Dynamically determining meeting locations

摘要

Systems and methods may provide turn-by-turn directions to a group of users who wish to meet one another. The systems and methods make use of a client application running on client-side devices such as smart phones in conjunction with a server-side application running on a server. The identity of the final meeting place may not be determined until the users are in close proximity to it, as its location is subject to continuous updating using the geo-coordinates of the users as they travel. Additionally, the meeting place may be determined in part by the users' individual preferences. These preferences, along with the locations of the users, may be kept hidden from other users.

主权项

1. A system to facilitate meetings among users of client devices, the system comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor on a computer to cause the computer to:
detect a meeting request at a server, the meeting request coming from at least one user of a client device; detect at the server an acceptance of the meeting request from at least one user of a client device; receive at the server identifying information from the client devices; receive at the server geo-location coordinates from the client devices; employ map skewing to compute a map centroid of the geo-location coordinates of the client devices; select a meeting place within a defined distance from the map centroid; provide turn-by-turn directions to the client devices to the meeting place; periodically receive updated geo-location coordinates of the client devices; and recalculate the map centroid of the geo-location coordinates of the client devices and the meeting place based on the updated geo-location coordinates.