Abstract:
In one embodiment, a method for determining a consumer&#39;s interest in products and services is disclosed. Once the consumer&#39;s interests are determined advertisers can refine their advertisements to meet the consumer&#39;s specific needs and demands. A method for providing targeted information begins by receiving data comprising at least one of a consumer&#39;s product or service interests. The data is inspected to determine at least one consumer product or service interest. The at least one determined product or service interest is compared with a plurality of providers of products or services. Finally information is conveyed to the consumer from to at least one of the plurality of providers of products or services to the consumer based upon the comparison of the determined at least one product or service interest and the plurality of providers of products or services.

Description:
CLAIM OF PRIORITY 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/283,852, filed Dec. 10, 2009, the disclosure of which is thereby incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY 
       [0002]    This disclosure relates generally to communication systems, methods, and devices for delivering customized advertisements specifically tailored to an individual consumer&#39;s needs through multimedia delivery services. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    There is huge expenditure on advertising worldwide every year. A major problem in the current advertising model is to precisely identify the targeted consumers who will have a higher probability of buying advertised products and services than just reaching out to general consumers. Companies have tried different methods which mainly consist of consumers&#39; surveys to determine the interest level of the consumers in their advertised products. The majority of the time these surveys tend to be intrusive and consumers either don&#39;t respond very well or are unwilling to participate in these surveys. 
         [0004]    The present invention uses an enhanced approach. It utilizes methods that observe the behavioral pattern of the consumers without being intrusive while requiring minimum efforts from the consumers in order to identify their needs. Based on consumers&#39; specific needs and preferences the present invention illustrates different methods to advertise different products and services specifically targeting and meeting consumers&#39; criterion. The present invention uses multimedia technologies to selectively transmit customized advertisements to the specific consumers thus promising much higher responses from the consumers. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0005]    This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. 
         [0006]    The present invention utilizes methods that determine consumer interests with minimum consumer involvement. In one embodiment, consumers&#39; interests are determined from their purchasing habits and preferences. For example, when a consumer makes a purchase, all data related to consumer items are saved into a database under his/her account. From the consumers&#39; successive buying behaviors consumers&#39; buying profiles are built. These profiles are built for every individual consumer. Based on the consumer&#39;s profile, simple or complex methods of extrapolations, e.g., polynomial extrapolation, conic extrapolation, french curve extrapolation, etc. can be developed to predict the consumer&#39;s future buying behavior along with a preferred way of communicating to the individual consumer. These extrapolations can be used to predict an individual consumer&#39;s future interests in buying different products. Based on these predictions customized advertisements can be produced and send to the individual consumers. 
         [0007]    In addition, consumer preferences to certain geographical locations represented through a coordinate system, e.g., GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates can also be utilized. The product and services that a consumer has identified as having an interest in are compared to products and services broadcasted by different vendors located at different locations. The best match between the consumer&#39;s preferences including distances to the locations and the available product and services are determined and the consumer is informed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]    Example embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements and in which: 
           [0009]      FIG. 1  is a diagram of an exemplary communication system for delivering the information details of the items bought by consumers to Storage Data Servers. 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an exemplary storage system where the information belonging to different items is stored under individual consumers&#39; accounts. 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary method for capturing transmitted information to identify consumer&#39;s interests. 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  is a process flow chart of an exemplary method for transmitting consumer related information through different media types. 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  is a process flow chart of an exemplary method for collecting consumers&#39; interests by inspecting consumer data. 
           [0014]      FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary process for collecting consumers&#39; interests and then populating the consumers&#39; interests in the database servers. 
           [0015]      FIG. 7  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary network system collecting the information from different systems for comparison. 
           [0016]      FIG. 8  is a block diagram illustrating methods for comparison of the consumers&#39; interests gathered from different processes. 
           [0017]      FIG. 9  is a block diagram illustrating availability of different products and services at different geographical locations. 
           [0018]      FIG. 10  is a block diagram illustrating different people engagements based on their mutual distances and preferences and the notification methods based on different geographical locations. 
       
    
    
       [0019]    Other features of the present embodiments will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0020]    Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention will be described in conjunction with the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the invention to these embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims. Furthermore, in the detailed description of the present invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the present invention. 
