Sports and concert event ticket pricing and visualization system

• US 10,192,174 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2016
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TixTrack, Inc.
• Original Assignee: TixTrack, Inc.
• Inventors: Sunshine, Steven A., Goodman, Rod, Arya, Michael, Chu, Larry, Ripberger, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): JOSEPH, TONYA S
• Application Number:
  US15/387,488
• Publication Number:
  US 20170109662A1
• Time in Patent Office: 769 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/00 Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism healthcare informatics G16H
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A system and method for displaying seat inventory at a venue and facilitating planning of ticket prices for events at the venue is presented. Methods to predict total revenue for an event are described. Also presented are systems and methods for determining at what price and when to release so-called ‘flex’ price tickets during an on-sale using the sales velocity and sales/inquiry ratios. Determining demand of seats from secondary markets is also described with methods to use the demand for either re-pricing the seats in the primary market or presenting ‘best value’ seats to a prospective purchaser.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a mobile computing device, comprising;

a display comprising a surface region, a back plane, and a fixed frame;

a processor configured with the display;

a memory device coupled to the processor;

a scalable vector graphic (SVG) computer code, under control of the processor, configured to output an image of an interactive venue map comprising one or more of a graphic object, a vector graphic, a raster graphic, and text to the display, the image of the interactive venue map being displayed by the display,

where the venue map includes a plurality of graphical objects depicting a plurality of seats and rows, each of the plurality of objects being either a path or a shape;

where the venue map is associated with a live event, the live event including at least an actor or actress, an athlete, a musician, or other performer,

where a particular seat provided within the venue map is selected when the mobile computing device receives a first input, the particular seat being associated with a ticket to purchase the particular seat,

where the SVG computer code is configured to zoom into the particular seat when the mobile computing device receives a second input, and

where the display displays the ticket of the particular seat; and

a gate structure associated with a venue for the event to allow the user to enter into the venue using the ticket, the gate structure including a scanner, the gate structure unlocking a barrier to the venue when the scanner scans the displayed ticket.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the path or shape comprises a fill or a stroke where the fill represents the center of the shape or path and the stroke represents the outline of the shape or path;

wherein the gate structure comprises an access control gate, a turnstile, a vending machine interface, a gaming machine interface, a room door, a merchandise distribution interface, a parking gate, a locker, or a personal storage unit;

wherein the gate structure is opened using an entry process, the entry process uses the ticket to unlock or lock the gate structure, whereupon the unlocking occurs by actuating a sensor to initiate release of a device, comprising a mechanical latch, a movable gate arm, a magnetic lock, or electrical lock, to unlock the gate structure;

whereupon the lock occurs by maintaining the device in a locked state to prevent entry through the gate.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the text comprises a section label.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the scalable vector graphic computer code is XML;

wherein the gate structure comprises an access control gate, a turnstile, a vending machine interface, a gaming machine interface, a room door, a merchandise distribution interface, a parking gate, a locker, or a personal storage unit;

wherein the gate structure is opened using an entry process, the entry process uses the ticket to unlock or lock the gate structure, whereupon the unlocking occurs by actuating a sensor to initiate release of a device, comprising a mechanical latch, a movable gate arm, a magnetic lock, or electrical lock, to unlock the gate structure;

whereupon the lock occurs by maintaining the device in a locked state to prevent entry through the gate.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the seat or row objects contain a hyperlink to a URL.

6. The system of claim 1 an image configured from the SVG computer code inline in an HTML5 web page.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising an event handler configured with JAVASCRIPT to an image object to provide interactivity to a seat map using a tap, click or other touch scream based event, the touch screen based event being at least one of a start, a move and end to providing interactivity for a gesture, the gesture being at least one of a swiping or a zooming.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the SVG computer code is configured to color code a seat map to represent availability or a price level.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising a matrix configured on an SVG computer code comprising a graphic element.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising using a matrix to on an SVG element or using a web kit CSS transform to alter an image on the display within a view box for to cause simulating a pan across a seat map to view different seats or to simulate a zoom within the seat map for more detail.

