Systems and methods for real time upgrades

• US 10,262,335 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2014
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: StubHub, Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Zises, Matthew Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdi, Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Scott C
• Application Number:
  US14/187,200
• Publication Number:
  US 20150242888A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,880 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals

Abstract

A system can offer an enhanced event experience for users of the system by tracking the locations of the users during a purchased-access event such as a ticketed event and offering real time location-based upgrades to the users. The locations of users can be used to determine a demonstrated interest by the user for a particular location or product in the event venue and to offer upgrades tailored to that demonstrated interest. For example, a concert attendee with a ticket for a particular seat may be detected a location relatively far from the user'"'"'s seat such as a location near a seat of a friend of the user. The system can detect the user'"'"'s location, identify available seats near the user'"'"'s location, and offer the user an upgrade to the identified available seats. Location-based upgrades can also be provided in airplanes, hotels, cruise ships, or other venues or events.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more wireless beacons;

a communication module;

a non-transitory memory; and

one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory, the one or more wireless beacons, and the communication module, and configured to execute instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising;

electronically tracking an attendee location of an attendee as the attendee moves through a venue at an event based at least on a communication received at the communication module from a mobile device of the attendee with the one or more wireless beacons in the venue, wherein the communication is based at least in part on a broadcast token wirelessly transmitted by the one or more wireless beacons and wirelessly received by the mobile device, wherein the electronically tracking the attendee location at the venue comprises;

wirelessly transmitting the broadcast token by the one or more wireless beacons;

wirelessly receiving at the communication module a first indication in the communication from the mobile device via the one or more wireless beacons, the first indication including a first response to the broadcast token, the first response including an electronic identifier of the attendee;

wirelessly receiving at the communication module a second indication in the communication from the mobile device via the one or more wireless beacons, the second indication including a second response to the broadcast token, the second response including the electronic identifier of the attendee; and

determining, based on a difference in the first indication and the second indication that the attendee location moved from a first area of the venue to a second area of the venue, wherein the second indication indicating the second area is larger than a single seat;

electronically accessing a seat database and identifying, using the second area of the venue, a set of vacant seats in the venue that are proximate to the second area of the venue;

electronically accessing over a network a purchase history database and identifying in the purchase history database, using the electronic identifier of the attendee and payment information associated with the attendee, past purchases of the attendee associated with one or more other events;

electronically accessing over the network a ticket database and selecting a vacant seat from the set of vacant seats in the venue from the ticket database based on the attendee location being in the second area and based on the past purchases of the attendee, wherein selecting the vacant seat from the set of vacant seats includes;

identifying at least one common characteristic between the past purchases and the vacant seat; and

selecting the vacant seat based on the at least one common characteristic;

transmitting by the communication module over the network an offer transmission, the offer transmission configured to cause an application of the mobile device to generate a pop up window and cause a graphical user interface (GUI) of the mobile device to display an offer to upgrade to the vacant seat; and

receiving at the communication module an acceptance of the offer to upgrade to the vacant seat, the acceptance based on a touch-sense input detected at the GUI of the mobile device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that an amount of time the attendee is at the second area corresponds to a threshold amount of time,

wherein the vacant seat in the venue is determined based at least on the amount of time that the attendee is at the second area corresponding to the threshold amount of time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an attendee selection of a given seat from the vacant seat, wherein the acceptance of the offer to upgrade is further based on an transaction for the given seat selected; and

providing an electronic upgrade receipt to the mobile device of the attendee based at least on the of the transaction for the given seat.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the upgrade comprises a package upgrade that includes the upgrade to the vacant seat and a concession package.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the venue comprises an airplane and wherein the upgrade to the vacant seat comprises an vacant airplane seat.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the attendee location comprises a location of a reserved seat of the attendee with a first view of an attraction area in the venue, and

wherein the upgrade corresponds to a vacant seat identified from the vacant seat with a second view of the attraction area that is closer to the attraction area than the first view.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a distance from the attendee location to a reserved seat for the attendee; and

determining the attendee is away from the reserved seat for an amount of time based at least on the distance determined, and

wherein the upgrade is displayed in response to the amount of time the attendee is away from the reserved seat being greater than first threshold.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the attendee location comprises a current location or a time-averaged location.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the attendee has previously purchased a ticket for a seat at the event at the venue, wherein the operations further comprise:

designating the seat as being a vacant seat in the purchase history database responsive to determining the acceptance of the offer to upgrade; and

offering the seat to a second attendee based on a location of the second attendee in the venue.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer to upgrade to the vacant seat is displayed via the GUI of the mobile device during the event in the venue, wherein the vacant seat is associated with the event.