         [0021]    Some portions of the detailed descriptions that follow are presented in terms of procedures, logic blocks, processing, and other symbolic representations for fabricating semiconductor devices. These descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the art of semiconductor device fabrication to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. A procedure, logic block, process, etc., is herein, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps or instructions leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. 
         [0022]    An embodiment described in the detailed description is directed towards methods used for customized advertising specifically targeted to individual consumers. In the current advertisement methods it is very rare to seek consumers&#39; interests before advertisements are projected to the consumers. Since the interest level of consumers is not known ahead of time such general types of advertisements can be ineffective. This results in an inefficient use of advertising money spent on advertisements. Even when consumers&#39; interest level is determined beforehand, it is commonly determined through intrusive methods that consumers generally don&#39;t like. For example, the methods may involve asking the consumers to complete the surveys, fill out web-forms or through consumer interviews. 
         [0023]      FIG. 1  shows a consumer service person  100  who is operating a cash register and scanning items that a consumer has purchased. When a consumer gives his credit card information or telephone number and any other piece of identification that can uniquely identify him, all of the consumer&#39;s personal history comes up as shown in the table  120 . All the information related to consumer purchased items is transmitted through an exemplary packet format  118 . Packet format  118  can carry consumers&#39; identification, the characteristics of the items, e.g., item number, quantity, price paid, coupons used, etc., that the consumer “A” has bought. All this information is transmitted to Storage Data Servers,  112 ,  114  across the network  106 . 
         [0024]      FIG. 2  shows an exemplary method of identifying the information transmitted using the data packets  118 . Data Collection Process  134  identifies the consumer ID # and the information about the items that the consumer bought and their relevant characteristics. The consumer unique ID # is fed to the Memory Address Register  135 . The Memory Address Register uses the consumer ID # as a pure binary number and access the corresponding memory block location in the memory array  132 . In the first sub-block  131  the identification number, e.g., 234567 is stored. In the following sub-block  130 , all the characteristics belonging to that specific item are stored. In a similar fashion all the items bought by consumer “A” are stored along with their characteristics. Similarly, for another consumer “D,” Data Collection Address  125  is processed by the Memory Address Register  135  such that all the information about the items purchased by Consumer D are kept in the memory sub-blocks with item identification numbers in sub-block  128  and the corresponding item characteristics in sub-block  127 . A processor can be used to parse all the items and identify the consumers who bought these items. This information can be used to extrapolate the purchasing behavior of the individual consumers. 
         [0025]      FIG. 3  shows an exemplary method and system for capturing details for items that a consumer finds interesting as he browses through different websites. As shown in  FIG. 3  a Client “A”  153  browses the Internet and exchanges his data traffic over the network  163  to reach to a webserver  164 . For example, the Client browses a website, e.g., www.uvw.com,  150  hosted by the WebServer  164 . The Client “A”  153  browses through some of the webpages containing information about interested items, e.g., Blue Jeans, Black Belt, etc. Each of these webpages utilizes item numbers locally used by the web service to identify the items. For example, the Serial # M,  151 , can represent a unique ID tag used by the webpage when displaying information about a particular pair of blue jeans. As the Client “A” navigates through different information embedded in the webpages hosted by the website, www.uvw.com,  150  on the webserver  164  all traffic pattern exchanges taking place between the Client “A”  161  and the webserver  164  are captured by a Networking Monitoring Device, (NMS),  175 . The NMS  175  can be a protocol analyzer that can probe into the contents carried by a higher application layer of the data packets. 
