Patent Publication Number: US-2023153920-A1

Title: Systems and methods for safely facilitating physical connections

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. Provisional Pat. App. 63/279,330, filed Nov. 15, 2021, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
    
    
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
     The present invention was developed without the benefit of federal funding. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Social media applications are rampant in the marketplace and provide communications that are used virtually by hundreds of millions of people. Yet there still exists a desire to strengthen existing connections, in real life, in the physical world. Many social media platforms allow for the formation of groups, wherein group members may inquire about the near- and long-term whereabouts of fellow group members so they can identify opportunities to connect in person when they are in close proximity of one another geographically and simultaneously. Unfortunately, many such opportunities are missed because currently available platforms rely to a great degree on the group members&#39; attentiveness to postings from other members in time to connect in person. This mechanism is inefficient and inadvertently excludes people who may not be monitoring the group activities for various reasons. 
     People with busy lives do not have a means today for effectively facilitating social connections, which is a need in the art most recently having been punctuated by COVID-19 and various self-isolation practices that have taken place. Continuing to date, more people are working remotely and leading lives that are more nomadic, and relatively less predictable from a scheduling perspective than what was commonplace in 2019 and earlier. What once was a local office now has a much wider virtual radius, albeit at the expense of people losing the benefit of direct physical interaction with friends, family, colleagues and business associates. Thus, there has developed a need in the art for systems and methods that help more seamlessly and efficiently provide people with an opportunity to connect in person. Indeed, many people are lonelier than ever and there has never been a greater collective desire for a way to make safe, personal connections. 
     Existing calendars or social media applications are significantly more limited in scope and are based either in real time (where people are now), single events only (invited to dinner), etc. No application acts as an aggregator of actual plans, future options and planned locations of multiple types of contacts including permission-based messaging functions. The invention of the present disclosure comprises such capabilities and thus serves the need for such functionality in a simple, low-effort, safe, personal, private and convenient way. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention of the present disclosure is that of systems and methods for seamlessly facilitating safe physical connections between people who are not always in the same place at the same time but would like to connect when they are. It is one object of the invention to allow group members (friends, families, classmates, colleagues, etc.) to provide visibility as to their locations and “open times”, defined herein as times during which they have no preexisting commitments and are available for interaction. This functionality may be current or forward-looking, i.e., when people will be in certain locations and when they have downtime for unplanned meetings and interactions. 
     In a preferred embodiment, a system of the present disclosure is in the form of a mobile software application (“mobile app” or simply “app”) and application program interface (API) that enables interaction through a graphical user interface (GUI) visible on a portable electronic device such as a smartphone or tablet. Users, through the GUI, may log in, create profiles, invite other users to connect, set up groups, view connections&#39; plans, request meetings, create plans and share plans, all securely and based on customizable permission settings. The invention leverages known client-server architectures and cloud computing to enable the functionality of the mobile app. The back end of the system architecture may include a database and memory, each in communication with a software application tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising administrator and user APIs, enabling front-end communications with administrator and user devices, respectively. As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, this architecture enables administrators to push updates out so users can experience them seamlessly. 
     It is contemplated according to the present disclosure that group members suitably situated for connection may then open up a “chat” (i.e., via short message service (SMS) text according to communications protocols that will be readily understood by one of ordinary skill in the art). It is an object of the present invention to allow this to occur securely, and that users of a software application as described herein may set different permissions in terms of who may view which parameters that are available for display. It is an object of the invention to greatly simplify planning processes and facilitate in-person connections and communications differently by aggregating information and planning differently than any existing solution today. For example, by allowing visibility, in list view, by city, which contacts a user may have that reside in that city from a variety of sources linked to the application (e.g., professional, academic and social media inputs). These and other benefits of the present invention are described in more detail in the disclosure that follows. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    illustrates an exemplary application architecture according to an embodiment a system of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  2    illustrates a client-server architecture according to an embodiment of a system of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  3    illustrates a representational state transfer (REST) architecture according to an embodiment of a system of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  4    illustrates a cloud-based implementation of according to an embodiment of a system of the present disclosure. 
