GB2446970A

GB2446970A - A method of communication and a wireless device and system

Info

Publication number: GB2446970A
Application number: GB0806169A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Dov Moran
Original assignee: Modu Ltd
Current assignee: Modu Ltd
Priority date: 2005-02-03
Filing date: 2005-02-03
Publication date: 2008-08-27
Anticipated expiration: 2025-02-03
Also published as: GB2446970B; GB0806169D0

Abstract

A method of communication by a user of a first wireless communication device together with a wireless communication device and system for the same. The method comprises the steps of: (a) defining a contact list that includes at least one contact name, (b) defining a neighbourhood of the first wireless device, said defining being effected at the first wireless device; (c) calling at least one other wireless device in a background mode; (d) receiving at least one indication of at least one geographical location of the at least one other wireless device, in reply to said calling; and (e) indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with a respective other wireless device located within said neighbourhood.

Description

1 2446970

DESCRIPTION

A METHOD OF COMMUNICATION AND TO A WIRELESS

COMMUNICATION DEVICE AND SYSTEM FOR THE SAME.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to wireless communication and, more particularly, to a method and system with which a user of a wireless transceiver can be informed which other users, of similar wireless transceivers, who are of interest to the user, are available for communication.

Cellular telephony networks are well-known and ubiquitous. A subscriber to a cellular telephony service can use a mobile telephone to communicate with other subscribers, or with subscribers to ordinary, fixed telephony service. The communication is wireless, via a set of fixed base stations.

Direct wireless communication between users of mobile handsets also is known. One such method of particular interest is the "three-in-one" usage model of "voice over Bluetooth" as defined by Ericsson of Stockholm, Sweden under the Bluetooth standard for short- range ad hoc wireless networks, or "piconets". (Even though, strictly speaking, the term "piconet" is specific to the Bluetooth standard, this term is used herein to refer to an ad-hoc, temporary wireless network established under either Bluetooth or any similar wireless communication protocol.) In the most common implementations of the "three-in-one" model in "voice over Bluetooth", the mobile telephone is used as a wireless telephone in communication with a home base station, or as a cellular telephone; but the model also includes the possibility of peer to-peer communication in "intercom" mode.

The Nokia Series 60 smartphone software platform supports multiplayer games in Bluetooth. Users of devices that are based on this platoons can get together to create a Bluetooth piconet for playing interactive multiplayer games. Friends can arrange to meet to play games, but there is no convenient way for friends to identif' each other in a crowd for the purpose of spontaneously forming a Bluetooth piconet to play a game. More generally, there is no convenient way for a mobile phone user to use his/her mobile phone to identif' members of a common interest group who coincidentally are nearby. The Bluetooth standard includes a "device discovery procedure" by which one Bluetooth device discovers which other Bluetooth devices are within wireless communication range; but this procedure finds all such devices, not just the devices that belong to members of a common interest group.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method of communication by a user of a first wireless device, comprising the steps of: (a) defining a contact list that includes at least one contact name, (b) defining a neighbourhood of the first wireless device, said defining being effected at the first wireless device; (c) calling at least one other wireless device in a background mode; (d) receiving at least one indication of at least one geographical location of the at least one other wireless device, in reply to said calling; and (e) indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with a respective other wireless device located within said neighbourhood.

Further in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method of communication by a plurality of users of respective wireless devices, comprising the steps of: (a) defining a respective user profile for each user, at least one said user profile including at least one user attribute; (b) defining a target attribute, by one of the users; (c) defining a neighbourhood of the respective wireless device of said one user, said defining being effected at the respective wireless device of said one user, and (d) calling by the wireless device of said one user, in a background mode, at least one wireless device of at least one other user; (e) receiving by the wireless device of said one user at least one indication of at least one geographical location of the at least one wireless device, in reply to said calling; and (f) indicating to said one user which of the respective wireless devices of the other users, whose respective user profiles include said target attribute among said user attributes thereof, are within said neighbourhood.

