WO2012035149A1 - Social discovery network system and method based on mobile positioning - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system is presented that allows users of a social network to locate and gradually discover information about potentially compatible users in geographical proximity. The method and system is based on automated matching of proximate user pairs followed by user-driven discovery of increasingly private information, including physical location, while maintaining privacy with respect to other users of the network.

Description

SOCIAL DISCOVERY NETWORK SYSTEM AND METHOD BASED ON

MOBILE POSITIONING

DESCRIPTION

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

One object of the invention is to allow people to establish and develop relationships, within and outside social networks, efficiently and safely. Another object of the invention is to allow users of a social network, at a given time and place, to identify and explore opportunities for communication with other users that share or potentially share interests, thereby facilitating face-to-face meetings. Another object of the invention is to allow users to create multidimensional profiles, indicating the context within which they would like to establish contact with other users— business, dating, sporting activities, etc.— and to provide integrated communication protocols and methods that allow a use r to be i n co nt ro l of how their own information (geographic location information included) is shared with other people, including uncovering their information gradually to a specific users, while maintaining invisibility to others. Another object of the invention is to increase the efficiency of social interactions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Social networking has revolutionized the ways in which people share information and communicate. People now routinely use social networking to establish and develop relationships centered on friendship, business, romance and other aspects of their lives. Indeed, social networking has been responsible for an increasing fraction of marriages and is ever more important in business, following the adage that it is not "what" but "who you know".

Though social networks offer many advantages, including ease of use, reduction of the risks associated with face-to-face contacts, greater efficiency in establishing and initially developing contacts, and an overall increased likelihood of success, real life interactions can be more efficient and sometimes indispensible for establishing and developing relationships.

In regard to the risks associated with face-to-face contact, these are especially easy to recognize in the dating context. For example, when a man approaches a woman to strike up a conversation, there is a risk that she may reject his approach for any number of reasons, such as her involvement in a relationship. Further, without any mutual friend (or friend of friend or trusted third part-computer system) to provide reliable information, the woman has little basis for assessing how truthful the man's statements are about his background, occupation, etc. Analogous risks occur in social interactions where the goal is not dating, such as looking for a new friend, developing a business relationship or simply seeking an activity partner, since most people are generally adverse to the risks of rejection, deception and incompatibility.

In an effort to mitigate such risks, social network systems typically provide tools and communication infrastructures for organizing and managing interactions within "known" sets of people (lists of friends, invitations to groups, etc.), but can also be used to limit a person's communication circle.

Existing social networking systems also provide a variety of ways for users to in- teract, including chat, messaging, e-mail, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging and discussion groups, and including means to share user location information. Nevertheless, the desired relationships are often only established or developed after a "real life" meeting has taken place. Further, despite the many benefits of establishing and developing relationships through social networking, the elapsed time between the initiation of a relationship via a socia l network a nd a face-to-face meeting may be drawn out and longer than desirable.

In order to facilitate real world interactions, it is known to combine location- based information with social networking. Indeed, there are a variety of location- based systems and applications available for mobile devices allowing users to share their geographic location with other users. Google Latitude, a feature offered in Google Maps on a mobile device (and as an iGoogle gadget on a fixed computer) allows a user, once they have opted in to Latitude, to see the approximate location of friends and loved ones who have also opted to share their location with the user. A sharing system, Loopt, uses cellphone-based GPS to allow its users to visualize one another^'s locations using cell phones and also share information. Loopt further enables users to explore the world around them by connecting users with integrated content from other systems.

It is also known, particularly in the dating and friendship context, for initial communications between users to be conducted anonymously, users being identified by pseudonyms. Matching features are also provided which match users based on indicated profile criteria about themselves and their desired matches. Several online matching sites for dating and friendship operate on the I nternet (e.g., match.com), which are generally similar in function, allowing users to post profiles and photos, as well as search through the profiles and photos of other users. See, e.g., U.S. Pats. Nos. 5,950,200, 6,061,681, 6,073,105 and 6,073,105.

Such matching services are generally vertically structured, insofar as the user interactions are mediated by the service, and oriented solely towards an audience with a recognized goa l of establishing a romantic relationship. Of course, outside this environment, romantic relationship normally result out of friendship, simila r interest, real life meetings or virtual contact, initia lly not related with romantic relationship (such as: joint lunch or joint sport activity, etc.).

Other existing online services offer forums for communication between communities of users. Such services include message boards, e-mail lists, chat rooms, personal home pages and web logs, provide one-to-one and many-to-ma ny communications and offer forums where profiles or messages can be viewed by a specific individ- ual, the general public or the entire membership of specific defined group. See, e.g., US Pat. Nos. 6,366,962 and 6,363,427. These forums do allow visibility to multiple members of a group (in contrast to the matching services, which are based on one-one anonymous profiles). However, to the extent they are not based on social networks, but on broader user interests, it is not possible for these services to limit visibility of content based on social relationships between users. To the extent they are based on social networks, the only levels which can be managed by users are public and friends visibility.

Yet other social networking systems generally rely on companies' or individuals' com puterized address books to facilitate interactions by suggesting merging multiple address books to create a social network tool. See, e.g., U .S. Pat. Nos. 6,073,138 and 6,324,541, and U.S. Pub. Appl'n Nos. 20020023132 and 20020059201.

The more well-known socia l networking systems currently operating through the I nternet offer the following combinations of features:

Facebook, a socia l networking website designed for desktop commuters (and more recently expanded to mobile platforms) allows its users to list people as friends and send messages to friends. A user can also update personal profiles as a means of notifying friends, and can join networks organized according to workplace, school, or college.

Twitter, a socia l networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to send and receive text-based posts ("tweets") from other users that a re displayed on the author's profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default; however senders can restrict message delivery to their friends list. Users may subscribe to other author's tweets— this is known as "following" and subscribers are known as "followers". Al l users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, compatible external applications (such as smart phones), or by short message services (SMS) available in some countries.

MySpace is a social networking website offering profiles that contain two standard "blurbs": "About Me" and "Who I'd Like to Meet" sections. Profiles also contain an "Interests" section and a "Details" section. In the "Details" section, some characteristics fields will always be displayed. However, fields in these sections will not be dis- played if members do not fill them in. Profiles also contain a blog with standard fields for "content", "emotion", and "media". Profiles at MySpace can be private or public. Accessing the full profile of, or messaging someone when their account is set to "private", is restricted to a MySpace user's direct friends.

In order to overcome the above limitations, in order for a social network to facili- tate the efficient establishment, maintenance and development of relationships with strangers and known people, with the goal of establishing face-to-face meetings, it should strive to replicate the real world process of establishing and developing personal relationships. Specifically, a social networking system should strive to accommodate a user's real world experience of relating differently with others depending on the context— on whether the relationship is associated with practicing sports, working, travelling, business, or just being at home— and of having different preferences within and between contexts— practicing tennis and golf at different a bility levels, being usually open to contact with investors for new business; always being free for lunch near the office based on their 9:00-18:00 work day; and liking to meet girls of a certain age range, preferably blondes. Finally, it should also take account of location, by notifying the user about the people surrounding him, preferably in terms of the different relationship contexts and preferences.

