JP7325562B2 - Computer program and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium - Google Patents

Description

The following description relates to techniques for searching for location information using messenger.

An instant messenger, which is a general communication tool, is software capable of sending and receiving messages and data in real time. You can exchange messages in real time.

Such messenger functions are widely used not only in personal computers (PCs) but also in the mobile environment of mobile communication terminals.

For example, Patent Document 1 (published on Sep. 30, 2002) describes a mobile terminal using a wireless communication network, which enables messenger services to be provided between mobile messengers installed in the mobile terminal. mobile messenger service system and method are disclosed.

General messenger supports functions for users to share various information such as photos, videos, files, contacts, locations, and schedules through chat rooms, and functions to search for information shared in chat rooms. .

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2002-0074304

To provide a technology capable of retrieving location information in a blind form, which could not be shared by acquaintances on messenger.

A blind location search method performed by a computer system, said computer system including at least one processor configured to execute computer readable instructions contained in a memory, said blind location search method comprising: collecting location information for users on a social network in at least one processor; and storing the collected location information in association with identification information of the user in the at least one processor to create a location database. and in the at least one processor, when a query is received from an electronic device of a first one of the users, utilizing the location database to identify among contacts associated with the first user providing search results for acquaintances who have location information corresponding to the query.

According to one aspect, the providing step may provide the search results in a blind form that does not display identification information of acquaintances included in the search results.

According to another aspect, the collecting step may collect location information of the corresponding user when the messenger is installed in each user's electronic device.

According to another aspect, the collecting step may collect the location information of the corresponding user from the photograph taken by the camera by interlocking a camera function in a messenger installed in each user's electronic device.

According to another aspect, the step of retrieving comprises: an acquaintance with whom the first user has a relationship on the social network; another acquaintance with whom the relationship has been established; An acquaintance having location information corresponding to the query may be searched for at least one acquaintance range among acquaintances included in a chat room that the user participates in or subscribes to.

According to another aspect, the constructing step may include classifying and storing the collected location information by activity type according to the source and time information when the location information was collected.

According to another aspect, the providing step may classify and provide search results for acquaintances having location information corresponding to the query according to the activity type.

According to another aspect, the providing step may include arranging the acquaintance list having location information corresponding to the query based on time information or number information associated with the location.

According to another aspect, the providing step may use a map to provide search results for acquaintances who have location information of a corresponding area for each area included in the map.

According to yet another aspect, the blind location search method includes, in the at least one processor, a conversation function with at least one acquaintance among the acquaintances included in the search result, the identification information of the user and the acquaintance. may be provided in a blind form without displaying the .

Provided is a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute the blind position searching method is recorded.

1. A computer system comprising a memory and at least one processor coupled to said memory and configured to execute computer readable instructions contained in said memory, said at least one processor comprising: a collecting unit that collects location information from users of the above; a storage unit that builds a location database by storing the collected location information in association with identification information of the user; and a first user among the users a search unit for providing search results for acquaintances who have location information corresponding to the query, among acquaintances associated with the first user, using the location database when a query is received from the electronic device of , providing computer systems.

1 is a diagram showing an example of a network environment in one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining internal configurations of an electronic device and a server in one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components that a processor of a server may include in one embodiment of the invention; FIG. Figure 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method that a server may perform in one embodiment of the invention; FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram for explaining the process of collecting and storing location information in one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram for explaining the process of collecting and storing location information in one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a process of searching for location information in one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a process of searching for location information in one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram for explaining a blind conversation process in one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram for explaining a blind conversation process in one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram for explaining a blind conversation process in one embodiment of the present invention;

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

A blind location search method according to embodiments of the present invention may be executed by a computer system such as an electronic device or a server described below. At this time, a computer program according to an embodiment of the present invention may be installed and executed in the computer system, and the computer system controls the blind position according to an embodiment of the present invention under the control of the executed computer program. A search method may be performed. The computer program described above may be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium in order to combine with a computer system and cause the computer to execute the blind position search method. For example, the server may take the role of a messenger server, and in messenger may blindly retrieve location information that acquaintances could not share. Depending on the embodiment, an electronic device may be considered to perform the blind location search method.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a network environment in one embodiment of the present invention. The network environment of FIG. 1 illustrates an example including multiple electronic devices 110 , 120 , 130 , 140 , multiple servers 150 , 160 , and a network 170 . Such FIG. 1 is merely an example for explaining the invention, and the number of electronic devices and the number of servers are not limited as in FIG.

