COMMUNICATION METHOD AND COMMUNICATION TERMINAL

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to communication methods, terminals, and systems. The invention relates in particular to methods, devices, and systems that allow textual or other messages to be exchanged between communication terminals that are located in proximity to each other.

BACKGROUND

The increasing availability of modem communication techniques and increasing communication bandwidths have made wireless communication attractive for finding people of common interests and/or preferred physical characteristics. Many techniques that are commercially available are internet-based. Nevertheless a huge number of such friendships and acquaintances remain in the virtual domain. One reason for this is that the quality and quantity of communication and interaction with each other using these services is often limited to digital communication, because communication partners are typically too far apart to accommodate face-to-face communication. The inadequate means to rapidly change from virtual to real-world communication offered by internet-based online services is one cause for virtual relations remaining weaker than face-to-face relations.

These problems are mitigated when location-based matching is performed in addition to matching common interests or other characteristics. For internet-based techniques, such solutions add complexity. Some users may be reluctant to share their location information.

US 6 088 435 A discloses methods and devices for enabling parties with similar interests to speak with one another through connections automatically established by equipment within a telephone network.

KR 101728115 B1 discloses a messaging system using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

WO 2018/138398 A1 discloses a method for location and interaction between compatible persons, as a function of certain aspects of user affinity, by means of a pairing system. The pairing system has at least one transceiver element for each user and a signaling element connected thereto. The method comprises the steps of: entering the affinity aspects of a first user into the computer application of a first transceiver element; creating a database by means of the software layer of the first mobile device; searching for compatible persons by emitting short-range signals from the first connection means of the devices; linking the devices through pairing; linking the devices to the signaling elements by means of the second short-range connection means; and activating the warning signal of at least one sensor.

US 2016/0227470 A1 discloses a method that comprises causing formation and transmission from a first communication terminal of a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) advertising packet. The BLE advertising packet comprises an indication that content is available for transmission. The method comprises responding to receipt from a second terminal, which received the BLE advertising packet, of an indication that the content is required to be transmitted to the second terminal by causing transmission of the content from the first communication terminal to the second terminal.

SUMMARY

There is a need in the art for improved communication methods, terminals, and systems. There is in particular a need in the art for communication methods, terminals, and systems that facilitate the communication with persons according to certain criteria, such as common interests and/or desired age and sex, with the persons being located in proximity (e.g., within 10 m radius). There is in particular a need in the art for methods, terminals, and systems that allow communication partners to be identified and wireless communication to be performed even when the communication terminals are outside of the coverage of a cellular communication network or of WLAN access points.

According to embodiments of the invention, by broadcasting personal expectations and characteristics as well as reading broadcasts of other people personal expectations and characteristics, user terminals can identify suitable communication partners in real time in close vicinity (e.g., 10 m radius). Every case where participants find each other based on matching their broadcast information offers the opportunity of creating real and not just virtual friendships or acquaintances using face-to- face communication almost instantly if so desired.

The techniques disclosed herein can be entirely based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Neither cellular networks nor nearby WLAN hotspots are required. This allows the usage anywhere, for example on a subway and even on a plane.

As used herein, BLE can in particular refer to operation that is compatible with BLE 4.0 and higher, such as operation in accordance with BLE 4.0 (June 30, 2010), BLE 4.1 (December 3, 2013), BLE 4.2 (December 2, 2014), BLE 5.0 (December 6, 2016), or BLE 5.1 (January 21, 2019), or any versions compatible therewith.

A communication method according to an embodiment comprises receiving, by a BLE chip of a first communication terminal, BLE advertising from a second communication terminal. The received BLE advertising includes data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal. The communication method may further comprise establishing a BLE connection between the first communication terminal and the second communication terminal depending on whether there is a match between the at least one topic of interest in the received BLE advertising and a set of candidate topics of a user of the first communication terminal.

The communication method may further comprise processing a first numerical ID assigned to the user of the first communication terminal and a second numerical ID assigned to the user of the second communication terminal to determine whether the first communication terminal is an initiator of the BLE connection The processing may involve a comparison of the first and second numerical IDs and optionally other criteria. The communication method may further comprise comparing a first numerical ID assigned to the user the first communication terminal and a second numerical ID assigned to the user of the second communication terminal to determine whether the first communication terminal is an initiator of the BLE connection.

Establishing the BLE connection may comprise one of the following steps: a) connecting, by the first communication terminal, to the second communication terminal; b) accepting, by the first communication terminal, a connection from the second communication terminal.

The communication method may further comprise selecting, depending on whether the first numerical ID exceeds the second numerical ID, and optionally depending on additional criteria, whether the first communication terminal performs step a) or step b) for establishing the BLE connection.

The additional criteria may include personal information, such as sex, age, etc. of the users of the first and second communication terminals. Such personal information of the user of the second communication terminal may be included in the received BLE advertising.

The additional criteria may include information in the BLE advertising that indicates whether the owner of the first communication terminal is a vendor interested in providing a good or service for purchase, or whether the owner of the first communication terminal is a customer interested in purchasing a good or service.

Matching may be performed, using the included information that allows vendors to be distinguished from customers, to match a vendor of a good or service to a customer of that good or service.

The second numerical ID may be included in the BLE advertising.

The second numerical ID may include bits in an ID field of the BLE advertising. The ID field may be specific for use with the communication method and may be different from a BLE or MAC address field.

The second numerical ID may optionally include bits of, e.g., a protocol data unit (PDU) of the BLE advertising that are not included in the ID field. These bits of the second numerical ID may be bits from fields that provide personal information, such as age, sex, etc. associated with the user of the second communication terminal.

The first and second numerical IDs may be different from BLE addresses.

The first and second numerical IDs may be different from MAC addresses.

The first and second numerical IDs may be stored in a non-volatile manner in the first and second communication terminals.

The first and second numerical IDs may be assigned to the users of the first and second communication terminals upon installation of executable instruction code and/or upon registration for using the interest matching service.

The communication method may further comprise broadcasting, by the first communication terminal, BLE advertising including at least a subset of the set of candidate topics.

Establishing the BLE connection may comprise accepting, by the first communication terminal, a BLE connection initiated by the second communication terminal.

The received BLE advertising may include information on an age and/or sex of the user of the second communication terminal.

The received BLE advertising may include information on a target age and/or target sex of candidate communication partners of the user of the second communication terminal.

The BLE connection may be selectively established only if the age and/or sex of the user of the second communication terminal included in the received BLE advertising complies with filter criteria set by a user of the first communication terminal, and an age and/or sex of the user of the first communication terminal matches the target age and/or target sex in the received BLE advertising.

The filter criteria set by the user of the first communication terminal may define a topic-specific target age and/or target sex, which may vary from one topic of interest to another.

The target age and/or target sex in the received BLE advertising may be topic-specific and may vary from one topic of interest to another.

The communication method may further comprise transmitting and/or receiving communication messages over the BLE connection for outputting via a user interface.

The communication messages may comprise text, images, hyperlinks, music, and/or video.

The communication messages may be transmitted without performing BLE pairing or bonding.

The communication messages may be encrypted.

The method may further comprise encrypting the communication messages by one of the first and second communication terminals.

The method may further comprise decrypting the communication messages at another one of the first and second communication terminals.

The method may comprise performing a key exchange for encryption and/or decryption.