In order to address the above limitations, the present invention allows users of social networks to establish contact with strangers and known people according to geographic location, while taking account of common interests, in a safe way that respects the privacy of the personal information of all involved. Specifically, the present invention offers users a means to control and gradually reveal profile information relevant to other nearby users based on the relationship context (business, dating, etc.), thereby combining the benefits of social networks— lower barriers of communication, reduced the risks of communication with strangers, rejection, deception, etc.— with the benefits of a possible immediate face-to-face meeting. DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention describes a method for social interaction between users carried out in a system comprising:

• a server connected to a communications network;

• a set of mobile devices adapted to operate in the communications network;

• a database managed by the server for the maintaining and storage of data from users;

· a client application adapted to be implemented in a mobile device connected to the communications network, where said mobile device comprises a positioning system adapted to provide the position of the mobile device, preferably GPS;

• for each user, the database manages the user's position and user's data and profile divided into different levels of privacy, having at least one public level and one pri- vate level;

wherein the method comprises the following steps:

a) for a predetermined user having a mobile device, in which the client application is running, the server performs a search of other users defining a set of selected users complying with the following conditions:

· the distance between the position of the selected user and the predetermined user is below a predetermined distance,

• the predetermined users data and the selected users data match over a predetermined value,

• the client application is running on the mobile device of the selected user, b) the server provides a list of selected users showing at least the public level of data of each selected user,

c) the predetermined user broadcasts a message to one or more users of the list of selected users,

d) // one of the selected users replies to the broadcast message, then the server pro- vides an interactive connection between the predetermined user and the selected user who has replied, wherein the interactive connection alternates petitions and responses to petitions for each user to gradually reveal subsequent levels of privacy of each user. Another example of the present invention describes a method for social interaction between users, comprising the steps of: associating one or more identities with a predetermined user of a predetermined mobile device and a selected user of a selected mobile device, the identities being associated with one or more contexts and comprising public context and private context information assigned to one or more privacy levels;

establishing physical proximity of the predetermined and selected users;

matching, for a given context, a first identity of the predetermined user to a second identity of the selected user;

notifying the predetermined user regarding the location of the selected user and providing him/her with the public context information associated with the second iden- tity of the selected user;

establishing the presence of private context information in the lowest privacy level of the first and second digital identities; and

relaying a request from the predetermined user to the selected user to share lowest privacy level context information

Yet, another example of the present invention describes a computer system that provides social interaction, capable of performing a method according to any one of claims 1 to 19. Another example of the present invention describes a computer implemented client application to be installed in a mobile device and connected to a server that performs a method according to any one of claims 1 to 19.

In the dependent claims, preferred embodiments of the present invention are described.

All the features described in this specification (including the claims, description and drawings) and/or all the steps of the described method can be combined in any combination, with the exception of combinations of such mutually exclusive features and/or steps.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other characteristics and advantages of the invention will become clearly understood in view of the detailed description of the invention which becomes apparent from a preferred embodiment of the invention, given just as an example and not being limited thereto, with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 shows an exemplary overview of the functional scope of the invention.

Figure 2 shows an exemplary overview of components and network interactions.

Figure 3 shows an example of user information dimensions, which allow control over information distribution using contexts and privacy levels.

Figure 4 shows an example of a two-dimensional user profile.

Figure 5 shows an exemplary functional structure as it relates to discovery of user privacy levels.

Figure 6 shows an exemplary user environment allowing visualization of local users having an active context.

Figure 7 shows an exemplary notification configuration.

Figure 8 shows an exemplary notification process.

Figure 9 shows exemplary two-user contact.

Figure 10 shows an exemplary discovery process.

Figure 11 shows exemplary level content requirements that maintain symmetry between the privacy levels of shared user information.

Figure 12 shows exemplary level information visualization.

Figure 13 shows exemplary level information management of user profile information.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Figure 1 illustrates how user 1, the first or predetermined user who wants to contact others, can allocate different context dependant representations la (meeting people), lb (business) that are to be shown to other users. User profile information (the profile of a user and the profile seen by people looking at the user within a given context) assigned to each context allows for the identification of other users 2, 3, selected or second users, located within geographic proximity 4, who have mayor degree of matching with the predetermined user 1. For example, people 2a, 2b and 2c form part of user's 1 meeting people environment, which indicates those people who might be interested in communicating with each other and are, at the moment, near to each other. People 3a, 3b are matched with user 1 on the basis of business context representation lb and are also nearby. In order to enable contact to be established, the system provides a notification, the configuration of which follows user established pa- rameters, used in context-depending matching 9, 10, 11, 14 for searching for notification receivers based on their context, location, plans etc. Also the predetermined user 1 can be selected for notifications of other users 12, located not nearby him, depending on the notification configuration made by notification sender 7. Connection through the notification process allows users to communicate which each other, gradually uncovering and discovering privacy levels of their mutual profile information. Each user can, at the same time, make visible some level of his profile for one person and maintain it invisible for another one 15, 16, 17.

Figure 2 is an example of a system that allows users interact with other users using electronic or mobile device 107 or client 110, also defined as a client application, over one or more communications networks (e.g., the Internet, wireless network) 113, 114. The mobile devices 107 may be capable of communication with other devices, including but not limited to mobile phones, personal digital assistance (PDAs), and others. These mobile devices may include an access device 106, for providing devices 107 with access to the communications network 113 and provide a geographic location or position (e.g. position coordinates) of the mobile device, preferably GPS.

The access device 106 can be any device capable of providing access to a communications network 113, 114, included but not limited to the Internet or a wireless network.

The client 110 can be a client application adapted to be implemented in a mobile de- vice capable of communication with other devices, including, but not limited to, notebook computers, desktop computers, mobile phones, smart phones, PDAs etc., able to connect to communications network 114 (e.g., the Internet or a wireless network).

Mobile device 107 running operative system 109 has software device 108 installed, by which device 107 displays the user interface and accesses server software 103 located at central application server or server computer 101 over communications network 113.

The server or server system 101 consists of server operative system 102, server software 103, and database 104 repository managed by the server (which can be located at another server computer or a server farm).

Additionally, client device 110, which consists of client operating system 112 and web browser software 111 can access web server software 105 (responsible for functionalities of the system, available at client web browser software 111), allocated at central server 101 or at one of the farm of servers, over communications network 114. Web server software 105 accesses the database 104 of system.

Typically in such implementations, at mobile device 107, the user accesses device software 108 using access device 106 over the communications network 113 to con- nect to server software 103, providing the user identification and location information, on the basis of which the functionalities of the system are provided, allowing the user to interact with the people that surrounds him/her. The method illustrated in Figure 3 illustrates two dimensions applying to user information (user's data and profile) relevant to interactions with other people: Context and Privacy.

Introduction of different contexts in user information reflects the need to maintain different user identities for different types of human relationships ("contexts"). A person relates differently depending on the context applying at that moment and place (for example, people relate differently to others when practicing sports than when working, differently when travelling for business than when travelling with friends, etc.). Contexts may include, but are not limited to, friendship, professional, commercial benefit, non-profit and political benefit, romantic relationships. Only in- formation relevant to a given context is available to any given pair of users connected through system.

The privacy dimension refers to the establishment of distinct levels of visualization of user profile information by other users for a given context.

Also, not shown in Figure 3, user profile information contains a preferences pro- file ("I look for..."), which contains information in addition to the characteristics discussed above with reference to the user data and profile, and is used for determining profiles of other people that might be of interest to the predetermined user.

After registration and login by user to the system 201, their identifier information is received 202. Each predetermined user can assign different contexts 203, 204 within which they would like to contact other people, for example, business or dating, and public information, which does not depend on the context in which they use the system 205. Public information or public level information 205 is always visible to other users that are connected to the system and does not depend on the specified context 203, 204 (e.g., age, gender). Within a specified context, the user has his/her pro- file information, relevant for that context. Some of this information can be public 203a, 204a, and will therefore be visible to selected users connected within context 203, 204. A predetermined user also has the option of establishing different levels of privacy for context allocated information 203b, 203c, 203d and 204b, 204c, 204d, display of which and to whom will depend on the specific person or interlocutor with whom the predetermined user establishes a system contact (communication or interactive connection), and by which users can uncover gradually their context profile in- formation. Proceeding like this, the interactive connection alternates petitions and responses to petitions for each user to gradually reveal subsequent levels of privacy for each user. Figure 4 shows an example of two dimensional (context and privacy) management of user profile information.

In terms of context, those characteristics which always form part of public information 317 are determined by the system, though the user can change their allocation from public to another more private level. Context-dependant public information 318, 319 is also determined by system and is always visible for users connected within a given context. For example, in Figure 3, ContextOl Public Information 318 will be visible to other users connected within ContextOl and ContextQ, while public Information 319 will only be visible to other users connected within ContextQ.

