[0001] The present invention relates to an interactive platform to simulate user engagement. More specifically, the invention is directed at a system and method for enabling simulated social media experience without the risk of disclosing personal data.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Social media platforms are developed based on interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. Some of the common features of most of the social media platforms are enabling sharing of data, which includes user-generated content, posting of user-generated content and receiving reactions from other users. Social media platforms have provided users an ability to influence lots of people, reach a large audience and gain popularity through active participation by posting, reacting, and receiving reactions from other users from the comfort of their home. The psychometric analysis shows that being a social media influencer gives a sense of achievement when users receive appreciation, comments, and likes from other users and are followed by other users. As users engage more with these platforms, social media platforms offer several advantages to businesses in terms of more interactive user engagement and targeted ads.
[0003] With all its inherent advantages in terms of keeping users entertain and engage, netizens are concerned about some risks associated with these platforms. For example, netizens are concerns about the protection of their personal and private data, especially with the rising trend of data collection by social media platforms. It is considered that when information is shared on social media, that information is no longer private. There have been many cases in which young person especially, share personal information, which can attract predators. Teens especially share significantly more information on the internet now than they have in the past. These personal data are used for different intended purposes.
[0004] Psychometric analysis has shown that users who don’t receive many followers, likes, or comments feel disconnected or unrewarded. Existing social media platforms also leave users open to potential bullying and unwanted comments or reaction from other users. Analyzing every comment that is posted by other users is computationally very expensive and is also not real-time. Even though several techniques, such as automated filtering of abusive content based on signature matches, have been used in past, the social media platforms are still vulnerable to abuse as few written, expressive, and media contents containing offensive content are posted. Once the comments are posted, these comments are removed only after being reported and analyzed.
[0005] It has also been observed that most of these platforms are designed with a static onboarding process where every user onboarding on a particular social media platform has to go through the same set of processes, irrespective of their profile.
[0006] So, even though many users want to experience these platforms, they avoid these platforms due to one or more reasons cited above. There exist a need for systems and methods for enabling social media experience that overcomes some of the above-highlighted issues and other issues of existing social media platforms.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

[0007] An object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for enabling social media experience without the risk of exposing personal data.
[0008] An object of the present invention is to provide an efficient user onboarding experience.
[0009] An object of the present invention is to provide a better user engaging platform.
[00010] An object of the present invention is to provide a platform to facilitate the simulated experience of social media,
[00011] An object of the present invention is to provide a social media experience to the user without any risk of exposure to unwanted content.
[00012] Another object of the invention is to provide a system and method for providing engagement options based on user profiles.

SUMMARY
[00013] Systems and methods are described for enabling simulated social media experience. In an embodiment, a social media simulation system includes a user onboarding module configured to be executed by one or more processing units to receive onboarding information from a user, an user engagement option generation module configured to generate a plurality of user engagement options based on onboarding information, an user engagement option presentation module configured to present the plurality of user engagement options to the user, a social media post creation module configured to facilitate the creation of a post based on a selection of a user engagement option from the plurality of user engagement options presented to the user; a comment generation module configured to auto-generate one or one simulated reactions using machine learning module based on the post and the onboarding information, and a scoring module configured to generate an influence score based on the post and the one or more simulated reactions.
[00014] In an embodiment, the user may provide onboarding information through an interactive user interface. The onboarding information may be collected by invoking one or more hardware modules (e.g. camera, wearable device, mobile phone, etc.) to collect required onboarding information. The onboarding information includes but is not limited to profile type, age group, a preferred theme, and profile picture. The system may generate a user profile based on the received onboarding information. In an embodiment, the system allows the user to select a specialist profile type or a generalized profile type for creating the user profile. The specialized profile type can be selected from a list of preconfigured specialized profile types, wherein the list of preconfigured specialized profile types includes but are not limited to artist, coder, cook, dancer, fashion designer, gamer, musician, traveler, gardener, sportsperson, blogger, journalist, lawyer, mathematician, engineer, doctor, accountants, etc.
[00015] The user onboarding module allows a user to capture a picture, match the captured picture with a list of animated profile pictures, select the best matching animated profile picture, and associate the best matching profile picture with the user profile. The user onboarding module allows the user to select a profile picture from the list of animated profile pictures.
[00016] The system generates the plurality of user engagement options based on the onboarding information. The plurality of user engagement options includes but are not limited to a food-related engagement option, a meme related engagement option, a travel-related user engagement option, an artist-specific engagement option, a coder specific engagement option, a dancer specific engagement option, a fashion designer specific engagement option, a gamer specific engagement option, a musician specific engagement option, a gardener specific engagement option, a sportsperson specific engagement option, a blogger specific engagement option, a journalist specific engagement option, a lawyer specific engagement option, a mathematician specific engagement option, an engineer specific engagement option, a doctor specific engagement option, and accountants specific engagement option.