Yet further in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a wireless communication device comprising: (a) a transceiver for communicating with other wireless devices; (b) a contact list memory for storing a contact list that includes at least one contact name, wherein at least one said contact name is associated with at least one respective attribute; (c) a mechanism for defining a neighbourhood of the wireless communication device; and (d) a contact name indication mechanism for indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with a respective said other wireless device located within said neighbourhood; (e) a mechanism for defining a target attribute, wherein said mechanism for indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with said respective other wireless device, that is located within said neighbourhood, also indicates, for each said contact name with which is associated said at least one respective attribute, whether said target attribute is among said at least one respective attribute that is associated with said at least one contact name; and (f) a mechanism for operating in a background mode, whereby the wireless communication device calls another wireless device in background mode and receives in reply a message with an indication of a geographical location of the other wireless device, without interruption of normal operation of the wireless communication device.

Preferably, only said at least one contact name, that is associated with said respective other wireless device and that has said target attribute among said at least one respective attribute thereof, is indicated.

Also provided in accordance with the present invention is a system for wireless communication, comprising: (a) a plurality of wireless communication devices, each said wireless communication device including: (i) a transceiver for communicating with other wireless devices; (ii) a contact list memory for storing a contact list that includes at least one contact name; (iii) a mechanism for defining a neighbourhood of the wireless communication device; (iv) a contact name indication mechanism for indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with a respective said other wireless device located within said neighbourhood; and (v) a mechanism for operating in a background mode, whereby the wireless communication device calls another wireless device in background mode and receives in reply a message with an indication of a geographical location of the other wireless device, without interruption of normal operation of the wireless communication device; and (b) at least one user profile memory for storing, for each said wireless communication device, a respective user profile; wherein at least one said user profile includes at least one respective user attribute; and wherein, for each said wireless communication device: if said respective other wireless device is another of said plurality of wireless communication devices, and if said respective user profile of said respective other wireless device includes said at least one respective user attribute: then said mechanism, of said each wireless communication device, for indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with said other wireless communication device, indicates whether said target attribute is among said at least one respective user attribute of said respective user profile of said respective other wireless communication device.

Preferably, only said at least one contact name, whose said other wireless communication device has said target attribute among said at least one respective user attribute of said respective user profile thereof, is indicated.

Preferably, each said wireless communication device includes a respective one of said at least one user profile memory, said respective user profile of said each wireless communication device being stored in said respective user profile memory of said each wireless communication device.

Preferably, the system further comprises (c) at least one base station, for managing communication among said wireless communication devices, and including said at least one user profile memory.

As understood herein, a "contact name" is a character string associated with a person or other entity (the "contact") with whom a user of a wireless device may wish to communicate. Typical contact names include actual names of contacts, nicknames of contacts and telephone numbers of contacts.

"Communication" is to be understood in a generalized sense as facilitating the possibility of interaction among users of the devices. The present invention enables a user to find out which other users, generally or as members of a common interest group, are available for interaction via their respective devices. Whether the user actually interacts with the other users is optional.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is herein described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram of a mobile wireless communication as device of the present invention; FIG. 2 shows a contact list; FIG. 3 shows a user profile; FIG. 4 illustrates a cellular telephony embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a prior art contact list display;

FIG. 6 is a contact list display in which the contact who is located in the neighbourhood and who has the target attribute is highlighted; FIG. 7 is a display of names of general users who are located in the neighbourhood and who have the target attribute; FIG. 8 is a display of the geographic location of one of the general users of FIG. 7; FIG. 9 is a contact list display in which all active contacts are highlighted; FIG. 10 is a contact list display in which all active contacts in the neighbourhood are highlighted.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is of a method and system by which a user of a mobile wireless communication device can be shown which members of a contact list are available for communication, either via the members' own mobile wireless communication devices or face-to-face. In particular, the indication can be restricted to only members of the contact list who have a specifically targeted attribute, such as belonging to a specific interest group.

The principles and operation of selective communication according to the present invention may be better understood with reference to the drawings and the accompanying

description.

Referring now to the drawings, Figure 1 is a high-level block diagram of a mobile wireless communication device 10 of the present invention. The high level components of device 10 include a transceiver 14, a processor 16, a memory 18, a keypad 24, a display screen 26 and a navigation unit 28, all intercommunicating via a common bus 12.

Transceiver 14 is a conventional transceiver that supports wireless voice communication between device 10 and another such device. As such, transceiver 14 includes a microphone for converting audible speech of a user of device 10 to electrical signals, a transmitter for modulating a radio frequency carrier wave according to those electrical signals and transmitting the modulated radio frequency wave, a receiver for receiving a similarly modulated radio frequency wave and demodulating the received wave to produce electrical signals corresponding to received audible speech, and a speaker for converting the received electrical signals to sound that is audible by the user of device 10.

