The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 25, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 08, 2001
Geoffrey R. Hendrey, San Francisco, CA (US);
Hirohisa A. Tanaka, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Philip J. Koopman, Jr., Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Joseph D. King, Hudson, NH (US);
Telcontar, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and system for selectively connecting proximately located telecommunications units are disclosed. The method and system may be used in a location aware telecommunications system that can determine the location of a telecommunications unit (TU) being used within the system. A first TU may be connected to a second TU when the first and second TUs are within a predetermined distance of each other and when a first user associated with the first TU may be connected to a second user associated with the second TU on a graph representing individual relationships, such as an acquaintance graph or genealogical tree. The connection may further be based on whether the first and second users have a less than a maximum threshold degree of separation within the relationship graph.