All user profile information can be allocated to distinct contexts. Each context contains profile characteristics, relevant for that context. This allows users to support different identities 318, 303 and 319, 304, for different types of human relationships (contexts). Figure 3 shows an example of a user profile in which each user profile characteristic can form part of one or more contexts. CharacteristicsOl, Characteristics02, CharacteristicsM 305, 306, 307 correspond to ContextOl 303, while Characteris- tics02, Characteristics(N+P) 308, 309, 310 form part of ContextQ 304.

Some characteristics can be unique to a given context (e.g., CharacteristicOl 305 appears only for ContextOl 303). For example, a person's height or eye color may be relevant for the romantic relationship context and irrelevant for professional relationships.

Certain characteristics can be relevant to several contexts, such as characteris- tics02 306, 308 included for contexts 303, 304. For example, hobbies may form part of romantic and friendship relationships. Other characteristics may have different values, depending on their context.

As indicated in Figure 4, the user may assign distinct privacy levels to values of profile characteristics within a given context 303 .Three levels LI, L2, L3 are shown, 317, 318, 319 for ContextOl 303 and 320, 321, 322 for ContextQ 304. By assigning privacy levels to their profile information, the user can control the uncovering (visualization) of their information to other users, as they see fit. In any event, first level information (LevelOl, LI) 317, 320 is normally the kind of information the user is comforta- ble providing to other users in an initial communication (first contact or acquaintance) and top level (Level03, L3) 319, 322 is the most private or restricted information, which a user will communicate to other users last. It is for the user to decide which characteristics are included at which level in a given context.

In Figure 3, the user has elected privacy levels for characteristics 305, 306,307 having values 311, 312, 313 within ContextOl 303, placing value 311 into the Level02 311b, value 312 into the LevelOl 311a, value 313 into the Level03 311c. When the user, having established a communication with another user within ContextOl, decides to uncover LevelOl information (discovery process conditions are satisfied), the other user can see value 312 of user profile Characteristics02 306. When the user decides to uncover Level02 information to the same user (discovery process conditions are satis- fied), the other user can then see value 311 of profile CharacteristicsOl 305. If the user decides to uncover Level03 information to the other user, the interlocutor will see information of value 313 of profile CharacteristicsM 307.

According to the discovery process, the same characteristic can be included in no more than into one level 311a, 311c, 312b, 312c, 313a, or 313b within a given context 303.

Figure 5 shows an exemplary functionality that allows UserOl 401 to interact with other users 404, 405, 406, 407 connected within different contexts 402, 403 , by allowing them to discover distinct levels of context profile information 408, 409, 410, 411. For example, UserOl 401 has established contact within the "meeting people" context with users 408, 409, 410. At first, each user can see no more than the public (default and context-dependent) information of the others 408. Once contact (interactive connection) 414 is established, users can send and receive messages, open a discovery process based on the levels assigned their profile information, identify entertainment activities, and ultimately propose a place for meeting 413. As shown, a user can simultaneously open different contacts with different users within one or more contexts 402, 403.

At first, UserOl 401 and User02 405 can see only each other's public information 408. The discovery process is based on a symmetry principle. A given privacy level of user profile information of first user 401 can be opened to another user (User02) 404 only if that user agrees to open their own information at that privacy level to the first user (UserOll) 401. As shown in Figure 5, UserOl 401 and User02 404 have opened three levels of their profiles in the meeting people context 402. User02 can see Cha- racteristics03, CharacteristicsOl, Characteristics02 409

of UserOl profile information, and UserOl 401 the profile characteristics of User02 404 included by User02 404 at three levels. The information of User02 may not correspond to CharacteristicsOl, Characteristics 02, Characteristics 03, included by UserOl 409, since User02 404 is free to assign a different type of profile information to these levels. At the same time, UserOl 401 communicates with User04 406 and displays LevelOl, Level02 information 410, the same information levels made available by Us- er04 406.

Simultaneously, in a business context 403, where UserOl 401 has deployed other profile information 411, which includes Characteristics03, Characteristics 05, Characte- ristics06 that differ from the characteristics available for display in meeting people context 402, UserOl has "discovered" till LevelOl business context profile information with User05 407 and can see business context profile information of User05 407 at this level.

Users may add an interlocutor or recent interlocutor to a "Known People" list by sending an invitation request. The "Known People" list is a user's grouping of people with whom they have established a relation and wish to maintain in that status. A friends circle is included within the known people grouping. The "Known People" list or group also supports an invitation/request form of membership. The system also allows a user to maintain profile visibility once communication is opened with a known user (up till some determined level, the highest at which the discovery process with that user was terminated).

The user can decide whether they wish to maintain profile visibility with particu- lar users after the session has terminated, allowing users with whom they have "discovered" level 1 (LevelOl), 2 (Level02) and 3 (Level03) information and established a known status to see such information in future session, obviating the need for future matching and discovery with that user. For exa mple, if UserOl 401 and User04 406 identify each other as "Known People", when they are next in geographic proximity in the meeting people context, and both have maintained in their profiles visibility for "Known People", User04 406 will see two level information 410 of UserOl 401 and UserOl 401 will see two levels of information of User04 406. If User04 406 initiates the session without profile visibility activated for "Known People", UserOl 401 will see only public information of User04 406, while User02 406 will see two levels of information 410 of UserOl 401.

Matching Process

The system matching process uses proximity, profile information and artificial intelligence. The matching process performs three functions:

1) displaying the user environment,

2) identifying notification recipients, and 3) looking for an audience of promotions and advertisements.

The matching algorithm implicates no more than two users at one time, and may apply to one user and one business or advertising element (such as a promotion or advertisement). The result of the matching process is a two-users (or user-business element) matching relation, with the algorithm determining the matching level (e.g. Min 30%, Max 100%). The matching algorithm has three sequentially applied steps:

User Location information

Pure user profile information, that is, users data (preferences valuations are included and notification sender preferences have more priority than receiver prefe- rences)

Artificial intelligence elements.

Each step applies when a sufficient match is obtained in the previous level. The matching process executes every time a predetermined user logs onto the system and whenever there is no active result of a matching process. If a pair of users are found by the algorithm to have some level of matching, their graphic representations become visible to both users and their matching relation is saved for a time determined by the system, assuming there are no changes in the main matching variables, such as session inactivation by a matched user, increased distance between users, changes in profile information, appearance of another higher level matching results, etc.

Users can see their total level of matching, which may be calculated on the basis of different types of matching, as shown in the following table.

Level of matching/ Location type Profile type Al Type Total Level (min=30%, matching

Matching type max =100%)

High 40 30 30 100%

Medium 20 20 20 60%

Low 10 10 10 30% For example, if matched users stay far enough away from each other (10%), but their profile information has a medium level of matching (20%), and their Artificial Intelligence has a high level of matching (30%), the Total Matching level visible for both users will be 60%.

The location matching is based on a search algorithm for a given coverage area, which is dependent on overall user density. As already noted, the matching process executes every time a predetermined user logs into the system and the results of the matching process are based on the profiles of other users located in the user's environment. The location matching algorithm takes account of possible user travel speeds (walk, urban, rural etc) and the time anticipated for them to reach a given location. The system relies on standard values in a user distance coverage table together with some determined values, based on actual user location and changing speeds (km/h).

Once a predetermined user completes the registration process and logs onto the system, an environment matching executes, which permits the user to view their sys- tern environment, based on a graphic representation of surrounding places, their geographic location and a list of people (selected users), though without specifying user locations with coordinates or graphic representations. Some of these users may even have been blocked, based on the predetermined user's prior experiences or on accumulation of negative votes from other users.

Figure 6 is an exemplary user environment of the system according to present invention, allowing a predetermined user to see surrounding people, that is, selected users, within an active context. As in Figure 5, the environment contains a User Information section 501, in which the user can always see his current context 501a, public information (public level of information), which is not dependent on context 501b and current context public information 501c. Public information 501b, 501c for users 507, 510 connected through the matching process is also visible. The section users/places displays a geographic ma p, with the predetermined user's own location, and locations and information about places 505, as introduced into the system by its users.

