System and methods for determining location of consumer product displays with wireless beacons using known wireless beacon locations

• US 10,410,240 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2018
• Issued: 09/10/2019
• 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): Tacsik, Ernest G
• Application Number:
  US15/997,213
• Publication Number:
  US 20180285909A1
• Time in Patent Office: 463 Days
• 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 displays that display consumer products to facilitate the delivery of consumer oriented content to mobile devices is disclosed herein. Wireless beacons may be used to broadcast wireless signals from displays, where the wireless signals include data packets with unique identifiers for the wireless beacons. A first wireless signal from a first display may be received by a mobile device. The mobile device may also receive a second wireless signal from a second display at the same retail location. The mobile device may provide the first and second unique identifiers to a remote server. The remote server may know the location of one of the displays and assess the retail location of the other display based on the receiving both unique identifiers from the same retail location.

Claims

1. A method for assessing a location of a display for displaying one or more consumer products, comprising:

determining, at a remote server, a retail location of a first display for displaying one or more consumer product;

receiving, in a mobile device at the retail location, a first wireless signal comprising a first data packet with a unique identifier associated with a first wireless beacon, the first wireless signal being broadcast by the first wireless beacon, wherein the first wireless beacon is located on a first circuit board coupled to the first display, and wherein the first display is associated with a selected campaign for the consumer products;

receiving, in the mobile device, a second wireless signal comprising a second data packet with a second unique identifier associated with a second wireless beacon, the second wireless signal being broadcast by the second wireless beacon, wherein the second wireless beacon is located on a second circuit board coupled to a second display for displaying one or more consumer products, wherein the second display is associated with the selected campaign;

transmitting, from the mobile device to the remote server, a third data packet comprising the first unique identifier from the first wireless beacon and the second unique identifier from the second wireless beacon, the third data packet being transmitted in response to the mobile device receiving the first and second data packets, wherein the first and second unique identifiers are transmitted in the third data packet by a software package installed on the mobile device;

receiving, at the remote server, the third data packet, and

determining, at the remote server, a location of the second display is the retail location of the first display based on receiving both the first unique identifier and the second unique identifier in the third data packet from the mobile device, wherein the retail location of the second display in unknown to the remote server prior to the receiving of the third data packet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected campaign comprises an advertising campaign or a promotional campaign.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the software package comprises a mobile application and a software developer kit (SDK) configured to interpret wireless data packets received by the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first display has been distributed at random to the retail location and the second display has been distributed at random to the location of the second display, and wherein the retail location and the location of the second display are selected from a plurality of retail locations associated with the selected campaign.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device receives the first data packet and the second data packet in response to a signal strength between the mobile device and the first and second wireless beacons exceeding a predefined threshold level in signal strength.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the retail location of the first display comprises providing the retail location to the remote server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the retail location of the first display comprises:

providing, from an additional mobile device to the remote server, a geographic location of the additional mobile device in response to receiving the first data packet comprising the first unique identifier from the first wireless beacon at the retail location, wherein the geographic location of the additional mobile device is provided by a software package installed on the additional mobile device in response to the additional mobile device receiving the first data packet, and wherein the first unique identifier for the first wireless beacon is provided from the additional mobile device in addition to the geographic location of the additional mobile device; and

determining, using the remote server, the retail location of the first display based on the provided first unique identifier for the first wireless beacon and the provided geographic location of the additional mobile device.

8. 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:

determining, at a remote server, a retail location of a first display for displaying one or more consumer product;

receiving, in a mobile device at the retail location, a first wireless signal comprising a first data packet with a first unique identifier associated with a first wireless beacon, the first wireless signal being broadcast by the first wireless beacon, wherein the first wireless beacon is located on a first circuit board coupled to the first display, and wherein the first display is associated with a selected campaign for the consumer products;

receiving, in the mobile device, a second wireless signal comprising a second data packet with a second unique identifier associated with a second wireless beacon, the second wireless signal being broadcast by the second wireless beacon, wherein the second wireless beacon is located on a second circuit board coupled to a second display for displaying one or more consumer products, wherein the second display is associated with the selected campaign;

