INTERACTIVE RADIO ADVERTISING AND SOCIAL NETWORKING

• US 20080318529A1
• Filed: 07/07/2008
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Joseph Harb
• Original Assignee: Joseph Harb
• Inventors: Harb, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 8,310,985 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/66.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/82 the transmission system being the Internet

Abstract

A portable device is used to capture, in real time, data sufficient to identify an item, such as a product or service promoted, or a music track played, on a broadcast medium such as radio or television. The capture device can be a standalone implementation, or an application program executable on a personal communication device such as a cell phone or Blackberry. The capture device communicates the captured data to a remote server via a selected wired or wireless channel, or the internet, and the server provides services to support the user in responding to the radio or television broadcast item that corresponds to the captured data. The server on demand downloads to the user additional digital content associated with the identified radio broadcast item.

Claims

1. A computer program application (204) stored in machine-readable media for execution on a wireless telecommunication-enabled device (206), the application program including:

a user interface module for receiving manual user commands;

a telecommunications module for effecting wireless communications via a wireless telecommunication network (210);

a voice module for voice channel processing to implement voice channel wireless communications using the telecommunications module;

a radio broadcast capture application module for capturing data so as to identify an item currently playing or recently played in the radio broadcast; and

a module for transmitting the captured data to a remote server to identify the item currently playing or recently played in the radio broadcast in support of providing services to the user associated with the said radio broadcast item.

2. A computer program according to claim 1 wherein the program is arranged for use in a cell phone to send captured data to the remote server.

3. A computer program according to claim 1 wherein the radio broadcast capture module captures a time and radio frequency of the radio broadcast.

4. A computer program according to claim 3 wherein the transmitting module sends the capture data over a messaging service of the wireless telecommunication network.

5. A method for delivery of supplemental content associated with a broadcast radio advertisement, the method comprising the steps of:

preparing an audio advertisement for sale of an item;

broadcasting the audio advertisement over a radio station for hearing by a radio listener;

at a radio receiver location, receiving a radio broadcast that includes the broadcast audio advertisement;

storing additional digital content associated with the audio advertisement;

identifying the radio station and the time of said broadcasting the audio advertisement so as to identify the audio advertisement;

associating the identified audio advertisement with the corresponding additional digital content; and

delivering the additional digital content to the radio listener in response to a request received at a server electronically.

6. A method according to claim 5 wherein said delivering the additional digital content to the radio listener includes delivering the said content to a cell phone associated with the radio listener.

7. A method according to claim 6 wherein the additional digital content associated with the identified audio advertisement comprises at least one of a text file, a graphic file and a video file.

8. A method according to claim 7 including:

providing an automated server having access to the stored additional digital content associated with the audio advertisement;

implementing a telecommunications interface for accessing the automated server via a telecommunications network; and

wherein

the user demand for additional information is received by the server via the telecommunications network; and

the user demand received by the server includes said identity of the radio station and the time of said broadcasting the audio advertisement so as to identify the audio advertisement.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein:

said delivering the additional digital content to the radio listener includes delivering the content via the Internet.

10. A method according to claim 8 wherein:

the user request is transmitted to the server from a user cell phone over a voice channel service, and the additional digital content is delivered to the user via the voice channel service.

11. A method according to claim 8 wherein:

the user request is transmitted to the server from a user cell phone over a data channel service, and the additional digital content is delivered to the user via the data channel service.