System and method for providing on-demand responses to inquiries made by information consumers

• US 20020164004A1
• Filed: 12/17/2001
• Published: 11/07/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Promdx Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Promdx Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Szeto, Tze-Yee, Tamura, Ronald
• Application Number:
  US10/025,970
• Publication Number:
  US 20020164004A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/93.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2542 for selling goods, e.g. TV shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8583 by creating hot-spots

Abstract

A system for providing demand responses to inquiries made by information consumers includes a database having a plurality of stored responses corresponding to inquiries made by an information consumer wherein each of the stored responses contains at least one stored item returnable to an information consumer in response to an inquiry. The returnable item of the stored response is of a preferred presentation media type that most effectively presents the returnable item. A real time inquiry response system receives inquiries submitted by information consumers from devices having a communications interface. Means are provided for correlating the consumer inquiries received by the real time inquiry response system with inquiry responses stored within the database. The system further includes device/interface identification means for identifying the communications interface and the communications device from which the inquiry from the information consumer is sent, and a stored item return means associated with the real time inquiry response system determines whether a media type for a stored item of the inquiry response is compatible with the communications interface and communications device. The item of the stored response is returned to a communications device having the communications interface which is compatible with the media type of the item of the stored inquiry response. The media type of a stored item of the inquiry response can further be transformed to a different transformed media type in response to an inquiry requiring the presentation of the item of the stored response in the transformed media type.

Claims

1. A system for providing on-demand responses to inquiries made by information consumers using a variety of communication interfaces and communication devices, comprising

a database having a plurality of stored responses corresponding to inquiries made by an information consumer, each said stored response containing at least one stored item returnable to an information consumer in response to an inquiry, said returnable item being of a preferred presentation media type that most effectively presents said returnable item,

an real time inquiry response system for receiving inquiries submitted by an information consumer from a device having a communications interface,

means for correlating consumer inquiries received by said real time inquiry response system with inquiry responses stored in said database,

device-interface identification means for identifying the communications interface and communications device from which the inquiry from the information consumer is sent, and

stored item return means associated with said real time inquiry response system for determining whether the media type for the at least one stored item of said inquiry response is compatible with the communications interface and communications device from which the inquiry is made, and for returning the item of the stored response to a communications device with a communications interface which is compatible with the media type of the item of the stored inquiry response.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein said stored responses include stored responses having at least two stored items returnable to an information consumer in response to an inquiry, each of said stored items being of a preferred presentation media type that most effectively presents said returnable item, and wherein the stored item return means of said computer processing system determines whether the media type for the stored items of said inquiry response is compatible with the communications interface and communications device from which the inquiry is made, and returns the item of the stored response to a communications device with a communications interface which is compatible with the media type of such item.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein at least two stored items of said stored response have different preferred media types, and wherein said computer processing system further comprises means associated with said real time inquiry response system for selecting the items of the stored response which are the most compatible with the communications interface and communications device from which the inquiry is made, said inquiry response system returning only those items to the communications device which are the most compatible therewith.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the one item of the stored response is of a video media type and another item of the stored response is of a static graphic image media type.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein one item of the stored response is of a video media type and another item of the stored response is of an audio media type.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein one item of the stored response is of a video media type and another item of the stored response is of a text media type.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein one item of the stored response is of an audio media type and another item of the stored response is of a text media type.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein the media types for the at least two items of said stored response are different media types selected from a group consisting of video, a static graphic image, ordered sequence of static graphic images, audio and text media types.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the media types for the at least two items of said stored response are different media types selected from a group consisting of video, static graphic image, ordered sequence of static graphic images, audio and text media types, and wherein said computer processing system further comprises means associated with said real time inquiry response system for selecting the items of the stored response which are the most compatible with the communications interface and communications device from which the inquiry is made, said inquiry response system returning only those items to the communications device which are the most compatible therewith.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein one item of the stored response is of a video media type and another item of the stored response is of a static graphic image media type.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein one item of the stored response is of a video media type and another item of the stored response is of an audio media type.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein one item of the stored response is of a video media type and another item of the stored response is of a text media type.

22. The system of claim 18 wherein the one item of the stored response is of an audio media type and another item of the stored response is of a text media type.

23. The system of claim 18 wherein the media types for the at least two items of said stored response are different media types selected from a group consisting of video, static graphic images, an ordered sequence of static graphic images, audio, and text media types.