transmitting, from the mobile device to the remote server, a third data packet comprising the first unique identifier from the first wireless beacon and the second unique identifier from the second wireless beacon, the third data, packet being transmitted in response to the mobile device receiving the first and second data packets, wherein the first and second unique identifiers are transmitted in the third data packet by a software package installed on the mobile device;

receiving, at the remote server, the third data packet; and

determining, at the remote server, a location of the second display is the retail location of the first display based on receiving both the first unique identifier and the second unique identifier in the third data packet from the mobile device, wherein the retail location of the second display is unknown to the remote server prior to the receiving of the third data packet.

9. The non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the software package comprises a mobile application and a software developer kit (SDK) configured to interpret wireless data packets received by the mobile device.

10. The non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the mobile device receives the first data packet and the second data packet in response to a signal strength between the mobile device and the first and second wireless beacons exceeding a predefined threshold level in signal strength.

11. The non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein determining the retail location of the first display comprises providing the retail location to the remote server.

12. The non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein determining the first retail location of the first display comprises:

providing, from an additional mobile device to the remote server, a geographic location of the additional mobile device in response to receiving the first data packet comprising the first unique identifier from the first wireless beacon at the retail location, wherein the geographic location of the additional mobile device is provided by a software package installed on the additional mobile device in response to the additional mobile device receiving the first data packet, and wherein the first unique identifier for the first wireless beacon is provided from the additional mobile device in addition to the geographic location of the additional mobile device; and

determining, using the remote server, the retail location of the first display based on the provided first unique identifier for the first wireless beacon and the provided geographic location of the additional mobile device.

13. A server configured to determine a location of a display for displaying one or more consumer products, comprising:

a processor;

a wireless transceiver; and

a memory cache;

wherein the server is configured to;

determine a retail location of a first display for displaying one or more consumer products, wherein the first display is associated with a selected campaign for the consumer products;

receive, from a mobile device positioned at the retail location, a data packet comprising a first unique identifier associated with a first wireless beacon and a second unique identifier associated with a second wireless beacon, wherein the first and second unique identifiers are transmitted in the data packet by a software package installed on the mobile device,

wherein the first unique identifier has been received by the mobile device in a first wireless signal broadcast by the first wireless beacon, the first wireless beacon being located on a first circuit board coupled to the first display,

wherein the second unique identifier has been received by the mobile device in a second wireless signal broadcast by the second wireless beacon, the second wireless beacon being located on a second circuit board coupled to a second display for displaying one or more consumer products,

wherein the second display is associated with the selected campaign for the consumer products; and

determine a location of the second display is the retail location of the first display based on receiving both the first unique identifier and the second unique identifier in the data packet from the mobile device, wherein the retail location of the second display is unknown to the server prior to the receiving of the data packet.

14. The server of claim 13, wherein the selected campaign comprises an advertising campaign or a promotional campaign.

15. The server of claim 13, wherein the first display and the second display are configured to be distributed at random to the retail location, the retail location being selected from a plurality of retail locations associated with the selected campaign.

16. The server of claim 13, wherein the server is configured to determine the retail location of the first display prior to receiving the data packet with first unique identifier and the second unique identifier from the mobile device.

17. The server of claim 13, wherein the server is configured to determine the retail location of the first display in response to receiving a data packet comprising a geographic location of a device and the first unique identifier, the server being configured to determine the retail location of the first display based on the geographic location of the device.

18. The server of claim 13, wherein the data packet is transmitted by the mobile device in response to a signal strength between the mobile device and at least one of the first and second wireless beacons exceeding a predefined threshold level in signal strength.

19. The server of claim 13, wherein the data packet is transmitted by the mobile device when the mobile device is at the retail location.

20. The server of claim 13, wherein a the software package installed on the mobile device comprises a mobile application and a software developer kit (SDK) configured to interpret wireless data packets received by the mobile device.