The key exchange may be performed selectively depending on whether there is a match between the at least one topic of interest in the received BLE advertising and a set of candidate topics of a user of the first communication terminal.

The key exchange may be performed after the BLE connection has been established.

The key exchange may be performed using near field communication (NFC).

The exchanged key may be a key used only for encryption and decryption in the established BLE connection. Establishment of a further BLE connection between the first and second communication terminals after termination of the BLE connection may require a new key exchange of a new key different from the previously used key.

The method may comprise receiving input that specifies a key to be used.

The input may be user input received at a user interface.

Transmitting the communication messages may comprise transmitting, by the first communication terminal, the communication messages via a push mechanism if the first communication terminal is a Generic Attribute Profile, GATT, client in the established BLE connection between the first and second communication terminals.

The communication method may comprise receiving, by the first communication terminal, the communication messages via a pull mechanism from the second communication terminal if the first communication terminal is a GATT client in the established BLE connection between the first and second communication terminals.

The pull mechanism may comprise receiving, by the first communication terminal, a notification from the second communication terminal and retrieving a communication message from the second communication terminal in response to the notification.

Transmitting the communication messages may comprise transmitting, by the first communication terminal, notifications that trigger the second communication terminal to retrieve the communication messages from the first communication terminal if the first communication terminal is a GATT server in the established BLE connection between the first and second communication terminals.

The pull mechanism may comprise receiving, by the second communication terminal, the notification from the first communication terminal and retrieving, by the second communication terminal, a communication message from the first communication terminal in response to the notification.

The communication method may comprise receiving, by the first communication terminal, a communication message from the second communication terminal via a push mechanism if the first communication terminal is a GATT server in the established BLE connection between the first and second communication terminals.

The communication method may be performed without performing BLE pairing or BLE bonding.

The BLE advertising received by the BLE chip of the first communication terminal from the second communication terminal may comprise two or more BLE advertising messages.

Each of the two or more BLE advertising messages may include a portion of the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information).

The method may comprise combining, by the first communication terminal, content of the two or more BLE advertising messages to retrieve the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age- related information).

The first communication terminal may receive the two or more BLE advertising messages in a time-sequential manner.

The method may comprise segmenting, by the second communication terminal, the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information) into several portions and including these portions into the two or more BLE advertising messages.

The second communication terminal may transmit the two or more BLE advertising messages in a time-sequential manner.

The two or more BLE advertising messages may be cyclically repeated.

Data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information) is segmented into N > 2 portions that are included in N > 2 BLE advertising messages. The N > 2 may be consecutive BLE advertising messages.

The second communication terminal may cyclically repeat transmission of the N BLE advertising messages.

The first communication terminal may keep buffered or stored received BLE advertising messages until a timeout criterion is fulfilled.

The first communication terminal may receive at least N+l of the BLE advertising messages, may buffer or store the received BLE advertising messages in memory.

The first communication terminal may identify N based on a comparison of the buffered or stored BLE advertising messages, and may combine payload data included in N non-redundant BLE advertising messages stored or buffered in memory to reconstruct the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information).

Alternatively or additionally to a cyclic repetition of BLE advertising messages, each of the BLE advertising messages may include data specifying the number N of BLE advertising messages into which the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information) is segmented and/or an index. The index may indicate which one of the N different portions of payload content is included in the respective BLE advertising message.

The first communication terminal may identify N based on the data in the BLE advertising messages and/or based on the indices. The first communication terminal may combine payload data included in N non-redundant BLE advertising messages stored or buffered in memory to reconstruct the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information).The second communication terminal may determine the number N of advertising messages required for transmission of all N portions of the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information).

The second communication terminal may generate the N BLE advertising messages to include the data specifying the number N of BLE advertising messages into which the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information) is split and/or the index for the respective BLE advertising message.

Flexible content formatting may be used for the BLE advertising.

The method may comprise processing, by the first communication terminal, one, two, three or more indicator bits included in an BLE advertising message of the BLE advertising to determine which information is contained and/or is not contained within the BLE advertising message.

The method may comprise setting, by the second communication terminal, one, two, three or more indicator bits included in an BLE advertising message of the BLE advertising to indicate which information is contained and/or is not contained within the BLE advertising message.

The indicator bit(s) may include an indicator bit indicating that segmentation is used, i.e., to indicate that the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information) is distributed across plural BLE advertising messages.

The indicator bit(s) may include an indicator bit indicating that the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal and, optionally, other information does not include information on sex.

The indicator bit(s) may include an indicator bit indicating that the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal and, optionally, other information does not include information on age.

The first and/or second communication terminals may be operative to support character code sets for plural different languages for the data indicating at least one topic of interest.

The first and/or second communication terminals may be operative to support UTF8 to generate and/or process the data indicating at least one topic of interest.

The data indicating at least one topic of interest may include an alphanumerical string coded in accordance with UTF8.

A communication terminal according to an embodiment comprises a Bluetooth Low Energy, BLE, chip operative to receive BLE advertising from a second communication terminal, the received BLE advertising including data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of a second communication terminal. The communication terminal may comprise at least one integrated semiconductor circuit coupled to the BLE chip and operative to control the BLE chip for establishing a BLE connection between the communication terminal and the second communication terminal depending on whether there is a match between the at least one topic of interest in the received BLE advertising and a set of candidate topics of a user of the communication terminal.

The at least one integrated semiconductor circuit may further be operative to process, e.g. to compare, a first numerical ID assigned to the user the communication terminal and a second numerical ID assigned to the user of the second communication terminal, the second numerical ID being included in the received BLE advertising.

The at least one integrated semiconductor circuit may be operative to a) compare the at least one topic of interest in the received BLE advertising to the set of candidate topics and control the BLE chip to connect to the second communication terminal if the first numerical ID and the second numerical ID fulfill a predetermined criterion, b) cause the BLE chip to accept a connection from the second communication terminal.

The second communication terminal may request the connection only if the first numerical ID and the second numerical ID do not fulfill the predetermined criterion, and if additional criteria that are based on interests, sex, and/or age are fulfilled.

The at least one integrated semiconductor circuit may be operative to select, depending on whether the first numerical ID exceeds the second numerical ID, and/or by other processing or optionally depending on additional criteria, whether the first communication terminal performs step a) or step b) for establishing the BLE connection. For illustration, the at least one integrated semiconductor circuit may be operative to additionally incorporate criteria such as a numerical comparison of bit fields indicating sex, age, and/or interests of the users of both terminals to determine whether the first communication terminal performs step a) or step b) for establishing the BLE connection.

The first and second numerical IDs may be different from BLE addresses.

The first and second numerical IDs may be different from MAC addresses.

The first and second numerical IDs may be stored in a non-volatile manner in the first and second communication terminals.

The communication terminal may be operative to include the first numerical ID in BLE advertising.

The first and second numerical IDs may be provided in bits in an ID field of the BLE advertising. The ID field may be specific for use with the communication method and may be different from a BLE or MAC address field.

The first and second numerical IDs may optionally include bits of, e.g., a protocol data unit (PDU) of the BLE advertising that are not included in the ID field. These bits of the second numerical ID may be bits from fields that provide personal information, such as age, sex, etc. associated with the user of the second communication terminal. Thus, information on age, sex, etc. may optionally be included in the process of determining which one of the communication terminals is to act as a server and which one is to act as a client.