11. A method, comprising:

electronically tracking, by one or more hardware processors, an attendee location of an attendee as the attendee moves through a venue at an event based at least on a communication received at a communication module from a mobile device of the attendee with one or more wireless beacons in the venue, wherein the communication with the mobile device is based at least in part on a broadcast token wirelessly transmitted based on instructions from the one or more hardware processors and wirelessly received by the mobile device, wherein the electronically tracking the attendee location at the venue comprises;

wirelessly transmitting the broadcast token by one or more wireless beacons;

wirelessly receiving at the communication module a first indication in the communication from the mobile device via the one or more wireless beacons, the first indication including a first response to the broadcast token, the first response including an electronic identifier of the attendee;

wirelessly receiving at the communication module a second indication in the communication from the mobile device via the one or more wireless beacons, the second indication including a second response to the broadcast token, the second response including the electronic identifier of the attendee; and

determining, based on a difference in the first indication and the second indication that the attendee location moved from a first area of the venue to a second area of the venue, wherein the second indication indicating the second area is larger than a single seat;

electronically accessing a seat database and identifying using the second area of the venue, a set of vacant locations in the venue that are proximate to the second area of the venue;

electronically accessing over a network a purchase history database and identifying in the purchase history database, using the electronic identifier of the attendee and payment information associated with the attendee, past purchases of the attendee;

electronically accessing over the network a ticket database and selecting a vacant location from the set of vacant locations in the venue from the ticket database based on the attendee location and the past purchases of the attendee, wherein selecting the vacant location from the set of vacant locations includes;

identifying at least one common characteristic between the past purchases and the vacant location; and

selecting the vacant location based on the at least one common characteristic;

transmitting by the communication module over the network an offer transmission, the offer transmission configured to cause an application of the mobile device to generate a pop up window and cause a graphical user interface (GUI) of the mobile device to display an offer to upgrade to the vacant location; and

receiving at the communication module an acceptance of the offer to upgrade to the vacant location, the acceptance based on a touch-sense input detected at the GUI of the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the pop up window runs on the mobile device and the pop up window displays a description of the vacant location on the GUI of the mobile device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the venue comprises an attraction area,

wherein the identifying the set of vacant locations comprises determining that the vacant location from the set of vacant locations is closer to the attraction area than the attendee location, and

wherein the pop up window further indicates the vacant location is closer to the attraction area than the attendee location.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the venue comprises a concession stand,

wherein identifying the set of vacant locations comprises determining that the vacant location from the set of vacant locations is closer to the concession stand than the attendee location, and

wherein the pop up window further indicates the vacant location is closer to the concession stand than the attendee location.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a second communication from an associate of the attendee; and

identifying a second location that corresponds to the associate of the attendee,

wherein identifying the set of vacant locations comprises determining that the vacant location from the set of vacant locations is closer to the second location that corresponds to the associate than the attendee location.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the pop up window further indicates that the vacant location is closer to the associate of the attendee than the attendee location.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the venue comprises a venue selected from the group consisting of:

an airplane, a hotel, and a cruise ship.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

electronically tracking an attendee location of an attendee as the attendee moves through a venue at an event based at least on a communication received at a communication module from a mobile device of the attendee with one or more wireless beacons in the venue;

wherein the communication with the mobile device is based at least in part on a broadcast token wirelessly transmitted and wirelessly received by the mobile device, wherein the electronically tracking the attendee location at the venue comprises;

wirelessly transmitting the broadcast token by one or more wireless beacons;

wirelessly receiving at the communication module a first indication in the communication from the mobile device via the one or more wireless beacons, the first indication including a first response to the broadcast token, the first response including an electronic identifier of the attendee;

wirelessly receiving at the communication module a second indication in the communication from the mobile device via the one or more wireless beacons, the second indication including a second response to the broadcast token, the second response including the electronic identifier of the attendee; and

determining, based on a difference in the first indication and the second indication that the attendee location moved from a first area of the venue to a second area of the venue, wherein the second indication indicating the second area is larger than a single seat;

electronically accessing a seat database and identifying, using the second area of the venue, a set of vacant seats in the venue that are proximate to the second area of the venue;

electronically accessing over a network a purchase history database and identifying in the purchase history database, using the electronic identifier of the attendee and payment information associated with the attendee, past purchases of the attendee associated with one or more other events;

electronically accessing over the network a ticket database and selecting a vacant seat from the set of vacant seats in the venue from the ticket database based on the attendee location being in the second area and based on the past purchases of the attendee, wherein selecting the vacant seat from the set of vacant seats includes;

identifying at least one common characteristic between the past purchases and the vacant seat; and

selecting the vacant seat based on the at least one common characteristic;

transmitting by the communication module over the network an offer transmission, the offer transmission configured to cause an application of the mobile device to generate a pop up window and cause a graphical user interface (GUI) of the mobile device to display an offer to upgrade to the vacant seat; and

receiving at the communication module an acceptance of the offer to upgrade to the vacant seat, the acceptance based on a touch-sense input received by the GUI of the mobile device.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a purchase made by the attendee during the event; and

generating the offer to upgrade to the vacant seat based on the purchase made by the attendee during the event.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the identifying the purchase made by the attendee during the event comprises identifying a venue location associated with a sale of a product.