Overall operation of device 10 is controlled by a conventional processor 16. Keypad 24 is a conventional data entry device, and display screen 26 is a conventional data display device, such as are familiar to users of cellular telephones. Memory 18 is a non-volatile read/write memory, such as a flash memory, that stores, inter alia. two lists that are unique to the present invention: a contact list 20 and a user profile 22. Navigation unit 28 is a unit such as a GPS receiver that determines the geographical location of device 10, typically (as in the case of a GPS receiver) as the geographical coordinates of device 10 in a standard geographical coordinate system.

Figure 2 shows an example of a contact list 20 of the present invention. Contact list is a table of names and telephone numbers of people and other entities with which the user of device 10 communicates using device 10. Each row 30 of contact list 20 is specific to a particular contact. The first column 32 of contact list 20 is for names or nicknames of contacts. The second column 34 of contact list 20 is for telephone numbers of contacts. The remaining columns 36 of contact list 20 are for user-defined attributes of the contacts. In the example shown, the attributes are membership in interest groups of interest to the user of device 10. In the example shown, there are two attribute columns 36. The table of contact list is extensible to any desired number of attribute columns 34,1 imited only by the capacity of memory 18.

Figure 3 shows an example of a user profile 22 of the present invention. User profile 22 is a list of information about the user of device 10. The first field 40 is used to store the name of the user. The second field 42 is used to store the telephone number of the user.

Subsequent fields 44 are used to store attributes of the user that the user wants to make public, so that other users of devices 10 can use the methods of the present invention to contact and/or locate that user. Only one field 44 in Figure 3 is shown as being used to store a user attribute. The remaining fields 44 are available for future use. Note that the attributes of Figure 2 are private attributes that are used only by the user of the device 10 that stores contact list 20 of Figure 2, and so may be simple and general. By contrast, the attribute shown hi Figure 3 is a public attribute and so is necessarily more specific, showing that John Smith is a member of Masonic Lodge 123, and not merely that John Smith is a Mason.

Figure 4 illustrates the operation of an embodiment of the present invention in which devices 10 are cellular telephones ("cell phones") that communicate with each other via base stations 50 of a cellular telephony network. In Figure 4, devices 10 are labelled by the names of their users: JOHN is the user whose device 10 stores user profile 22 of Figure 3, and the other users are users (JIM, MOM, TOM, DICK, ALICE) that are listed in contact list 20 of JOHN s device 10 and also SID another member of Masonic Lodge 123. Like user profile 22 of JOl-IN's device 10 user profile 22 of SID's device 10 includes "Masonic Lodge 123" as a user attribute.

The following operations are performed by JOHN by appropriate use of keypad 24 to select menu items displayed on display screen 26 as is conventional in the use of ccli phones.

These operations produce displays on display screen 26 of the type illustrated in Figures 5- 10. The first operation (contact list display) is a prior art operation common to cell phones generally and is presented only as background for the subsequent operations.

Contact List Display Figure 5 illustrates the display of the contact names of contact list 20. Rectangle 54 outlines a portion (five lines) of column 32 of contact list that is actually displayed on display screen 26 at one time. JOHN views the entire list of contact names by scrolling the list up and down. JOHN calls a contact of his contact list 20 by selecting the name of the contact.

Defining a Neighbourhood JOHN defines a neighbourhood of his cell phone 10 by entering the radius (e.g. meters) of the neighbourhood using keypad 24. All other cell phones 10 that are within a circle 52 of the defined radius centred on JOHN's cell phone 10 are located within the defined neighbourhood.

Contacts having an Attribute To find out which contacts to whom JOHN has assigned the attribute "Mason" are within the defined neighbourhood with their cell phones 10 turned on JOHN enters the target attribute "Mason" using keypad 24. The resulting display on display screen 26 is illustrated in Figure 6. This display is identical to the display of contact list 20 in Figure 5, except that "TOM" is highlighted.

Alternatively, only the contacts with the attribute "Mason", whose cell phones are fumed on, are displayed. In the present example, such a display would include only the name "TOM".

There are two methods by which JOHN's cell phone 10 can determine that the only contact with the attribute "Mason" that is present in the defined neighbourhood is TOM.

