Patent Granted
by VirtualAirwaves"Communications based on geographical region" patent granted, US Patent 9,888,359.
A server establishes communication with user devices; the server receives location data identifying a location of each user device; the server determines a geographical region based on the location of each user device, each geographical region being different for user devices not at the same location; the server receives an audio stream from the first of the user devices; the server determines which of the other user devices are within the geographical region of the first user device; and the server transmits the audio stream to the other user devices that are within the geographical region of the first user device. In some embodiments, the server creates altered audio streams based on the distances between user devices. In some embodiments, the server changes the number of the other user devices that are within the geographical region of the first user device.
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Sorry that I am not being supportive, but this should not be patent-able... It is ridiculous to try to patent this. But then again it is "American software patent" so not the first of its kind...
By the way: I like the idea and it could become a nice app. But hate this patent thing.
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So, like a walkie talkie, but over the internet? What would be some use cases?
I have to say that I also agree with the other comment about patents, especially if this is just an idea and not the actual implementation (eg. how to securely detect device location so that it can not be faked).
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I found the use cases on the product page:
We want to make it easy for ad-hoc groups to communicate without the need for permanent connections. Talk to people caught in the same traffic jam as you, or at the same music festival without a social network.
This sounds like a really nice idea and could be a cool product if implemented well, but there are a lot of privacy, security, localization, volatility issues that have to be solved first.
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This patent is based on implement concept. So this really don't be a very difficult to come up with similar implement concept but don't infringe your patent.
A small change in implementation details will do.