[00017] The system allows the user to create the post based invoking appropriate post creation loop associated with the user engagement option, displaying one or more actionable buttons associated with the post creation loop associated with the user engagement option, allowing to select manually exercise the one or more actionable buttons, and posting the post created from the manual selection of the one or more actionable buttons. The system allows the selection of one or more actionable buttons through “swipe and touch” action on the user device.
[00018] Once the post is created, the system generates the plurality of simulated reactions based on the post. The plurality of simulated reactions includes but are not limited to a reaction against one or more emoticons, context-aware textual comments, and context-aware visual comments, wherein the plurality of simulated reactions are created and displayed as feed to the post on the time-based manner where each of the plurality of simulated reactions is posted as a reaction from other user and is posted in randomly time distributed manner.
[00019] The system creates the plurality of simulated reactions in proportion to a number of followers associated with the user profile, a number of virtual friends associated with the user profile, and a credit point balance associated with the user profile.
[00020] The system further computes the influence score using one or more in-game parameters, wherein the one or more in-game parameters include a number of followers associated with the user profile, a number of virtual friends associated with the user profile, and the plurality of simulated reactions created.
[00021]
[00022] The system 200 creates a competitive environment where different users try to maximize their influence score. As mentioned in earlier Para, users may increase their influence score by engaging more with the system, getting more followers, comments reaction, likes, etc. The system allows users to improve influence score by paying through virtual coins.
[00023] As one may appreciate, the proposed system doesn’t collect data that are personal in nature as most of the content is generated in a simulated manner. Even the profile picture used is selected from the list of preconfigured animated profile pictures. The comments are system generated and hence leave the possibility of unwanted content. As one may appreciate, the system provides all features of a typical social media platform but can overcome the issues described in the background section.
[00024] Other features embodiments of the present invention will be apparent from accompanying drawings and detailed description that follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[00025] The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, similar components and/or features may have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguishable by following the reference label with a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description applies to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label.
[00026] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary networked environment in which social media simulation system facilitates the engagement of users in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[00027] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary module diagram of a system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[00028] FIG. 3 an example block diagram illustration implementation of execution of functional components of the system by a different computing device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[00029] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of engagement type selection based option generation in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[00030] FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary profile types and associated engagement options that a user can select in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[00031] FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating automated comment generation based on post and user profiles in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[00032] FIG. 7A is an example user interface presented to a user to receive onboarding information in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[00033] FIG. 7B is an example user interface enabling a user to select a profile picture in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[00034] FIG. 8 illustrates an example user interface enabling selection of profile type in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[00035] FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a user engagement option in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00036] FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a leadership scoreboard generated in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00037] FIG. 11 illustrates an example user profile page created in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00038] FIG. 12 illustrates an example process flow in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00039] FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary process flow in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00040] FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary computer system in which or with which embodiment of the present invention may be utilized.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[00041] In the following description, numerous specific details are outlined in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details.
[00042] Embodiments of the present invention include various steps, which will be described below. The steps may be performed by hardware components or may be embodied in machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processor programmed with the instructions to perform the steps. Alternatively, steps may be performed by a combination of hardware, software, firmware, and/or by human operators.
[00043] Embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a computer program product, which may include a machine-readable storage medium tangibly embodying thereon instructions, which may be used to program a computer (or other electronic devices) to perform a process. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, fixed (hard) drives, magnetic tape, floppy diskettes, optical disks, compact disc read-only memories (CD-ROMs), and magneto-optical disks, semiconductor memories, such as ROMs, PROMs, random access memories (RAMs), programmable read-only memories (PROMs), erasable PROMs (EPROMs), electrically erasable PROMs (EEPROMs), flash memory, magnetic or optical cards, or other types of media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions (e.g., computer programming code, such as software or firmware).
[00044] Various methods described herein may be practiced by combining one or more machine-readable storage media containing the code according to the present invention with appropriate standard computer hardware to execute the code contained therein. An apparatus for practicing various embodiments of the present invention may involve one or more computers (or one or more processors within the single computer) and storage systems containing or having network access to a computer program(s) coded in accordance with various methods described herein, and the method steps of the invention could be accomplished by modules, routines, subroutines, or subparts of a computer program product.
Terminology
[00045] Brief definitions of terms used throughout this application are given below.