The user can see his matching level with users 507, 510 identified by the matching process, but no more than their public (context and not context-dependent) information 504, 504a, 504b. Absent a previous interaction and assignment of "Known People" status, users cannot see geographic location about each other, though their matching level may give them an idea about the distance between them.

To initiate communication with surrounding people, the predetermined user may use an integrated communication tool "Send a notification" 502, which is a broadcast message to one or more users of the list of selected users. Activity manager agent 503 notifies the predetermined user about events and awaits a reaction, for example one of the selected users replies to the broadcast message which corresponds to new mes- sages are received from other users, or new notifications are received within current or other active user contexts, or discovery level requests are received from users with whom they have opened contact, or entertainment related activities, known people, membership invitations, etc. are received. Figure 7 illustrates options for notification implementation. Each user can specify criteria which will make his/her plans public or simply initiate an interactive communication with people surrounding him from the list of selected users, including: • When 601a - The user may choose a time associated with a proposed meeting/a planned event/a planned location. The user can specify, for example, "Now" or

Later", as determined by date and time.

• What 601d - The user may choose a notification of proposed activity among suggested categories (which can be context dependent and have hierarchical structure), such as: Drink, Lunch/Meal, Travelling, Friends party, Flirt, Night life, Shopping, Sport related event, Sport practice, etc.

· Where 601b - The user may specify "Near current location" or "Another place".

When choosing "Another place", they can select a map with locations of places registered in the system by its users.

• Who 601c - The user may choose the audience from among which the matching process will be realized, selecting among Let system choose (indirect notification: matching process executes) and Let me choose (direct notification: all chosen users selected by the predetermined user from the selected user list will receive a notification). Selecting Let system choose can lead to further selection from among:

o Any - The general matching algorithm will be applied, without a ny p refe re nce of the notification audience (except genera l matching rules: location, statuses valuation, user's preferences, user profile information);

o Certain groups - The user may choose from one or more groups of users to which the notification matching process will be applied.

o Known people - The user may choose from a grouping of known people to whom the notification matching process will be applied.

o Nearby people - The matching process will apply only to persons in the environment.

After selecting audience preferences, the user may specify a minimum and maximum number of persons sought for a planned sender event and other notification parameters

In the case of Let me choose, each user will receive notification sender without matching process and session validation, with the exception of blocked users against which votes have been registered. In the case of Nearby, the notification sender can choose one or more specific users from the user's environment a nd, in the case of Known people, from among known people.

The final option is for the predetermined user to introduce a message into the text, using the Message 601e feature shown in Figure 7. This text will be visible to us- ers who view the Notification. Once the system has identified notification receivers, the following invitation appears on the notified users' device applications or activity managers: "[Notification sender User Nick Name] [Unknown/Known/Potential known person representation] is making a Notification for [Time] [Activity]".

When sending the notification, a configuration screen appears which allows the user to fill the main Notification characteristics out. An example of such a notification screen is shown in the following table.

LevelOOO LevelOOI Level002 Level003 Level004

When Now

Later Date/Time

Where Near current

location

Other place Earth Map Place Id

Lat Lng

Don't know yet

What Drink Short drink/coffee

Some beer

Eat

Visiting of places

of interest

Travelling

Known people

party

Night life

Flirt

Show Concert

Festivals

Movies

Theatre

Art

Other

Shopping

Sport related Select kind of sport

meeting

Sport Practice Select kind of sport Rival/team level Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

Who Let^'s the system Any Min #

choose

Group type 01 Select Group(s) Max#

of type 01

Other

Group type 02 Select Group(s)

parameters: of type 02

Gender: M/F/Any

Known people and Select grouping

their groups of users from

known people

Nearby people

Let me choose Near by Select nearby Select users of users Environment

Known people Select from

known people Notification Matching

The notification matching process applies exclusively for an indirect notification type (in a case of direct type, the system receives all notification addressees).

The number of notification receivers and the notification iterations depends on notification [Who] preferences ([Min#], [Max#] people for meeting). The system looks for a number of persons, to satisfy the major probability notification [Who] preferences of the notification sender, provided by them in some cases (context, [what] and other parameters of notification configuration dependence), offering a possibility to contact with more people than specified at [Min#] number, allowing a user to select the [Min#] number by themselves.

In the case of indirect type notification, the notification matching process will select users able to get to proposed place [Where] parameter of notification configuration, before or nearly a by proposed time [When] parameter, which have major Profile and Artificial intelligence matching with [What] parameter of the notification configu- ration and/or users profile of the notification sender. Some of the characteristics of user profile have a relationship with activities, included at the [What] parameter of the notification configuration, which permits a user to establish [What] and users' profiles matching.

For example, if at the [What] parameter of the notification configuration, the us- er has specified Sport Practice->Tennis the matching algorithm will look for users^' profiles of persons with the hobby Tennis.

In cases in which the [Where] parameter of the notification configuration is not the current location of the user and the [When] parameter is distinct from the [current time] parameter, the place to be searched for people to receive a notification will de- pend on the [What] parameter of the notification. For example, it is known that travelling ([What] ="Travelling") to some place is of greater interest to people who have not been to that place. In this case, the notification matching process will first valuate profiles of users, who stay nearby the Notification sender. But if the [What] parameter refers to some activity, related with users' plans to stay at that place at a time which the user has indicated, it makes sense to begin with people at the place indicated by the notification sender.

The notification matching process is aimed at finding a minimum number of persons to view the notification invitation.

If a notification for a spontaneous invitation is not accepted by matched user (the user ignores it or there was no reaction during a time out), the notification matched process tries to find another notification receiver, terminating the notifica- tion activity for first one. Notification matching iterations depend on the number [Min], [Max] of persons, specified by the notification sender to assure that the notification sender can select by themselves a [Min] number of users for the activity from of proposed by the matching process.

In a case when the notification does not lead to any receivers accepting a notification activity valuates the [When] parameter is used to determine the necessity of further iterations.

Figure 8 illustrates an implementation of the notification process. Notification process 701, begins when a user 702 configures and executes a send notification function (broadcast message) 705, 706 with his device software in the mobile device. In case of indirect notification (selected at Who parameter of Notification configuration 705, UserOl 702 does not indicate or specify users or groups to receive a notification), the system 703 executes a notification matching process 707 looking for users who will receive a notification information, basing on notification configuration 705 parameters, notification sender 702 profile, location and profiles of the system users and it identifies the selected users list. Matched by notification matching process 707, user 704 receives a notification 708. If he/she accepts 709, 709a, a contact becomes available between notification sender 702 and receiver 704. Within a contact 710, users 702, 704 may send and receive messages from each other, discover their privacy levels (gradually reveal subsequent levels of priveacy), propose a place or location and an alternative place for meeting, as well as perform other entertainment and communication activities 711, 714. If the notification receipt is ignored 709, 709b, the system checks an activity of notification 715, depending on both the [When] parameter (Can notification sender 702 wait more for accepted notification users? Or, Is current time minor than indicated by him/her?), and the [Min] number of users of notification configuration 705 (Has notification sender contacted with sufficient number of persons to satisfy his [Min#] requirements of [Who] notification configuration?).

In case of a still active notification 715a, next the notification matching process 716 is executed by the system 703, looking for another notification recovers. In another embodiment, notification is closed 717 and the system will not look for notification receivers anymore.

Figure 9 illustrates a two-user contact (a space of possible transitions of two us- ers, connected by notification process). The contact is available for users, when one of them (notification sender) sends a notification to a matched user (notification receiv- er) which is accepted. The contact can be closed by either user, for example, if their device software session or client application closes. Contact 801 between both users can contain the following information: Interlocutor information 802, Notification information, through which users connect 805, communication tools 806, discovery process 807, and the context 803 within which the users were connected.