         [0026]    As an example, the contents of the higher application layer can be revealed by capturing the contents of a GET command. A GET command works with FTP (File Transfer Protocol) which directs the webserver to transmit the data information. If the Client “A”,  153  is accessing information about an “item #M”, a typical GET syntax  160  will be captured by the Network Monitoring Device  175 . The information captured by the NMD  170  is transmitted to a Data Mining Server  156 . The Data Mining Server identifies the item(s) that Client “A”  153  has been browsing or has expressed interest in. It searches for corresponding advertisements through any sources available to it. If desired, it can even change the format of the advertisements. It then forwards its contents with desirable formats to the Insertion Content Server,  165 . Therefore, the next time the Client “A”  153  accesses a webpage hosted by the webserver  164  the Insertion Content Server  165  will insert advertisement in the appropriate places already indentified to carry advertisements in the webpage. These advertisements will be specific to the Client “A”  153  interests that was determined through the data mining of the data transmitted or received by the said client. For example, if the Client “A”,  153 , has browsed or expressed interest in “Blue Jeans,” item # M,  151 , all the advertisements that the Data Mining Server  166  could identify as relevant to item # M will be inserted into proper places within webpages by the Insertion Content Server  165 . The customized webpage that the Client “A”  153  will access from the Webserver  164  will contain the advertisements relating to “Blue Jeans” or items relating to clothing. The Client “A”,  153  will see a webpage, for example, an MSN home page with the customized advertisement displayed in the specific webpage location  168 . 
         [0027]    Similarly, another Client “B”  155  accesses the Webserver and browses through pages or expresses interest in the webpages of website www.xyz.com,  154  hosting the information related to automobiles. Those items identified as Serial # P,  156 , for example, are captured by the Networking Monitoring Device, NMD,  175  when Client “B” expresses interest in a particular automobile. This information is sent to the Data Mining Server  166  which searches and identifies relevant advertisements related to auto mobiles. The customized advertisements are sent to the Insertion Content Server,  165 . If the Client “B”  155  happens to access his homepage hosted by Microsoft Network (MSN) hosted by the Webserver  164 , the Insertion Content Server  165  inserts the customized advertisements related to automobiles into the web pages at the appropriate places. As a result, the Client “B”  155  will now see a MSN homepage  169  which contains the advertisement related to automobiles at the webpage location  170 . 
         [0028]      FIG. 4  illustrates a Flowchart describing the steps to communicate information with potential consumers. In step  150 , a device captures a transmission between servers and individual consumers. In Step  151 , the device performs a deep execution pattern inspection and performs data mining into a data portion where it would carry the information about the potential interest that the consumer has in products and services. In step  152 , the process searches for all the available information sources for comparable products and services. In step  152 , the process also finds an advertisements/price range, etc, and other information that the consumer would be interested in. Once identified, the process sends the consumer notifications through different methods in step  154 . For example, these notifications can be sent by email  156 , text message  158  website  160 , customized printout mails  162 , via telephone contacts to the consumers, etc. There are multiple ways that can be used over websites to distribute consumers&#39; interests. In one aspect, this information can be conveyed through specific websites to the consumer once he identifies himself. Yet in another embodiment, as illustrated in  168 , and explained in  FIG. 3 , a server can use this information and insert the advertisements pertaining to the individual consumers interests in the specific places within the webpages which are reserved for carrying advertisements to the end consumers. These advertisements at specific places in the webpages don&#39;t need to be only text based information but can contain any type of multimedia information. For example, as illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the webpage  169  can contain a text based advertisement, a voice or a video information related to automobiles in which client “B”  155  has expressed an interest. 
         [0029]      FIG. 5  illustrates a Flowchart which summarizes the presented method. In step  300 , the processor captures the packets transmitted to the servers. In step  302 , the processor executes a deep pattern inspection of the contents of the packets to determine what information a consumer is interested in. The captured information can reveal the potential consumer&#39;s interests. In step  304 , the processor selects a media through which the said information can be conveyed to the consumers. 
         [0030]      FIG. 6  illustrates a consumer  321  who is searching for different shopping items. The consumer  321  searches for the items at different websites. As she selects an item she populates a personal widget with the item information. The widget is used as a storage means for the consumer to add into her shopping lists. As an example, the consumer  321  browses www.CompanyA.com and www.CompanyB.com  316 . The consumer  321  can use her computer  324  or a mobile enabled device  326  to browse different websites. She selects different links  318  and  320 , for example, and adds the corresponding items, item #Q, R, T and so on into the widget  328 . The widget interactively verifies the integrity and the proper format of the added items. The widget transmits all of the information stored in it using a reliable communication method, e.g., IP/TCP to the data server  312 . In addition, the process installed on the consumer&#39;s computer and mobile device can transmit the default Global Positioning Coordinates (GPS) linked to the consumer&#39;s geographical position. If the consumer prefers, the consumer can overwrite default GPS coordinates with current location coordinates. All the selected items that the consumer has shown an interest in and preferences about acquiring these items, along with GPS coordinates, are transmitted to the Data Servers  312  over the transient network “X”  314 . The transient network can be a land line network or a wireless network. 
