Location-based information exchange between physically proximate users

Abstract

The present invention includes a wireless communication method and device comprising a one-to-one exchange of wireless electronic device identifications or unique profile IDs between a sending and a receiving party who are both registered users of the electronic business/personal card service and further comprising upload of the wireless electronic identifications to a data server computer system wherein said system matches said identifications with those of registered users and said computer system displays information about the user associated with each identification.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for location-based information exchange between physically proximate users, the method comprising:
 storing a unique profile identifier in memory, the unique profile identifier specific to a registered user of a mobile device;   activating a profile exchange function, wherein activating the profile exchange function results in receiving information from at least one other mobile device within a transmission range of the mobile device, the received information specific to another registered user, the other registered user associated with the at least one other mobile device; and   displaying information regarding the at least one other registered user at the mobile device, the display at the mobile device based on the received information from the at least one other mobile device within the transmission range of the mobile device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising transmitting the unique profile identifier from the mobile device to the at least one other mobile device that is within the transmission range of the mobile device. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving user input via a user interface of the mobile device, the received user input indicating a wish to activate the profile exchange function. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the received information includes a unique profile identifier specific to the other registered user, and further comprising querying a remote database based on the unique profile identifier specific to the other registered user. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising retrieving an online profile of the other registered user based on the query, wherein displaying the information regarding the at least one registered user includes displaying the retrieved online profile of the other registered user. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the received information is from a plurality of other mobile devices within the transmission range of the mobile device, and wherein displaying the information regarding the at least one registered user includes displaying a list of the plurality of other mobile devices within the transmission range of the mobile device. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the received information from at least one other mobile device within a transmission range of the mobile device is received via a first local wireless communication protocol, and further comprising receiving at least part of the displayed information via a different wireless communication protocol. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the first local wireless communication protocol is Bluetooth. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying a dynamic location-based list of a plurality of other registered users. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising downloading profile information onto the mobile device, the downloaded information regarding at least one registered user selected from the list. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the list is specific to a defined event, and the plurality of other registered users are registered in association with the defined event. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the mobile device includes at least one wearable hardware piece. 
     
     
         13 . An apparatus for location-based information exchange between physically proximate users, the apparatus comprising:
 memory that stores a unique profile identifier, the unique profile identifier specific to a registered user of a mobile device;   a receiver that receives information from at least one other mobile device within a transmission range of the mobile device when a profile exchange function is activated, the received information specific to another registered user, the other registered user associated with the at least one other mobile device; and   a display screen that displays information regarding the at least one other registered user at the mobile device, the display at the mobile device based on the received information from the at least one other mobile device within the transmission range of the mobile device.   
     
     
         14 . A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for location-based information exchange between physically proximate users, the method comprising:
 storing a unique profile identifier in memory, the unique profile identifier specific to a registered user of a mobile device;   activating a profile exchange function, wherein activating the profile exchange function results in receiving information from at least one other mobile device within a transmission range of the mobile device, the received information specific to another registered user, the other registered user associated with the at least one other mobile device; and   displaying information regarding the at least one other registered user at the mobile device, the display at the mobile device based on the received information from the at least one other mobile device within the transmission range of the mobile device.   
     
     
         15 . An apparatus for location-based information exchange between physically proximate users, the apparatus comprising:
 memory that stores a plurality of unique profile identifiers, each unique profile identified specific to a different online profile of a respective registered user;   a communication interface that receive a query over a communication network from a mobile device; and   a processor that executes instructions stored in memory, wherein the processor executes the instructions to:
 identify that the query includes one of the unique profile identifiers, 
 retrieve information associated the queried profile identifier from memory, the retrieved information including an online profile of a registered user, and 
 formats the retrieved information for display at the mobile device. 
   
     
     
         16 . A system for establishing communications between once physically proximate users, the system comprising:
 a plurality of mobile devices each associated with a user, wherein the plurality of mobile devices identify a respective geographic location at a point in time indicated by an associated timestamp;   a database that stores user profile identifiers for each user of each of the mobile devices and retrieves the user profile identifiers for the mobile devices identified within a physical proximity to each other at the point in time as determined by the identified geographic location and the timestamp; and   a server that:
 transmits a list comprising the retrieved user profile identifiers to each of the mobile devices, 
 transmits at least one partial user profile associated with one of the listed user profile identifiers to at least one of the mobile devices subsequent to the transmission of the list of user profile identifiers to each mobile device; 
 receives an indicia of interest in further engagement with a user associated with the at least one partial user profile, the indicia of interest received from the at least one mobile device, wherein the received indicia of interest matches an indicia of interest from the user associated with the at least one user profile; and 
 provides a more complete version of the at least one partial user profile to the at least one mobile device based on the matching indicia of interest, the more complete version of the user profile provided with an option for further engagement.