Interlocutor information 802 contains information about the user's interlocutor, such as his public information (context and not context-depending); whether the interlocutor belongs to a known people group 802a; current level at which user communication 802b is executed (LevelOl, Level02, Level03 of user context profile information); and discovered levels information of the interlocutor 802c, corresponding to levels till and including the current one 802b.

Notification information 805 contains [When], [Where], [What] information of the notification configuration or broadcast message, by which the two users were connected by the notification matching process.

Communication possibilities 806 refers to possibilities to send and receive each other messages, receive system messages 806a, propose a place and alternative place for meeting 806b, as well as realize other entertainment and communication activities 806c, and other communication tools 806d, such as videoconference, etc.

The "Uncover yourself" section 807 provides users with the possibility to edit 8071, 807m, 807n their context profile information, included at different levels 807b, 807c, 807d and send discovery request to their interlocutor 807x, 807y, 807z.

If one user proposes next level discovering, then, both users can accept revealing their context profile information or users data, included at this level to their interlocutor. A user receiving a next level discovery request, can accept it, in which case both users will see the other's next level information 802c and their current level is increased to the next one 802b. A user receiving a next level discovery request can also opt to continue communication at the present level (current level 802b will not be changed and next level information of users will not be available for each other). Contact can be closed by one of the users 804 and both may evaluate their interlocutor 808, 808a, blocking them or voting against them 808b, 808c, in case of negative communication experience; or vote for him and/or add him as a known person 808d, 808e, in case of positive communication experience. Each user votes for/against other users they had interactions with, this information being kept in the database in a non erasable manner and accessible by other users in the public level of data. Blocks and votes against users affect future matching process, avoiding undesired contacts. Level content valuation

To assess the value of User Profile Level information, a method, based on quantity, quality and privacy of allocated level information is applied.

In order to evaluate content of each level of user profile, for every characteristics of user's context profile some amount of points (weights) are assigned. For characteristics which can more accurately describe the person, personality or provide more relevant information about the user for a given context, greater weight is assigned. For example, a user picture in a dating context is a given more weight than a list of favorite movies.

In an interactive connection between two users there is a discovery process based in the revealing of the different privacy levels starting from the public level of data, and whenever one user reveals another level, the system proposes to the other user to reveal that same level.

A profile is deemed complete, at 100%, when more than some pre-determined % of its characteristics is complete.

If two users have profiles completed at 100%, their discovering is always possible, independent of the distribution of this information into privacy levels, but as minimum one characteristic of the profile should be included at each level. There is a pos- sibility to change the level distribution at full completed profile at any moment.

The level content valuation process is aimed at maintaining the symmetry of profile information exchanged between users during the discovery process if one (or both) has an incomplete profile.

If one user profile is not complete, the discovery process with other is possible only when level content has some minimum (or optimum) value, but it does not depend on what kind of information users included at it.

In each interactive connection, the next level of privacy of a user is only revealed if the other user has his/her profile of that next level with at least the same parameters completed, if not, the system proposes the user with less information at that pri- vacy level to complete it until they both reach the same level of information completed in one level.

Discovery process The discovery process begins with the notification sending process or broadcast message, as generally happens in real life, in order to initiate communication with sur- rounding people, independent of the reason of communication, users must introduce themselves and then, as they continue communication, provide a possibility to get to know them better.

The discovery process can be executed for only two users. However, every user can have more than one opened discovery processes with different users at the same time. As mentioned, in an interactive connection between two users there is a discovery process based in the revealing of the different privacy levels starting from the public level of data, and whenever one user reveals another level, the system proposes to the other user to reveal that same level.

Changing profile information of a given level at the edges of a given discovery process affects uncovered information of the same level of the other users executed previously. Aggregation of information into a given level during the discovery process with one person, will lead to the information being shown to other users if that level was already discovered by them too. The following conditions must be satisfied for this to occur: the user opened contacts with the other user or was visible as a known person; the other user discovered that level in a previous sessions and the user initiated that session with parameters leading to visualization of their levels in a previous discovery processes.

The discovery process is based on a principle of symmetry, allowing two users to uncover from each other their LeveIN information, only when:

- Both of agree to uncover their LeveIN information to the other; or

- Discovery of their levels depends on their profile information completeness.

In case of a part completed profile of one user, the with more value LeveIN allo- cated information controls the visibility of their Level to the other, selecting to show all LeveIN information (independent of information which they receives in exchange) or to show their LeveIN information insofar as the other user inputs data into their profile (till their profile is full or till the level content valuation process determines that their LeveIN can be considered as full one).

In case of part completed profiles of both users, the person, with more value of their LeveIN allocated information (Level content valuation process) controls the visibility of their information to the other, allowing them to see the whole LeveIN information (independent of information which they receive in exchange) or to see their LeveIN information insofar as the other user inputs data at LeveIN (till their LeveIN in- formation has equal value or till the system determines that LeveIN can be considered as a full one (Level content valuation process)). LevelOl discovery is mandatory to establish a contact with another person through a notification process. For LevelOl discovery, at least one characteristic of the user profile has to be filled out and assigned to LevelOl. Until that moment, when the user's profile contains more information at its LevelOl than minimum value require- ment or till the user profile is completed, the user is recorded as being in a condition of contact establishment.

Both users establishing contact have to agree to discover their Level 01 information to have a possibility of communication which each other.

If both users have their profile completed and distributed at three available le- vels, the discovering process of LevelOl is always possible for them, even when LevelOl information of one or both of them contains not more than one characteristic value. That possibility gives a chance for users to make their own distribution of the information at different levels, without any condition of what kind of information and at what level is necessary to assign.

In case of partial completed profiles (for example U1L1< U2L1< OPL1), the Discovering process of LevelOl can be executed, if user, with minor profile content, will complete it for satisfy next conditions: U1L1 >U2L2. Or U1L1 >OPLl if U2L2≥0PL1. Defining U1L1 is a Value of UserOl LevelOl information, U2L1 is Value of User02 LevelOl information (both of these are calculated, applying the same algorithm based on volume, quality and privacy of provided by user's information), OPL1 is an optimum value of LevelOl information, determined by the level valuation process.

Additionally, User02 is informed, about a fact of minor information content of his interlocutor and can decide how he/she would prefer to visualize his LevelOl information for UserOl. There are two options to do this:

A) All LevelOl information of User02 can be shown to UserOl, or

B) LevelOl information will appear only if UserOl fills out LevelOl.

In the first case, UserOl will see all LevelOl information of User02 and periodically profile validation executes. In case of U1L1< U2L1, UserOl receives messages, reminding that he/she does not have enough information in his/her profile, and that he/she needs to fill it out to continue communication with User02. Additionally, UserOl can see a value of the absence information at his/her profile and see it change as far as he/she adds more datea. In this case he/she needs at least (U2L1- U1L1) or (OPL1- U1L1) at their LevelOl. User02 will see LevelOl information of UserOl as far as he/she is filling it out. If, after some reminder messages, UserOl has not completed his/her LevelOl profile information, enough for discovery, User02 receives a decision message asking if he/she would like to have one more chance for UserOl to uncover his/herself. User02 can give more chance for UserOl or close contact with UserOl. Us- erOl is informed about the decision of his/her interlocutor. The new iteration of remembering messages executes one more time. If UserOl fills his/her profile information (U1L1 >=U2L2) out, the discovery of LevelOl terminates successfully and both us- ers can see LevelOl information of the other.

User02 decides to display his/her LevelOl information as far as UserOl inputs his/her own information at this level. UserOl will see only part of the information of User02, corresponding to the value of his/her own information, selected by the system part of LevelOl information. LevelOl information value validation will be executed pe- riodically and remind UserOl that he/she cannot have access to full User02 LevelOl information, because he/she does not have completed enough thar level.

User02 (with more profile information at LevelOl) can initiate a process of discovering of next level (his/her Level02 information) before UserOl has finished completing LevelOl profile information, enough for fully revealing his/her LevelOl. UserOl cannot initiate the process of discovering the next level, while UserOl is in a process of completing the previous level. UserOl can accept the discovery or revealing of a Level02 request sent by User02, in this case the method checks not only LevelOl completeness, but also Level02 content, according with the general algorithm.

