Patent ID: 7080019
Filing Date: 2006-07-18
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method for enabling contact among travelers with similar travel plans, comprising: soliciting available travel plans from a multitude of Posting travelers, quantitatively characterizing each of said available travel plans' origins and destinations by their numerical latitudes and longitudes, posting said quantitatively characterized available plans to a data base, further soliciting from each said Posting traveler and posting to said database, sufficient contact information to establish communications with said Posting traveler, further soliciting from each said Posting traveler and posting to said database in predefined coded and Boolean formats such further compatibility criteria characterizing said Posting traveler and further travel plans as said Posting traveler desires, further soliciting from each said Posting traveler and posting to said database such descriptive information characterizing said Posting traveler and further travel plans as said Posting traveler desires, soliciting a desired travel plan from a Browsing traveler, quantitatively characterizing the origin and destination, of said desired travel plan by their numerical latitudes and longitudes, further soliciting from said Browsing traveler, in said predefined coded and Boolean formats, such further compatibility criteria characterizing the Browsing traveler and further travel plans as said Browsing traveler desires, preselecting from said database those of said available plans that are logically compatible with said Browsing traveler's compatibility criteria and said Posting traveler's compatibility criteria, calculating a scalar origin difference as the absolute magnitude of the distance between said desired origin and each said available origin in said database, calculating a scalar destination difference as the absolute magnitude of the distance between said desired destination and each said available destination in said database, calculating a rank of the similarity between said desired plan and each of said preselected plans as a mathematical combination selected from the group consisting of the sum and the root mean square of said origin difference and said destination difference ordering said preselected plans according to said rank, presenting said ordered plans together with said respective descriptions to said Browsing traveler, enabling said Browsing traveler to choose a plan from said presented plans, and presenting to said Browsing traveler said contact information sufficient to establish communication with said Posting traveler associated with said chosen plan, whereby travelers with similar travel plans can discover each other, and whereby the amount of information required to characterize said travel plans is reduced to a bare minimum, and whereby said quantitative characterizations of said origins and said destinations can be obtained from external sources including published data and Global Positioning Satellite Systems, and whereby said Browsing travelers can automatically and quickly scan a multitude of travel plans, and whereby said Browsing travelers can spontaneously consider ad-hoc choice criteria while reviewing said descriptive information as part of said presentation, and whereby said Browsing travelers can exercise explicit control over said final choice process, and are not constrained to accept the putative optimal choice of said ordering according to said rank.