         [0031]    The Data Servers  312  parse the consumer&#39;s  321  items list. The Data Server  361  receives the Consumer Data Services Feed from different companies. For example, Company “A”  310  sends information for its entire inventory, such as items available, their regular and discounted prices, along with any other characteristics, to the Data Servers  312  over the Network “Y”  308 . In a similar way, other companies, for example, Company “B”  306  also transmits their list of inventories to the Data Servers  312 . In another embodiment, the Data Server  312  can probe each of the Companies when it receives consumer requests searching for different items meeting their purchasing criteria. In response to the said requests, the Companies send item availability, prices, and any other useful information to the data server  312 . In addition, each of the Companies provides the Data Servers  361  with locations which are near to the consumer&#39;s default location or the consumer&#39;s preferred locations. This information is provided to the Data Servers  312  by sending the GPS coordinates of respective Stores that the Companies have nearby to the consumer&#39;s locations. In addition, the Data Servers  312  can also identify any condition and preferences that the consumer  321  has fed for the items the consumer  321  intends to purchase. For example, these preferences can be days of the week, particular timeslots, and a triggered or preferred price. The Data Servers  312  perform all the necessary searches to identify the items that the consumer has a desire to buy. 
         [0032]      FIG. 7  illustrates the continuation of the method and systems explained with reference to  FIG. 6 . As illustrated, all the items that consumer  321  has expressed interest in are sent to the Data Servers  361 . The Data Servers  361  can either probe the Consumer Data Services for Company “A”,  371 , Company “B”  373 , Company “C”  375  to get the updates of the requested items or the Consumer Data Server can download all the items that said companies carry in their inventories. As mentioned earlier the companies also provide information related to geographical coordinate locations of their stores through GPS or by other means, e.g., maps, etc. The Data Server  361  receives the Consumer Data Services Feed from different companies. For example, Company “A”  371  sends its entire inventory contents, such as items available, and their regular and discounted prices to the Data Servers  361  over the Network. In a similar way, other companies, for example, Company “B”  373  and Company “C”  375  also transmit their list of inventories to the Data Servers  361 . In another embodiment, the Data Server  361  can probe each of the Companies when it receives the consumer requests searching for different items to fulfill his shopping needs. In response to the said requests, the companies send the item availability, prices, and any other useful information to the data server  361 . 
         [0033]    The Data Server  361  performs an analysis of consumer  321  requests and matches the items meeting the consumer acceptance criteria. For example, if the consumer has asked for the best price for the requested items available in the weekend within certain geographical parameters, then the Data Servers  361  search for the best match out of all the information received through the companies. At a pre-scheduled time, the said Data Servers  361  delivers the itemized list  359  to the consumer  321 . The itemized list  359  can contain each of the consumer requested items from different companies. For example, all the matching items found through the Company “A”  359 , containing item # “Q”  363 , item # “R”, etc. The itemized list will also include all the characteristics information about the individual items. Similarly, the items from Company C will be included. 
         [0034]    The Data Servers  361  also calculate the geographical coordinates of each of the stores belonging to different companies and match with the consumer default or preferred coordinates. The itemized list can be transmitted to the consumer  350  by any requested format, e.g., HTML, text, etc. In addition, this list can be transmitted to one or multiple devices in which the consumer has expressed interest. For example, the consumer can receive this information on a PC  352  or on a mobile device  353 . In addition, the said information can be provided to the consumer in multiple formats as shown in  FIG. 4 . 
         [0035]      FIG. 8  illustrates a process through which consumer  350  can further receive more refined information about the items the consumer  350  is interested in. For example, the consumer  350  can use a personnel computer (PC)  352  or a mobile Device  353  to request more information from different Companies carrying interested items of the consumer&#39;s choice. The consumer  350  can initiate the process and further request the Data Server  361  to provide the consumer  350  with the entire items list for comparing Company “A”  359 , Company “B”  370  and Company “C”  377 . For example, the Company “A”  359  sends all the items, e.g., item # “Q”  363  and other items with their total price  370 . Similarly, the Company “B”  373  reports all the items, e.g., item # S  367  and other items the Consumer  350  has expressed interest, and reporting the total price  371 . This provides the consumer  350  with a very powerful tool to get the information about the price comparison through all the Companies, e.g., receiving a price list from Company “A”  359 , a price list from Company “B”  373 , and a price list from Company “C”  375 . 
