System and methods for determining location of pop displays with wireless beacons through engagement with mobile devices

• US 10,373,190 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2016
• Issued: 08/06/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ABL IP Holding LLC (Acuity Brands, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Shelfbucks, Inc.
• Inventors: Walden, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Hamilton, Matthew L
• Application Number:
  US15/153,200
• Publication Number:
  US 20170068978A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,181 Days
• Field of Search: 705 14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3212 Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0268 at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/244 using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 : with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 : using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/40 : for selective distribution or broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 : Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Systems and methods for using wireless beacons in point of purchase (“POP”) displays to facilitate the delivery of consumer oriented content to mobile devices is disclosed herein. Wireless beacons may be used to broadcast wireless signals from POP displays, where the wireless signals include data packets with unique identifiers for the wireless beacons. A wireless signal from a POP display may be received by a mobile device. The mobile device may provide the unique identifier in the wireless signal and a geographic location of the mobile device to a remote server. The remote server may assess the location of the POP display based on the unique identifier for the wireless beacon and the provided geographic location of the mobile device.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor;

a display;

a wireless transceiver;

a memory cache; and

a software package installed on the mobile device, the software package comprising a mobile application and a software developer kit (SDK) configured to interpret wireless data packets received by the mobile device;

wherein the mobile device, when positioned at a retail location, is configured to;

receive, from a wireless beacon, a wireless signal through the wireless transceiver, the wireless beacon being located on a circuit board coupled to a point of purchase (POP) display, the POP display comprising a consumer product display, and wherein the wireless signal comprises a data packet with a unique identifier associated with the wireless beacon;

in response to the receiving of the wireless signal, identify a geographic location of the mobile device;

combine the unique identifier associated with the wireless beacon and the geographic location of the mobile device; and

transmit, to a server, the unique identifier and the geographic location to determine the retail location of the wireless beacon, wherein the retail location is unknown to the server prior to the transmittal and a final destination of the wireless beacon and the circuit board of the POP display is not required to be known at a time of manufacture or distribution of the POP display.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the POP display is associated with an advertising campaign or a promotional campaign.

3. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the mobile device retrieves the geographic location of the mobile device from a sensor on the mobile device.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the geographic location of the mobile device comprises a latitude and longitude of the mobile device.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the retail location determined for the wireless beacon comprises a store name and/or a store number associated with a specific retailer.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the server determines the retail location of the wireless beacon based on the unique identifier and the geographic location in combination with information about a group of retail locations associated with the POP display.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device transmits the geographic location of the mobile device and the unique identifier for the wireless beacon to the server when a signal strength between the mobile device and the wireless beacon meets a predefined threshold level in signal strength.

8. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the server determines that the retail location of the wireless beacon has changed in response to receiving, from a second mobile device, a new geographic location and the unique identifier for the wireless beacon.

16. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the POP display is distributed at random to the retail location after the circuit board is coupled to the POP display.

17. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the retail location of the POP display is unknown to the server following distribution of the POP display to the retail location.

9. A method for assessing a location of a point of purchase (POP display), comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device positioned at a retail location, from a wireless beacon, a wireless signal comprising a data packet with a unique identifier associated with the wireless beacon, wherein the wireless beacon is located on a circuit board coupled to a point of purchase (POP) display, the POP display comprising a consumer product display;

in response to the receiving of the wireless signal, identifying, by the mobile device, a geographic location of the mobile device;

combining, by the mobile device, the unique identifier associated with the wireless beacon and the geographic location of the mobile device; and

transmitting, by the mobile device to a server, the unique identifier and the geographic location to determine the retail location of the wireless beacon, wherein the retail location is unknown to the server prior to the transmittal and a final destination of the wireless beacon and the circuit board of the POP display is not required to be known at a time of manufacture or distribution of the POP display.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the POP display is associated with an advertising campaign or a promotional campaign.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the server determines the retail location of the wireless beacon based on the unique identifier and the mobile device'"'"'s geographic location in combination with information about a group of retail locations associated with the POP display.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising transmitting the geographic location of the mobile device and the unique identifier for the wireless beacon to the server using a software development kit (SDK) installed in a software package on the mobile device.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the mobile device receives the data packet comprising the unique identifier when a signal strength between the mobile device and the wireless beacon meets a predefined threshold level in signal strength.

18. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving, by a second mobile device positioned at a second retail location, from the wireless beacon, a second wireless signal comprising a second data packet with the unique identifier associated with the wireless beacon;

in response to the receiving of the second wireless signal, identifying, by the second mobile device, a second geographic location of the second mobile device;

combining, by the second mobile device, the unique identifier associated with the wireless beacon and the second geographic location of the second mobile device; and

transmitting, by the second mobile device to the server, the unique identifier and the second geographic location to determine that a location of the wireless beacon has changed to the second retail location, wherein the second retail location is unknown to the server prior to the transmittal and a change in destination of the wireless beacon and the circuit board of the POP display is not required to be known at a time of manufacture or distribution of the POP display.

14. A non-transient computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform a method, comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device positioned at a retail location, from a wireless beacon, a wireless signal comprising a data packet with a unique identifier associated with the wireless beacon, wherein the wireless beacon is located on a circuit board coupled to a point of purchase (POP) display, the POP display comprising a consumer product display;

in response to the receiving of the wireless signal, identifying, by the mobile device, a geographic location of the mobile device;

combining, by the mobile device, the unique identifier associated with the wireless beacon and the geographic location of the mobile device; and

transmitting, by the mobile device to a server, the unique identifier and the geographic location to determine the retail location of the wireless beacon, wherein the retail location is unknown to the server prior to the transmittal and a final destination of the wireless beacon and the circuit board of the POP display is not required to be known at a time of manufacture or distribution of the POP display.

15. The non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the server determines the retail location of the wireless beacon based on the unique identifier and the mobile device'"'"'s geographic location in combination with information about a group of retail locations associated with the POP display.