Anonymous Token Group Formation for Post-Event Networking
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional social network websites require manual creation and registration for contacts post-event, and ad hoc wireless networks lack centralized management and security, making it tedious and vulnerable for users to maintain connections and exchange content after events.
Innovation Solution
Devices at a geographic location can broadcast and receive tokens, which are stored and analyzed to form groups, allowing users to join and manage groups for continued communication and content exchange, with a trusted service facilitating matching and location-based services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual creation and registration is used for contacts post-event on conventional social network websites, then user control and security are maintained, but the process becomes tedious and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically detecting devices in proximity during the event, pre-matching them based on shared location and time, and preparing group structures before the user needs to join. This eliminates the need for manual post-event contact collection and group creation, resolving the contradiction between security and ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary system that acts as a trusted third party to automatically match devices based on token exchange data. This intermediary handles the complex matching and group formation processes, freeing users from manual operations while maintaining security through controlled authentication mechanisms.
2Ease of operation
If ad hoc wireless networks are used for peer-to-peer communication, then ease of setup and no central dependency are achieved, but security and reliability deteriorate due to susceptibility to snooping and attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a trusted service as an intermediary that performs secure token verification and device matching. This intermediary adds a layer of security to the otherwise decentralized ad hoc network, allowing easy peer-to-peer setup while protecting against snooping and attacks through authenticated communication channels.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses token copying and verification mechanisms where devices exchange cryptographic tokens that prove their identity and authorization. These token copies are verified by the trusted service, enabling secure communication in the decentralized network without requiring manual security configuration.
3Ease of operation
If tokens are broadcast and stored for group formation analysis, then automated group creation and user convenience are improved, but information processing complexity and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex information processing tasks from user devices and relocates them to a centralized trusted service. Devices only need to broadcast and store simple tokens locally, while the trusted service performs the complex analysis and matching operations, reducing the processing complexity on individual devices while enabling automated group formation.
Data Source
AI summary
A number of devices co-located at a geographic location can broadcast and receive tokens. Tokens can be exchanged using a communication link having limited communication range. Tokens that are received by a device can be stored locally on the device and/or transmitted to a trusted service operating remotely on a network. In some implementations, the tokens can be stored with corresponding timestamps to assist a trusted service in matching or otherwise correlating the tokens with other tokens provided by other devices. The trusted service can perform an analysis on the tokens and timestamps to identify devices that were co-located at the geographic location at or around a contact time which can be defined by the timestamps. A group can be created based on results of the analysis. Users can be identified as members of the group and invited to join the group.