The communication terminal may comprise a non-volatile storage device operative to store the first numerical ID. The communication terminal may be operative to store the first numerical ID upon installation of executable instruction code and/or upon registration for using the interest matching service.

The communication terminal may be operative to broadcast BLE advertising including at least a subset of the set of candidate topics.

The communication terminal may be operative to accept a BLE connection initiated by the second communication terminal.

The received BLE advertising may include information on an age and/or sex of the user of the second communication terminal.

The received BLE advertising may include information on a target age and or target sex of candidate communication partners of the user of the second communication terminal.

The integrated semiconductor circuit may be operative to cause establishment of the BLE connection only if the age and/or sex of the user of the second communication terminal included in the received BLE advertising complies with filter criteria set by a user of the communication terminal, and an age and/or sex of the user of the communication terminal matches the target age and/or target sex in the received BLE advertising.

The filter criteria set by the user of the communication terminal may define a topic-specific target age and/or target sex, which may vary from one topic of interest to another.

The target age and/or target sex in the received BLE advertising from the second communication terminal may be topic-specific and may vary from one topic of interest to another.

The received BLE advertising may include information that indicates whether the owner of the first communication terminal is a vendor interested in providing a good or service, indicated by the topic, for purchase, or whether the owner of the first communication terminal is a customer interested in purchasing a good or service, indicated by the topic.

The integrated semiconductor circuit may be operative to determine, using the provided information that allows vendors to be distinguished from customers, to match a vendor of a good or service to a customer of that good or service which is indicated by the topic.

The communication terminal may be operative to transmit communication messages over the BLE connection for outputting via a user interface.

The communication terminal may be operative to receive communication messages over the BLE connection for outputting via a user interface. The communication messages may comprise text, images, hyperlinks, music, and/or video.

The communication terminal may be operative to transmit the communication messages without performing BLE pairing or BLE bonding.

The communication terminal may be operative to transmit and/or receive the communication messages encrypted.

The communication terminal may be operative to encrypt and/or decrypt the communication messages.

The communication terminal may be operative to perform a key exchange for encryption and/or decryption.

The communication terminal may be operative to perform the key exchange selectively depending on whether there is a match between the at least one topic of interest in the received BLE advertising and a set of candidate topics of a user of the first communication terminal.

The communication terminal may be operative to perform the key exchange after the BLE connection has been established.

The communication terminal may be operative to perform the key exchange using near field communication (NFC).

The communication terminal may be operative such that the exchanged key is used only for encryption and decryption in the established BLE connection. Establishment of a further BLE connection between the communication terminal and the second communication terminal after termination of the BLE connection may trigger a new key exchange of a new key different from the previously used key.

The communication terminal may be operative to receive input that specifies a key to be used.

The communication terminal may have a user interface to receive the input that specifies the key to be used.

The communication terminal may be operative to transmit the communication messages via a push mechanism if the communication terminal is a GATT client in the established BLE connection between the first and second communication terminals.

The communication terminal may be operative to receive a communication message via a pull mechanism from the second communication terminal if the communication terminal is a GATT client in the established BLE connection between the first and second communication terminals.

The communication terminal may be operative to receive a notification from the second communication terminal and retrieve a communication message from the second communication terminal in response to the notification.

The communication terminal may be operative to transmit notifications that trigger the second communication terminal to retrieve the communication messages from the first communication terminal if the communication terminal is a GATT server in the established BLE connection between the first and second communication terminals.

The communication terminal may be operative to receive a communication message from the second communication terminal via a push mechanism if the communication terminal is a GATT server in the established BLE connection between the first and second communication terminals.

The communication terminal may be operative to perform communication message transmission without BLE pairing or BLE bonding.

The communication terminal may be operative to perform communication message transmission encrypted.

The BLE advertising received by the BLE chip may comprise two or more BLE advertising messages.

Each of the two or more BLE advertising messages may include a portion of the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information).

The communication terminal may be operative to combine content of the two or more BLE advertising messages to retrieve the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information).

The communication terminal may be operative to receive the two or more BLE advertising messages in a time-sequential manner.

Data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information) is segmented into N > 2 portions that are included in N > 2 BLE advertising messages. The N > 2 may be consecutive BLE advertising messages.

The communication terminal may be operative to buffer or store received BLE advertising messages in memory of the communication terminal.

The communication terminal may be operative to keep buffered or stored received BLE advertising messages until a timeout criterion is fulfilled.

The communication terminal may be operative to receive at least N+l of the BLE advertising messages, and to buffer or store the received BLE advertising messages in memory.

The communication terminal may be operative to identify N based on a comparison of the buffered or stored at least BLE advertising messages, and to combine payload data included in N non- redundant BLE advertising messages stored or buffered in the memory to reconstruct the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information).

Alternatively or additionally to a cyclic repetition of BLE advertising messages, each of the BLE advertising messages may include data specifying the number N of BLE advertising messages into which the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information) is segmented and or an index. The index may indicate which one of the N different portions of payload content is included in the respective BLE advertising message.

The communication terminal may be operative to identify N based on the data in the BLE advertising messages and/or based on the indices. The communication terminal may combine payload data included in N non-redundant BLE advertising messages stored or buffered in memory to reconstruct the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information).

Flexible content formatting may be used for the BLE advertising.

The communication terminal may be operative to process one, two, three or more indicator bits included in an BLE advertising message of the BLE advertising to determine which information is contained and/or is not contained within the BLE advertising message.

The indicator bit(s) may include an indicator bit indicating that segmentation is used, i.e., to indicate that the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal (and, optionally, other information such as sex and/or age-related information) is distributed across plural BLE advertising messages.

The indicator bit(s) may include an indicator bit indicating that the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal and, optionally, other information does not include information on sex.

The indicator bit(s) may include an indicator bit indicating that the data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal and, optionally, other information does not include information on age.

The communication terminal may be operative to support character code sets for plural different languages for the data indicating at least one topic of interest.

The communication terminal may be operative to support UTF8 to process the data indicating at least one topic of interest.

The data indicating at least one topic of interest may include an alphanumerical string coded in accordance with UTF8.

A communication system according to an embodiment comprises at least two communication terminals according to an embodiment.

There is also disclosed a communication method, comprising: receiving, by a Bluetooth Low Energy, BLE, chip of a first communication terminal, a BLE advertising message from a second communication terminal, the received BLE advertising message including data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the second communication terminal; matching, by the first communication terminal, at least one topic of interest in the received BLE advertising message to a list of candidate topics of the first communication terminal; selectively initiating, by the first communication terminal, establishment of a BLE connection between the first communication terminal and the second communication terminal depending on whether if there is a match between the at least one topic of interest in the received BLE advertising message and one of the candidate topics of the first communication terminal; transmitting, by the first communication terminal, BLE advertising messages including data indicating at least one topic of interest of a user of the first communication terminal; accepting, by the first communication terminal, of a BLE connection from the second communication terminal to the first communication terminal unconditionally.

In the communication method, the received BLE advertising received by the first communication terminal may include an ID of the user of the second communication terminal, and the first communication terminal may selectively initiate the establishment of the BLE connection depending on whether the ID of the user of the second communication terminal included in the received BLE advertising is less than an ID of a user of the first communication terminal and/or depending on whether personal information included in the BLE advertising (such as sex and/or age) fulfills a predetermined criterion when compared with the respective personal information of the user of the communication terminal that received the BLE advertising. Further, the received BLE advertising received by the second communication terminal may include an ID of the user of the first communication terminal, and the second communication terminal may selectively initiate the establishment of the BLE connection depending on whether the ID of the user of the first communication terminal included in the received BLE advertising is less than an ID of a user of the second communication terminal.