The plurality of electronic devices 110, 120, 130, 140 may be fixed terminals or mobile terminals implemented by a computer system. Examples of the plurality of electronic devices 110, 120, 130, and 140 include smartphones, mobile phones, navigation systems, PCs (personal computers), notebook PCs, digital broadcasting terminals, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), and PMPs (Portable Multimedia Players). ), tablets, game consoles, wearable devices, IoT (Internet of things) devices, VR (virtual reality) devices, AR (augmented reality) devices, and the like. As an example, FIG. 1 shows a smartphone as an example of the electronic device 1 (110). It may refer to one of a variety of physical computer systems capable of communicating with other electronic devices 120 , 130 , 140 and/or servers 150 , 160 via network 170 .

The communication method is not limited, and not only the communication method using the communication network that can be included in the network 170 (eg, mobile communication network, wired Internet, wireless Internet, broadcast network, satellite network, etc.), but also the device It may also include short-range wireless communication between For example, the network 170 includes a PAN (personal area network), a LAN (local area network), a CAN (campus area network), a MAN (metropolitan area network), a WAN (wide area network), a BBN (broadband network). k), such as the Internet Any one or more of the networks may be included. Additionally, network 170 may include any one or more of network topologies including, but not limited to, bus networks, star networks, ring networks, mesh networks, star-bus networks, tree or hierarchical networks, and the like. will not be

Each of servers 150, 160 is implemented by one or more computing devices that communicate with a plurality of electronic devices 110, 120, 130, 140 over network 170 to provide instructions, code, files, content, services, etc. good. For example, the server 150 may be a system that provides a first service to a plurality of electronic devices 110, 120, 130, 140 connected via the network 170, and the server 160 may also be a system that provides a plurality of electronic devices connected via the network 170. It may be a system that provides the second service to the electronic devices 110 , 120 , 130 , 140 . As a more specific example, the server 150 provides a service intended by the application (for example, messaging service etc.) may be provided to a plurality of electronic devices 110 , 120 , 130 , 140 as a first service. As another example, the server 160 may provide, as a second service, a service of distributing files for installing and executing the applications described above to the plurality of electronic devices 110 , 120 , 130 , 140 .

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining internal configurations of an electronic device and a server in one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, the internal configuration of the electronic device 1 (110) and the internal configuration of the server 150 will be described as an example of the electronic device. Other electronic devices 120, 130, 140 and server 160 may also have the same or similar internal configurations as electronic device 1 (110) or server 150 described above.

Electronic device 1 (110) and server 150 may include memory 211, 221, processors 212, 222, communication modules 213, 223, and input/output interfaces 214, 224. The memories 211 and 221 are non-temporary computer-readable recording media such as RAM (random access memory), ROM (read only memory), disk drive, SSD (solid state drive), and flash memory. and the like. Here, permanent large-capacity storage devices such as ROMs, SSDs, flash memories, and disk drives are included in the electronic device 1 (110) and the server 150 as separate permanent storage devices separated from the memories 211 and 221. may be The memories 211 and 221 also store an operating system, at least one program code (for example, a browser installed and executed in the electronic device 1 (110), a browser installed in the electronic device 1 (110), and an electronic device 1 ( 110) may be recorded, such as for applications installed in the system. Such software components may be loaded from a computer-readable medium separate from memories 211,221. Such other computer-readable recording media may include computer-readable recording media such as floppy drives, disks, tapes, DVD/CD-ROM drives, memory cards, and the like. In other embodiments, software components may be loaded into memory 211, 221 through communication modules 213, 223 that are not computer-readable media. For example, at least one program is a computer program (as an example, the above-mentioned may be loaded into the memory 211, 221 based on the application).