         FIGS.  5 A and  5 B  illustrate a screen shots for logging into a system and verifying identity, respectively, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIGS.  6 A- 6 C  illustrate screen shots for setting up a profile, adding or referring friends and selecting friends to add, respectively, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIGS.  7 A- 7 C  illustrate screen shots for adding friends from certain groups, viewing a group and adding friends to the group, respectively, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  8    illustrates a screen shot for creating a group according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIGS.  9 A and  9 B  illustrate screen shots where people traveling can be viewed and filtered, respectively, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  10 A-C  illustrates a screen shot for setting up a user profile according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  11    illustrates a screen shot where a request to meet may be entered based on the information described with reference to  FIGS.  10 A- 10 C , according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIGS.  12 A- 12 D  illustrate screen shots where plans may be entered, including travel, and made visible to connections who may then request meetings during downtimes. 
         FIGS.  13 A and  13 B  illustrate screen shots where a meeting may be requested and a chat started about said meeting, respectively. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS 
     The invention of the present disclosure is that of systems and methods for safely facilitating physical connections inspired by the ever-increasing need for such connections in the wake of a global pandemic. The systems and methods described herein provide a mechanism to strengthen connections and increase the frequency of visits for familiar people in a world where people have increasingly unpredictable schedules. It is an object of the invention to aggregate peoples&#39; current plans simply, reducing the logistical challenges of coordinating both planned and spontaneous social activities. 
     For example, in preferred embodiments, users of a system according to the present disclosure can be notified when people in their various social, academic, or family circles will be in the same geographic area, or when they plan to be. This can be done as generally or specifically as a user prefers. In preferred embodiments, screen views on a mobile app according to the present disclosure may include calendars and maps, either native or accessed via web services over the Internet or similar communications network, where users may see their connections&#39; plans and locations. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to remove obstacles to connecting with people in person by reducing the barrier to entering into plans. More specifically, it is an object of the invention to reduce the formality of invitations by allowing people to display openness to plans without having to formally accept or decline. By enabling various groups to be set up, efficiencies of connection are achieved across age groups and connection types; i.e., some activities are appropriate for entire families, while other may be adult only or youth only in appropriateness. 
     It is an object of the present invention to safely facilitate reconnections to friends and professional colleagues who may have been in various states of relative isolation since early 2020 by making it easier to schedule and connect with people based on “downtimes”. This environment creates options for people to connect rather than increasing their obligations to do so, which tends to be the case with mobile apps in the current state of the art. Selected contacts may be notified when their connections are in town, currently or in the future. In a preferred embodiment, connections from various social media or contact platforms may be imported into a system according to the present disclosure to reduce ramp-up time for new users. In preferred embodiments, SMS text functionality is enabled for users who have opted into the same connection. A mobile app according to the present disclosure is designed to encourage face-to-face meetings, foster community, and create opportunities—as opposed to obligations—to meet by providing calendar views for individuals across the globe. 
     To enable the features described herein, systems and methods are required which are best described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Beginning with  FIG.  1   , an application architecture is illustrated, comprising back-end components with Admin APIs for front-end access by a system administrator enabling the seamless updating and patching of the system as will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. An exemplary back end is made available on a web server  100  and comprises a database (DB)  101  such as but not limited to a MySQL DB, which may be accessed via front-end Admin Panel  110  and Admin APIs  102  by an administrator using an available web browser  120 , as will be familiar to one of ordinary skill in the art. The DB  101  may also be accessed via Mobile Interface  130  by a mobile user  140  with a smartphone, tablet or the like via APIs  103  configured to allow such access, all enabled by Server-Side Code. Users may store file information such as profile information and the like using provided file storage  104 . 
     Turning now to  FIG.  2   , a three-tier architecture  200  as is commonly employed in the art may be employed according to the present disclosure, including a presentation layer  201 , business layer  202  and data layer  203  within a mobile client application  210 . User interface (UI) components  201   a  and UI process components  201   b  enable user interactivity with the mobile app. A business layer  202  of an exemplary embodiment comprises an application facade, business workflows, business components and business entities, while a data layer comprises data access components, data helpers/utilities and service agents. A local data cache may  211  be created to facilitate interactivity with data sources such as map applications  220 , while service agents facilitate obtaining services  221  over unreliable networks. Cross-cutting features  230  within the mobile client application include security, configuration and communication/connectivity features. 
