Method for directing a user of a mobile device from a current location to a product

• US 20060079247A1
• Filed: 09/27/2005
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Swisscom Mobile AG (Government of Switzerland)
• Inventors: Ritter, Rudolf
• Granted Patent: US 7,734,507 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.100
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/751 wherein the responder or reflector radiates a coded signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0289 of multiple transceivers, e.g. in ad hoc networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 Item locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• 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

Abstract

A method is described for directing a user of a mobile device from a current location to a product, wherein an identification code of the product is recorded in the mobile device and transmitted to a name server. The identification code is used in the name server among others for loading product-related data into the mobile device, e.g. a geographical location where the product can be bought. Following this, the user of the mobile device can go to said geographic location. For directing said user to the product, a direct contactless connection is established between said mobile device and a RFID element with which said product is marked, by using the same identification code or product-related data previously supplied by the name server.

Claims

1. Method for directing a user of a mobile device from a current location to a product, with the following steps:

an identification code of the product is recorded in the mobile device and transmitted to a name server,

the identification code is used in the name server to download product-related data into the mobile device,

said product-related data including at least a geographical location in whose vicinity a product can be bought,

characterized in that

said user goes to said geographical location,

and to direct said user to the product, a direct contactless connection is established between said mobile device and a RFID element with which said product is marked, by using the same identification code or product-related data previously supplied by the name server.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the mobile device can record a number, a barcode or an EPC code.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein connections between the mobile device and the name server occurs over a communication network, preferably a mobile network.

4. Method according to claim 1, wherein several possible locations of the product are made known to the user.

5. Method according to claim 1, wherein further, mostly product-related data, such as a distance between the user and the location, an address of the location, an opening time of the location, a price of the product, an authorized payment means at the location, a computed availability of the product or products, a product age or sell-by date etc. are made known to the user additionally to the location of the product.

6. Method according to claim 5, wherein product-related data are stored in PML pages of different sales points in one memory area, such as a database, connected with the name server.

7. Method according to claim 1, wherein in order to make known several locations for the sought product, determining criteria previously given by the user are used in the mobile device for selecting a location, which are defined by criteria of distance between the mobile device and the sales point and/or further possible product-related criteria.

8. Method according to claim 7, wherein in order to select one of the notified locations in the mobile device, such as a mobile telephone or a PDA, acoustic and/or visual reproducing means and manual or acoustic input means are used.

9. Method according claim 1, wherein directing the user to the location of said product is shown on the mobile device as a route description by means of a GPS or Galileo navigation system or a GSM-based network for localizing the mobile device and from the known geographical product-related data.

10. Method according to claim 1, wherein in order to further direct the user from the location of said product, preferably of the shop, to the product, the mobile device records identification codes or product-related data by activating at least one RFID element.

11. Method according to claim 10, wherein different identification codes of several active RFID elements are recorded by the user'"'"'s mobile device, which allow said user through corresponding reproduction means to find a sought product with his mobile device.

12. Method according to claim 11, wherein codes from a category of products are first recorded in the mobile device and then further product-related data on the basis of the geographical data lead always more selectively to the sought product.

13. Method according to claim 1, wherein if there is no direct connection between the mobile device and the RFID element of the sought product, a localizing of the sought RFID element is initiated by means of a relay-based network.

14. Method according to claim 13, wherein as relay-based network a so-called ad-hoc network capable of being self configured with linkable RFID elements is used.

15. Method according to claim 14, wherein a relative position of the mobile device to RFID elements is determined through triangulated running time measurements.

16. Method according to claim 13, wherein a connection of the user'"'"'s mobile device with at least one fixed-based relay is established, where the sought RFID element and its position in the shop are known.

17. Method according to claim 16, wherein the relay includes a router or is connected with a router,

that transmits data for orienting towards the sought product in the shop to the mobile device and,

that if necessary, if knowing the position of the mobile device, computes and sends to the mobile device, preferably as WEB or WAP page, an auxiliary route between the mobile device and the sought product.

18. Method according to claim 10, wherein a graphical representation of inaccessible zones of the shop, preferably for walls, shelves, tills etc., from a HTML or PML page of the shop is sent to the mobile device.

19. Method according to claim 10, wherein distances, with text or with a gauge bar, and directions e.g. with arrows or a diagram of the route, between the mobile device and the sought product are shown graphically on the display of the mobile device or reproduced acoustically.

20. Method according to claim 1, wherein a list of identification codes of sought products is recorded in the mobile device and a list with a minimum number of product-related locations that have some of these products is loaded from the name server.

21. Method according to claim 1, wherein a list of identification codes of sought products is recorded in the mobile device and a list of locations where the products can be bought most advantageously is loaded from the name server.

22. Method according to claim 1, wherein a list of identification codes of sought products is recorded in the mobile device and a list of locations with the shortest distance between the user and the respective locations of these products is loaded from the name server.

23. Method according to claim 20, wherein further selection criteria for downloading a desired list of locations are downloaded from the name server.

24. Method according to claim 1, wherein at a location of several sought objects, preferably within a single shop, an optimized route search to the sought products is controlled by a server, wherein the server knows the location of the RFID elements in the shop.

25. Method according to claim 1, wherein at a location of several sought objects, preferably within a single shop, an optimized route search is initiated by means of an EPC code of a category of products and pursued by means of more selective codes for determining the location of a RFID element of the sought product in the shop.