DISCOVERING PRESENCE INFORMATION AND DISPLAYING A PRESENCE MAP

摘要

Disclosed is a personal communication device (called here the “local device”) that “looks around” to discover the presence of other personal communication devices (“remote devices”) in the near neighborhood. Using various techniques, the local device attempts to discover who is associated with each remote device that it discovers. The local device also attempts to assign a position value to each discovered remote device. Using this information, the local device constructs a “presence map” for its user, the map showing who is nearby. By consulting the presence map, the user of the local device can associate a name with each person in the near neighborhood. In some embodiments, the presence map is a virtual two- or three-dimensional representation of the neighborhood surrounding the user of the local device.