[00046] The terms “connected” or “coupled”, and related terms are used in an operational sense and are not necessarily limited to a direct connection or coupling. Thus, for example, two devices may be coupled directly, or via one or more intermediary media or devices. As another example, devices may be coupled in such a way that information can be passed therebetween, while not sharing any physical connection. Based on the disclosure provided herein, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate a variety of ways in which connection or coupling exists in accordance with the aforementioned definition.
[00047] If the specification states a component or feature “may”, “can”, “could”, or “might” be included or have a characteristic, that particular component or feature is not required to be included or have the characteristic.
[00048] As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context dictates otherwise.
[00049] The phrases “in an embodiment,” “according to one embodiment,” and the like generally mean the particular feature, structure, or characteristic following the phrase is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure and may be included in more than one embodiment of the present disclosure. Importantly, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment.
[00050] Exemplary embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. These embodiments are provided so that this invention will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those of ordinary skill in the art. Moreover, all statements herein reciting embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future (i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure).
[00051] Thus, for example, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the diagrams, schematics, illustrations, and the like represent conceptual views or processes illustrating systems and methods embodying this invention. The functions of the various elements shown in the figures may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as hardware capable of executing associated software. Similarly, any switches shown in the figures are conceptual only. Their function may be carried out through the operation of program logic, through dedicated logic, through the interaction of program control and dedicated logic, or even manually, the particular technique being selectable by the entity implementing this invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art further understand that the exemplary hardware, software, processes, methods, and/or operating systems described herein are for illustrative purposes and, thus, are not intended to be limited to any particular named.
[00052] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary networked environment in which social media simulation system facilitates the engagement of users in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, social media simulation platform 106 may allow one or more user device 104a-n to connect to the simulation platform 106 through a network 102. The network 102 may be a WAN, LAN, or the internet. In an embodiment, the simulated platform 106 allows its user to engage using multiple user-engagement options. The platform allows the users 104a-n to create a post, receive system-generated comments, increase its influence score by creating more relevant posts and getting more followers and comments. In an embodiment, the platform 106 may receive comments from a content generation platform 110, which may reside on another computing device and connected to the social media simulation platform 106 through the network 102. In an embodiment, the content generation platform may maintain a plurality of templates profile, profile images, comments, etc, which can be pulled by the social media platform 106 through appropriate Application Program Interface (API). In an embodiment, if the users feel need to improve influence score, platform 106 allows the user to do that by purchasing virtual coins. Virtual coins can be gained by users through different activities and user engagement as well as by payment through a payment gateway 108. As one may appreciate the platform 106 may be access by the user 104a-n through a mobile application, or web-based application.
[00053] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary module diagram of a system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. A social media simulation system 200 provides a mobile application through which a user can engage with the system. Although most embodiments of the present disclosure are described with respect to a mobile application, other forms of interactive user engagement, such as through web interface or TV application, or a VR application with similar features are very well within the score of the present system.
[00054] A social media simulation system 200 includes a user onboarding module 202 configured to be executed by one or more processing units to receive onboarding information from a user, and a user profile creation module 204 configured to create a user profile based on onboarding information. The user onboarding module 200 may present an interactive user interface to receive and capture the onboarding information from the user. The onboarding information includes but is not limited to profile type, age group, a preferred theme, and profile picture. The onboarding information may be collected by invoking one or more hardware modules (e.g. camera, wearable device, mobile phone, etc.) to collect required onboarding information. For example, to capture the image of the user, the user onboarding module 200 may trigger a camera attached to a user device. The user onboarding module 202 allows a user to capture a picture, match the captured picture with a list of animated profile pictures, select the best matching animated profile picture, and associate the best matching profile picture with the user profile. The user onboarding module allows the user to select a profile picture from the list of animated profile pictures. In an embodiment, the system 200 allows the user to select a specialist profile type or a generalized profile type for creating the user profile. The specialized profile type can be selected from a list of preconfigured specialized profile types, wherein the list of preconfigured specialized profile types includes but are not limited to artist, coder, cook, dancer, fashion designer, gamer, musician, traveler, gardener, sportsperson, blogger, journalist, lawyer, mathematician, engineer, doctor, accountants, etc. The module 202 may request some profile-specific information.
[00055] The user profile creation module 204 creates the user profile based on onboarding information. The user profile creation module 204 may abstract some of the private information of the user and generate modified bibliographic information that can be used by the mobile application. As one may appreciate, the user private information will not be shared with any other user and only the abstracted bibliographic information will be visible to other user users.