Processors 212, 222 may be configured to process computer program instructions by performing basic arithmetic, logic, and input/output operations. Instructions may be provided to processors 212 , 222 by memory 211 , 221 or communication modules 213 , 223 . For example, processors 212 , 222 may be configured to execute instructions received according to program code stored in storage devices, such as memories 211 , 221 .

Communication modules 213 and 223 may provide functions for electronic device 1 (110) and server 150 to communicate with each other via network 170, and electronic device 1 (110) and/or server 150 may communicate with each other. may provide functionality for communicating with other electronic devices (eg, electronic device 2 (120)) or other servers (eg, server 160). As an example, a request generated by the processor 212 of the electronic device 1 (110) according to the program code recorded in the recording device such as the memory 211 is transmitted to the server 150 via the network 170 under the control of the communication module 213. you can Conversely, control signals, commands, contents, files, etc., provided under the control of the processor 222 of the server 150 are transmitted to the electronic device via the communication module 213 of the electronic device 1 (110) via the communication module 223 and the network 170. 1 (110). For example, control signals, instructions, contents, files, etc. of the server 150 received through the communication module 213 may be transmitted to the processor 212 and the memory 211, and the contents, files, etc. may be further included in the electronic device 1 (110). may be recorded on a recording medium capable of recording (the permanent recording device described above).

Input/output interface 214 may be a means for interfacing with input/output devices 215 . For example, input devices may include devices such as keyboards, mice, microphones, cameras, and output devices may include devices such as displays, speakers, tactile feedback devices, and the like. As another example, input/output interface 214 may be a means for interfacing with a device that integrates functionality for input and output, such as a touch screen. The input/output device 215 may consist of one device with electronic device 1 (110). Input/output interface 224 of server 150 may also be a means for interfacing with devices (not shown) for input or output that are connected to server 150 or that server 150 may include. As a more specific example, when the processor 212 of the electronic device 1 (110) processes the instructions of the computer program loaded into the memory 211, data provided by the server 150 and the electronic device 2 (120) are used. The service screens and content displayed may be displayed on the display through the input/output interface 214 .

Also, in other embodiments, electronic device 1 (110) and server 150 may include more components than those in FIG. However, most prior art components need not be explicitly shown in the figures. For example, electronic device 1 (110) may be implemented to include at least some of the input/output devices 215 described above, a transceiver, a GPS (Global Positioning System) module, a camera, various sensors, a database It may further include other components such as As a more specific example, when the electronic device 1 (110) is a smartphone, the acceleration sensor, gyro sensor, camera module, various physical buttons, buttons using a touch panel, input/ Various components such as an output port, a vibrator for vibration, etc. may be implemented to be further included in the electronic device 1 (110).

A specific embodiment of a method and system that allows messenger users to search for location information in a blind manner will be described below.

The conventional search function using messenger was based on the user's direct sharing intention, and only the information exchanged in the chat room was searched. It supports a function that can search for location information in a blind form.

In this specification, messenger is described as a representative example, but it is not limited to this, and messages and data are exchanged between acquaintances like various forms of social networks. , applicable to all communities.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components that a processor of a server may include in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an example of a possible method;

The server 150 according to the present embodiment serves as a platform that provides a messenger service to a plurality of electronic devices 110, 120, 130, and 140, which are clients. Server 150 may provide messenger services in conjunction with applications installed on electronic devices 110 , 120 , 130 , 140 .

In order for the server 150 to execute the blind position search method according to FIG. 340 may be provided. Depending on the embodiment, components of processor 222 may be selectively included or excluded from processor 222 . Also, depending on the embodiment, the components of processor 222 may be separated or merged to represent the functionality of processor 222 .

Such processor 222 and components of processor 222 may control server 150 to perform steps 410-450 included in the blind location search method of FIG. For example, processor 222 and components of processor 222 may be implemented to execute instructions according to the code of an operating system and the code of at least one program contained in memory 221 .