24. The system of claim 17 wherein the preferred media type for at least one item of said stored response is a video media and wherein said media type transforming means acts to transform the video media to a static graphic image media.

25. The system of claim 17 wherein the preferred media type for the item of said stored response is a video media and wherein said media type transforming means acts to transform the video media to a media type comprised of an ordered sequence of static graphic images.

26. The system of claim 17 wherein the preferred media type for at least one item of said stored response is a video media with an audio track and wherein said media type transforming means acts to transform the video media with an audio track to an audio only media.

27. The system of claim 17 wherein the preferred media type for at least one item of said stored response is an audio media and wherein said media type transforming means acts to transform the audio media to a text media.

28. The system of claim 17 wherein the preferred media type for at least one item of said stored response is a text media and wherein said media type transforming means acts to transform the text media to an audio media.

29. The system of claim 17 wherein the preferred media type for at least one item of said stored response is selected from a group consisting of video, static graphic image, an ordered sequence of static graphic images, audio and text media, and wherein said media type transforming means acts to perform transformations selected from a group consisting of a video to a static graphic image media transformation, a video to an ordered sequence of static graphic images transformation, a video with audio to audio only media transformation, an audio to text media transformation, and a text to audio media transformation.

2. The system of claim 2 wherein said real time inquiry response system further comprises media type transforming means cooperative with said stored item return means for transforming the preferred media type of the stored item of the stored inquiry response to a different transformed media type in response to an inquiry requiring the presentation of the item of the stored response in the transformed media type.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said media type transforming means is responsive to the identification means when said identification means identifies a communications interface or communications device from which an inquiry is sent which is not compatible with the preferred media type of the item of the stored inquiry response, said transforming means acting to transform the preferred media type of said item into a transformed media type which is compatible with the communications device and communications interface from which the inquiry is sent.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the preferred media type for the item of said stored response is a video media and wherein said media type transforming means acts to transform the video media to a static graphic image media.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the preferred media type for the item of said stored response is a video media and wherein said media type transforming means acts to transform the video media to a media type comprised of an ordered sequence of static graphic images.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein the preferred media type for the item of said stored response is a video media with an audio track and wherein said media type transforming means acts to transform the video media with an audio track to an audio only media.

7. The system of claim 2 wherein the preferred media type for the item of said stored response is an audio media and wherein said media type transforming means acts to transform the audio media to a text media.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein the preferred media type for the item of said stored response is a text media and wherein said media type transforming means acts to transform the text media to an audio media.

9. The system of claim 2 wherein the preferred media type for the item of said stored response is selected from a group consisting of video, static graphic image, an ordered sequence of static graphic images, audio and text media, and wherein said media type transforming means acts to perform transformations selected from a group consisting of a video to static graphic image media transformation, a video to an ordered sequence of static graphic images transformation, a video with audio to audio only media transformation, an audio to text media transformation, and a text to audio media transformation.

17. A system for providing on-demand responses to inquiries made by information consumers using a variety of communication interfaces and communication devices, comprising

a database having a plurality of stored responses to inquiries made by information consumers, each said stored response containing at least two stored items returnable to an information consumer in response to an inquiry, each said returnable item being of a preferred presentation media type that most effectively presents said returnable item,

a real time inquiry response system for receiving inquiries submitted by an information consumer from a device having a communications interface and for returning the at least one returnable item of said stored response to the communications device,

correlating means for correlating consumer inquiries received by said real time inquiry response system with inquiry responses stored in said database,

identification means for identifying the communications interface and communications device from which the inquiry from the information consumer is sent,

stored item return means associated with said real time inquiry response system for determining whether the media type for the at least one stored item of said inquiry response is compatible with the communications interface and communications device from which the inquiry is made, and for returning the item of the stored response to a communications device with a communications interface which is compatible with the media type of the item of the stored inquiry response, and

media type transforming means cooperative with said stored item return means for transforming the preferred media type of the stored item of the stored inquiry response to a different transformed media type, said media type transforming means being responsive to the identification means when said identification means identifies a communications interface or communications device from which an inquiry is sent which is not compatible with the preferred media type of the item of the stored inquiry response, said transforming means acting to transform the preferred media type of said item into a transformed media type which is compatible with the communications device and communications interface from which the inquiry is sent.