Obtaining user assistance

• US 20060076398A1
• Filed: 01/18/2005
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Searete LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Jung, Edward K.Y., Levien, Royce A., Malamud, Mark A., Rinaldo, John D. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 9,038,899 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

An apparatus, device, method, computer program product, and system that obtains an end user assistance for an identified item within a geographic locale.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

a) identifying an item having a presence within a geographic locale in response to a signal indicative of the item; and

b) obtaining an end user assistance corresponding to the item having a presence within a geographic locale.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining an end user assistance includes an obtaining information related to operation of the item for an intended purpose of the item.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining an end user assistance corresponding to the item having a presence within a geographic locale includes an obtaining information related to an intrinsic property of the item having a presence within a geographic locale.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying an item having a presence within a geographic locale includes identifying an item having a presence within a premises.

5. A method comprising:

a) receiving a signal indicative of an item having a presence within a geographic locale;

b) identifying the item having a presence within a geographic locale in response to the signal indicative of an item; and

c) obtaining an end user assistance corresponding to the item having a presence within a geographic locale in response to the identification of the item.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the receiving a signal indicative of an item includes receiving a signal indicative of an identifying aspect of the item.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the receiving a signal indicative of an item includes receiving a signal indicative of an optical aspect of the item.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the receiving a signal indicative of an item includes receiving a signal indicative of an optically readable product code associated with the item.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the receiving a signal indicative of an item includes receiving a signal indicative of an alpha/numeric aspect of the item.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the receiving a signal indicative of an item includes receiving a signal indicative of an electronically transmitted designator associated with the item.

15. The method of claim 5, wherein the receiving a signal indicative of an item includes receiving a communications medium associated the item.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the receiving a communications medium associated with the item includes receiving a communications medium provided by a smart tag associated with the item.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the smart tag associated with the item includes a radio frequency identification tag associated with the item.

18. The method of claim 5, wherein the identifying an item having a presence within a geographic locale includes identifying an item having a presence within a premises.

19. The method of claim 5, wherein the obtaining an end user assistance corresponding to the item includes obtaining a manual corresponding to the item.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the obtaining a manual corresponding to the item includes obtaining a tangible manual corresponding to the item.

24. The method of claim 5, wherein the obtaining an end user assistance corresponding to the item includes obtaining at least one of a user information corresponding to the item, a user instruction corresponding to the item, a user education corresponding to the item, and a user operation instruction corresponding to the item.

31. The method of claim 5, the obtaining an end user assistance corresponding to the item includes requesting the end user assistance corresponding to the item.

32. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

d) saving the end user assistance corresponding to the item.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the saving the end user assistance includes saving the end user assistance in a computer readable storage medium.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the saving the end user assistance in a computer storage medium includes saving the end user assistance in a computer storage medium other than a computer storage medium associated with the item.

37. The method of claim 32, wherein the saving the end user assistance includes saving the end user assistance in response to a permission by a user.

38. The method of claim 32, wherein the saving the end user assistance includes saving the end user assistance in response to a user input.

39. The method of claim 32, wherein the saving the end user assistance includes saving the end user assistance in a computing device controlled by a user.

42. The method of claim 32, wherein the saving the end user assistance corresponding to the item includes acquiring an end user assistance corresponding to the item.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the acquiring an end user assistance corresponding to the item includes receiving an end user assistance corresponding to the item through a communication medium.

47. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

d) providing the end user assistance corresponding to the item.

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48. A computer program product encoding a computer program for executing on a computer system a computer process, the computer process comprising:

a) receiving a signal indicative of an item having a presence within a geographic locale;

b) identifying the item in response to the signal indicative of an item; and

c) obtaining an end user assistance corresponding to the item.

49. The computer program product of claim 48, wherein the computer program product includes a computer storage medium product.

50. The computer program product of claim 49, wherein the computer storage medium product includes a computer program product carried by a computer-readable carrier.

51. The computer program product of claim 48, wherein the computer program product includes a communications medium product.

52. A system comprising:

a) a computing device operable to receive a signal indicative of an item having a presence within a geographic locale; and

b) instructions that when executed on the computing device cause the computing device to;

(i) receive the signal indicative of an item having a presence within a geographic locale;

(ii) identify the item having a presence within a geographic locale in response to the signal indicative of an item; and

(iii) obtain an end user assistance corresponding to the item having a presence within a geographic locale.

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55. A method comprising:

a) receiving a signal indicative of an aspect of an item having a presence within a geographic locale;

b) identifying the item in response to the signal indicative of an aspect of an item having a presence within a geographic locale; and

c) obtaining the user assistance corresponding to the aspect of the item.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the receiving a signal indicative of an aspect of an item having a presence within a geographic locale includes receiving a signal indicative of an aspect of an item having a presence within a premises.

61. The method of claim 55, wherein the end user assistance corresponding to an aspect of an item includes a manual corresponding to the aspect of an item.

62. The method of claim 55, further comprising:

d) detecting the presence of the aspect of an item within the geographic locale.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein the detecting the presence of the aspect of an item within the geographic locale includes detecting the presence of the aspect of an item within the geographic locale in an absence of a received user input.

64. The method of claim 55, further comprising:

d) generating the signal indicative of an item having a presence within a geographic locale.

65. The method of claim 55, further comprising:

d) requesting the end user assistance corresponding to the aspect of an item.

68. The method of claim 55, further comprising:

d) providing the end user assistance corresponding to the aspect of the item.

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84. A method implemented in a computing device, the method comprising:

a) allowing a detector to generate a signal indicative of an item having a presence within a geographic locale; and

b) waiting while the computing device

(i) receives the signal indicative of the item,

(ii) identifies the item in response to the signal,

(iii) acquires an end user assistance corresponding to the item, and

(iv) delivers the end user assistance corresponding to the item; and

c) receiving the end user assistance.

85. The method of claim 84, wherein the allowing the detector to generate a signal indicative of the item includes positioning the item and the detector within a detection range that allows the detector to generate a signal indicative of the item.

86. The method of claim 84, wherein the waiting while the computing device further includes:

(v) waiting while the computing device saves the end user assistance corresponding to the item in a local computer storage medium.

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