SUBSCRIPTION BASED CONTENT DELIVERY FOR A DIGITAL SIGNAGE NETWORK

• US 20090199108A1
• Filed: 02/07/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omnivex Corporation
• Original Assignee: Omnivex Corporation
• Inventors: Chu, William, Kayes, Scott, Bannister, Doug, Underwood, Doug, Easthope, Nick, Dalley, Rick, Collard, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,370,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/747
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A digital signage network employs a common data model and a subscription system to disseminate data gathered from a plurality of data sources to a number of displays. The network nodes interact with each other as content sources, content consumers, or both, with some systems acting as consumers to upstream sources and acting as sources to downstream consumers. The presentation of the data on a digital signage display allows for real-time binding of live data to provide a rich display effect.

Claims

1. A content generation node in a digital signage network for generating content for a downstream node, the content generation node comprising:

a subscription handler for receiving content subscription requests from the downstream node;

a content selector for selecting content available to the content generator for distribution to the downstream node, the content selected in accordance with the received subscription request; and

a network interface for pushing the selected content to the downstream node.

2. The content generation node of claim 1 further including a layout studio for generating layout templates, and storing the generated templates as available content.

3. The content generation node of claim 2 wherein the layout studio includes a graphical interface through which users can create templates using graphical tools.

4. The content generation node of claim 3 wherein the templates are multi-layered templates.

5. The content generation node of claim 3 wherein the graphical tools are pushed to the layout studio from a server in accordance with a layout tool subscription.

6. The content generation node of claim 2 wherein the generated templates are stored as available content having metadata associated with the template.

7. The content generation node of claim 1 wherein the generated content includes metadata associated with the content and includes permissioning information.

8. A content receiving node in a digital signage network for receiving content from an upstream node in a digital signage network, the content receiving node comprising:

a content request engine for requesting content from upstream nodes in the digital signage network;

a receive queue for receiving requested content from upstream nodes in the digital signage network;

a processor for processing content in the receive queue into user viewable information; and

a display for receiving the user viewable information from the processor and for displaying the received information.

9. The content receiving node of claim 8 further including a network discovery tool for requesting, through the content request engine, nodal information from other nodes in the digital signage network.

10. The content receiving node of claim 9 wherein the nodal information includes the system configuration of other nodes in the digital signage network and the operational status of elements of the other nodes in the digital signage network.

11. The content receiving node of claim 9 wherein the network discovery tool includes a nodal information parsing system for receiving the requested nodal information from the receive queue and for generating, in co-operation with the processor, a user viewable network map.

12. The content receiving node of claim 10 further including a control engine for issuing control commands to one of the other nodes in the digital signage network to control the operational status of at least one element of the one other node.

13. The content receiving node of claim 8 wherein the content request engine includes a subscription generation engine for generating subscriptions requesting content from upstream nodes.

14. The content receiving node of claim 8 wherein all content received by the receive queue is stored in a common data format.

15. The content receiving node of claim 8 wherein all content received by the receive queue is pushed to the receive queue from upstream nodes.

16. The content receiving node of claim 8 further including a transmit queue for queuing requests for content generated by the content request engine.

17. The content receiving node of claim 16 further including a network interface for transmitting requests queued in the transmit queue.

18. The content receiving node of claim 17 wherein the network interface includes a wireless interface for creating a wireless connection to at least one of the upstream nodes.