Here, the components of processor 222 may be representations of different functions of processor 222 executed by processor 222 according to instructions provided by program code stored on server 150 . For example, collector 310 may be utilized as a functional representation of processor 222 controlling server 150 according to the instructions described above such that server 150 collects location information.

At step 410 , processor 222 may read the necessary instructions from memory 221 loaded with instructions associated with controlling server 150 . In this case, the read instructions may include instructions for controlling processor 222 to perform steps 420-450 described below.

In operation 420, the collection unit 310 may collect the location information of the corresponding electronic device user in the messenger installed in the electronic device. As an example, the collection unit 310 may acquire the location information of the electronic device in messenger each time the user runs messenger or the background program is periodically executed. As another example, the collection unit 310 may work in messenger with the camera function of the electronic device and acquire the location information from the photograph taken by the camera. In other words, the collecting unit 310 may acquire the position information of the electronic device from the photo information including the position tag.

In operation 430, the storage unit 320 may store the collected location information in association with the identification information of the corresponding user. User identification information may include, but is not limited to, an ID, name, nickname, identification code, etc., and may include any information that can identify a user on messenger. At this time, the storage unit 320 may record the location information by classifying the activity area according to the source or time information from which the location information was collected. For example, referring to FIG. 5, the position information 501 obtained from the photo information among the position information of the user 3 (user3) may be regarded as a “visited place (photograph)” that the user happened to visit and recorded. In addition, the location information 502 acquired by executing the messenger may be classified according to the time when the messenger is executed, for example, the number of times ( For example, 10 times or more within a month) is continuously maintained at the location of "residence", and a specified number of times (for example, 10 times within a month) or more during the time period from 09:00 to 18:00 The location where is continuously maintained is "work place", within 1 to 2 hours and within a specified number of times (for example, 2 times or more and less than 10 times in a month), or Locations other than the place of residence or work may be regarded as "visited places" and recorded. In this way, the type of activity area and the time zone for classifying the activity area of the location information may be set in common for all users who use the messenger, or each user may set their own activity type and location information. It is also possible to directly set in consideration of patterns and the like. For example, in the case of students, the place of activity can be divided into place of residence, school, and place visited, and in the case of housewives, the place of activity can be classified into place of residence and place visited.

The storage unit 320 may store the information collected in step 420 on the server 150 in a form combined with user information, that is, in the form of 'location information+user information'. Referring to FIG. 6, the storage unit 320 stores user information 610 and location information 620 collected for the user in association with each other. At this time, the user information 610 may be information for the server 150 to identify the user, and may use, for example, a messenger ID or an identification code. In addition, the location information 620 may be recorded directly as a value (GPS coordinate value, latitude/longitude value, etc.) indicating the location acquired from the electronic device, or may be recorded in an administrative unit (for example, city) corresponding to the value indicating the location. wards, etc.) or POI (point of interest) level place names may be recorded. The storage unit 320 may classify and store the location information 620 according to the place of activity, for example, the place of residence, the place of work, the place of visit, and the place of visit (photograph). At this time, the storage unit 320 may count and record the number of visits of the user to at least some of the activity sites. For example, for visited locations, the number of times the user visited that location, and for visited locations (photos), the number of photos tagged with that location may be recorded.

The storage unit 320 may be configured as an acquaintance location database for each user by storing the location information of the acquaintance within the range of acquaintances related to the user for each user. For example, the storage unit 320 may build an acquaintance location database for acquaintances who have directly established friendships with the user. In other words, the location information of user3 described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 may be included in the acquaintance location database of all users with whom user3 is registered as an acquaintance. As another example, the storage unit 320 expands the depth of the acquaintance range to 2 or more, and builds an acquaintance location database including acquaintances who are friends with the user as well as acquaintances who are friends with the acquaintance. You can As another example, the storage unit 320 builds an acquaintance location database with all the partners included in the general chat room generated on the user's messenger as the acquaintance range regardless of the friend relationship with the user. you can That is, some of the chat room partners that the user participates in or subscribes to may not be friends with the user. you can In addition, a user table containing identification information for each user, an acquaintance table containing acquaintance information for each user, and a location table containing location information for each user can be constructed as databases.

