Patent ID: 8688774

Claim:
A personal networking device (PND) comprising: a processor; a memory coupled to the processor; one or more input/output (I/O) devices that enables interaction with processes executing on the PND; and a utility executing on the processor that controls the operations of the PND to perform the functions of: receiving via an electronic medium an unique device signature (UDS) associated with a second device within a real social/business networking environment (real SoNET); displaying, on a user interface of the PND, a visual representation of the UDS at a location on the user interface that correlates to a physical location of the second device relative to a physical location of the PND; enabling selection at the PND of the visual representation of the UDS; responsive to a selection of the visual representation, triggering transmission, via short range wireless communication protocol, of a request for interaction and/or information exchange (RIE) to the second device wherein the request includes a first user profile that includes identifying information of at least one of the PND and a user of the PND as well as a location of the PND relative to the second device; receiving a response from the second device indicating whether the RIE was accepted and any conditions associated with the response; and in response to the response from the second device indicating that the RIE is accepted, providing one or more selectable menu options to a user of the PND to facilitate enabling the PND user to initiate further communication with a user of the second device, wherein said further communication may be conducted electronically or in person.