11. The system of claim 1 further comprising a handler configured to trigger a transform based on the handler caused from a tap, a click and another touch screen based events including at least one of a start, a move and an end.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the SVG computer code comprises the venue map in a .svg format to output an optical seat within the venue map;

wherein the gate structure comprises an access control gate, a turnstile, a vending machine interface, a gaming machine interface, a room door, a merchandise distribution interface, a parking gate, a locker, or a personal storage unit;

wherein the gate structure is opened using an entry process, the entry process uses the ticket to unlock or lock the gate structure, whereupon the unlocking occurs by actuating a sensor to initiate release of a device, comprising a mechanical latch, a movable gate arm, a magnetic lock, or electrical lock, to unlock the gate structure;

whereupon the lock occurs by maintaining the device in a locked state to prevent entry through the gate.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the venue map is configured to be zoomed in and out to provide a local or a global view of an area of interest within the venue map.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the SVG computer code comprises at least one of

style=“

”

, id=“

”

, width=“

”

, height=“

”

, x=“

”

, and y=“

”

.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the SVG computer code comprises a section-row-seat-format and a size and a location of the particular seat to be drawn.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the particular seat is configured with a color code to indicate a price, value, or closeness to a user preference.

17. The system of claim 1 further comprising a scroll or a mouse configured to highlight a list and a view from the particular seat.

18. The system of claim 1 further comprising a venue view configured to be displayed upon a scroll over the particular seat.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising a display of a ticket information upon the scroll over the particular seat.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the ticket information comprises a price or a premium of the particular seat to other similar seats.

21. A method, comprising:

providing an visual image of a venue map on a display having a fixed frame of a mobile device, the mobile device comprising a processor, a transmitter, and a memory device, the visible image being retrieved and outputted the display, the venue map comprising an image of a plurality of individual seats of the venue map and a legend region within a vicinity of the plurality of individual seats or a basket region, the venue map being a scalable vector graphic;

receiving a first input to the mobile device, under control of the processor, to move the plurality of individual seats from a first seat to a second seat using a panning action relative to the fixed frame of the display or increasing a size of at least one or more of the individual seats using a zooming action relative to the fixed frame of the display;

simultaneously with the panning action or zooming action of the plurality of individual seats maintaining the legend region or the basket region in a fixed spatial position relative to the fixed frame of the display;

selecting one of the individual seats by receiving a first user input when the selected seat is outputted on the display of the mobile device;

zooming into the selected seat by receiving a second user input outputting a ticket associated with one of the individual seats by displaying the ticket on the display; and

unlocking a barrier of a gate structure when the ticket displayed on the display of the mobile device is scanned by a scanner, the gate structure including the scanner and being associated with a venue of the venue map.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the venue map is interactive, under control of the processor, and wherein the providing the input comprises selecting one of the plurality of individual seats by a user to output an indication of the venue map;

and further comprising deselecting the selected plurality of individual seats by tapping on a portion of the display within a proximity of the selected seat.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising triggering a purchase indication of the selected seat in the basket region.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the selected seat is deselected by causing an interaction with the basket region of the display.

25. The method of claim 21 further comprising outputting at least one price in the legend region for the selected seat of the venue map.

26. The method of claim 21 wherein the plurality of individual seats in the venue map are color coded;

wherein the legend region outputs additional information associated with the selected seat based the color of the selected seat;

wherein the gate structure comprises an access control gate, a turnstile, a vending machine interface, a gaming machine interface, a room door, a merchandise distribution interface, a parking gate, a locker, or a personal storage unit;

wherein the gate structure is opened using an entry process, the entry process uses the ticket to unlock or lock the gate structure, whereupon the unlocking occurs by actuating a sensor to initiate release of a device, comprising a mechanical latch, a movable gate arm, a magnetic lock, or electrical lock, to unlock the gate structure;

whereupon the lock occurs by maintaining the device in a locked state to prevent entry through the gate.