Referring back to FIG. 4, in step 440, when a search query is received from the electronic device, the search unit 330 may search for users having location information corresponding to the query and provide search results. At this time, the search unit 330 searches the acquaintance location database of the user who has input the query as a search range. May provide search results. In other words, the search unit 330 may search for location information of acquaintances by using an acquaintance location database constructed based on the location information of acquaintances registered in the user's messenger. As another example, based on the user table, the acquaintance table, and the location table, the search unit 330 searches for acquaintances who have a relationship with the specific user who has entered the query, and other acquaintances who have a relationship with the specific user's acquaintances. , an acquaintance having location information corresponding to the query may be searched for at least one acquaintance range among acquaintances included in a chat room that a specific user participates in or subscribes to. The search unit 330 may provide search results for each activity location in response to a search query. Acquaintances recorded as locations and acquaintances recorded as visiting locations (photographs) may be classified to provide search results. When providing search results corresponding to a user query to the user, information that allows the user to identify acquaintances included in the search results is not displayed, and information about the other party is not displayed between messenger users. Supports location information search.

At step 450, conversation unit 340 may provide a blind conversation with at least one user included in the search results. The conversation unit 340 may provide a conversation function between users in a blind form without displaying the information of the user who searches the location information and the user who provides the corresponding location information. For example, when at least one acquaintance is selected from the acquaintance list included in the search result, the conversation unit 340 may provide individual conversation or group conversation with the selected acquaintance. As another example, when a specific activity location is selected as a search result for each activity location, the conversation unit 340 may provide a group conversation with acquaintances whose activity location is recorded, or may provide a group conversation with acquaintances whose activity location is recorded. Once the number of people for a conversation is specified for a location, a group conversation with that number of acquaintances may be provided. At this time, the user conversation whose information is permitted to be disclosed in advance may be provided in an open form rather than a blind form, and if both parties allow information disclosure during the blind conversation, it is possible to switch to the open form.

In particular, the conversation unit 340 may convert conversation texts exchanged between users into a standard type based on predetermined rules and display them so that the characteristics of the conversation do not appear during blind conversation. As an example, the dialogue unit 340 may transform the colloquial style into a literary style or a standardized style, removing pictograms, symbols, etc. from the sentences entered by the user, while maintaining nouns and converting verbs into a standard style. can be transformed into For example, when the user inputs "recommendation please~^^", it may be displayed as "recommendation please". In addition, the conversation section 340 may be linked with a machine translator to provide a translated sentence translated into the set language of each user when the language settings of the users are different. In addition, the conversation unit 340 may manage a list of chat rooms in which blind conversations are held in a separate tab. At this time, each chat room name is automatically set to the location name input by the user as a search query. good. A chat room that is switched to open mode during a blind conversation may be moved to the public chat room list and removed from the blind chat room list.

7 and 8 are exemplary diagrams for explaining the process of searching for location information in one embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, a messenger user may input a location query 'Seohyun-dong' in a search window 701 included in the messenger screen. The search unit 330 searches acquaintances whose location information corresponding to 'Seohyun-dong' is recorded among the acquaintances of the user in response to the location query 'Seohyun-dong' input by the user, and provides a search result 710. good. At this time, the search unit 330 searches acquaintances whose place of work is recorded as 'Seohyun-dong', acquaintances whose place of residence is 'Seohyun-dong', acquaintances whose place of visit is 'Seohyun-dong', acquaintances whose place of visit is 'Seohyun-dong', ” may be segmented into acquaintances recorded as visited places (photographs), and search results 710 may be provided. The list of acquaintances with 'Seohyun-dong' as their place of work or residence can be arranged in the latest order based on the time when the corresponding location information was recorded, and 'Seohyun-dong' is the place of visit or place of visit (photo). The acquaintance list recorded as may be arranged in descending order based on the number information 711 related to the corresponding location. In the case of a visited place, the number of times the acquaintance visited the corresponding position, and in the case of a visited place (photograph), the number information 711 indicating the number of photos tagged with the corresponding position is displayed in the corresponding acquaintance item. may be When the user selects at least one or more activity locations included in the search results 710, the user can have group conversations with acquaintances belonging to the selected activity locations, and individual acquaintance items included in the search results 710 can have group conversations. When at least one or more acquaintances are selected from among them, it is possible to have a personal conversation or a group conversation with the selected acquaintances.

