening to music the audio portion of video text to speech TTS messages and so forth 0076 The MCD 100 comprises in the exemplary embodiment a cellular telephone or smartphone but any other type of mobile or nomadic client device may be employed as desired For example a laptop computer hand held computer or PDA with a wireless interface con nection such as an IEEE Std 802 11 WiFi or 3G 1 UMTS 3GPP2 etc enabled computer card may comprise the MCD 100 A substantially fixed communica tions device e g a desktop PC or the like may also be employed consistent with the invention however the benefit provided by the invention will be somewhat reduced due to the lack of mobility of such a substantially fixed commu nication device Fixed devices located on substantially mobile platforms e g cars trucks etc may also be US 2008 0045236 Al utilized For example the MCD 100 may comprise an integrated circuit or dashboard mounted device in a vehicle 0077 The input devices on MCD 100 such as keypad 104 may be used to enter text messages and append or integrate any other content to be transmitted as well e g file attach ments audio clips graphics etc These text messages may then be transmitted to other users by way of a one or more interfaces in the MCD including the wireless interface e g cellular channel The recipients of t
54. mobile communication device MCD location information match contextual messages to the MCD location information and transmit matched contextual messages and at least one MCD adapted to interface with the contextual message server via a wireless link determine the MCD location information transmit the MCD location information to the contextual message server apparatus and receive the matched contextual messages from the server apparatus 0028 In a fifth aspect of the invention a mobile com munications device adapted for at least receiving contextual messages is disclosed In one embodiment the mobile communication device comprises wireless interface appa ratus adapted to communicate data with at least one other device location apparatus adapted to determine location information a memory for storing software instructions a microprocessor in data communication with the memory and US 2008 0045236 Al adapted to execute the software instructions and control the wireless interface apparatus wherein the software instruc tions cause the device to transmit the location information to a message server and receive messages having at least location information that matches that of the transmitted location information 0029 In another embodiment the mobile communica tions device MCD comprises wireless interface apparatus adapted to communicate data with at least one other device the at least one other device being adapted to
55. ms of a specific sequence of steps of a method these descriptions are only illustrative of the broader methods of the invention and may be modified as required by the particular application Certain steps may be rendered unnecessary or optional under certain circumstances Additionally certain steps or functionality may be added to the disclosed embodiments or the order of performance of two or more steps permuted All such variations are considered to be encompassed within the invention disclosed and claimed herein 0172 While the above detailed description has shown described and pointed out novel features of the invention as applied to various embodiments it will be understood that various omissions substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device or process illustrated may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention The foregoing description is of the best mode presently contemplated of carrying out the invention This description is in no way meant to be limiting but rather should be taken as illustrative of the general principles of the invention The scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the claims What is claimed is 1 In a mobile communications network said network including a contextual message server and a mobile com Feb 21 2008 munications device MCD communicating with said con textual message server via at least a wireless link a method of
56. n Diego etc 0108 As noted elsewhere herein the definition of loca tion may vary significantly with different embodiments of the invention For example in some embodiments of the invention the location can be defined as an area of a certain size e g ten meter circle In other instances the location would be defined as a larger area on the order of 50 meters from a particular coordinate It may also include for example a relative distance geographic proximity or even logical psychographic proximity e g within X meters of one of the user s buddies In other instances the location could be a pre existing feature structure e g building address block or city Irregular shapes or cognitively associated regions such as neighborhoods could also be defined as locations e g downtown Southbeach or the historic district 0109 The size of a particular location can vary and or be coupled with the type of location For example an internal location in a building could have a smaller size associated therewith while an exterior or outdoor location could have a larger size as might a moving location e g car This may also be made a function of the local features or topography i e somewhere that has a clear view around it in all directions might be given a larger size while obstructed or close in points of interest might have a larger scale smaller area The size of the locati