         [0036]      FIG. 9  illustrates a method that consumers can use to facilitate and enhance their shopping experience. As explained in  FIG. 6 , the Consumer  321  has previously selected different items of interest. The list of interested items for the Consumer  321  is stored in the Data Servers  312 .  FIG. 9  shows the consumer as mobile indicated by the reference of  409 . As the consumer  409  moves through different means, e.g., driving, a mobile-enabled device  410  transmits geographical coordinates to the Data Server  422 . For example, the GPS coordinates of the current location X,Y  413  of the consumer  409  along with other account information can be transmitted by the consumer device  410 . This information is transmitted through a reliable communication method, e.g., TCP/IP through the mobile communication link  415 , received by a mobile communication tower  417  and then via network  420  to the Data Server  422 . It can be appreciated that the consumer device  410  can make use of other types of communication networks, e.g., Satellite network, etc. to transmit its GPS coordinates. The Data Server  422  looks up in the database against the unique consumer&#39;s accounting information and determines which items consumer  409  is interested in. Based on the consumer&#39;s current location, as recognized by the Data Server  422  through the GPS coordinates X,Y,  413 , the Data Server  422  searches all the stores with their GPS locations already known to the Data Server  422 . It looks at the items the consumer is interested in, with the buying criteria, and compares it to the items available at the stores. It also ensures that the store locations are within a desired distance range of the current consumer location or default location. 
         [0037]    To illustrate this with an example, suppose the consumer  409  has expressed interest in Blue Jeans with a price range and other buying criteria, e.g., brand name, color, size, warranty, return policy, etc. As the consumer  409  “beacons,” with the consumer device  410 , GPS coordinates X,Y,  413  to the Data Server  422 , the Data Server searches its database and finds that for instance Macy&#39;s (a Departmental Store) carries the consumer specific item, Blue Jeans, and has them in stock. The Data Server  422  further matches the consumer&#39;s buying criteria with the item&#39;s particular selling characteristics. It further calculates the distance between particular Macy&#39;s store locations based on geographical parameters e.g., GPS coordinates, and the current consumer  409  location. If the distance falls within the range of the consumer&#39;s buying criteria for this purchase, a notification is sent to the consumer  409  in one of several ways, e.g., an html enabled multimedia message, a text message, a voice call, or a voice mail, etc. In addition to the specified item (e.g., blue jeans), if the Data Server  422  determines that “Macy&#39;s”  400  carries any previously specified consumer  409  items of interests and the distance along with any other characteristics of the consumer  409  specific items falls within consumer  409  acceptance criteria, it sends out a message to the consumer  409  about the availability of the additional items along with the characteristics of those items. The Data Servers  422  send a message through one or multiple formats to the consumer  409  about the availability of the consumer requested items. The message can be sent in different formats such as a webpage, text message, email, voice call, voice mail, voice beep tone or in any combination. 
         [0038]    For example, the consumer  409  has shown interest in buying a pair of blue jeans and has registered the item as an item of interest with the Data Server  422 . As the consumer&#39;s current location coordinates X,Y,  413  are transmitted to the Data Server  422 , the Data Server searches its database and determines that there is a Macy&#39;s store  400  which carries the pair of blue jeans on sale and is located at geographical coordinates U,V  401  which is within range of the consumer&#39;s specified distance as determined by the consumer&#39;s current geographical coordinates, X,Y  413 . The Data Server  422  also matches with any of the consumer  409  additional requirements or preferences. If all of the consumer&#39;s requirements are met then the Data Server  422  sends message in one or more formats to the consumer  409  informing the consumer  409  of a match. Some of these message formats are illustrated in  FIG. 4 . In addition, these message formats can be one or a combination of multiple formats. Some of these message formats can be a JAVA and/or HTML web enabled messages. The message can carry multimedia (text, voice and video) information in it. The message can consist of receiving a phone call from a consumer representative or receiving a voicemail. 