As another example, as shown in FIG. 8, the search unit 330 may provide a map screen 800 for blind position search in messenger. A filter function 801 may be provided to filter and search by location, visited location, visited location (photo). The search unit 330 may provide a map screen 800 of an area requested by the user. Local contacts may be searched to provide search results 810 . At this time, the number of acquaintances who work in the corresponding area may be displayed for each area. When the user selects at least one of the region-specific search results 810 on the map screen 800, the user can have a personal or group conversation with acquaintances who work in that region.

Therefore, the search unit 330 determines what kind of activity (place of residence, place of work, place of visit, place of visit (photograph)) of acquaintances in the area searched by the user, and how often they were active. and so on.

9-11 are exemplary diagrams for explaining the blind conversation process in one embodiment of the present invention.

Conversation portion 340 may provide a blind conversation with at least one user included in the search results. For example, FIG. 9 is a blind conversation screen 900 for 'Seohyun-dong', which shows a conversation screen between user A who searched for 'Seohyun-dong' and user B who has activity in 'Seohyun-dong'. . At this time, on the blind conversation screen 900, no information that can identify users A and B may be displayed anonymously, and only the contents of conversations between users A and B may be displayed. Through such a blind conversation, user A can ask even sensitive information to user B, who is active in 'Seohyeon-dong'.

The conversation unit 340 may convert conversation sentences exchanged between users in a blind conversation into a standard style of a predetermined rule and display it. As shown in FIG. 10, the conversation unit 340 may transform sentences 1001 input by users A and B into sentences 1002 in a standardized style and display them on a blind conversation screen 1000 . As an example, standard sentences 1002 may be generated by deleting pictograms and symbols from the input sentence 1001 and maintaining only nouns, while converting verbs into a predetermined standard style. In the case of a blind conversation, by applying a uniform writing style to all conversational sentences, it is possible to protect individual's habits and tone of voice from appearing. In addition to applying the standard style, if the language settings of the users are different, it is also possible to display on the blind conversation screen 1000 the translated sentences obtained by translating the sentences exchanged between each other into the set language of each user.

Conversation unit 340 may manage and maintain a list of chat rooms in which conversations have been conducted blindly. FIG. 11 shows a blind chat room list screen 1100 of the messenger chat room list installed on the electronic device. The blind chat room list screen 1100 may be managed in a separate tab from the messenger friend list and general chat room list, and includes a chat room list 1110 in which chat rooms for exchanging messages with other parties in a blind form are arranged. you can At this time, a corresponding chat room name 1111 may be displayed for each chat room included in the chat room list 1110, and the chat room name 1111 may be automatically set to a location name input as a search query. Also, in the chat room list 1110, chat rooms may be arranged in descending order according to message reception/transmission time.

In the above description, the server 150 collects the position information, creates a database, and supports the blind position search based on the collected position information. Some of the processes may be directly executed on the electronic device side. For example, a user's acquaintance location database may be stored on the user's electronic device in question, and in such cases, blind location searching may be supported as a local capability of the electronic device.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY According to the present invention, a user can blindly search for location information that cannot be shared with acquaintances in various communities including messengers.

The apparatus described above may be realized by hardware components, software components, and/or a combination of hardware and software components. For example, the devices and components described in the embodiments include processors, controllers, arithmetic logic units (ALUs), digital signal processors, microcomputers, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic units (PLUs), microprocessors, Or may be implemented using one or more general purpose or special purpose computers, such as various devices capable of executing and responding to instructions. The processing unit may run an operating system (OS) and one or more software applications that run on the OS. The processor may also access, record, manipulate, process, and generate data in response to executing software. For convenience of understanding, one processing device may be described as being used, but those skilled in the art will appreciate that the processing device may include multiple processing elements and/or multiple types of processing elements. You can understand. For example, a processing unit may include multiple processors or a processor and a controller. Other processing configurations are also possible, such as parallel processors.