57. n claim 1 wherein said act of identifying is performed by determining if the location of the MCD is within a prescribed distance of the location asso ciated with said contextual message 9 The method as set forth in claim 8 wherein said prescribed distance is specified by said user via input into said MCD 10 The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising transmitting a request from said MCD to said contextual message server said request including an affiliation and said request indicating that said contextual message server should send any contextual messages to said MCD that have the same location and affiliation 11 The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said act of identifying is performed by determining if the location of the MCD is within a prescribed geographic area of the location associated with said contextual message said geo graphic area being irregular in shape 12 A method for operating a contextual message server in a network that includes a wireless link to a mobile commu nication device said method comprising storing a contextual message and an associated message location and affiliation for said contextual message receiving mobile communication device location and mobile communication device affiliation information evaluating said message location and affiliation with said mobile communication device location and mobile communication device affiliation and transmitting said contextual message
58. n send a communication to the server indicating their present location The service then sends out messages to the persons listed on the user s list thereby notifying them of the user s present location This service however suffers from several disabilities including the inability of a user to know the locations of his her friends family buddies etc Rather the Dodgeball approach merely broadcasts informa tion based on the initiating user s location and the user regarding which the information was broadcast is provided no information as to the status or location of the persons on his her list that are receiving the messages It also suffers from requiring too much user manual entry which can become very tedious especially in the case of larger contact lists 0013 With the adoption of 3G and other mobile com munication services such as WAP MCDs have mobile access to the Internet and all the services associated there with including social networking tag based database and friend contact services Additionally as mentioned above MCDs now typically include position location services as well as messaging services US 2008 0045236 Al 0014 Given the need for ever more useful services in the mobile communications sector it would be highly desirable to provide social networking tag based and friend contact functionality that take greater advantage of the existing capabilities of MCDs including their inherent mobility a
59. nance from which social network individuals or other public source and the degree of content received initially Oust tags the title or first line of the message or the complete message The user may then ask for additional parts of the message to be sent based on their browsing of the available messages The user s Feb 21 2008 preferences define the set G R for the jth user As above this user can define his preference to be allowed to see all tags available G R The union between i G R and Gi the G S of all users i that have posted a message for the current location or region R of the user defining G R produces the set G D of delivered messages D More generally G R PxG S G D Eqn 1 This approach allows the user to exclude or mask existing clouds since he she will receive messages strictly relevant to their location at the moment Because the system will generally know the user s current location via location reporting the context server 204 will only deliver informa tion for those messages relevant to the current location with provenance from user s defined individuals social networks or public sources as well as any preferences defined for the type of tags the user wishes to see 0151 Ifthe user chooses to accept tags with provenance from public sources some specific advertising messages relevant to the location or triggered by context of the presence of the indiv
60. nd position location and messaging functionality SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 0015 The present invention satisfies the foregoing needs by providing inter alia methods and apparatus for gathering and delivering contextual messages in a mobile communi cations network 0016 In accordance with one aspect of the invention a method for operating a mobile communications network is provided In one embodiment the network includes a con textual message server and a mobile communications device MCD communicating with the contextual message server via at least a wireless link and the method of operating the mobile communications network comprises detecting a location and an affiliation of the mobile communication device identifying contextual messages in the contextual message server having location and affiliation parameters that match the detected location and affiliation thereby generating a set of identified contextual messages transmit ting the set of identified contextual messages from the contextual message server to the mobile communication device 0017 In one variant the affiliation includes membership in a social network a subscription to a restaurant review service or selection of a historical information tour and is determined based at least in part on a metadata tag 0018 In another variant the contextual message server stores the affiliations ofa plurality of mobile communication devices associated with respective