In the communication method, the received BLE advertising message of the first communication terminal may include information on an age and/or sex of the user of the first communication terminal and information on a target age and/or target sex of the second communication terminal. The received BLE advertising message of the second communication terminal may include information on an age and/or sex of the user of the second communication terminal and information on a target age and/or target sex of the first communication terminal.

The filter criteria set by the user of the communication terminal may define a topic-specific target age and/or target sex, which may vary from one topic of interest to another.

The target age and/or target sex in the received BLE advertising from the second communication terminal may be topic-specific and may vary from one topic of interest to another.

A communication method according to another embodiment comprises processing data included in BLE advertising to identify communication terminals of users that share common interests and/or meet other filter criteria, and selectively establishing a BLE connection with the identified communication terminals. The communication method may further comprise determining which one of several BLE- enabled devices is to act as initiator of the BLE connection, based on IDs.

At least one of the IDs may be included in the BLE advertising.

A communication terminal according to another embodiment comprises a BLE chip. The communication terminal is operative to process data included in BLE advertising to identify communication terminals of users that share common interests and/or meet other filter criteria, and selectively establish a BLE connection with the identified communication terminals.

The communication terminal may further be operative to determine which one of several BLE- enabled devices is to act as initiator of the BLE connection, based on IDs.

At least one of the IDs may be included in the BLE advertising.

A communication method according to another embodiment comprises processing data included in BLE advertising to identify communication terminals of users that meet filter criteria, and selectively providing information to users of the identified communication terminals.

The communication method may further comprise using IDs included in BLE advertising to identify the communication terminals.

Selectively providing information to the users of the identified communication terminals may comprise establishing communication with a server via a cellular network.

The provided information may comprise information entered by a user via a user interface.

A communication terminal according to another embodiment comprises a BLE chip. The communication terminal is operative to process data included in BLE advertising to identify communication terminals of users that meet filter criteria, and selectively provide information to users of the identified communication terminals.

The communication terminal may further be operative to use IDs included in BLE advertising to identify the communication terminals.

At least one of the IDs may be included in the BLE advertising.

According to another embodiment, there is provided computer-readable instruction code which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the method according to an embodiment.

The computer-readable instruction code may be embodied on a tangible storage medium.

In any one of the communication methods, terminals, and systems according to embodiments, active or passive scanning for BLE advertising may be used. When active scanning is used, the scanner can send a scan request to request additional information from the advertiser. This allows advertisement payload to be increased. Active scanning may be used if it is desired or necessary to include a larger ID or topics of interest in multi-byte character coding in the BLE advertising.

The second ID, topics of interest and/or personal information may thus be distributed between the first and second parts of the BLE advertising that is broadcast by the advertiser when the scanner uses active scanning. The BLE scanner requests the second part of the BLE advertising, and may do so selectively, e.g., when the advertising includes the relevant UUID.

In any one of the communication methods, terminals, and systems according to embodiments, the first and second mobile communication terminals are generally mobile devices and, preferably, portable or wearable devices. Thus, a decision on whether a communication connection is established between first and second mobile communication terminals may be made by processing a BLE advertisement, without requiring a BLE connection to be established or BLE pairing or BLE bonding to be performed before the decision is made on whether a communication connection is to be established for exchanging communication messages (such as text or media).

Various effects and advantages are attained by the communication methods, terminals, and systems according to embodiments.

Because information on topics of interest is included in the BLE advertising, the BLE scanner can identify potential matching communication partners early on in the process. It is not required to set up a BLE connection for identifying potential matching communication partners. The limited number of active BLE connections that any device can support is, thus, not unduly exhausted by the communication method and communication terminal according to embodiments. Communication is established in a very energy-efficient manner. Location filtering is inherent in the use of BLE, due to its communication range which is on the order of 10 m or several tens of meters. This facilitates switching from wireless communication to face-to-face communication when desired.

By using a comparison of user IDs, the risk of double connections can be avoided, further reducing the risk of the number of available BLE connections being exhausted too quickly.

The use of BLE makes the communication independent of the availability of cellular coverage or WLAN hotspots.

The communication methods and communication terminals according to embodiments may be used in various applications, such as matching communication partners based on common topics and/or other selection criteria in urban areas, public places, clubs, restaurants, public transportation, or other environments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject-matter of the invention will be explained in more detail with reference to preferred exemplary embodiments which are illustrated in the attached drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram representation of a communication system comprising several communication terminals according to embodiments.

Figure 2 is a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment.

Figure 3 is a diagram showing operation of a communication terminal according to an embodiment. Figure 4 is a diagram showing operation of a communication terminal according to an embodiment.

Figure 5 is a representation of BLE advertising of a communication terminal according to an embodiment.

Figure 6 is a representation of profile data of a communication terminal according to an embodiment.

Figure 7 is a representation of profile data of a communication terminal according to an embodiment.

Figure 8 is a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Exemplary embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings in which identical or similar reference signs designate identical or similar elements. While some embodiments will be described in the context of matching users in accordance with common interests, sex, and age, the methods and devices described in detail below may be used in a wide variety of system. For illustration, personal information other than sex and age may be used as relevant information for matching users, in addition or as an alternative to performing matching based on sex and age.

The features of embodiments may be combined with each other, unless specifically noted otherwise.

Embodiments of the invention provide communication methods, communication terminals, and communication systems that allow a user of a first communication terminal to identify one or several users of other communication terminals (which will be referred to as “second communication terminal”) that match certain criteria. For illustration, the criteria may include at least one common topic of interest. According to the invention, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising is used to broadcast topics of interest of a user of the communication terminal. Scanning of received BLE advertising is used to match suitable candidate communication partners. It is not required to establish a BLE connection in order to identify suitable communication partners, let alone perform BLE pairing or BLE bonding. The communication methods, communication terminals, and communication systems are inherently suitable to identify communication partners in a proximity range of, e.g., ten meters or several tens of meters.

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a communication system 1. The communication system 1 comprises several communication terminals 10, 20 according to an embodiment. While only two communication terminals 10, 20 are schematically shown the communication system 1 may include three or more than three communication terminals.

The first and second communication terminals 10, 20 are mobile devices and may in particular be portable or wearable devices. This is in contrast to stationary beacon devices.

The first and second communication terminals 10, 20 may each be any one of a cellular phone, a personal digital assistance, a portable computer, a tablet computing device, an e-reader, a wearable (such as a wearable having a wrist-strap or a mounting configuration for mounting to an ear), or other portable and/or wearable devices.

A first communication terminal 10 comprises at least one integrated circuit (IC) 11. The integrated circuit 11 may include a processor, microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a combination thereof. The first communication terminal 10 comprises a BLE chip 12. The BLE chip 12 may operate as a transceiver. An antenna may be integrated into the BLE chip 12 or may be coupled thereto.