[00056] The system 200 further includes a user engagement option generation module 206 configured to generate a plurality of user engagement options based on onboarding information, an user engagement option presentation module 208 configured to present the plurality of user engagement options to the user, a social media post creation module 210 configured to facilitate the creation of a post based on the selection of a user engagement option from the plurality of user engagement options presented to the user; a comment generation module 212 configured to auto-generate one or one simulated reactions using machine learning module based on the post and the onboarding information, and a scoring module 214 configured to generate an influence score based on the post and the one or more simulated reactions. The system includes a dashboard module 216 configured to present a live score of the user and compare the overall score of the user with the overall scores of other users.
[00057] The engagement option generation module 206 generates the plurality of user engagement options based on the onboarding information. The plurality of user engagement options includes but are not limited to a food-related engagement option, a meme related engagement option, a travel-related user engagement option, an artist-specific engagement option, a coder specific engagement option, a dancer specific engagement option, a fashion designer specific engagement option, a gamer specific engagement option, a musician specific engagement option, a gardener specific engagement option, a sportsperson specific engagement option, a blogger specific engagement option, a journalist specific engagement option, a lawyer specific engagement option, a mathematician specific engagement option, an engineer specific engagement option, a doctor specific engagement option, and accountants specific engagement option.
[00058] Depending on the profile type selected by the user during onboarding, one or more engagement options will be recommended to the user. For example, if the user selects the specialist profile type, let’s say a gamer, a gamer specific engagement options will be presented to the user. For a generalized profile type, the user engagement option generation module 206 may present a food-related engagement option, a meme related engagement option, and a travel-related user engagement option.
[00059] The system 200 provides flexibility to the user to choose other profile types and also maintain multiple profile types to explore different engagement options.
[00060] The user engagement option presentation 208 presents the one or more user engagement options to the user to choose a particular user engagement option. For example, if module 208 may present a food-related engagement option, the meme related user engagement option and the travel-related user engagement user. The user may choose one of these options to engage at any given point of time. In an embodiment, the system 200 may recommend an engagement option based on time of the day, past user history, and active trend among active users of the system.
[00061] In an embodiment, the social media post creation module 210 allows the user to create the post based by invoking an appropriate post creation loop associated with the user engagement option. The system maintains a mapping of engagement options with one or more actionable buttons. The module 210 may display one or more actionable buttons associated with the post creation loop associated with the user engagement option, allow to manually exercise the one or more actionable buttons, and post the content created from the manual selection of the one or more actionable buttons. The system allows the selection of one or more actionable buttons through swipe and touches action on the user device. Out of all existing options, module 210 may select one or more actionable buttons depending on the time of the day, preference of the user, and trend among other users.
[00062] In an embodiment, for food-related user engagement option, the module 210 may determine depending on time what meal choice (e.g. breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, etc.) to present to the user. The module 210 may present food items to prepare depending on the meal choice. The user may select a food item from the list of food items presented to prepare or cook. The module 210 may further present one or more ingredients required for preparing the selected food item. The user may use swap and touch gestures to select ingredients and add for preparation. Once the food is prepared, module 210 allows the user to move the prepare food items, which is all the virtual representation, to view the food items in 3D space. The module 210 allows the user to take picture of the food item and post it on the social media simulation platform. Module 210 may allow other actions, such as eating of food, with specific sound effects to create a feeling of eating the items. Depending on the food item prepared, appropriate munching sounds can be introduced. Module 210 allows the user to add a description and create a post with pictures and descriptions on the social media simulation platform.
[00063] Similarly, module 210 may present appropriate actionable buttons for food loops. In an embodiment, for a travel-related engagement, the module 210 may allow the user to select a destination to visit, take an appropriate transport mode, take pictures during travel, recommend tourist places for selected destination, allow the user to virtually visit that a selected tourist place, take a picture at the selected tourist place and create an appropriate post on the social media simulation platform.
[00064] In an embodiment, for a meme related engagement option, module 210 may allow the user to select a theme from a list of available themes, add a description to a theme and create a post with meme.
[00065] Once the post is created, the comment generation module 212 generates the plurality of simulated reactions based on the post. The plurality of simulated reactions includes but are not limited to a reaction against one or more emoticons, context-aware textual comments, and context-aware visual comments, wherein the plurality of simulated reactions are created and displayed as feed to the post on the time-based manner where each of the plurality of simulated reactions is posted as a reaction from other user and is posted in randomly time distributed manner. The system creates the plurality of simulated reactions in a proposal to a number of followers associated with the user profile, a number of virtual friends associated with the user profile, and a credit point balance associated with the user profile.