Level02 discovery or revealing is optional for users and they can have it at the same time opened for one interlocutor and not for another. For Level02 discovery, at least one characteristic of user profile has to be assigned to Level02 and both users have to confirm their agreement to uncover or reveal their Level02 information. Additionally, their previous uncovering or revealing process has to be terminated already to see corresponding level information of another level.

If both users have their profile completed and distributed at three available levels, the discovering process of Level02 is always possible for them, even when Level02 information of one or both of them contains not more than one characteristic value.

In case of partially completed profiles (for example U1L1+U1L2 < U2L1+U2L2 < OPL2), the discovery process of Level02 can be continued if the user with less profile content satisfies the following condition: U1L1+U1L2 > U2L1+U2L2. (Or U1L1+U1L2 > OPL2 if U2L1+U2L2 > OPL2) Here: U1L2 is the value of UserOl Level02 information, and U2L2 is the value of User02 Level02 Information. Both are calculated, applying the same algorithm based on volume, quality and privacy of information provided by the user. OPL2 is an optimum value of Level 01 and Level02 information, determined by level value method. Additionally, User02 is informed about the minor information content of their interlocutor and can decide how they would prefer to display their Lev- el02 information for UserOl. There are two ways to do this:

A) All Level02 information of User02 can be shown to UserOl at once or

B) User02 Level02 information will appear as far as UserOl fills his/her Lev- el02 out.

In the first case, UserOl will see all Level02 information of User02 and periodically profile validation executes. In case U1L1+U1L2 < U2L1+U2L2 < OPL2, UserOl will receive messages, reminding him/her that he/she does not have enough information in that level, and that in order to continue communication or interactive connection, he/she needs to complete that information. Additionally UserOl can see a value of the required information in their profile and see the value change when he/she adds more data to that level. In this case they need at least (U2L1+U2L2) - (U1L1+U1L2) or (OPL2- (U1L1+U1L2)) at his/her Level02. User02 will see Level02 information of UserOl as far as he/she fills it out. If after some reminders, UserOl has not completed his/her Lev- el02 profile information, enough for discovering or revealing, User02 receives a deci- sion message asking if he/she would like to give one more chance for UserOl to uncover or reveal him/herself. User02 can give more time to UserOl or decide to close that contact. UserOl is informed about decision of his/her interlocutor. The new iteration of reminder messages executes one more time. If UserOl fills out his/her profile information ((U1L1+U1L2 > U2L1+U2L2) or (U1L1+U1L2 >OPL2), the discovery of Lev- el02 terminates successfully and both users can see Level02 information of each other.

In case User02 decides to display Level02 information as far as UserOl inputs his/her own information at this level,User01 will see only part of the information of User02, corresponding to the value of UserOl own information, selected by system as part of Level02 information. Level02 information value validation will be executed pe- riodically and remind UserOl that he/she cannot have access to full User02 Level02 information, because he/she has not completed enough information of that level.

User02 (with more profile information at his/her Level02) can initiate a process of discovering or revealing of the next level (their Level03 information) before UserOl has finished complete Level02 profile information, enough for full uncovering or re- vealing of his/her Level02. UserOl cannot initiate the process of discovering the next level, while UserOl is in a process of completing the previous level. UserOl can accept the Level02 discovery request sent by User02; in this case the method checks not only his/her Level02 completeness, but also his/her Level03 content, according with the general algorithm.

Level03 discovery or revealing is optional for users and they can at the same time open it with one interlocutor and not in interactive connections with others. For Lev- el03 discovery, at least one characteristic of the user profile has to be assigned to Lev- el03 and both users have to confirm their agreement to uncover their Level03 information and their previous uncovering or revealing process is terminated already in order to see the corresponding level information of the other user.

If both users have their profile completed and distributed at three available levels, the discovering process of Level03 is always possible for them, even when Level03 information of one or both of them contains only one characteristic value.

In case of partial completed profiles (for example ((U1L1+U1L2+U1L3) < (U2L1+U2L2 + U2L3) < OPL3), discovering process of Level02 can be continued if the user with minor profile content, satisfies the following condition: (U1L1+U1L2+U1L3) > (U2L1+U2L2 + U2L3); or (U1L1+U1L2+U1L3) > OPL3 if U2L1+U2L2+U2L3 > OPL3. Where U1L3 is the value of UserOl Level03 information,

U2L3 is the value of User02 Level03 information. Both are calculated, applying the same algorithm based on volume, quality and privacy of based on user provided in- formation.

OPL3 is an optimum value of LevelOl and Level02 and Level03 information, determined by a level valuation method. Additionally User02 is informed about the fact of minor information content of his/her interlocutor and can decide how he/she would prefer to make available his/her Level03 information for UserOl. There are two options to do this:

A) All Level03 information of User02 can be shown to UserOl, and all Level03 information of UserOl to User02, or

B) User02 Level03 information will only appear if UserOl fills his/her Level03 out. In the first case, UserOl will see all Level02 information of User02 and periodical- ly profile validation executes. In case of ((U1L1+U1L2+U1L3) < (U2L1+U2L2 + U2L3) < OPL3), UserOl will receive a message, reminding him there is not enough information in his/her profile, and that he needs to remedy this in order to continue the communication or interactive connection with User02. Additionally UserOl can see the value of absence information at his/her profile and see that value change when they add more data. In this case he/she needs at least ((U2L1+U2L2+U2L3) - (U1L1+U1L2+U1L3)) or (OPL3- (U1L1+U1L2+U1L3)) at Level03. User02 will see Level03 information of UserOl when he/she fills it out. If, after some reminders, UserOl has not completed Level03 profile information, enough for discovery, User02 receives a decision message asking if he/she would like to offer one more chance for UserOl to uncover or reveal his/her data in that level. User02 can give more time for UserOl or close contact with them. UserOl is informed about decision of their interlocutor. The new iteration of reminder messages executes one more time. If userOl filled out their profile information ((U1L1+U1L2+U1L3) > (U2L1+U2L2 + U2L2)), or ((U1L1+U1L2+U1L3) > OPL3), the discovery or revealing of Level03 terminates successfully and both users can see Level03 information of each other.

In case User02 decides to display his/her Level03 information when UserOl inputs his/her own information at this level, UserOl will see only part of the information of User02, corresponding to the value of his/her own information, selected by the system as part of Level03 information according to some pre-determined algorithm. Lev- el03 information value validation will be executed periodically and remind UserOl that he/she cannot have access to full User02 Level03 information, because UserOl has not completed enough of his/her own Level03.

User02 (with more profile information at their Level02) can initiate a process of discovering the next level (Level03 information) before UserOl has finished completing Level02 profile information, enough for full uncovering or revealing Level02. UserOl cannot initiate the process of discovering the next level, while he/she is in a process of completeness of his/her previous level. UserOl can accept discovering of Level02 request sent by User02; in this case the method checks not only their Level02 completeness, but also their Level03 content, according with the general algorithm.

The contact of two users can be closed and finished by a decision made by only one of them.

As shown in Figure 10, the discovery process 901 relates to the following process: Notification 905, communication process 906 and the Discovery process itself 907.

At shown, two users 902, 904 participate in the process, beginning with the notification sending process 911 configured by the UserOl 902 notification 910.

The Notification matching process 912 locates a notification receiver 904 based on the notification configuration and the user information matching algorithm. A user receiving a notification invitation, can ignore it 914, and in that case any communica- tion with the notification sender 902 will not be possible. In this case, the system will try to find another user who accepts the notification 916, by checking the notification activity conditions 915.