The first communication terminal 10 may comprise a data storage device or memory 13. The data storage device or memory 13 is operative to store executable instruction code 14 that causes the at least one IC 11 to execute the methods that will be explained in detail below. The data storage device or memory 13 may store profile data 15 associated with the user of the first communication terminal 10. The profile data 15 may include a user ID assigned to the user of the first communication terminal 10. The profile data 15 may include sex and/or age data. The sex and/or age data may indicate the sex and age of the user of the first communication terminal 10. The sex and/or age data may additionally indicate the target sex and/or target age of possible communication partners. This information may be used to identify suitable communication terminals with which a BLE connection can be established for exchanging text, audio, video, graphical, or hyperlink data.

Each topic in the profile data 15 may additionally or alternatively include information on whether it refers to a good or service that the owner of the first communication terminal 10 wishes to sell or purchase.

The first communication terminal 10 may comprise a user interface (UI) 16, which may include a display screen. The UI 16 may allow the user of the first communication terminal to enter data for use in identifying suitable communication partners, e.g., the target sex and/or target age of possible communication partners or a set of topics of interest to the user. The at least one IC 11 may be operative to control the UI 16 to output text, audio, video, graphical, or hyperlink data once a BLE communication has been established.

The second communication terminal 20 comprises at least one IC, a BLE chip 22, a data storage device or memory 23, and a user interface 26. These components may be configured as described in association with the second communication terminal 20 above. The data storage device or memory 23 may be operative to store executable instruction code 24 that causes the at least one IC 21 to execute the methods that will be explained in detail below. The data storage device or memory 23 may be operative to store profile data 25 associated with the user of the second communication terminal 20. The profile data 25 may include a user ID assigned to the user of the second communication terminal 20. The profile data 25 may include sex and/or age data. The sex and/or age data may indicate the sex and age of the user of the second communication terminal 20. The sex and/or age data may additionally indicate the target sex and/or target age of possible communication partners. This information may be used to identify suitable communication terminals with which a BLE connection can be established for exchanging text, audio, video, graphical, or hyperlink data.

Each topic in the profile data 25 may additionally or alternative include information on whether it refers to a good or service that the owner of the second communication terminal 20 wishes to sell or purchase.

The first and second communication terminals 10, 20 make use of BLE hardware to identify candidate communication partners in a proximity range that is equal to the BLE communication range. The BLE hardware may be compatible with, or may operate in accordance with, BLE 4.0 and higher, such as operation in accordance with BLE 4.0 (June 30, 2010), BLE 4.1 (December 3, 2013), BLE 4.2 (December 2, 2014), BLE 5.0 (December 6, 2016), or BLE 5.1 (January 21, 2019), or any versions compatible therewith.

The following features supported by BLE can be made use of:

- Broadcasting of information via Advertising (advertiser)

- Receiving and processing Advertising via Scanning (scanner)

- Selectively connecting to communication terminals by their specific advertising (client)

- Accepting connections from other communication terminals (server)

- Transfer data and notifications between connected devices using Generic Attribute Profile (GATT)

- A single Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) identifying the service

Active or passive scanning may be used. When active scanning is used, the BLE scanner may be operative to transmit a scan request to request additional information from the advertiser. This allows advertisement payload to be increased. Active scanning may be used if it is desired or necessary to include a larger ID or topics of interest in multi-byte character coding in the BLE advertising. An ID, topics of interest and/or personal information may thus be distributed between the first and second parts of the BLE advertising that is broadcast by the advertiser when the scanner uses active scanning. The BLE scanner requests the second part of the BLE advertising, and may do so selectively, e.g., when the advertising includes the relevant UUID.

The terminology “client” and “server” is repeatedly used herein.

A client refers to a BLE based communication terminal which is at least one and typically all of the following:

- BLE Master

- GAP Central

- GATT Client A server refers to a BLE HW based device which is at least one and likely all of the following:

- BLE slave

- GAP Peripheral

- GATT Server

Each communication terminal 10, 20 may operate the BLE hardware 12, 22 both in server and client mode at the same time. The server mode may be used to broadcast information via advertising and accept incoming connection requests. The client mode may be used for scanning and connecting to other communication terminals.

The BLE client operated by the communication terminals 10, 20 may be able to maintain multiple connections to multiple servers simultaneously.

The BLE server operated by the communication terminals 10, 20 may be able to maintain multiple connections to multiple clients simultaneously.

Each communication terminal 10, 20 may be able to maintain client and server connections at the same time.

Figure 2 is a flow chart of a method 30 according to an embodiment. The method 30 may be performed by a communication terminal 10, 20 according to an embodiment.

At step 31, BLE advertising is used to identify candidate communication partners. This may include determining whether the candidate communication partner complies with certain criteria, such as having at least one common topic of interest, matching age and/or matching sex. The identification of communication partners, based on the BLE advertising, may be implemented without requiring prior BLE connection establishment and without BLE pairing or BLE bonding.

At step 32, a communication connection is selectively established. The communication connection may be established by the initiator (which may be the advertiser or scanner in BLE) only if the data in the advertising indicates that the candidate communication partner complies with certain criteria, such as having at least one common topic of interest, matching age and/or matching sex.

Establishing the communication connection at step 32 may include selecting the initiator of the connection, i.e., determining which one of the communication terminals 10, 20 is to act as server and which one is to act as client in the BLE connection. This determining may be done automatically using numerical IDs. The numerical IDs may be different from BLE addresses and may be stored in the communication terminals 10, 20, e.g., upon installation of the instruction code 14, 24 and/or when registering the communication terminal 10, 20 for use of the instruction code 14, 24. As will be explained in more detail below, the risk of double connections can be essentially eliminated by determining, using the numerical IDs, which one of the communication terminals 10, 20 is to act as a client and which one is to act as a server.

For illustration, in some implementations, the first and second numerical IDs are processed to determine which one of the communication terminals 10, 20 is to act as a server and which one is to act as a client. This may include comparing the first and second numerical IDs.

In one exemplary implementation, the communication terminal with smaller user ID acts as server. In another exemplary implementation, the communication terminal with greater user ID acts as server. Other criteria may be incorporated additionally into the comparison of the numerical IDs in order to uniquely determine which one of the communication terminals 10, 20 is to act as server and which one is to act as client. For illustration, sex and age of the users of both terminals may be used for further comparison to determine which one of the communication terminals 10, 20 is to act as server and which one is to act as client.

The comparison of numerical user IDs prevents a double connection in which the first communication terminal 10 acting as a client sets up a BLE connection with the second communication terminal 20 acting as a server, and additionally the second communication terminal 20 acting as a client sets up a BLE connection with the first communication terminal 10 acting as a server. There are various reasons why such a double connection could otherwise exist: i. Such a double connection could otherwise exist when both communication terminals 10, 20 determine that there is a match in interests and optionally other criteria, such as sex and age. Without the use of a clear criterion that dictates which one of the communication terminals 10, 20 must act as client and which one as server, there would be a risk that both communication terminals 10, 20 set up a BLE connection, resulting in a situation that unnecessarily uses resources and makes handling of communication messages complex. The User Id prevents this. ii. BLE clients are also unable to recognize that multiple advertisements of a single device server are emitted lfom the same device because each advertisement may get a different BLE Advertisement Address by which a client connects to a BLE server. A BLE client would connect multiple times for each matching advertisement but always to the same device. The user ID prevents this. iii. BLE allows the BLE Advertisement Address which is transmitted in each advertisement to be modified, e.g., in a periodic or other cyclical manner. For nearby clients that are scanning or even connected, this appears as if a new device materializes nearby. This causes clients to establish further and thus multiple unnecessary connections. The User Id prevents this.