     In certain embodiments, the present invention may rely on REST system architecture  300 , as illustrated in  FIG.  3   . An API  301  of a system according to the present disclosure is exposed to a client  302  in a secure, uniform and stateless manner, and the client can then perform predefined operations using Restful Web Service, built on the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). As illustrated, an identity provider  303  may exist between the client  302  and API  301  to enable authentication, such as but not limited to OTP authentication. Through the API, available remote services may be accessed locally or remotely, i.e., via the Internet  310 . 
       FIG.  4    illustrates a deployment architecture  400  of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, showing the mapping of logical architecture to a physical environment. In a preferred embodiment, an available web service is utilized for cloud-based implementations of the methods of the present disclosure. As one of ordinary skill in the art will understand, web service instances comprising various combinations of processors, memory, storage and networking capabilities are available and a suitable instance may be selected to fit the use case. Each instance may be part of a virtual private cloud (VPC). As shown in  FIG.  4   , elastic load balancing (ELB) may be employed to automatically distribute application traffic across multiple targets and appliances within an availability zone depending on user needs. In the example shown in  FIG.  4   , users on the frontend connect to targets within an availability zone, such as a t 3  medium instance database, or any other desired target, after load balancing. All functional requirements such as those described above are made available using this system architecture, and role-based permissions may be set (e.g., administrator or user). 
     To better illustrate the functionality provided by a system according to the present invention, several screen shots are provided. Beginning with  FIG.  5 A and  5 B , a login screen for signing onto the system is shown, which prompts OTP identify verification as shown in  FIG.  5 B . Once logged in, users may set up a profile using an interactive GUI ( FIG.  6 A ), add friends or refer friends ( FIGS.  6 B and  6 C ), and this can be accomplished by viewing certain groups of friends ( FIG.  7 A ), selecting friends from that group ( FIG.  7 B ) or adding friends to that group ( FIG.  7 C ). Additionally, a group may be created by naming a group and adding multiple friends or contacts to that group, as illustrated by the screen shot of  FIG.  8   . 
     The travel plans of connections such as friends may be viewed on a GUI according to the present disclosure as depicted in  FIG.  9 A . Additionally, a user of a system according to the present invention may select cities and dates in order to determine which of their connections may be traveling to a certain destination, as illustrated in  FIG.  9 B . A GUI of the present may also allow a user to calendar trips by date and location, and then post daily schedules where downtime can be seen, all as illustrated in  FIGS.  10 A- 10 C . Users with visibility to this information may then request to meet the person on the trip during downtime, as illustrated in  FIG.  11   .  FIGS.  12 A- 12 D  illustrate screen shots where users of a system of the present disclosure may publish plans, add travel, add plans to a calendar and publish plans to selected connections, respectively. Those connections who have visibility to the plans may then initiate contact and start a chat to determine whether physical meetings may be possible based on coincidence of time and location, as illustrated in  FIGS.  13 A and  13 B . 
     The systems and methods described herein are intended to meet a long felt need in the art for a mobile app that is focused on making available times for physical meetings with selected connections visible and thus the scheduling of such meetings is made easier. While people are extremely efficient in planning work weeks and the like, people are inefficient in planning available time. The mobile app described herein helps people better understand what they could be doing with their personal time by providing an easy-to-use, efficient, effective tool to manage the events that people can take part in when available. In effect this tool is an effective way to manage downtime. 
     Today people use a variety of apps, calendars and mechanisms to make plans and coordinate schedules. No existing solution contains the full functionality or flexibility that is an object of the present invention, especially in the wake of COVID-19. There are social media apps, as well as calendar apps with invitation capabilities, but none focus on times when people are open for activities, and where. As such, the present invention vastly simplifies planning processes and facilitates in person connections and communications differently by aggregating information and planning differently than any existing solution today. 
     It is an object of the invention to address the issue of using multiple data sources and social media apps in an effort to coordinate and much more easily facilitate connecting with people in permitted social circles in a way that cannot be accomplished due to social and logistical challenges today, in one aspect by creating chat groups after formally inviting people to casual events, and creating independent calendar invitations for social events if they are a recurring or part of a schedule, such as that of a team sport. Users can actively invite others, or instead you can show where and when they might be available. An exemplary system according to the present disclosure manually aggregates information from various social media apps and then adds it to calendars, and separately manages calendars and chat groups. These and other useful features for identifying downtimes and scheduling physical meetings during those times will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the present disclosure.