USER-PERSONALIZED MEDIA SAMPLING, RECOMMENDATION AND PURCHASING SYSTEM USING REAL-TIME INVENTORY DATABASE

• US 20080015942A1
• Filed: 07/03/2007
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 2428392 Inc.
• Original Assignee: Trans World New York LLC (Kaspien Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Skiba, Steven, HARPER, Gregory
• Granted Patent: US 8,768,791 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/20
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants

Abstract

A product sampling and recommendation system uses customer profile data and/or real-time information from a point-of-sale system to tailor specific product recommendations to a customer using a sampling station.

Claims

1. A media sampling method, comprising:

storing product content samples and product content information;

disposing at a location within a retail site a sampling station, the sampling station being operable to enable a user to listen to and/or view one or more of the product content samples, and the sampling station comprising a display device, a bar code scanner, and a headphone;

storing in a point-of-sale (POS) database pricing information for products being sold at the retail site;

automatically in response to the bar code scanner scanning a bar code of a product placed by the user adjacent to the bar code scanner, transmitting information encoded in the bar code to a server coupled to the POS database;

in response to receiving the information at the server, using the information to retrieve from the POS database pricing information for the product;

after retrieving the pricing information, transmitting the pricing information and product content information related to the product to the sampling station, wherein, upon receiving the pricing and product content information, the sampling station uses the display device to display the pricing and product content information to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of product samples comprises a plurality of video clips.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of product samples comprises a plurality of audio-clips.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the product is an audio CD containing a plurality of individual music tracks and the product content information comprises a plurality of music track identifiers, each of the plurality of music track identifiers identifying one of the individual music tracks.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

in response to the user selecting one of the individual music tracks, transmitting from the user sampling device to the server a message containing an identifier identifying the selected individual music track;

in response to receiving the message, retrieving a product content sample based on the received identifier; and

transmitting the retrieved product content sample to the user sampling device, wherein the user sampling device is configured to automatically play the transmitted content sample upon receiving it from the server.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the server is directly coupled to the POS database.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the product is a DVD storing a movie and the product content information comprises the title of the movie.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the product content information further comprises an information identifying the genre of the movie, the movie'"'"'s rating, the movie'"'"'s director and/or a list of actors appearing in the movie.

9. A media sampling method, comprising:

storing product content samples and product content information;

disposing at a location within a retail site a sampling station, the sampling station being operable to enable a user to listen to and/or view one or more of the product content samples, and the sampling station comprising a display device, a bar code scanner, and a headphone;

using the display device to display a menu of options to a user of the sampling station;

in response to a user selecting a menu option from the menu of options, displaying on the display device a plurality of product identifiers and real-time inventory and/or pricing information for at least one of the products identified by one of the product identifiers; and

enabling the user to select one of the product identifiers.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to the user selecting one of the product identifiers, transmitting to the sampling station product content information related to the product identified by the selected product identifier, wherein, upon receiving the product content information, the sampling station uses the display device to display the product content information to the user.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of product samples comprises a plurality of video clips.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of product samples comprises a plurality of audio-clips.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the product identified by the selected product identifier is an audio CD containing a plurality of individual music tracks and the product content information transmitted to the user sampling device comprises a plurality of music track identifiers, each of the plurality of music track identifiers identifying one of the individual music tracks.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

in response to the user selecting one of the individual music tracks, transmitting from the user sampling device to a server a message containing an identifier identifying the selected individual music track;

in response to receiving the message, retrieving a product content sample based on the received identifier; and

transmitting the retrieved product content sample to the user sampling device, wherein the user sampling device is configured to automatically play the transmitted content sample upon receiving it from the server.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the user sampling device is configured such that, in response to the user selecting a menu option, the user sampling device:

transmits to a server a message containing an identifier identifying the selected menu option,

receives from the server the plurality of product identifiers and the real-time inventory and/or pricing information, and then

displays on the display device the plurality of product identifiers and the real-time inventory and/or pricing information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the server is configured to retrieve the real-time inventory and/or pricing information from a point-of-sale database located in the retail site.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the server is configured to retrieve the real-time inventory and/or pricing information directly from the point-of-sale database.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the server is configured to retrieve the real-time inventory and/or pricing information from the point-of-sale database by transmitting a request for the information to a point-of-sale server directly coupled to the point-of-sale database.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein, in response to the user selecting the menu option, the real-time inventory information for at least one of the products identified by one of the product identifiers is displayed on the display device and the real-time inventory information indicates that the product is not in stock.