Software may include computer programs, code, instructions, or a combination of one or more of these, to configure or, independently or collectively, to instruct a processor to perform desired operations. You can Software and/or data may be embodied in any kind of machine, component, physical device, computer storage medium, or device for interpretation by, or for providing instructions or data to, a processing device. you can The software may be stored and executed in a distributed fashion over computer systems linked by a network. Software and data may be recorded on one or more computer-readable recording media.

The method according to the embodiments may be embodied in the form of program instructions executable by various computer means and recorded on a computer-readable medium. Here, the medium may continuously record the computer-executable program or temporarily record it for execution or download. In addition, the medium may be various recording means or storage means in the form of a combination of single or multiple hardware, and is not limited to a medium that is directly connected to a computer system, but is distributed over a network. It may exist in Examples of media are magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tapes, optical media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs, magneto-optical media such as floptical disks, and It may include ROM, RAM, flash memory, etc., and may be configured to store program instructions. Other examples of media include recording media or storage media managed by application stores that distribute applications, sites that supply or distribute various software, and servers.

As described above, the embodiments have been described based on the limited embodiments and drawings, but those skilled in the art will be able to make various modifications and variations based on the above description. For example, the techniques described may be performed in a different order than in the manner described and/or components such as systems, structures, devices, circuits, etc. described may be performed in a manner different than in the manner described. Appropriate results may be achieved when combined, combined, or opposed or substituted by other elements or equivalents.

Accordingly, different embodiments that are equivalent to the claims should still fall within the scope of the appended claims.

222: Processor 310: Collection Unit 320: Storage Unit 330: Search Unit 340: Dialog Unit

Claims (10)

A computer program for causing a processor of an electronic device of a first user to execute a location finding method, the location finding method comprising:
To build a location database by storing location information collected by a server from one or more user electronic devices in association with corresponding user identification information, the first user's electronic device processor: transmitting to the server location information of the first user on a social network;
a processor of the first user's electronic device sending a query to the server;
a processor of the first user's electronic device receiving, from the server, search results for acquaintances associated with the first user who have location information corresponding to the query;
and a processor of said first user's electronic device providing said search results to said first user in a blind format that does not display the identities of acquaintances included in said search results . The transmitting step includes:
2. The computer program product of claim 1, in a messenger installed on the first user's electronic device, transmitting the location information of the first user to the server when the messenger is executed. The transmitting step includes:
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising transmitting location information of the first user from a photograph taken by the camera in a messenger installed in the electronic device of the first user, in conjunction with a camera function. computer program. The providing step includes:
An acquaintance with whom the first user has established a relationship on the social network, another acquaintance with whom the relationship has been established, and a chat room in which the first user participates or subscribes. providing, as the search results, acquaintances having location information corresponding to the query, searched for at least one acquaintance range among the acquaintances who have been searched for. The computer program according to claim 1. The location database comprises:
2. The computer program according to claim 1, wherein the collected location information is stored by classifying activity types according to the source and time information when the location information was collected. The providing step includes:
6. The computer program according to claim 5 , comprising providing search results for acquaintances who have location information corresponding to the query by classifying them according to the activity type. The providing step includes:
2. The computer program of claim 1, comprising sorting a contact list having location information corresponding to the query based on time information and number information associated with the location. The providing step includes:
2. The computer program according to claim 1, comprising using a map to provide search results to acquaintances who have location information of the corresponding area for each area included in the map. The position search method includes:
the processor of the electronic device providing a conversation function with at least one of the acquaintances included in the search results in a blind form that does not display identification information of the user and the acquaintance. Item 1. A computer program according to item 1. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium on which the computer program according to any one of claims 1 to 9 is recorded.

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