[00066] In an embodiment, the scoring module 214 further computes the influence score using one or more in-game parameters, wherein the one or more in-app parameters includes a number of followers associated with the user profile, a number of virtual friends associated with the user profile, and the plurality of simulated reactions created. The scoring module 212 updated the user influence score based on the engagement level of the user and in-App purchases. The system allows users to buy comments, followers by paying through virtual coins.
[00067] In an embodiment, a dashboard module 214 maintains an updated score of the user and may display scores of other users. The system 200 creates a competitive environment where different users try to maximize their influence score. As mentioned in earlier Para, users may increase their influence score by engaging more with the system, getting more followers, comments reaction, likes, etc. The system allows users to improve influence score by paying through virtual coins.
[00068] As one may appreciate, the proposed system doesn’t collect data that are personal in nature as most of the content is generated in a simulated manner. Even the profile picture used is selected from the list of preconfigured animated profile pictures. The comments are system generated and hence leave the possibility of unwanted content. As one may appreciate, the system provides all features of a typical social media platform but can overcome the issues described in the background section.
[00069] FIG. 3 an example block diagram illustration implementation of execution of functional components of the system by a different computing device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the social media simulation system 200, also referred to as social media simulation platform 306 (same as social media simulation platform 106) on a server 304 and all user device 302a-n to connect through a mobile app or web browser. The server may maintain remote database 308 of user-profiles and comments. Although the database 308 is shown as a single entity, in actual implementation data related to users may be saved in a distributed manner and can be localized for efficient performance. Different instances of server 304 can also be localized for better performance of the system. The server 304 may store and pull data from database 306 through network 308. The platform 306 allows users to engage and compete from anywhere depending on the configuration done by an administrator.
[00070] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of engagement type selection based option generation in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. A user may engage with the system using the engagement option of his choice. In an embodiment, profile creation module 406 (same as profile generation module 204) may receive onboarding inputs 402 and/or camera feed and generate a profile 408 for the user. The profile generation module 406 abstracts and masks private data of the user before creating a profile. For example, even if the user provides an actual picture, the platform will match it will avatars and animated characters in its database and associate the best matching picture with the user profile. Module 406 may present a few matching options to the user and allows the user to select the profile picture. In an embodiment, module 406 may also allow a user to generate a new profile picture from scratch through an interactive interface. Once the profile 408 is created, the system supplies the profile 408 to engagement option generation module 410. The engagement option generation module 410 generates engagement options also referred to as engagement categories 412 and present engagement specific loop to the user. As mentioned earlier, the system may present engagement options based on the type of profile selected by the user at the time of creating a profile.
[00071] FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary profile types and associated engagement options that a user can select in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, profile type 502 includes specialized 504 profiles and a generalized 506 profile. The specialized profile 504 provides an option for the user to select a specialized profile, such as Art, 508, cooking 510, dance 512, fashion 514, gaming 516, music 518, and others 520. The system generates engagement options based on the profile type selected by the user. In an embodiment, if the user selects a generalized 506 profile, the system may generate one or more general engagement options, such as food 522 specific option, meme 524 specific option, and travel 526 specific option. The system allows users to create a post based on the selection of one of the engagement options.
[00072] FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating automated comment generation based on post and user profiles in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, a content generation module 602 may receive post and user profile information and generate context-aware reactions. The content generation module 602 employs a machine learning module 604 to generate context-aware reactions. The machine learning module 604 may be a supervised learning system trained with sampled data. In a preferred embodiment, machine learning module 604 may use a neural network to generate context-aware comments. These comments may be posted as feed on the random time interval to create a feeling that actual users are commenting on their post. The system may generate sarcastic, witty, appreciative, funny, formal comments. Note of the comments may be determined based on the post profile of the user. The module 602 may also use a comment database 606 to find best matching comments for a given post. Different reactions, such as like, comment, share, etc. can be generated by the comment generation module 602.
[00073] FIG. 7A is an example user interface presented to a user to receive onboarding information in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7A, a mobile application presents a user interface 700 for receiving onboarding information. The user may provide his actual name, username to be used on the platform, gender, and other bibliographic information. The application may present a default picture to the user and allow the user to change the picture by clicking the change photo button.
[00074] FIG. 7B is an example user interface enabling a user to select a profile picture in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. When the user clicks on the change photo button, the application may present a few options and allow the user to select one profile picture. In addition to proving bibliographic information and selecting a picture, the user may also select a profile type or topic based on which engagement categories will be presented to the user.
[00075] FIG. 8 illustrates an example user interface enabling selection of profile type in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, the application may provide options political, fashion, or gaming topics. Based on the selection of one particular topic engagement options may be generated. In an embodiment, the user may select more than one topic.