20. A media sampling method, comprising:

storing a plurality of product content samples and product content information;

operating a point-of-sale (POS) system within a retail site, the point-of-sale system comprising a POS database storing real-time product inventory and/or product pricing information;

disposing at a location within the retail site a sampling station, the sampling station being operable to enable a user of the sampling station to listen to and/or view one or more of the product content samples, and the sampling station comprising a display device, a bar code scanner, and a headphone;

displaying on the display device a plurality of selectable product identifiers; and

in response to the user selecting one of the product identifiers, displaying on the display device (a) product content information associated with the product identified by the selected product identifier and (b) and real-time product inventory and/or product pricing information obtained from the POS system and relating to the selected product,

wherein the sampling station is configured such that the user may use the sampling station to listen to and/or view a product content sample associated with the selected product.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the user sampling device is configured such that, in response to the user selecting one of the product identifiers, the user sampling device:

transmits to a server a message containing an identifier identifying the selected product identifier,

receives from the server the product content information associated with the product identified by the selected product identifier and the real-time product inventory and/or product pricing information relating to the selected product, and then

displays on the display device the received product content information and the real-time inventory and/or pricing information.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the product identified by the selected product identifier is an audio CD containing a plurality of individual music tracks and the product content information received from the server comprises a plurality of music track identifiers, each of the plurality of music track identifiers identifying one of the individual music tracks.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

enabling the user to select one of the individual music tracks;

in response to the user selecting one of the individual music tracks, transmitting from the user sampling device to the server a message containing an identifier identifying the selected individual music track;

in response to receiving the message, retrieving a product content sample based on the received identifier; and

transmitting the retrieved product content sample to the user sampling device, wherein the user sampling device is configured to automatically play the transmitted content sample upon receiving it from the server.

24. A media sampling method, comprising:

storing a plurality of product content samples and product content information;

operating a point-of-sale (POS) system within a retail site, the point-of-sale system comprising a POS database storing real-time product inventory information;

disposing at a location within the retail site a sampling station, the sampling station being operable to enable a user of the sampling station to listen to and/or view one or more of the product content samples and to obtain product content information for a particular product, and the sampling station comprising a display device, a bar code scanner, and a headphone;

in response to the user using the sampling station to obtain product content information for a particular product, selecting a set of other products to bring to the attention of the user; and

for each of the selected other products, displaying on the display device of the sampling station an identifier identifying the selected other product,

wherein the selecting step comprises;

selecting an other product based, at least in part, on the particular product,

retrieving real-time product inventory information from the POS system for the selected other product,

using the retrieved real-time product inventory information to determine with the selected other product is included in the inventory of the retail-site, and

if it is determined that the selected other product is included in the inventory, then including the selected other product in the set of other products, otherwise not including the selected other product in the set of other products.

25. A media sampling method, comprising:

storing a plurality of product content samples and product content information;

operating a point-of-sale (POS) system within a retail site, the point-of-sale system comprising a POS database storing real-time product inventory information;

disposing at a location within the retail site a sampling station, the sampling station being operable to enable a user of the sampling station to listen to and/or view one or more of the product content samples and to obtain product content information for a particular product, and the sampling station comprising a display device, a bar code scanner, and a headphone;

in response to the user using the sampling station to obtain product content information for a particular product, selecting a set of other products to bring to the attention of the user; and

for each of the selected other products, displaying on the display device of the sampling station an identifier identifying the selected other product, wherein the step of selecting a set of other products comprises;

retrieving real-time information from the POS system; and

using the retrieved real-time information to select one or more products to include in said set of other products.