By using the user ID, multiple connections between the same communication terminals 10, 20 can be avoided. This is beneficial in view of performance (e.g., connection times are generally very slow and massively degrade with increased BLE traffic) and limited BLE active connection resources (e.g., the number of supported active connections is limited).

Figures 3 and 4 show signaling diagrams for explaining operation of the communication terminal according to an embodiment. Figure 3 shows a scenario in which the first communication terminal 10 acts as a BLE client. Figure 4 shows a scenario in which the first communication terminal 10 acts as a BLE server. The first communication terminal 10 receives BLE advertising 41 from the second communication terminal 20. The BLE advertising 41 from the second communication terminal 20 includes a user ID of the user of the second communication terminal 20. The BLE advertising 41 from the second communication terminal 20 includes at least one topic of interest of the user of the second communication terminal 20 and/or other data that can be used for matching potential communication partners in the near field. The BLE advertising 41 from the second communication terminal 20 may include sex and or age data. The sex and/or age data may include the sex and age of the user of the second communication terminal 20. The sex and/or age data may include a target sex and/or target age that is desired by the user of the second communication terminal 20 for his/her communication partners. The target sex and/or target age data specifying the target sex and/or target age of a communication partner may be topic-dependent. In this case, the matching that compares age and sex to preferences may be performed in a topic-specific manner. Personal information other than sex and/or age may be used in addition or as an alternative to sex and/or age to filter out suitable communication partners.

The first communication terminal 10 broadcasts BLE advertising 42. The BLE advertising 42 from the first communication terminal 10 includes a user ID of the user of the first communication terminal 10. The BLE advertising 42 from the first communication terminal 10 includes at least one topic of interest of the user of the first communication terminal 10 and/or other data that can be used for matching potential communication partners in the near field. The BLE advertising 42 from the first communication terminal 10 may include sex and/or age data. The sex and/or age data may include the sex and age of the user of the first communication terminal 10. The sex and/or age data may include a target sex and/or target age that is desired by the user of the first communication terminal 10 for his/her communication partners. The target sex and/or target age may be topic-dependent. Personal information other than sex and/or age may be used in addition or as an alternative to sex and/or age to filter out suitable communication partners.

The first communication terminal 10 performs a comparison 43 of the user ID included in the BLE advertising 41 received from the second communication terminal 20 and of the user ID of the user of the first communication terminal 10 that may be stored in the data storage device or memory 13. The first communication terminal 10 determines, based on a result of the comparison, if it is to act as a client (as further illustrated in Figure 3) or as a server (as further illustrated in Figure 4) of the BLE connection. For illustration, the first communication terminal 10 may determine based on the comparison of the user IDs that

(1) the first communication terminal 10 has to determine at the matching step 45 whether the user of the second communication terminal 20 matches the criteria specified by the user of the first communication terminal, and

(2) the first communication terminal 10 has to connect to the second communication terminal 20 at 46 and subsequently act as a BLE client, as shown in Fig. 3. The first communication terminal 10 may determine that it has to perform the matching 45 and has to connect to the second communication terminal 20 if the user ID of the user of the first communication terminal 10 is greater than the user ID of the user of the second communication terminal 20. In an alternative implementation, the first communication terminal 10 may determine that it has to perform the matching 45 and has to connect to the second communication terminal 20 if the user ID of the user of the first communication terminal 10 is less than the user ID of the user of the second communication terminal 20.

The second communication terminal 20 performs a corresponding comparison at step 44. By construction, if the first communication terminal 10 determines that it has to perform the matching 45 and has to connect to the second communication terminal 20 at 46, the second communication terminal 20 determines that is does not have to do either of these acts, but has to accept the connection request 47. The acceptance 47 of the connection request may be made unconditionally, i.e., without the second communication terminal 20 checking for matching interests or other matching criteria. However, after the BLE connection has been established, the second communication terminal 20 may still check whether it intends to establish the exchange of communication messages with the first communication terminal 10.

When the first communication terminal 10 acts as BLE client and the second communication terminal 20 acts as BLE server (as shown in Figure 3), the first communication terminal 10 transmits communication messages 48 to the second communication terminal 20 via a push mechanism. The first communication terminal 10 receives communication messages from the second communication terminal 20 via a pull mechanism. To this end, the second communication terminal 20 sends a notification 49a to the first communication terminal 10, triggering the first communication terminal 10 to retrieve a communication message 49b from the second communication terminal 20.

When the first communication terminal 10 acts as BLE client and the second communication terminal 20 acts as BLE server (as shown in Figure 3), the second communication terminal 20 receives communication messages 48 from the first communication terminal 10 via a push mechanism. The second communication terminal 20 transmits communication messages to the first communication terminal 10 via a pull mechanism. To this end, the second communication terminal 20 sends a notification 49a to the first communication terminal 10, triggering the first communication terminal 10 to retrieve a communication message from the second communication terminal 20.

For some matching operations, the sex and/or age may be irrelevant. For illustration, in order to match a vendor of a good or service to a customer of the same good or service, the BLE advertising 42 may include information that the topic refers to a good or service that the owner of the first communication terminal 10 wishes to purchase or sell. The BLE advertising 42 may additionally include information, e.g., an indicator bit, indicating whether the owner of the first communication terminal 10 is a potential vendor or a potential customer of that good or service or both. This information may be processed by the second communication terminal 20 to match a vendor of a good or service to a potential customer for that same good or service.

Figure 4 illustrates the case in which the second communication terminal 20 determines, based on a result of the comparison 44, that it is to act as a client of the BLE connection, and the first communication terminal 10 determines based on a result of the comparison 43 that it is to act as a server of the BLE connection. For illustration, the second communication terminal 20 may determine based on the comparison of the user IDs that

(1) the second communication terminal 20 has to determine at step 45 whether the user of the first communication terminal 10 matches the criteria specified by the user of the second communication terminal 20, and

(2) the second communication terminal 20 has to connect to the first communication terminal 10 at 56 and subsequently act as a BLE client, as shown in Figure 4. The second communication terminal 20 may determine that it has to perform the matching 45 and has to connect to the first communication terminal 10 if the user ID of the user of the second communication terminal 20 is greater than the user ID of the user of the first communication terminal 10. In an alternative implementation, the second communication terminal 20 may determine that it has to perform the matching 45 and has to connect to the first communication terminal 10 if the user ID of the user of the second communication terminal 20 is less than the user ID of the user of the first communication terminal 10.

The first communication terminal 10 performs a corresponding comparison at step 43. By construction, if the second communication terminal 20 determines that it has to perform the matching 45 and has to connect to the first communication terminal 10 at 56, the first communication terminal 10 determines that is does not have to do either of these acts, but has to accept the connection request 57. The acceptance 57 of the connection request may be made unconditionally, i.e., without the first communication terminal 10 checking for matching interests or other matching criteria. However, after the BLE connection has been established, the first communication terminal 10 may still check whether it intends to establish the exchange of communication messages with the second communication terminal 20.

When the second communication terminal 20 acts as BLE client and the first communication terminal 10 acts as BLE server (as shown in Figure 3), the second communication terminal 20 transmits communication messages 58 to the first communication terminal 10 via a push mechanism. The second communication terminal 20 receives communication messages from the first communication terminal 10 via a pull mechanism. To this end, the first communication terminal 10 sends a notification 59a to the second communication terminal 20, triggering the second communication terminal 20 to retrieve a communication message 59b from the first communication terminal 10.