[00076] FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a user engagement option in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 9, an engagement option related to dressing may be presented to the user if he selects fashion as a category. As one may appreciate the mapping of engagement options with topic or profile type is not one to one. In an embodiment, the system may present the dressing engagement option for the travel loop as well. The system determines which one or more engagement options to present to the user depending on the profile. In the present example, the user is presented with a dressing related engagement option, where the user may dress an avatar using different wardrobe items. The system intelligently recommends wardrobe items to the user. The system may present a theme for which the user wants to dress and may recommend one or more wardrobe items accordingly. For example, for a party theme wardrobe items presented will be different from a format meeting theme. The system may highlight one or more items more prominently than others and may opportunistically sell virtual items. In an embodiment, the system may allow users to buy clothes and other wardrobe items and then dress the avatar with those items. In an embodiment, the system may show estimated likes and comments that the user may gain if the user selects a particular item. The user may use touch and swap gesture to select items and apply on the avatar. The system may allow the user to take a picture of the avatar's different angle by moving the avatar in 3D. The user can post the picture of the platform and may receive comments.
[00077] FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a leadership scoreboard generated in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Base on the post, the system may generate context-aware comments and assign an influence score. As shown in FIG. 10, the system may present a score of other users to create a competitive environment. The system may show through the app, a leaderboard reflecting scores of other users on the platform. The leaderboard may be presented for global users or friends. The leaderboard can also be presented to reflect top scorer on the week or month or lifetime top users. A leaderboard can be created based on other parameters as well. For example, the leaderboard may be created based on topic or profile types.
[00078] FIG. 11 illustrates an example user profile page created in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. A user may also view this overall profile through a user dashboard. The system may show a live dashboard of the user to reflect all their engagement. For example, the system may show how much coins of different categories (gold, silver, platinum, etc.) users have, how many memes user has posted, how many food-related posts the user has created, how many travel-related posts the user has created, and how many selfie user has created, how many different wardrobe items user owns, etc.
[00079] FIG. 12 illustrates an example process flow in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 12, a method that can be executed by the social media simulation platform in a distributed manner over a server, and one or more user devices may allow a user to select a profile type 1202. The platform provides two primary categories, namely a specialized 1204 profile and a generalized 1206 profile to the user to select. The platform may pull a list of available profile specialized profiles from a database 1208 and display the options to the user. Depending on the profile type selected, the method generates one or more engagement options. For example, for a generalized 1206 profile, the method may present food 1210 related engagement option, meme 1212 related engagement option, and travel 1214 related engagement option. The platform may invoke an appropriate loop depending on the selected engagement option and allow the user to create a post. The platform may wait for the post to upload as shown at block 1218, and start posting reactions after a time duration. The time duration may be determined based on the post. For some posts, reactions can be posted instantly while other posts' reactions can be posted after some wait time. Reaction from different virtual users may be posted at a different time interval.
[00080] The platform may also determine the order of reaction posting from different virtual users based on the reaction of the user observed on posting of the virtual users in the past. If the user normally likes or comment on the reaction of the virtual user, comments from that virtual user may be posted first. The platform posts reactions in proportion to available coins or credit in the user’s account. The platform checks if the user is receiving enough reactions or not as shown at block 1228. If the platform determines that the user is not getting enough reaction (e.g. likes or comments), the platform may present different options to the user to recharge credit. The platform may present options, such as buy subscription 1230, use gold 1232, and watch ads 1234. The platform may support e-commerce and may provide a subscription of real service that a user can choose and credit the user for that subscription. The platform grants credit to the user for subscription as the platform may gain some reference bonus forms the subscribed services. Similarly, the platform allows the user to watch an ad and get credits. The platform also allows users to buy gold by paying through a suitable payment gateway or coins. The platform reward user based on followers gained and updated the influence score of the user accordingly.
[00081] FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary process flow in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. A method 1300 includes steps of receiving at a server onboarding information from a user through a user device as shown at block 1302, generating a user profile based on the onboarding information as shown at block 1304, generating at the server a plurality of user engagement options based on the onboarding information as shown at block 1306, presenting, the plurality of user engagement options on a display screen to the user device as shown at block 1308, creating a post based on a selection of a user engagement option from the plurality of user engagement options presented to the user on the user device as shown at block 1310, automatically generating a plurality of simulated reactions in a time-based manner using machine learning module based on the post and the onboarding information as shown at block 1312 and generating an influence score based on the post and the one or more simulated reactions as shown at block 1314.
[00082] FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary computer system in which or with which embodiments of the present invention may be utilized. As shown in FIG. 14, a computer system includes an external storage device 1410, a bus 1420, a main memory 1430, a read-only memory 1440, a mass storage device 1450, a communication port 1460, and a processor 1470.