Notification sending process 911 suggests uncovering or revealing of LevelOl information of the sender to other users who can accept the notification, but not for users who merely receive a notification invitation. When User02 904 receives a notification invitation, he can't see more information about notification sender 902 than what is public (context and not depending). If the notification recipient decides to accept a notification, he must agree to uncover their LevelOl information 914 also. That process corresponds to acquaintance in real life, when two people at a minimum, must exchange acquaintance phrases and some information about each other. As far as the recipient agrees to accept a notification and uncover his LevelOl information to the notification sender, their level information valuation process executes, to avoid situations of partially completed profiles of one user. Additionally, a user with more a more complete profile can display his information to a user with less complete profile information 917. After accepting notification and uncovering their LevelOl condition, both users 902, 904 can see their LevelOl allocated information of the other 917a, 917b.

Communication process 909 is a process parallel to discovery of Level02 and Level03 information, where two users can send and receive messages from/to each other and as far as they receive more information about the corresponding interlocutor, and, based on their profile information and received messages, make decision to continue communication or not 918,920.

Level02 and Level03 discovering process are optional and depend only on the decision of both users to know each other better. When one user 902 wants to know more information about his interlocutor 904, he must be ready to uncover his own level information 921. Before discovery level request 922 is received by interlocutor 924, the level information valuation process executes 923, indicating the value provided by request sender 902 level information and proposing the selected user to complete his profile if it is partially complete.

Discovery request receiver 904 can accept a request 924 and, if conditions of levels symmetry are satisfied 925, both users will see discovered level information of the other 925a, 925b.

The process terminates 909 when all available context profile levels have been uncovered by two users or when one terminates communication, closing their contact.

As illustrated in Figure 11, the minimum requirements of level completeness are a value of level information of a user required in order to terminate their discovering process. The minimum requirements may depend on the interlocutor level information value or on an optimum value for a given level.

The method of selection of minimum level requirements implies that a user with a minor level of information must input more information into the level profile, but also allows that user to display his level information to another, providing the user who has a major level content, giving a possibility to manage his level information, to discover it at once or gradually as far as another user is introducing his own information.

The optimum value of level content is an accumulated value of characteristics included at current and previous levels. Optimum value allows more flexibility to users to introduce information into available levels. Characteristics which form a level can be:

- Selected depending on context and fixed for each level. For example, accepting that picture of user is more private information of some context it can be included to Level03 of three available levels

- Determined based on a proportional distribution (uniform for a particular case) of all profile characteristics into available levels, accepting some scale of weights which can be assigned to these characteristics. For example, if all profile information has 94 points assigned, and a profile has 90 characteristics, the min weight of some characteristics is 1 and the maximum is 2 (there are 4 characteristics at profile with weight 4). In this case proportional distribution can be as shown in following table.

The Optimum number of points of a Level is calculated as:

Characteri sticsCount

^ Characteri sticWeight

1

The example demonstrates that the method does not limit to a discovering process between different kinds of persons ort users, allowing it to be performed by two users, one of which has allocated a larger part of his profile information at one level (for example first one), but another has allocated a larger fraction of information at the last level. The method is intended to avoid strict rules for user information, but to ensure that users discovering process till last level provides each other with a sym metric amount (in sense of its value) of information.

The calculation of optimum number of characteristics to fulfill can depend on level functionality or a corrector value. For example, as far as LevelOl is mandatory for notification sending and notification receiving, that is, in order to maintain an interactive connection, the number of characteristics included at this level can be reduced and as a result, also the information required from each user and demonstrated for display to notification matched users. The intention of the corrector is also to give more flexibility to users to allocate their introduced profile information at different levels. The corrector value can depend on a quantity, quality and privacy of profile characteristics.

The minimum requirements of user level depend on profile completeness of users and on the depth of the discovering process. Not only the value of information included in a current level, but all information provided by user to another one in previous levels, should be considered, as indicated in following table.

Figure 11 illustrates the method that allows users to establish requirements for the value of level information content to maintain symmetry in providing user information, included at some privacy level.

The discovery process is a process parallel to communication of two users.

LeveIN discovering 1001 begins when one of the users 1007 decides to uncover or reveal their LeveIN information and send discovery request 1002 to their interlocutor 1009, one of the two users, connected through a notification matching process or in- teractive connection started from a broadcast message. If discover request recipient 1009 does not agree with uncovering his LeveIN information 1011, the discovery process terminates and users continue communication with LevelN-1 or publicly available information.

If Discover request receiver 1009 accepts discovery LeveIN process 1011 their le- vels content valuation executes 1010, determining if and who should introduce more information into LevelN.

Levels content valuation can also be executed before receiving a discovery request by User02 1009, indicating for request sender 1007 the necessity of introducing more information into their LevelN, if applicable.

As shown in Figure 11, the method first checks the discovery request sender profile completeness 1012, verifying that his context depending profile contains all completed characteristics. Then the method checks that the discovery request recipient has his full profile completed 1013, 1014.

When two users have their corresponded profiles completed 1013a, 1015a, dis- covering of some available levels is always possible 1024, 1023, with the condition that each of their levels contains at a minimum of one introduced profile characteristic.

If two users have their profiles completed at 100% 1014a, discovering is always possible, more or less independent of the distribution of information at that level, but at a minimum, one profile characteristic should be included at each level. The level distribution at each full completed profile can be changed at any moment.

If profile information of one user, or levels of both users, are not completed 1013a, 1013b, 1014b, the discovery process is possible only when level information has a minimum amount of completed information, but that does not depend on what kind of information users include.

The minimum requirement of level completeness is a required value of allocated level information and depends on interlocutor level information or on optimum value requirements for a given level.

When one of two users has a completed profile but the other does not, for example, condition 1012 is not satisfied 1012b, but the condition 1013 is satisfied 1013a (meaning that User02 1009 has his profile completed, but UserOl 1007 does not), in this case the requirements for UserOl 1007 discovering level information is equal to an optimum value of content 1018 and UserOl 1007 must fill their discovering level 1022 till the content of that level will have a value equal to the optimum value of that level.

This means that UserOl 1007 will be asked to input more profile information at the discovering level till his level content value is equal to the optimum value 1022, but makes possible level information visualization (visualization method of discovering level information) and continuing the of communication process 1028.

The same rule is applied in another example: UserOl 1007 has his profile completed 1012a, but User02 1009 does not 1014b. In this case, User02 1009 must fill his discovering level 1025 till the content of that level has a value equal to the optimum value 1021 of that level, but makes it possible for level information visualization (visua- lization method of discovering level information) and continuing of the communication process 1027.

UserOl 1007 will also be asked to input profile information at a discovering level, till UserOl level content value is equal to an optimum value, but making it possible for level information visualization (visualization method of discovering level information) and continuing of communication process.

If one or both users do not have properly completed profiles, their level content values are compared 1015 and if their levels are completed in equal mode 1015a, they can see the level information of the other 1024, 1023.

If one or both of users do not have properly completed profiles 1012b, 1013b and their level content values are not equal 1015b, the method will look to the user with higher level content value 1017, additionally comparing to the optimum value of the level 1016 to identify whether the user with more value content allocated at this level has "too much" information to ask for the same information of the other user. If the user with higher value level 1009 content has allocated more than an optimum value 1016a (too much to ask from the other user in normal conditions), the method asks the other user 1007 to increase his level profile information 1022 till the level content has an optimum level value 1018, but offers possible level information visualization (visualization method of discovering level information) and continuing of the communication process 1028.

The method implies that a user can be asked to introduce more information to some level only because another user has information allocated at that level.

For example, if the predetermined user is extrovert, he can allocate all his profile information at LevelOl, but if he is connected with a more discrete person, the method should not oblige that second person to allocate their information at LevelOl too. The method asks this second user to input only information with a value proportional to the level number of the extrovert user.

If both users have profiles which satisfy conditions 1012b, 1013b, 1015b, 1016b, 1026b, the user with the lower level content value must introduce more information at his level to raise a level his information value equal to the level information value of the other user.

If the User02 LeveIN information value > UserOl LeveIN information value 1017a, UserOl must introduce information in their level 1022 till its content value equals that of the User02 LeveIN value 1019.

If the User02 LeveIN information value < UserOl LeveIN information value 1017b,

User02 must introduce information in their level 1025 till its content value equals the UserOl LeveIN Value 1020.