61. nitive or psychographic proximity such as where the closeness of something perceived by the user is defined in other terms For example a user might consider their family members very cognitively proximate they see them and talk with them frequently yet these family members may be physically disposed at any number of distances from the user s location This expansive definition of proximity provides the invention with many different ways of describing categorizing and delivering messages thereby giving the user a high degree of flexibility in their delivery preferences 0162 The foregoing methods and apparatus can also be used to leverage the inductive or pattern recognition capabilities of the human mind to provide the user with a memorable and simple yet powerful display paradigm that also obviates much manual e g key panel data entry associated with prior art mobile device information man agement and messaging systems Pre stored messages of certain themes can be used and even associated with certain actual absolute relative or logically proximate locations stored within the MCD or other device 0163 Clustering is also optionally employed within the invention Clusters comprise a set of contacts or entities grouped in accordance with a categorization or association scheme Subgroups and structure within one or more dimen sions of interest e g physical location or cognitive psy chographic
62. on may also simply vary with the size of the point of interest Only when a user was within the location as defined by the size of that location would a matching contextual message be identified and transmitted 0110 In some embodiments of the invention the size of some locations including a default setting or settings based on the type of location point of interest can be US 2008 0045236 Al specified by the user This can be accomplished by selecting a configuration or preference parameter using the input UI of the MCD for example A user could specify a preference for a larger location definition and thereby receive greater number of messages Conversely a user could specify a preference for a smaller location and thereby receive a fewer number of messages all else being equal Similarly the user can specify one size for a first type a second size for a second type and so forth e g 20 m for restaurants 40 m for historical points of interest etc 0111 In other embodiments of the invention advertisers or other entities can use this service to push personalized messages and information to the user on an opt in basis e g affirmative selection or rejection by the user These could include information about offers or specials as well as promotionals coupons or incentives The service could be provided on a user fee basis as a premium feature as part of a given subscription package or incentive program or the so
63. ones of different users 0019 In yet another variant the identification is per formed by determining if the location of the MCD is within a prescribed distance of the location associated with the contextual message The prescribed distance can be speci fied by the user via input into the MCD or via another source or mechanism Alternatively the identification is performed by determining if the location of the MCD is within a prescribed geographic area of the location associ ated with the contextual message the geographic area optionally being irregular in shape 0020 In still another variant the method further com prises transmitting a request from the MCD to the contextual message server the request including an affiliation and the request indicating that the contextual message server should send any contextual messages to the MCD that have the same location and affiliation 0021 In a second aspect of the invention a method for operating a contextual message server in a network that includes a wireless link to a mobile communication device is disclosed In one embodiment the method comprises storing a contextual message and an associated message location and affiliation for the contextual message receiving mobile communication device location and mobile commu nication device affiliation information evaluating the mes sage location and affiliation with the mobile communication device location and mobile communication device
64. or otherwise processes e g filters stores decrypts as required encodes decodes etc the contextual message 0143 At step 412 the MCD performs the step of trans mitting a new textual message The new textual message may include an associated location provenance affiliation and type or some combination thereof This new message is typically generated by the user using one of the MCD input devices and may be a comment about a particular location made to the user s social network 0144 By performing the steps described above a virtual message cloud is created around various geographic or other locations Users who enter this message cloud will receive messages based on their location and affiliation and thereby receive useful and timely information about their surround ings User may also add new messages to this virtual message cloud thereby increasing the total amount of infor mation that is available e g posting in a bulletin board like fashion if desired Also users of a particular social network service may exchange location based messages with one US 2008 0045236 Al another thereby facilitating a higher level of communication and communication density per unit time 0145 The virtual cloud or box created around various location described above can selectively be made accessible to all users or it can be restricted to a subset of users like those included in one or more of the user s buddy lists