[00083] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a computer system 1400 may include more than one processor 1470 and communication ports 1460. Examples of processor 1470 include, but are not limited to, an Intel® Itanium® or Itanium 2 processor(s), or AMD® Opteron® or Athlon MP® processor(s), Motorola® lines of processors, FortiSOC™ system on chip processors or other future processors. Processor 1470 may include various modules associated with embodiments of the present invention.
[00084] Communication port 1460 can be any of an RS-232 port for use with a modem-based dialup connection, a 10/100 Ethernet port, a Gigabit or 10 Gigabit port using copper or fiber, a serial port, a parallel port, or other existing or future ports. Communication port 760 may be chosen depending on a network, such as a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), or any network to which the computer system connects.
[00085] Memory 1430 can be Random Access Memory (RAM), or any other dynamic storage device commonly known in the art. Read-Only Memory 1440 can be any static storage device(s) e.g., but not limited to, a Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM) chips for storing static information e.g. start-up or BIOS instructions for processor 1470.
[00086] Mass storage 1450 may be any current or future mass storage solution, which can be used to store information and/or instructions. Exemplary mass storage solutions include, but are not limited to, Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard disk drives or solid-state drives (internal or external, e.g., having Universal Serial Bus (USB) and/or Firewire interfaces), e.g. those available from Seagate (e.g., the Seagate Barracuda 7200 family) or Hitachi (e.g., the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000), one or more optical discs, Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) storage, e.g. an array of disks (e.g., SATA arrays), available from various vendors including Dot Hill Systems Corp., LaCie, Nexsan Technologies, Inc. and Enhance Technology, Inc.
[00087] Bus 1420 communicatively couples processor(s) 1470 with the other memory, storage, and communication blocks. Bus 1420 can be, e.g. a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) / PCI Extended (PCI-X) bus, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), USB or the like, for connecting expansion cards, drives and other subsystems as well as other buses, such a front side bus (FSB), which connects processor 1470 to a software system.
[00088] Optionally, operator and administrative interfaces, e.g. a display, keyboard, and a cursor control device, may also be coupled to bus 1420 to support direct operator interaction with the computer system. Other operator and administrative interfaces can be provided through network connections connected through communication port 1460. An external storage device 1410 can be any kind of external hard-drives, floppy drives, IOMEGA® Zip Drives, Compact Disc - Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM), Compact Disc - Re-Writable (CD-RW), Digital Video Disk - Read Only Memory (DVD-ROM). The components described above are meant only to exemplify various possibilities. In no way should the aforementioned exemplary computer system limit the scope of the present disclosure.
While embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it will be clear that the invention is not limited to these embodiments only. Numerous modifications, changes, variations, substitutions, and equivalents will be apparent to those skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as described in the claims.
ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION

[00089] The proposed invention provides a system and method for enabling social media experience without the risk of exposing personal data.
[00090] The proposed invention provides an efficient user onboarding experience.
[00091] The proposed invention provides a better user engaging platform.
[00092] The proposed invention provides a platform to facilitate the simulated experience of social media,
[00093] The proposed invention provides a social media experience to the user without any risk of exposure to unwanted content.
[00094] The proposed invention provides a system and method for providing engagement options based on a user profile.

Claims:1. A social media simulation system, comprising:
a user onboarding module (202) configured, to be executed by one or more processing units, to receive at a server onboarding information from a user through a user device;
a user profile generation module (204) configured, to generate a user profile based on the onboarding information
a user engagement option generation module (206) configured to generate, by one or more processing units at the server, a plurality of user engagement options based on the onboarding information;
a user engagement option presentation module (208) configured to present the plurality of user engagement options on a display screen to the user device;
a social media post creation module (210) configured to facilitate the creation of a post based on a selection of a user engagement option from the plurality of user engagement options presented to the user on the user device;
a comment generation module (212) configured to automatically generate, by the one or more processing units at the server, a plurality of simulated reactions in a time-based manner using machine learning module based on the post and the onboarding information; and
a scoring module (214) configured to generate an influence score based on the post and the one or more simulated reactions.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user onboarding module is configured to allow a user to provide onboarding information through an interactive user interface and invoking one or more hardware modules to collect required onboarding information.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the onboarding information comprising any or combination of a profile type, age group, a preferred theme, and a profile picture.
4. The system of claim 2, wherein the user onboarding module presents the user an option to select a specialist profile type or a generalized profile type.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein the specialized profile type is selected from a list of preconfigured specialized profile types, wherein the list of preconfigured specialized profile types comprises an artist, a coder, a cook, a dancer, a fashion designer, a gamer, a musician, a traveler, a gardener, a sports person, a blogger, a journalist, a lawyer, a mathematician, an engineer, a doctor, and accountants.
