SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING USER CONTEXTS FOR TARGETED ADVERTISING

• US 20080034088A1
• Filed: 04/12/2007
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kobace LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Telibrahma Technologies Private Limited
• Inventors: SURESH, Narasimha
• Granted Patent: US 8,626,818 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

The invention provides a method and system for building contexts for mobile users by collecting information about the user and his activities through various end points of a network and also through a system specific application that transmit information to a centralized server for context generation and filtering. The contexts thus generated are analyzed statistically for utility and based on the utility, the contexts are used for sending targeted advertisements.

Claims

1. A method of generating user contexts, to enable context sensitive advertising, by encouraging users of a system to participate through different end points of the system and using information of user actions, profile and location to generate context, the method comprising the steps of:

a) system storing information about users and their profiles at a central server;

b) user engaging in actions at different end points of the system;

c) information of the actions and the location of the actions being registered at a central server;

d) actions being categorized in to pre-defined business events; and

e) generating contexts of users by combining their profile information with the information on business events;

f) choosing appropriate contexts by filtering the generated contexts based on statistical analysis of previous history of such actions by users.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, where location of the user is tracked through the end points users engage with.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, where location of the user is tracked by locating the mobile phone of users while users performs their actions.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, where the step of generating and filtering a context includes an algorithm for building weighted average table to determine optimal promotion comprising the steps of:

a) collecting business event information;

b) identifying user behaviour for a set of same endpoint interactions;

c) identifying user behaviour with similar endpoints;

d) identifying summary of interactions of other users with similar profiles for a particular endpoint; and

e) preparing a wighted average of responses of users in different scenarios in a table to identify effectiveness of promotions for a given set of profiles, location, and business events.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, where initial user profile is generated upon user registration.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, where the user profile and the user context are updated by tracking user actions to accommodate the most recent behavior in to the context.

7. A permission based method to enable context sensitive advertising, by encouraging users of a system to interact with a system specific application on a mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

a) user downloading system specific application onto a handheld device;

b) user allowing the system to collect information about user'"'"'s activities on the application downloaded on the handheld device;

c) user interacting with the system through various sub-applications provided as part of the application downloaded;

d) system collecting information about user'"'"'s activities on the handheld device to be stored and processed on a central server.

8. A system for generating user contexts, the system comprising:

a) a plurality of endpoints for users to interact; and

b) a centralized server for collecting information on all the events registered on any of the plurality of end points;

9. A system as claimed in claim 8, where the end point is a handheld device for a user to interact with the system through a system specific application.

10. A system as claimed in claim 8, where the end point is a bluetooth terminal.

11. A system as claimed in claim 8, where the end point is a point of sale.

12. A system as claimed in claim 8, where the centralized server for collecting information on users, user profiles and events registered on any of the plurality of end points comprises of a context engine and a mobile interaction server.

13. A system as claimed in claim 12, where the context engine comprises of:

a) an event colander for collecting information about interactions of users with the system;

b) a context generation module to collect event information from the event colander and forward the context related information including the event information, user profile, user location information etc;

c) a context filtering interface to determine the right context based on the events for which information is collected; and

d) a rule engine to perform statistical analysis on previous history of interactions in contexts similar to the contexts generated to determine the usefulness of contexts for advertisements.

14. A system as claimed in claim 12, where the mobile interaction server of the centralized server comprises of an action director to direct behaviour of the application on the handheld device according to the interactions of the user where based on the contexts built, action director could be used to forward relevant advertisements or messages that could be useful to the users.

15. A system as claimed in claim 12, where the mobile interaction server further comprises of a rule engine to map contexts to advertisements based on a bidding mechanism or any other such mechanism.