The first method is by exploiting known techniques by which a cellular telephony network monitors the movements of its cell phones that are turned on. See, for example, Neher, US Patent No. 6,362,778 and the prior art references cited therein. Both the Neher patent and all of the prior art references cited therein are incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein. Each base station 50 keeps a record of the geographical locations of the cell phones that are active in the cell serviced by that base station 50 and in the neighbouring cells. JOL-1N's cell phone 10 requests, from the base station 50 that is servicing JOHN's cell phone 10, the geographical locations of all cell phones 10 of contacts that have the attribute "Mason". That base station 50 responds by sending to JORN's cell phone JO the geographical locations of active cell phones 10 of all the contacts that have the attribute "Mason". Using the geographical location of JOHN's cell phone 10 as determined by navigation unit 28, processor 16 of JOL-IN's cell phone 10 computes the range to all of those cell phones JO. Cell phones 10 whose ranges are less than or equal to the defined radius are within the defined neighbourhood. Note that this method works even for cell phones of the cellular telephony network that are not cell phones 10 of the present invention.

The second method is by successively dialling all the telephone numbers of all the cell phones 10 of the contacts with the attribute "Mason", in a background mode that does not cause those cell phones 10 to ring, but merely prompts those cell phones to reply with messages that indicate the geographical locations of those cell phones, as determined by their Navigation units 28. "Background" mode is, as its name implies, a mode of operation that coexists with normal operation of a cell phone 10 and is transparent to the user of that cell phone 10. Typically, "background mode operates via the control channel of the cellular telephony network. So, for example, a cell phone 10 can respond to a "background" mode inquiry even while the user of that cell phone 10 is engaged in conversation via that cell phone 10. As in the first method, processor 16 of JOE-iN's cell phone 10 computes the ranges to all cell phones 10 that respond to the background mode query from JOHN's cell phone 10.

Cell phones 10 whose ranges are less than or equal to the defined radius are within the defined neighbourhood. This method locates only cell phones 10 of the present invention and other similar cell phones that are equipped with navigation units such as units 28.

General Users having an Attribute To find out which members of Masonic Lodge 123 have their eel] phones 10 fumed on within the defined neighbourhood, JOHN enters the target attribute "Masonic Lodge 123" using keypad 24. Processor 16 of JOE-IN's cell phone 10 can tell that "Masonic Lodge 123" is a public attribute rather than a private attribute because "Masonic Lodge 123" is not among the attributes appearing in attribute columns 36 of contact list 20. Alternatively, the menu scheme of cell phone 10 sets up the context for processor 16 knowing whether an entered attribute is a private attribute or a public attribute. The resulting display on display screen 26 is shown in Figure 7. The display includes the names of TOM ("Thomas Brown") and SID ("Sidney Harris") as recorded in fields 40 of user profiles 22 of their cell phones 10. JOHN can call TOM or SID by selecting the appropriate name in the display.

In order for JOHN's cell phone 10 to determine which cell phones 10 have a target attribute in their user profiles 22 JOHN's cell phone 10 must have access to those user profiles 22. This access is via base stations 50. Whenever a cell phone 10 becomes active in the cell managed by a base station 50, either by moving into that cell or by being turned on within that eel], that base station 50 copies user profile 22 of that cell phone 10 into a local database, and also transmits that user profile 22 to the neighbouring base stations 50 for copying to their own local databases. JOHN's cell phone 10 requests, from the base station 50 that is servicing JOHN's cell phone 10, the geographical locations of all cell phones 10 for which that base station 50 has recorded in its database corresponding user profiles 22 that include the target attribute. That base station 50 responds by sending to JOHN's cell phone 10 those geographical locations, along with the corresponding names as listed in fields 40 of user profiles 22 and the corresponding telephone numbers as listed in fields 42 of user profiles 22. Using the geographical location of JOHN's cell phone 10 as determined by navigation unit 28, processor 16 of JOHN's cell phone 10 computes the range to all the cell phones 10 whose geographical locations have been received from base station 50. Cell phones 10 whose ranges are less than or equal to the defined radius are within the defined neighbourhood. and the corresponding user names are displayed on display screen 26.

The target attribute sought by a user of cell phone 10 need not be a user attribute of that user. Furthermore, a user of cell phone 10 can seek other users according to logical combinations of target attributes and ranges of numerical target attributes. For example, a user with the attributes "Single", "Jewish", "Male" and "Age=30" can seek users with the logical attribute combination "Single" AND "Jewish" AND "Female" AND "25Age32".