6. The system of claim 3, wherein the profile picture is manually selected by the user from a list of preconfigured animated profile pictures or is selected by matching a user captured picture with the list of preconfigured animated profile pictures.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user engagement options comprises a food-related engagement option, a meme related engagement option, a travel-related user engagement option, an artist-specific engagement option, a coder specific engagement option, a dancer specific engagement option, a fashion designer specific engagement option, a gamer specific engagement option, a musician specific engagement option, a gardener specific engagement option, a sportsperson specific engagement option, a blogger specific engagement option, a journalist specific engagement option, a lawyer specific engagement option, a mathematician specific engagement option, an engineer specific engagement option, a doctor specific engagement option, and accountants specific engagement option.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the creation of the post based on the selection of a user engagement option comprises –
invoking, by the one more processor, a post creation loop associated with the user engagement option;
displaying, at the user device, one or more actionable buttons associated with the post creation loop associated with the user engagement option;
allowing, the user at the user device, to select manually exercise the one or more actionable buttons; and
posting, by the user device, the post created from the manual selection of the one or more actionable buttons, wherein the one or more actionable buttons are selected through swipe and touch action of the user on the user device.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of simulated reactions comprises reaction against one or more emoticons, context-aware textual comments, and context-aware visual comments, wherein the plurality of simulated reactions are created and displayed as feed to the post on a time-based manner where each of the plurality of simulated reactions is posted as a reaction from other user and is posted in randomly time distributed manner.
10. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processing units, cause the one or more processing units to carry out steps comprising-
receiving, at a server, onboarding information from a user through a user device;
generating a user profile based on the onboarding information;
generating, at the server, a plurality of user engagement options based on the onboarding information;
presenting, the plurality of user engagement options on a display screen to the user device;
creating a post based on a selection of a user engagement option from the plurality of user engagement options presented to the user on the user device;
automatically generating, at the server, a plurality of simulated reactions in a time-based manner using a machine learning module based on the post and the onboarding information; and
generating an influence score based on the post and the one or more simulated reactions.
11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the onboarding information is received through an interactive user interface and by invoking one or more hardware modules to collect required onboarding information.
12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the onboarding information comprising any or combination of a profile type, age group, a preferred theme, and a profile picture.
13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein during onboarding the user an option to select a specialist profile type or a generalized profile type.
14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the specialized profile type is selected from a list of preconfigured specialized profile types, wherein the list of preconfigured specialized profile types comprises an artist, a coder, a cook, a dancer, a fashion designer, a gamer, a musician, a traveler, a gardener, a sports person, a blogger, a journalist, a lawyer, a mathematician, an engineer, a doctor, and accountants.
15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the profile picture is manually selected by the user from a list of preconfigured animated profile pictures or is selected by matching a user captured picture with the list of preconfigured animated profile pictures.
16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the plurality of user engagement options comprises a food-related engagement option, a meme related engagement option, a travel-related user engagement option, an artist-specific engagement option, a coder specific engagement option, a dancer specific engagement option, a fashion designer specific engagement option, a gamer specific engagement option, a musician specific engagement option, a gardener specific engagement option, a sportsperson specific engagement option, a blogger specific engagement option, a journalist specific engagement option, a lawyer specific engagement option, a mathematician specific engagement option, an engineer specific engagement option, a doctor specific engagement option, and accountants specific engagement option.
17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the creation of the post based on the selection of a user engagement option comprises –
invoking, by the one more processor, a post creation loop associated with the user engagement option;
displaying, at the user device, one or more actionable buttons associated with the post creation loop associated with the user engagement option;
allowing, the user at the user device, to select manually exercise the one or more actionable buttons; and
posting, by the user device, the post created from the manual selection of the one or more actionable buttons, wherein the one or more actionable buttons are selected through swipe and touch action of the user on the user device.
18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the plurality of simulated reactions comprises reaction against one or more emoticons, context-aware textual comments, and context-aware visual comments, wherein the plurality of simulated reactions are created and displayed as feed to the post on a time-based manner, where each of the plurality of simulated reactions is posted as reactions from other user and is posted in randomly time distributed manner.
19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the plurality of simulated reactions are in proportion to a number of followers associated with the user profile, a number of virtual friends associated with the user profile, and a credit point balance associated with the user profile.
20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the influence score is computed using one or more in-game parameters comprising of a number of followers associated with the user profile, a number of virtual friends associated with the user profile, and the plurality of simulated reactions created.