65. pays the service provider for each delivered or viewed message within a given location by the service provider s subscribers somewhat akin to per click advertising on the Internet 0166 Another prospective business model for this type of use would comprise one where advertisers purchase a given radius centered on a geographical coordinate or even a moving location such as a tour bus or boat that makes harbour cruises or the like Furthermore bidding for place ment in the order that the metadata about messages is provided to the user who has allowed this type of informa US 2008 0045236 Al tion to be displayed in his profile could be used either alone or in conjunction with the foregoing 0167 One type of potential user of the described service s is the so called core user In the present context a core user comprises a user who subscribes to the service The user is expected to be primarily a consumer of information as in certain cases an editor or even supplier of limited amounts of personal or context specific information 0168 Another type of user of the service is the recom The recommender is a special case of the user i e is more disposed to creating new messages and editing existing messages but less predisposed to consuming mes sages The business model used for such recommenders will typically be the same as the one for the core user although it will be appreciated by t
66. processor and integrated circuit or other memory for storing programs that are executed by the microprocessor not shown The software running on the microprocessor controls the opera tion of the MCD including processing input generating display data and generating messages to be transmitted via the wireless link 0081 The client device MCD 100 runs the client appli cation client The server 204 of FIG 2 et seq described subsequently herein includes its own software application or a server portion of a distributed application DA that processes the client requests and sends messages to the corresponding client process It will be appreciated that while described in terms of a client application and a server application the present invention is typically embodied in the form of corresponding protocol stacks resident on each of the communicating machines These stacks are config ured to include inter alia an application user layer and physical network layers that allow interface between the two devices to occur over the interposed bearer medium Session and security layer processes e g WSP and WTLS in a WAP environment may also be interposed in the stack of each device as well as other types of functionality well known to those of ordinary skill in the art 0082 FIG 1 is a block diagram of a mobile communi cations device configured in accordance with one embodi ment of the invention The microprocessor 152
67. rst message Advantageously this function can be initiated by the receiving user regardless of their current location the server 204 in the exemplary embodi ment simply remembers the location and association infor mation associated with a message and when instructed to reply leaves the reply message at the location of the original message location in this context can mean a physical location proximity to a reference point etc as previously described Hence a replying user might be nowhere near the original message location when this function is initiated yet the server will leave the reply at the designated location regardless 0114 Advantageously pre formatted or scripted mes sages can be recalled and sent in a one touch fashion such as a reply icon on a GUI or FFKISFK key on the MCD 100 that allows a rapid reply of a designated type e g Got your message get back to you ASAP or the like 0115 By monitoring the location of MCDs 200 and providing contextual messages to the MCD depending on that location the exemplary embodiment of the invention Feb 21 2008 delivers personalized contextual messages thereby provid ing increased utility to that user This value is further enhanced by only providing message that have an affiliation that is also shared by that user This increases the likelihood that the user will receive messages that are both useful and timely to that user Contextual m
68. rview 0062 In one exemplary aspect the present invention comprises apparatus and methods for delivering personal ized contextual messages to a user once they meet certain geographic or other criteria e g at the moment that they enter the sensing range of a particular location which has associated with it one or more messages relevant to that location These messages are left by members of the user s social or buddy network individuals institutions the user s service provider s or even advertisers or others seeking a commercial opportunity These messages can be rendered in the form of voice video audio e g MP3 text and graphics delivered to mobile phones PDA s or other devices with network connectivity 0063 Exemplary embodiments of the invention incorpo rate existing geo localization technologies such as GPS embedded in these mobile platforms or triangulation via signals from the cellular PCS networks to effect part of the invention s functionality The service s relevance and use fulness is to some degree related to the precision of its geo location calculation and hence the comparatively high degree of precision of these techniques or others available is advantageously leveraged for this purpose US 2008 0045236 Al 0064 To provide timely and accurate positional informa tion regarding the user and other contacts in or outside the network a multi source approach may be used as well as