         [0039]    As another example, a consumer can use another embodiment of the presented method and system to conveniently find a place for a meal based on price, food type preference, location, time of the day and/or any other criteria that a consumer would like to utilize. As an example, the consumer  411  sets his/her preferences for eating lunch based on price, food type, specific days, time of the day, etc under his account in the Data Server  422 . As explained before, the consumer  411  can access his account in the Data Server  422  through multiple methods. For example, the consumer  411  can enter his/her preferred criteria into the Data Server  422  through an enabled networking device, through a consumer service representative or by any other means. As the consumer  411  drives his/her location parameters, e.g., GPS coordinates, X,Y,  413  are transmitted to the Data Server  422 . The Data Server looks at the consumer  409  account and determines which food items, food types, the consumer  411  would be interested in while currently located at a particular location at X,Y coordinates. The Data Server determines that the consumer  411  has setup a time between 12:00 to 1:00 pm as lunch time. The Data server  422  checks the current time, if the current time is within the consumer specific time interval, the Data Server matches the consumer  409  preferences with the next criteria. If the consumer has setup a price range for a specific food then Data Server  422  searches for all the matching criteria restaurants. For example, in this case if the restaurant  403  happens to match with the consumer&#39;s defined criteria the GPS coordinates of the restaurant  403  will be transmitted to the consumer&#39;s device  410  which can guide the consumer to the restaurant  403 . As mentioned earlier, the Data Server  422  can engage other methods to inform the consumer  411  about restaurant  403 . 
         [0040]    In a similar manner, a house  406  which is on sale sends its GPS coordinates with all the criteria that the seller wants, e.g., selling price, discount, credit requirements, income requirements, etc. to the Data Server  422 . The consumer  411  is also searching for the house. As the Data Server  422  determines that the consumer  411  current coordinates are within a specific range of the house  406 , it also matches the consumer&#39;s  411  buying criteria with the house&#39;s  406  selling criteria. If the criterion is successful, the Data Server  422  transmits a message in one or multiple formats to consumer  411 . For example, it can send a complete HTML or JAVA based message to the consumer&#39;s device  410  informing the consumer about all the details of the house  406 . 
         [0041]      FIG. 10  illustrates the concept of mobile “twitter”. People can enroll with the Data Server and pick other people with whom they would like to keep in touch. For example, people who are part of a social network or family or friends can define criteria such that if their GPS coordinates are within a certain geographical distance then they should receive some type of alert. For example, the consumer  460  has enrolled himself to be in a network with another consumer  454 . In addition, the consumer  460  has defined the additional criteria for interacting with the consumer  454 . For example, this criterion can be based on distance, time of the day, social ranking that either consumer can define, consumer&#39;s  460  other priorities that can dynamically change the ranking as how the consumer  454  could interact with  460 . Both consumers  454  and  460  transmit GPS-enabled geographical coordinates to the Data Server  470 . It should be noticed that GPS coordinates is one type of geographical coordinates. There could be other types of coordinates. These coordinates are transmitted to the Data Server through small data packets. For example, the data packet can consist of a UDP/IP format where the payload carries the values of the GPS coordinates. As these packets are received by the Data Server  470 , the Data Server accesses both consumers&#39; accounts and process the matching criteria entered by each of the consumer. If the matching criterion matches, it sends either one consumer or both consumers the GPS coordinates of the other. In addition, it can utilize other methods to inform the consumers  454  and  460  about their close proximity. For example, a simple text message, a phone call, a voice mail, etc. After receiving the information both consumers can decide if they would like to socialize or not with the other person. The frequency of beaconing the transmission of the GPS coordinates can be dynamic and it can be interlinked to different criterion. For example, the distance between the two or more consumers, their social preferences, etc. 
         [0042]    In a similar manner, a consumer  463  living in a remote city  464  can send their GPS coordinates, U,V through the device  462  less frequently if consumer  460  is the only other one in their social network. It is less likely that consumers  463  and  460 , living a significantly far distance apart, will have a high probability of frequently physically meeting. 
         [0043]    The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.