Interaction analyzer

• US 20080309499A1
• Filed: 06/18/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T BLS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC., PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS BELLSOUTH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION, AT&T DELAWARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC., FORMERLY KNOWN AS AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC.
• Original Assignee: AT&T DELAWARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC., FORMERLY KNOWN AS AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC.
• Inventors: Craine, Ari
• Granted Patent: US 7,642,920 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence

Abstract

A method of analyzing participant activity includes providing an identification unit to a participant, receiving signals from the identification unit, determining location of the participant based on the received signals, storing the location information and the associated timestamp and analyzing the stored information.

Claims

1. A method of analyzing participant activity, the method comprising:

receiving signals from an identification unit associated with a first participant;

determining a location of the first participant based on the received signals;

storing the location information; and

analyzing the stored information to determine the participant activity of the first participant.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first participant is at a conference.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification unit includes a tracking module, the tracking module operative to transmit the received signals.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the signals transmitted by the tracking module include at least one of electronic signals, sonic signals, and optical signals.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the tracking module is a radio frequency identification (RFID) module.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the signals are received by a central monitoring station.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining if the first participant is at a same location as a second participant based on the signals received from the identification unit associated with the first participant and signals received from an identification unit associated with the second participant.

8. The method of claim 7, comprising:

associating a timestamp to the determined location of the first participant; and

determining a length of interaction between the first participant and the second participant based on the timestamp information.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the tracking module transmits the signals at a predetermined frequency.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the tracking module transmits signals in response to a signal from a monitoring station.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the stored information comprises:

determining a number of signals received from a particular location over a plurality of predetermined time periods; and

ranking a volume of signals among the plurality of time periods.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the time periods correspond to one of days and hours.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein the tracking module comprises a memory for storing information received from at least one transmitter associated with a booth corresponding to a particular vendor at a conference.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the information stored in the tracking module is transmitted to another tracking module.

15. A monitoring system for analyzing participant activity, the system comprising:

means for receiving signals from a plurality of participants;

means for associating the received signals to the plurality of participants;

means for determining a location of the plurality of participants based on the received signals;

means for determining a level of interaction between at least two of the plurality of participants; and

means for storing the location and the level of interaction associated with at least one of the plurality of participants.

16. The monitoring system of claim 15, wherein a plurality of receivers and associated computers are located within a participant activity area.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each of the plurality of computers provide the stored information to a central computer.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the monitoring system further comprises means for providing the location of at least one of the plurality of participants to the at least one of the plurality of participants at a predetermined frequency.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the monitoring system further comprises means for associating a timestamp to one or more of the received signals.

20. A computer-readable medium containing a computer program for analyzing participant activity, the computer program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

receive signals from an identification unit associated with a participant;

determine a location of the participant based on the received signals;

store the location information; and

analyze the stored location information to determine the participant activity of the participant.