Note that JOL-IN need not have any user attributes of his own defined in his user profile 22 in order to seek cell phones 10 of other users that have a target attribute among their user attributes.

Geographical Locations of Contacts or General Users JOHN can find out where TOM or SID are by calling and asking "where are you?" Alternatively, JOHN can invoke a display of the geographical location of TOM or SID on display screen 26, either as geographical coordinates in a standard coordinate system or relative to JOHN's own location. Figure 8 shows an example of one such display, in terms of the range and bearing to SID relative to JOHN. Note that "range" and "bearing" are geographical coordinates in a coordinate system whose origin is at JOHN's location. The information needed by processor 16 of JOI]N's cell phone 10 to compute this range and bearing is contained in SID's geographic location as received by JOHN's cell phone 10 in the course of identifying the other members of Masonic Lodge 123 whose cell phones 10 are active within the defined neighbourhood.

All Active Contacts JOHN has the option of showing collectively and simultaneously, in the display of contact list 20, all contacts whose cell phones 10 are turned on, or all contacts within the defined neighbourhood whose cell phones 10 are turned on. Figure 9 is an example of a display of all contacts whose cell phones 10 are turned on, i.e., all the contacts illustrated in Figure 4. Note that JOHN needs to scroll up and down in the display in order to see all the active contacts. Figure 10 is an example of a display of all active contacts whose cell phones are located within the defined neighbourhood.

In the example of figure 4, transceivers 14 of cell phones 10 are configured to communicate with each other only indirectly via base stations 50. In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, transceivers 14 of cell phones 10 also are configured to communicate directly with each other using a short range wireless protocol such as Bluetooth. Such a transceiver 14 periodically transmits a signal inviting any other such transceiver 14 that receives the broadcast to respond by transmitting an acknowledgement signal identifying itself. For example, according to the device discovery procedure of the Bluetooth standard, the first transceiver 14 periodically enters an "Inquiry" state in which the first transceiver 14 seeks other Bluetooth transceivers 14 that are within wireless communication range by broadcasting ID packets; and other Bluetooth transceivers 14 that are in range and that are in an "inquiry Scan" state identify themselves to the first Bluetooth transceiver 14. When the first transceiver 14 receives an acknowledgement signal whose signal strength exceeds a predefined minimum signal strength, the first transceiver 14 sets up a piconet with the acknowledging transceiver 14 that supports direct wireless communication between the two transceivers 14, with the first transceiver 14 functioning as the piconet master and the other transceiver 14 fIinct ioning as the piconet slave. The first transceiver 14 continues to transmit the invitation signal periodically. Other transceivers 14 that acknowledge the invitation with acknowledgement signals whose strengths exceed the predefined minimum are added to the piconet as slaves. The predefined minimum signal strength thus defines a neighbourhood of cell phone 10 of which the master transceiver 14 is a component. The user of the master cell phone 10 now is free to seek contacts, contacts with target attributes, general users with target attributes, and geographic locations thereof, as described above in the cellular telephony context of Figure 4. In the absence of base stations, however, the master cell phone 10 must interrogate the slave cell phones 10 to find out what their respective geographic locations (as determined by the slaves' navigation units 28) and user profiles 22 (as stored in the slaves' memories 18) are.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations, modifications and other applications of the invention may be made.

Claims

1. A method of communication by a user of a first wireless device, comprising the steps of: (a) defining a contact list that includes at least one contact name, (b) defining a neighbourhood of the first wireless device, said defining being effected at the first wireless device; (c) calling at least one other wireless device in a background mode; (d) receiving at least one indication of at least one geographical location of the at least one other wireless device, in reply to said calling; and (e) indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with a respective other wireless device located within said neighbourhood.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said defining of said neighbourhood is effected by the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said defining of said neighbourhood is effected by steps including defining a radius of said neighbourhood.