69. s or location in the network may be utilized consistent with other embodiments of the invention 0070 Also the various systems that make up the inven tion are typically implemented using software running on semiconductor microprocessors integrated circuits or other computer systems the use of which is well known in the art Similarly the various processes described here are also Feb 21 2008 preferably performed by software running on a micropro cessor although other implementations including firmware hardware and even human performed steps are also con sistent with the invention 0071 It will further be appreciated that while described generally in the context of a network providing service to a customer or consumer end user domain the present inven tion may be readily adapted to other types of environments including e g enterprise e g corporate public service non profit and government military applications Myriad other applications are possible 0072 Lastly while certain embodiments are described in the context of well known Jabber client server protocols Internet Protocol described in inter alia RFC 791 and 2460 the Wireless Application Protocol WAP or Session Initiation Protocol SIP it will be appreciated that the present invention may utilize other types of transport mecha nisms protocols and in fact bearer networks to include other internets and intranets to implement the described funct
70. sing memory configured to store software instructions Feb 21 2008 a microprocessor in communication with said memory and configured to execute said software instructions wherein said software instructions cause said micro processor to maintain a database of contextual messages and associ ated locations and affiliations receive mobile communication device location informa tion determine an affiliation for at least one mobile commu nication device for which said location information has been received identify at least one message from said database based at least in part on said affiliation and said location infor mation and transmit at least a portion of said at least one matching message to said at least one mobile communication device 46 The server of claim 45 wherein said affiliation com prises a search term and said identification of said at least one message comprises identifying said at least one message via said search term matching metadata associated there with
71. ssed in accordance with one or more know communi cations standards such as without limitation GSM IS 95 TDMA AMPS CDMA2000 W CDMA IEEE 802 11 WiFi IEEE 801 15 IEEE 802 16 or Bluetooth the use of which is well known in the art although any wireless interface may be employed Other wireless interfaces such as millimeter wave infrared optical or laser may also be employed 0008 modem also include position location capability That is the MCD can determine its current Feb 21 2008 geographical location The current location is typically determined via the Global Positioning System GPS and its associated satellite constellation the construction and use of which is well known in the art The location information may be used for reporting the user s location during emer gency calls or it may be used for providing services such as navigation For example the FindMe service offered by Nextel provides maps and other directional services based on the current location of the user as reported by the mobile communication device 0009 Other approaches to position location may also be employed such as where existing infrastructure of the bearer network e g base stations distributed throughout a cellular network or RAN is used to geo locate a specific subscriber based on their forward or reverse channel communications 0010 An internet service or theme that has become highly popular in recent times
72. to said mobile com munication device via said wireless link US 2008 0045236 Al 13 The method as set forth in claim 12 wherein said mobile communication device location and mobile commu nication device affiliation information is received by said server from a proxy of said mobile communication device 14 The method as set forth in claim 12 wherein said mobile communication device location and mobile commu nication device affiliation information is received from said mobile communication device by way of a wireless network 15 The method as set forth in claim 12 further compris ing receiving a new contextual message from an external source said new contextual message having associated location and affiliation information and storing said new contextual message for comparison with future mobile communication device location and affiliation information 16 The method as set forth in claim 15 wherein said external source comprises a second mobile communication device 17 The method as set forth in claim 15 wherein said external source comprises is a social networking service 18 The method as set forth in claim 15 wherein said contextual messages include metadata said metadata com prising at least one of 1 provenance information and ii time of creation information 19 The method as set forth in claim 18 wherein said external source comprises a restaurant guide service 20 The method as set forth in claim 1