When the second communication terminal 20 acts as BLE client and the first communication terminal 10 acts as BLE server (as shown in Figure 4), the first communication terminal 10 receives communication messages 58 from the second communication terminal 20 via a push mechanism. The first communication terminal 10 transmits communication messages to the second communication terminal 20 via a pull mechanism. To this end, the first communication terminal 10 sends a notification 59a to the second communication terminal 20, triggering the second communication terminal 20 to retrieve a communication message 59b from the first communication terminal 10.

Figure 5 is a schematic representation of BLE advertising 60 that may be broadcast by a communication terminal 10, 20 according to an embodiment. The BLE advertising 60 includes a preamble 61, an access address 62, a protocol data unit (PDU) 63, and cyclic redundancy check (CRC) data 64. Alternative structures may be used.

The BLE advertising 60 includes a user ID 71. The user ID 71 is assigned to the user of the communication terminal that broadcasts the BLE advertising 60. The user ID 71 may be stored locally in the communication terminal that broadcasts the BLE advertising 60.

The BLE advertising 60 includes at least one topic of interest 72. The at least one topic of interest may be included as text data (e.g., the first few letters of a topic in a common language, such as English) or encoded in a numerical code. The at least one topic of interest 72 may be stored locally in the communication terminal that broadcasts the BLE advertising 60 and may be defined by the user via the UI 16, 26.

The BLE advertising 60 may include the age 73 and/or sex 74 of the user of the communication terminal that broadcasts the BLE advertising 60. The age 73 and/or sex 74 may be stored locally in the communication terminal that broadcasts the BLE advertising 60 and may be defined by the user via the UI 16, 26.

The BLE advertising 60 may include the target age 75 and/or target sex 76 of communication partners of the user of the communication terminal that broadcasts the BLE advertising 60. The target age 75 may include a range. The target sex 76 may include various sexes. The target age 75 and target sex 76 may be stored locally in the communication terminal that broadcasts the BLE advertising 60 and may be defined by the user via the UI 16, 26.

Figure 6 is a schematic representation of profile data 15 that may be stored in the communication terminal. The profile data 15 may be used by the communication terminal 10 for generating the BLE advertising. The profile data 15 may be used by the communication terminal 10 for processing a receiving BLE advertising to determine (1) whether the communication terminal 10 is to compare interests, sex, and/or age information, and (2) whether the communication terminal 10 is to act as BLE client when setting up the BLE connection, as explained above.

The profile data 15 includes a user ID 81. The user ID 81 is assigned to the user of the communication terminal in which the profile data 15 is stored. The user ID 81 may be stored locally in the communication terminal 10.

The profile data 15 includes a set of topics of interest 82. The set of topics of interest may be stored as text data (e.g., as words in a common language, such as English) or encoded in a numerical code. The set of topics of interest may be defined by the user via the UI 16, 26.

The profile data 15 may include the age 83 and/or sex 84 of the user of the communication terminal that stores the profile data 15. The age 83 and or sex 84 may be defined by the user via the UI 16, 26.

The profile data 15 may include the target age 85 and or target sex 86 of communication partners of the user of the communication terminal that stores the profile data 15. The target age 85 may include a range. The target sex 86 may include various sexes. The target age 85 and target sex 86 may be defined by the user via the UI 16, 26.

The profile data 15 may also include an own username 87 of the user of the communication terminal in which the profile data 15 are stored.

This information can be transmitted directly in the BLE advertising or can be encoded. If the information is encoded, the personal information can be acquired by reverse lookup using other means than BLE, for example cellular networks or WLAN access points and a server specifically storing and referring to the personal information.

Figure 7 is a schematic representation of profile data 15 that may be stored in the communication terminal. The profile data 15 may be used by the communication terminal 10 for generating the BLE advertising. The profile data 15 may be used by the communication terminal 10 for processing a receiving BLE advertising to determine (1) whether the communication terminal 10 is to compare interests, sex, and or age information, and (2) whether the communication terminal 10 is to act as BLE client when setting up the BLE connection, as explained above.

In the profile data 15, the target age and or target sex of communication partners may be set differently for different topics of interest. The profile data 15 may comprise an ID 81, an own age 83, and an own sex 84, which may be set as described with reference to Figure 6. The profile data 15 may also include an own username 87 of the user of the communication terminal in which the profile data 15 are stored.

The profile data may include one, two, or more than two topics of interest 82a-82c. While three topics of interest 82a-82c are schematically shown in Figure 7, it will be appreciated that the number of topics of interest may be less than three or greater than three. The topics of interest 82a-82c may be stored as text data (e.g., as words in a common language, such as English) or encoded in a numerical code. The set of topics of interest may be defined by the user via the UI 16, 26.

For each one of the topics of interest 82a-82c, the profile data 15 may include the target age 85a-85c and or target sex 86a-86c of communication partners for that respective topic of interest. The target age 85a-85c may include a range. The target sex 86a-86c may include various sexes. The target age 85a-85c and target sex 86a-86c may be defined by the user via the UI 16, 26.

The target age 85a-85c may be set to a default value or default range, which may be user- defined, if the user does not wish to specify a topic-specific target age.

The target sex 86a-86c may be set to a default value or a set of default values, which may be user-defined, if the user does not wish to specify a topic-specific target sex.

In operation, communication terminals 10, 20 scan for BLE advertising, read the information included therein and check the following conditions:

- A first communication terminal 10 that receives a BLE advertising compares the user ID of the user of the first communication terminal 10 (i.e., its own user ID) against the user ID included in the received BLE advertising. Depending on the comparison (e.g., only when the user ID of the user of the first communication terminal 10 exceeds the user ID included in the received BLE advertising; or alternatively only when the user ID of the user of the first communication terminal 10 is less than the user ID included in the received BLE advertising), the following additional steps will be executed by the first communication terminal 10. Information other than the IDs may be used in the comparison, such as bits from fields that include personal information, e.g., sex and/or age.

- The first communication terminal 10 compares the interest or interests 72 received in the BLE advertisement against the own interests 82.

- The first communication terminal 10 compares the age 73 and sex 74 included in the received BLE advertising to the target age 85 and target sex 86 of the user of the first communication terminal 10. The target age 85 and target sex 86 may be dependent on the topic of interest.

- The first communication terminal 10 compares the target age 75 and target sex 76 included in the received BLE advertising to the age 83 and sex 84 of the user of the first communication terminal 10. The target age 75 and target sex 76 may be dependent on the topic of interest.

Personal information other than sex and/or age may be used in the process of identifying suitable communication partners.

If all conditions are met, the first communication terminal 10 establishes a BLE connection as a client to the second communication terminal 20 as a server. This can be fully achieved using only BLE. Pairing or bonding is not required.

After a successful BLE connection, the following sequence may be executed between the BLE client and the BLE server:

The client may transmit its own ID 81, its own username, its own sex 84, its own age 83, and the matched topic to the server. The server may check the received information for validity. The server may check, based on the client user ID, whether the user of the client is blacklisted.

The client may read the username from the server.

The server will only answer if the client information is found to be correct and acceptable for entering a communication session.

