Methods and systems for social matching

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for triggering a social match analysis. A user device such as a network connected device scans for one or more entity identifiers via camera, microphone, or wireless signal receiver and initiates a request to a social matching system. The social matching system retrieves attribute information for each of the identified entities and performs a match analysis, scoring the potential matches and noting common attributes. A match analysis report is generated and returned to the originating requesting user device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, at a match server, a match request associated with a requesting entity;   retrieving a plurality of attributes associated with the requesting entity;   identifying a plurality of matches, each match from the plurality of matches being between an attribute from the plurality of attributes associated with the requesting entity and an attribute from a plurality of attributes associated with a third party entity; and   transmitting a match analysis output indicating each attribute from the plurality of attributes associated with the third party entity that matched an attribute from the plurality of attributes associated with the requesting entity but not indicating other attributes associated with the third party entity that do not match an attribute from the plurality of attributes associated with the requesting entity.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising initiating one-to-one connectivity between the requesting entity and the third party entity based, at least in part, on the match analysis output. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying the plurality of matches includes identifying the plurality of matches in parallel. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the match request is received from a user device associated with the requesting entity, and the match analysis output is transmitted to the user device. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 for a match from the plurality of matches, an attribute associated with the requesting entity is associated with a first value and an attribute associated with the third party entity is associated with a second value; and   a relative value of the match is based on the first value and the second value, the method further comprising:   calculating a matching score associated with the requesting entity and the third party entity based, at least in part, on the relative value.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 for a first match from the plurality of matches, a first attribute associated with the requesting entity is associated with a first value and a first attribute associated with the requesting entity is associated with a second value;   a relative value of the first match is based on the first value and the second value;   for a second match from the plurality of matches, a second attribute associated with the requesting entity is associated with a third value and a second attribute associated with the requesting entity is associated with a fourth value;   a relative value of the second match is based on the third value and the fourth value;   calculating a matching score associated with the requesting entity and the third party entity based on the relative value of the first match and the relative value of the second match; and   the match analysis output including the matching score.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , the match request is received from a user device associated with the requesting entity and the match analysis output is transmitted to the user device, the method further comprising:
 define a plurality of unmatched attributes associated with the third party entity, each unmatched attribute associated with the third party not matching an attribute from the plurality of attributes associated with the requesting entity, the match analysis output excluding the unmatched attributes associated with the third party entity such that the user device does not receive an indication of the plurality of unmatched attributes.   
     
     
         8 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing a computer-readable code that when read by a computer causes the computer to:
 receive, at a match server, a match request from a user device associated with a requesting entity;   retrieve a plurality of attributes associated with the requesting entity and a plurality of attributes associated with a third party entity;   identify a match between a first attribute from the plurality of attributes associated with the requesting entity and a first attribute associated with the third party entity;   send, to a user device associated with the third party entity, a request to approve the match including an indication of the first attribute associated with the requesting entity, the request to approve the match excluding a second attribute from the plurality of attributes associated with the requesting entity that does not match a second attribute from the plurality of attributes associated with the third party entity, the user device associated with the third party entity being different from the match server;   receive, from the user device associated with the third party entity in response to the request to approve the match, an approval of the match; and   transmit, from the match server to the user device associated with the requesting entity and in response to the approval of the match, a match analysis output including the second attribute from the plurality of attributes associated with the third party, the user device associated with the requesting entity being different from the match server.   
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 8 , further comprising code to cause the computer to initiate one-to-one connectivity between the requesting entity and the third party entity based, at least in part, on the approval of the match. 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , the code further comprising code to cause the computer to receive an entity identifier from the user device associated with the requesting entity, the match between the first attribute associated with the requesting entity and the first attribute associated with the third party entity performed on-demand in response to receiving the entity identifier. 
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein:
 the first attribute associated with the requesting entity is associated with a first value and the first attribute associated with the third party entity is associated with a second value;   a relative value of the match is based on the first value and the second value; and   the request to approve the match includes a matching score based on the relative value of the match.   
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the match is a first match, the code further comprising code to cause the computer to:
 identify a second match between a third attribute associated with the requesting entity and a third attribute associated with the third party entity,   the request to approve the match including an indication of the third attribute.   
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the code to cause the computer to transmit the match analysis output includes code to cause the computer to send the match analysis output only after receiving the approval of the match from the user device associated with the third party entity. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , the code further comprising code to cause the computer to prevent any information associated with the third party entity from being transmitted to the user device associated with the requesting entity prior to receiving the approval of the match from the user device associated with the third party entity. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the request to approve the match excludes all attributes from the plurality of attributes associated with the requesting entity that do not match a corresponding attribute from the plurality of attributes associated with the third party entity. 
     
     
         16 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing a computer-readable code that when read by a computer causes the computer to:
 define an aggregate profile for a group based on a plurality of profiles, each profile from the plurality of profiles being of a third party from a plurality of third parties, each profile from the plurality of profiles including a plurality of attributes, the aggregate profile including a plurality of aggregate attributes, each aggregate attribute from the plurality of aggregate attributes based on a contribution from an attribute from each profile from the plurality of profiles;   receive, from a user device associated with a requesting entity, a request for the requesting entity to be matched to the group;   retrieve a profile associated with the requesting entity, the profile including a plurality of attributes; and   transmit a match analysis output to the user device associated with the requesting entity, the match analysis output including an indication of a plurality of matches between attributes of the aggregate profile and attributes of the profile associated with the requesting entity.   
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein the request from the user device includes a request for the requesting entity to be matched to the group based on the group being associated with a first attribute. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein:
 the request from the user device includes a request for the requesting entity to be matched to the group based on the group being associated with a first attribute, the code further comprising code to cause the computer to:   identify a match between the profile associated with the requesting entity and the aggregate profile based on a second attribute,   the match analysis output including an indication of the group and an indication of the second attribute.   
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 16 , the code further comprising code to cause the computer to:
 identify a match between the profile associated with the requesting entity and a third party from the plurality of third parties based on an attribute of the requesting entity, the match analysis output including an indication of the third party and an indication of the attribute, the match between the requesting entity and the third party based, at least in part, on the third party being associated with the group.   
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein:
 the request from the user device includes a request for the requesting entity to be matched to the group based on the group being associated with a first attribute, the code further comprising code to cause the computer to:   identify a match between the profile associated with the requesting entity and the aggregate profile based on a second attribute; and   identify a match between the requesting entity and a third party from the plurality of third parties based on a third attribute of the requesting entity,   the match analysis output including an indication of the third party and an indication of the third attribute, the match between the requesting entity and the third party based, at least in part, on the third party being associated with the group.   
     
     
         21 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein the match analysis output excludes other attributes associated with the aggregate profile that do not match an attribute of the profile of the requesting party.