4. The method of claim I, wherein said defining of said neighbourhood is effected by steps including defining a minimum received signal strength.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of: (f) if one of said at least one contact name is associated with a respective other wireless device located within said neighbourhood: communicating with said other wireless device, by the user of the first wireless device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said communication is direct.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said communication is indirect.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said contact list includes, for at least one of said at least one contact name, at least one respective attribute; wherein the method further comprises the step of: (f) defining a target attribute, by the user; and wherein said indicating also indicates whether said target attribute is among said at least one respective attribute of said at least one contact name that is associated with said respective other wireless device located within said neighbourhood.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein only said at least one contact name, that is associated with said respective other wireless device located within said neighbourhood and that has said target attribute among said at least one respective attribute thereof, is indicated.

10. The method of claim 1. further comprising the step of: (f) for at least one of said at least one contact name that is associated with a respective other wireless device located within said neighbourhood: indicating a geographical location of said respective other wireless device.

11. A method of communication by a plurality of users of respective wireless devices, comprising the steps of: (a) defining a respective user profile for each user, at least one said user profile including at least one user attribute; (b) defining a target attribute, by one of the users; (c) defining a neighbourhood of the respective wireless device of said one user, said defining being effected at the respective wireless device of said one user, and (d) calling by the wireless device of said one user, in a background mode, at least one wireless device of at least one other user; (e) receiving by the wireless device of said one user at least one indication of at least one geographical location of the at least one wireless device, in reply to said calling; and (f) indicating to said one user which of the respective wireless devices of the other users, whose respective user profiles include said target attribute among said user attributes thereof, are within said neighbourhood.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said defining of said neighbourhood is effected by said one user.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said defining of said neighbourhood is effected by steps including defining a radius of said neighbourhood.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said defining of said neighbourhood is effected by steps including defining a minimum received signal strength.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of: (g) if a respective wireless device of another user, whose respective profile includes said target attribute, is within said neighbourhood: communicating with said other user, by said one user.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of: (g) for at least one of said respective wireless devices of the other users whose respective user profiles include said target attribute among said user attributes thereof and that are within said neighbourhood: indicating a geographical location of said at least one respective wireless device.

17. A wireless communication device comprising: (a) a transceiver for communicating with other wireless devices; (b) a contact list memory for storing a contact list that includes at least one contact name, wherein at least one said contact name is associated with at least one respective attribute; (c) a mechanism for defining a neighbourhood of the wireless communication device; and (d) a contact name indication mechanism for indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with a respective said other wireless device located within said neighbourhood; (e) a mechanism for defining a target attribute, wherein said mechanism for indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with said respective other wireless device, that is located within said neighbourhood, also indicates, for each said contact name with which is associated said at least one respective attribute, whether said target attribute is among said at least one respective attribute that is associated with said at least one contact name; and (f) a mechanism for operating in a background mode, whereby the wireless communication device calls another wireless device in background mode and receives in reply a message with an indication of a geographical location of the other wireless device.

18. The wireless communication device of claim 17, wherein only said at least one contact name, that is associated with said respective other wireless device and that has said target attribute among said at least one respective attribute thereof, is indicated.

19 A system for wireless communication, comprising: (a) a plurality of wireless communication devices, each said wireless communication device including: (i) a transceiver for communicating with other wireless devices; (ii) a contact list memory for storing a contact list that includes at least one contact name; (iii) a mechanism for defining a neighbourhood of the wireless communication device; (iv) a Contact name indication mechanism for indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with a respective said other wireless device located within said neighbourhood; and (v) a mechanism for operating in a background mode, whereby the wireless communication device calls another wireless device in background mode and receives in reply a message with an indication of a geographical location of the other wireless device; and (b) at least one user profile memory for storing, for each said wireless communication device, a respective user profile; wherein at least one said user profile includes at least one respective user attribute; and wherein, for each said wireless communication device: if said respective other wireless device is another of said plurality of wireless communication devices, and if said respective user profile of said respective other wireless device includes said at least one respective user attribute: then said mechanism, of said each wireless communication device, for indicating which of said at least one contact name is associated with said other wireless communication device, indicates whether said target attribute is among said at least one respective user attribute of said respective user profile of said respective other wireless communication device.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein only said at least one contact name, whose said other wireless communication device has said target attribute among said at least one respective user attribute of said respective user profile thereof, is indicated.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein each said wireless conmiunication device includes a respective one of said at [east one user profile memory, said respective user profile of said each wireless communication device being stored in said respective user profile memory of said each wireless communication device.

22. The system of claim 19, further comprising: (c) at least one base station, for managing communication among said wireless communication devices, and including said at least one user profile memory.