The server may additionally cut the connection via disconnect or block. If the above steps are successfully executed, users on both sides may be informed about the match and able to exchange data like text messages and other information such as text, hyperlinks, images, videos, and/or audio.

Active connections are, for example, broken under the following circumstances:

- BLE hardware out of range

- client breaks the connection willfully (e.g., by blocking the other user or by app shutdown)

- server requests the client to break the connection via notification (e.g., when blocking the other user or by app shutdown)

- connection and/or identification timeouts

- blacklisting

To allow users to get an idea of trending topics in close vicinity a topic monitoring mode is available which shows all topics received via BLE advertising using the specific UUID either directly or encoded via reverse lookup. By adjusting the own preferences the likelihood of a match can be increased to a certain extent.

Figure 8 is a flow chart of a method 90 according to an embodiment. The method 90 may be performed automatically by a communication terminal 10 according to an embodiment.

At step 91, the communication terminal 10 scans for BLE advertising.

At step 92, the communication terminal 10 may determine whether an ID comparison of a user ID in a received BLE advertising, which is assigned to a user of a second communication terminal, is greater than or less than the user ID assigned to the user of the communication terminal 10. If the comparison does not require the communication terminal 10 to be the initiator of the BLE connection, the communication terminal 10 may wait for a BLE connection from the advertiser and may accept the BLE connection at step 93.

At step 94, the communication terminal 10 may determine whether there is a match in at least one topic of interest, based on the interest(s) included in the BLE advertising and the set of topics of interest defined by the user of the communication terminal 10. If there is no match, the method may return to step 91.

At step 95, the communication terminal 10 may optionally determine whether there is a match in at least one additional criterion. The additional criteria may include sex and age criteria that may be specified by both the user of the communication terminal that receives the BLE advertising and by the user of the communication terminal that broadcasts the received BLE advertising. The sex and age criteria may be topic-specific, i.e., may be dependent on the topic of interest in which there is a match. If there is no match in these additional criteria, the method may return to step 91.

At step 96, the communication terminal 10 may initiate a BLE connection to the advertiser, acting as initiator of the BLE connection and as client in the subsequent BLE communication.

The communication terminals 10, 20 according to embodiments may use a segmenting strategy to allow data indicating topics of interest, sex- or age-related information, vendor or consumer- identifiers and/or other information to be included in BLE advertising. The data included in the BLE advertising may be segmented and included in two, three or more BLE advertising messages. A BLE advertising message can be marked with an additional index, for example (such as from 0 to 3, requiring two bits) which can indicate which part of the segmented data indicating topics of interest, sex- or age-related information, vendor or consumer-identifiers and/or other information is included in the respective BLE advertising message. Another field in the BLE advertising messages can indicate the number of BLE advertisement messages that is used to transmit the segments of the data.

For illustration, the second communication terminal 20 may send four different BLE advertising message, cyclically (in particularly cyclically and periodically) splitting the content among these four BLE advertising message messages and marking each part with one index that indicates the order of the messages.

The first communication terminal 10 may receive the BLE advertising messages in any order and keep them in memory with a timeout. The timeout may be around 1 minute or another threshold time. As soon as the first communication terminal 10 receives all segments of the data indicating topics of interest, sex- or age-related information, vendor or consumer-identifiers and/or other information to be included in BLE advertising, it can combine the payload data of the BLE advertising message and interpret the combined content in order to take further action like establishing a connection to the second communication terminal 20.

As an example, the second communication terminal 20 may have an advertisement content that requires three BLE advertising messages in order to be fully transmitted. Each BLE advertising message can include the number of advertisements necessary (in this example: three) Further, each BLE advertising message is marked with an index (in this example: 0,1,2).

The first communication terminal 10 receives, as an example, the messages in the following indexed order: 1 , 1 , 1 ,2, 1 , 1 ,2,2,2, 1,0,....

When the first communication terminal 10 receives the BLE advertising message receives each of the different BLE advertising messages marked with the different indices, all three messages have been received and the content can be assembled provided that BLE advertising messages indexed 1 and 2 did not timeout. At that point the first communication terminal 10 can take further action by combining and processing the content of the BLE advertising messages. The communication terminal(s) 10, 20 may employ flexible content formatting. Flexible content formatting allows a sender of BLE advertising messages to include or exclude specific information depending on the use case within a specific application and at the same time ensure that the scanning BLE communication terminal is able to understand the formatting.

This can be realized by adding additional information to the BLE advertising message. As an example, eight bits (control byte) could be reserved in the BLE advertising message. Each bit or a combination of bits (or value of the control byte) can indicate a specific set of information contained or not contained in the advertising message.

Since the scanning BLE communication terminal that receives the BLE advertising messages is able to read these additional bits (control byte), it is aware of which information is contained and which is not contained. One bit could for example indicate whether space extension via segmenting is used, as described above. Another bit could indicate whether age is used or not used. Another bit could indicate whether sex is used or not used. Other information could be used.

The communication terminal(s) 10, 20 may employ encryption. The communication terminal(s) 10, 20 may be operative to encrypt and/or decrypt communication messages. A shared algorithm and a shared key may be employed.

After a match has been found and a connection established, any NFC contact between the communication terminal(s) 10, 20 can cause a key to be exchanged. This key is used exclusively for the currently selected connection. As soon as the key is exchanged all communication over that connection between the communication terminal(s) 10, 20 is then fully encrypted. Each connection needs its own key. In case there are several parallel matches and resulting connections, a key for each connection is used.

It is also possible that the communication terminal(s) 10, 20 allow a key to be specified manually for a BLE connection. This is useful if the users of the communication terminal(s) 10, 20 are aware of the key but do not wish to exchange the key by NFC.

The communication terminal(s) 10, 20 may support various languages for coding information in the BLE advertising. Support for various languages is possible by using UTF8. The first and/or second communication terminals 10, 20 may be operative to support character code sets for plural different languages for the data indicating at least one topic of interest. The first and/or second communication terminals 10, 20 may be operative to support UTF8 to generate and/or process the data indicating at least one topic of interest. The data indicating at least one topic of interest may include an alphanumerical string coded in accordance with UTF8.

Embodiments of the invention have been described with reference to the drawings. Alterations and modifications may be implemented in other embodiments.

For illustration, while the matching of potential communication partners may include matching sex and age in addition to matching common interests, other relevant characteristics or criteria may be used to identify suitable communication partners.

The communication terminals of embodiments may have cellular and/or WLAN connectivity in addition to being operative for BLE communication. The communication terminals of embodiments may be implemented as smart phones, tablets, portable computers, laptops, personal digital assistants, wearables, or other portable communication terminals.

The communication methods, terminals, and systems according to the invention facilitate the communication with persons in a fully dynamic environment in which the first and second communication terminals are mobile devices, in particular portable devices and wearables.

In contrast to stationary beacon devices, the communication terminals contemplated herein are fully mobile. Moreover, in contrast to beacon devices, the communication terminals used herein may be operative to act as client and server, and may even do so concurrently.

The communication methods, terminals, and systems according to the invention facilitate the communication with persons according to certain criteria, such as common interests and/or desired age and sex, with the persons being located in proximity to each other. While the invention has been described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, such description is to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive. Variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art and practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. The mere fact that certain elements or steps are recited in distinct claims does not indicate that a combination of these elements or steps cannot be used to advantage, specifically, in addition to the actual claim dependency, any further meaningful claim combination shall be considered disclosed.