Techniques for determining actual and/or near states of proximity between mobile devices

摘要

Techniques are provided that may be implemented in various methods, apparatuses and articles of manufacture for use by one or more electronic devices to support proximity services for a mobile device. In an example implementation, a computing device may determine whether a first mobile device and a second mobile device are each operatively provisioned to make use of a common proximity service, use a first procedure to determine whether a state of near proximity exists between at least two mobile devices, use a second procedure to determine whether a state of proximity exists between the at least two mobile devices, and initiate notification of a user and/or an application of at least one of the mobile devices in response to one or more of such determinations.

主权项

1. A method of supporting proximity services for a mobile device comprising, with a computing device:
determining whether a first mobile device and a plurality of second mobile devices are operatively provisioned to make use of a common proximity service, at least in part, by verifying that the plurality of second mobile devices have communicated expressions identifying the common proximity service to the first mobile device; determining, using a first procedure, whether two or more of the plurality of second mobile devices are in near proximity to the first mobile device; determining at a subsequent time and using a second procedure that a state of proximity exists between the first mobile device and each of the two or more second mobile devices, wherein the two or more second mobile devices excludes at least one other second mobile device among the plurality of second mobile devices; and initiating notification to a user and/or an application, or a combination thereof, that the state of proximity exists.