Apparatuses, Methods and Systems for Ambiguous Code-Triggered Information Querying and Serving on Mobile Devices

• US 20080200160A1
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Published: 08/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Upland Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hipcricket, Inc. (Upland Software, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fitzpatrick, Dudley, Snyder, Jason Alan
• Granted Patent: US 8,407,220 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

The disclosure details the implementation of apparatuses, methods, and systems for ambiguous code triggered information querying and serving on mobile devices. Information and/or advertisement providers may use a code triggered information server to serve context, demographic, and behavior targeted information to users via mobile devices. Users, in turn, trigger the provision of information by scanning or observing codes or information. Often, codes scanned by novice users and/or using mobile devices may be ambiguous and/or obscured. Consequently, the present system may implement disambiguation processes to the code scans so as to clarify their identity. The disambiguated scans, together with geographic, temporal, and user-specific information, are obtained by the server that receives, processes, and records the message. Based on these messages and a user profile—which may include continuously updated user-specific behavior information, situational and ambient information, an accumulated history of scanned code messages, and integration with outside database information—the server selects information to serve to the users'"'"' mobile devices from an information base. The code triggered information server allows for the serving of information that is demographic, interest, location, and time specific. It also allows providers to track user behavior and provide anticipatory information.

Claims

1. A processor implemented method for processing and responding to ambiguous content requests, comprising:

receiving a scanned code image and a user ID;

analyzing the scanned code image to determine if the information encoded therein is fully decodable;

selecting a scanned code disambiguation process to apply to the scanned code images if the information encoded therein is not fully decodable;

applying the scanned code disambiguation process to the scanned code image to determine a most likely code;

querying accumulated user information in a user profile associated with the user ID;

querying a content database to extract requested content based on the most likely code and the accumulated user information; and

sending the requested content to a user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received scanned code image is sent via MMS.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the received scan code image is sent to a short code address.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the requested content is set to a user via MMS.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanned code disambiguation process comprises:

performing a partial decoding of the scanned code image;

querying a code database to select a plurality of codes matching the partial decoding of the scanned code image; and

selecting a most likely code from the plurality of codes based on ancillary scanned code information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the ancillary scanned code information comprises the accumulated user information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the ancillary scanned code information further comprises situational information associated with the scanned code image.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the ancillary scanned code information comprises situational information associated with the scanned code image.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the situational information comprises a context from which the scanned code image was acquired.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the situational information comprises a location at which the scanned code image was acquired.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanned code disambiguation process comprises a scanned code image enhancement.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the scanned code image enhancement is configurable to perform downsizing, noise removal, contrast adjustment, brightness adjustment, image tilting, image rotating, focus adjustment, and edge recognition.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanned code disambiguation process is a server-side process.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanned code disambiguation process is a client-side process.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanned code image is received from a mobile device.

16. A processor implemented method for processing and responding to ambiguous content requests, comprising:

receiving a scanned code image, a user ID, wherein the scanned code image is sent to a short code address via MMS.

analyzing the scanned code image to determine if the information encoded therein is fully decodable;

selecting a server-side scanned code disambiguation process to apply to the scanned code images if the information encoded therein is not fully decodable, wherein the scanned code disambiguation process comprises any combination of scanned code image enhancement and partial decoding;

applying the server-side scanned code disambiguation process to the scanned code image to determine a most likely code;

querying accumulated user information in a user profile associated with the user ID;

querying a content database to extract requested content based on the most likely code and the accumulated user information; and

sending the requested content to a user via MMS.

17. An apparatus for processing and responding to ambiguous content requests, comprising:

a memory;

a processor disposed in communication with said memory, and configured to issue a plurality of instructions stored in the memory, wherein the instructions are issuable to;

receive a scanned code image and a user ID;

analyze the scanned code image to determine if the information encoded therein is fully decodable;

select a scanned code disambiguation process to apply to the scanned code images if the information encoded therein is not fully decodable;

apply the scanned code disambiguation process to the scanned code image to determine a most likely code;

query accumulated user information in a user profile associated with the user ID;

query a content database to extract requested content based on the most likely code and the accumulated user information; and

send the requested content to a user.

18. A system for processing and responding to ambiguous content requests, comprising:

means to receive a scanned code image and a user ID;

means to analyze the scanned code image to determine if the information encoded therein is fully decodable;

means to select a scanned code disambiguation process to apply to the scanned code images if the information encoded therein is not fully decodable;

means to apply the scanned code disambiguation process to the scanned code image to determine a most likely code;

means to query accumulated user information in a user profile associated with the user ID;

means to query a content database to extract requested content based on the most likely code and the accumulated user information; and

means to send the requested content to a user.

19. A processor-accessible medium for processing and responding to ambiguous content requests, comprising:

processor readable instructions stored in the processor-accessible medium, wherein the processor readable instructions are issuable by the processor to;

receive a scanned code image and a user ID;

analyze the scanned code image to determine if the information encoded therein is fully decodable;

select a scanned code disambiguation process to apply to the scanned code images if the information encoded therein is not fully decodable;

apply the scanned code disambiguation process to the scanned code image to determine a most likely code;

query accumulated user information in a user profile associated with the user ID;

query a content database to extract requested content based on the most likely code and the accumulated user information; and

send the requested content to a user.