This means that whenever two users do not have completed profiles, and one has level information lower than the other, the method asks that user to introduce more information in order to have both levels with the same value information.

Users can uncover some level only when all their previous levels with a given interlocutor have been uncovered. If the minimum level completeness requirements, after accepting the discovery process are not satisfied (user still is completing his Level profile information), the next level discovery process is impossible.

These rules are summarized in the following table.

Figure 12 illustrates level information visualization 1101 for users 1105, 1107, which participate in a discovery process revealing subsequent levels of privacy.

The method begins with level evaluation and minimum value requirements processes determine that UserOl 1005 has less information at his level than User02 or than the optimum value of that level 1107, and does not have a completed profile 1108. In order to continue the discovery process, UserOl 1105 has to fill out the level until the minimum requirements are satisfied. User02 may choose whether to show all of his level information 1109a or only part of it 1109b, corresponded to a value of Us- erOl level allocated information. If User02 decides to display to his interlocutor all of his level information 1109, it 1110 will become available to UserOl 1105. User02 1107 can see level information 1113 of UserOl 1107, as far as UserOl has introduced it 1112. Periodically, UserOl level evaluation executes 1111, reminding UserOl 1005 that he does not have enough information at that level and asking him to remedy this by introducing more information. After a determined number of iterations, User02 1007 receives a message, allowing him to choose whether to offer 1125 UserOl 1005 a chance to introduce information, notifying UserOl 1005 in the event of a positive decision 1025a by User02. If not, discovery of the next level of UserOl will be impossible 1023. If UserOl 1005 introduces sufficient level information 1124a User02 1007 can see full level information of UserOl 1121.

If User02 1007, chooses only partial demonstration of his level information 1109b, UserOl can see User02 LeveIN information, correspond to UserOl LeveIN value 1114, selected as far as it appears in the User02 profile. User02 1007 can see UserOl information, allocated at level 1015. User02 will see UserOl information as far as it is introduced into that level 1117, 1118, 1119. UserOl can see more information about User02 LeveIN, selected on the basis of the new value of his own level 1120, 1121, 1122.

Only discovery level requests can block the communication of two users until a recipient reaction (accept uncovering of the level or wait). Other activities related to the discovery process are performed as parallel tasks, allowing the user to introduce more information into their profile and view information of the interlocutor, before continuing their communication.

The user can see the scale of their level, during the process of inputting information or assigning information to that level and the scale of the interlocutor, in case of an opened discovery process As shown in Figure 13, a user can introduce some value 1303 to profile characteristics 1302 at their profile (context depending) 1301 and can establish one of three available levels 1306. The user can see the changing value of their level content value 1305, 1307, 1308, including when they have inputted sufficient information to open a discovery process or interactive connection, and also the required scale, based on min- imum requirements for that level.

Claims

1. - Method for social interaction between users carried out in a system comprising:

• a server connected to a communications network;

· a set of mobile devices adapted to operate in the communications network;

• a database managed by the server for the maintaining and storage of data from users;

• a client application adapted to be implemented in a mobile device connected to the communications network, where said mobile device comprises a positioning system adapted to provide the position of the mobile device, preferably GPS;

• for each user, the database manages the user's position and user's data and profile divided into different levels of privacy, having at least one public level and one private level;

wherein the method comprises the following steps:

e) for a predetermined user having a mobile device, in which the client application is running, the server performs a search of other users defining a set of selected users complying with the following conditions:

• the distance between the position of the selected user and the predetermined user is below a predetermined distance,

· the predetermined users data and the selected users data match over a predetermined value,

• the client application is running on the mobile device of the selected user, f) the server provides a list of selected users showing at least the public level of data of each selected user,

g) the predetermined user broadcasts a message to one or more users of the list of selected users,

h) if one of the selected users replies to the broadcast message, then the server provides an interactive connection between the predetermined user and the selected user who has replied, wherein the interactive connection alternates petitions and responses to petitions for each user to gradually reveal subsequent levels of privacy of each user.

2. - Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the matching between the predetermined user's data and the selected user's data is performed according to the da- ta in the server including user preferences and according to an artificial intelligence algorithm based on user characteristics.

3.- Method according to any one of claims 1 or 2 characterized in that during the interactive connection between the predetermined user and the selected user who has replied, the method further comprises a step where the server proposes a location according to preferences of both users where they can meet.

4.- Method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that each user votes for/against other users they had interactions with, this information being kept in the database in a non erasable manner and accessible by other users in the public level of data.

5.- Method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that the total matching is a result from the addition of:

• Localization: maximum 40%,

· Profile: maximum 30%,

• Artificial Intelligence (Al): maximum 30%.

6.- Method according to claim 5, characterized in that the predetermined value of matching between the predetermined user's data a nd the selected user's data is shown according to:

• High, matching higher than 60%,

• Medium, matching lower than 60% and higher than 31%,

• Low, matching equal to or lower than 30%.

7.- Method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that there are more than one context, chosen by the predetermined user from the list comprising professional, friendship, family, sports and romantic relationships, each context having a context public level and different levels of privacy, user context information being assigned a level, and each predetermined user identifying each selected user within at least one context.

8.- Method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the public level is visible by all users of the system.

9.- Method according to any one of claims 7 to 8, characterized in that each level has a set of characteristics that the predetermined user has to fulfill depending on both the privacy level and context.

10. - Method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the predetermined distance between the position of the selected user and the predetermined user at each moment depends on both the geographical location and the predetermined user's speed.

11. - Method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that a business or advertising element has a user profile and the matching algorithm is performed be- tween one predetermined user and the business or advertising element according to the predetermined user's preferences.

12. - Method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that each interactive connection between two users has the following information: when, where, who, what, and message.

13. - Method according to claim 12, characterized in that there are the following options for interactive connection information:

• When: Now/ Later/ Date and time;

· Where: Near current location/ Another place;

• Who: Systems choice/ Users choice/ Any/ People of determined groups/ Known people/ Nearby people;

• What: Drink/ Eat/ Travelling/ Friends party/ Flirt/ Night life/ Shopping/ Sport event/ Sport practice;

· Message: Own message/ Predetermined message.

14. - Method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that in an interactive connection between two users there is a discovery process based in the revealing of the different privacy levels starting from the public level of data, and whenever one user reveals another level, the system proposes to the other user to reveal that same level.

15. - Method according to claim 14, characterized in that in an interactive connection, the next level of privacy of a user is only revealed if the other user has his/her profile of that next level with at least the same parameters completed, if not, the system proposes the user with less information at that privacy level to complete it until they both reach the same level of information completed in one level.

16. - A method for social interaction between users, comprising the steps of:

associating one or more identities with a predetermined user of a predetermined mobile device and a selected user of a selected mobile device, the identities being associated with one or more contexts and comprising public context and private context information assigned to one or more privacy levels;

establishing physical proximity of the predetermined and selected users;

matching, for a given context, a first identity of the predetermined user to a second identity of the selected user;

notifying the predetermined user regarding the location of the selected user and providing him/her with the public context information associated with the second identity of the selected user;

establishing the presence of private context information in the lowest privacy level of the first and second digital identities; and

relaying a request from the predetermined user to the selected user to share lowest privacy level context information.

17. - The method of claim 16 further comprising the selected user agreeing to share lowest privacy level context information, and providing the lowest level privacy information of the predetermined user to the selected user and the lowest level privacy information of the selected user to the predetermined user.

18. - The method of claim 17 further comprising relaying a request from the prede- termined user to the selected user to share higher privacy level context information.

19. - The method of claims 18 further comprising the selected user agreeing to share higher privacy level context information, and providing the higher level privacy information of the predetermined user to the selected user and the higher level privacy information of the selected user to the predetermined user.

20. - Computer system that provides social interaction, capable of performing a method according to any one of claims 1 to 19.

21.- Computer implemented client application to be installed in a mobile device and connected to a server that performs a method according to any one of claims 1 to 19.