73. torage device adapted for storing digital data including without limitation ROM PROM EEPROM DRAM SDRAM DDR 2 SDRAM EDO FPMS RLDRAM SRAM flash memory e g NAND NOR and PSRAM 0057 As used herein the term display means any type of device adapted to display information including without limitation CRTs LCDs TFTs plasma displays LEDs and fluorescent devices 0058 As used herein the term database refers gener ally to one or more tangible or virtual data storage locations which may or may not be physically co located with each other or other system components Feb 21 2008 0059 As used herein the term image refers to both still images and video or other types of graphical representations of visual imagery For example an image might comprise a JPEG file MPEG or AVC encoded video or rendering in yet another format 0060 As used herein the term cellular includes any form of cell based mobile communications system including cellular telephones walkie talkie devices such as those marketed by Nextel and Motorola Corporations and so called PTx push to anything devices such as the exem plary PTT push to talk over cellular devices which estab lish and tear down SIP or other communications sessions as part of their protocol 0061 As used herein the terms position and coordi nate s refers to any method of determining estimating or predicting th
74. ular PCS networks IP addressing presence in ad hoc networks cell ID E911 E112 Time of Arrival TOA Time Difference of Arrival TDOA Observed Time Difference OTD and Angle of Arrival AOA 106 Patent Application Publication Feb 21 2008 Sheet of 9 US 2008 0045236 1 Fig 1 106 m US 2008 0045236 1 Feb 21 2008 Sheet 2 of 9 Patent Application Publication By Sly WALSAS 54144 NOILISOd 99 v94 WALSAS AV1dSIG LINN AYOWSAW 2217 091 WALSAS YOSSA0ONd ONIN 9 cS US 2008 0045236 1 Feb 21 2008 Sheet 3 of 9 Patent Application Publication Z Sul LNIOd 554202 4902 154 1 JO 5 0 90 LNIOd SS399V 159991 202 US 2008 0045236 1 Feb 21 2008 Sheet 4 of 9 Patent Application Publication 014 AOVAYALNI MYOMLAN 992 WALSAS AV 1dSIG LINN AYOWSAW 092 YOZ WSALSAS LAdN YyOSSAVONdONOIN COC CSC Patent Application Publication Feb 21 2008 Sheet 5 of 9 US 2008 0045236 1 START 302 300 STORE A CONTEXTUAL MESSAGE AND ASSOC LOCATION AND AFFILIATION INFORMATION 304 RECEIVE POSITION LOCATION INFORMATION AND 306 AFFILIATION INFORMATION FOR AN MCD MATCH A CONTEXTUAL MESSAGE WITH THE LOCATION AND AF
75. urce advertisers or other entities could finance the service themselves e g on a per delivery or per view basis Myriad other approaches will and permutations will be recognized by those of ordinary skill provided the present disclosure 0112 When a user want to leave one or more messages relating to a particular location he she be connected to the server 204 through the Internet and or by way of the wireless network including sending SMS WAP or other messages to leave text voice video or image content In one embodiment the user can specify the size of the location that should be associated with a given message or group of messages Alternatively the system can assign a default size based on the type of location as described above and or based on the type of message e g high priority messages might be given a larger size than routine or ordinary traffic or other parameter such as psychographic proximity one might want to assign a different area size to a family member than merely a professional or business acquaintance The location associated with the message could be the current location of the MCD or the user can specify a different location or proximity or other such location related param eter 0113 bounceback feature can also be employed within the MCD 100 and server 204 wherein a scripted or unscripted reply is generated by the user and left for the originator of the fi
76. work including without limitation those complying with the 3GPP 3GPP2 GSM IS 95 IS 54 136 IEEE Std 802 11 Bluetooth WiMAX IrdA or PAN e g IEEE Std 802 15 standards Such radio networks may utilize literally any air interface including without limitation DSSS CDMA TDMA FHSS OFDM or any combinations or variations thereof 0047 As used herein the terms Internet and internet are used interchangeably to refer to inter networks includ ing without limitation the Internet 0048 As used herein the terms mobile client device and MCD include but are not limited to personal digital assistants PDAs handheld computers personal communi cators 2 equipped devices cellular telephones SIP phones personal computers PCs and minicomputers whether desktop laptop or otherwise or literally any other device capable of receiving video audio or data over a network 0049 As used herein the term network agent refers to any network entity whether software firmware and or hardware based adapted to perform one or more specific purposes For example a network agent may comprise a computer program running in server belonging to a network operator which is in communication with one or more processes on a client device or other device 0050 As used herein the term application refers gen erally to a unit of executable software that implements a certain functionality

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