AGGREGATION AND USE OF INFORMATION RELATING TO A USERS CONTEXT FOR PERSONALIZED ADVERTISEMENTS

• US 20090265236A1
• Filed: 03/09/2009
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Business Network Services, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: SCHULTZ, Paul T., SARTINI, Robert A., MCKEE, Martin W.
• Granted Patent: US 10,504,124 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.530
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

Information, called context information, relating to a current state of a user may be aggregated. In one implementation, the context information may include information that is automatically generated by communication devices of the user and information, submitted by the user, that relates to the user'"'"'s state. The context information may be used to provide personalized advertisements for the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving context information relating to a current state of a user, the context information including device presence information that is automatically generated by communication devices associated with the user and user preference information;

selecting an advertisement to present to the user based on the context information;

determining, based on the device presence information, to which of the communication devices to send the selected advertisement; and

transmitting the selected advertisement to the determined communication device for presentation to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, where the context information additionally includes information, submitted by the user, that relates to the user'"'"'s state.

3. The method of claim 1, where the device presence information includes an on/off state of the communication devices.

4. The method of claim 1, where the device presence information includes geographic locations corresponding to the communication devices and the advertisements are selected as advertisements corresponding to merchants that are near the geographic locations of the communication devices.

5. The method of claim 1, where the context information further includes labeled location information that symbolically defines a location of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, where the user preference information includes user selections indicating topics in which the user is interested.

7. The method of claim 1, where the user preference information includes information derived from documents of the user.

8. The method of claim 1, where the user preference information includes information describing preferences relating to the communication devices associated with the user.

9. The method of claim 1, where the context information further includes information relating to a history of advertisements transmitted to the user.

10. A method comprising:

receiving context information relating to a current state of a user, the context information including device presence information that is automatically generated by a communication device associated with the user and including a geographic location of the communication device;

selecting an advertisement to present to the user based on the geographic location of the communication device, in which advertisements corresponding to merchants are selected according to a distance between the merchants and the geographic location of the communication device; and

transmitting the selected advertisement to the communication device for presentation to the user.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

causing the communication device to vibrate or emit an audible sound or visual indicator to signal the arrival of the advertisement at the communication device.

12. The method of claim 10, where the context information additionally includes user preference information, the method further including:

selecting the advertisement based on the geographic location of the communication device and the user preference information.

13. The method of claim 12, where the user preference information includes user selections indicating topics in which the user is interested.

14. The method of claim 12, where the user preference information includes information derived from documents of the user.

15. The method of claim 12, where the user preference information includes information describing preferences relating to the communication device associated with the user.

16. The method of claim 10, where the device presence information includes an on/off state of the communication device.

17. The method of claim 10, where the context information further includes information relating to a history of advertisements transmitted to the user.

18. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

computer readable media coupled to the one or more processors, the computer readable media storing programming instructions for execution by the one or more processors, the programming instructions including;

instructions to maintain context information relating to a current state of a user, the context information including device presence information that is automatically generated by communication devices of the user and user preference information;

instructions to select an advertisement to present to the user based on the context information;

instructions to determine, based on the device presence information, to which of the communication devices to send the selected advertisement; and

instructions to transmit the selected advertisement to the determined communication device for presentation to the user.

19. The system of claim 18, where the context information additionally includes information, submitted by the user, that relates to the user'"'"'s state.

20. The system of claim 18, where the device presence information includes an on/off state of the communication devices.

21. The system of claim 18, where the device presence information includes geographic locations corresponding to the communication devices and the advertisements are selected as advertisements corresponding to merchants that are near the geographic locations of the communication devices.

22. The system of claim 18, where the user preference information includes user selections indicating topics in which the user is interested.

23. The system of claim 18, where the user preference information includes information describing preferences relating to the communication devices associated with the user.

24. A computer-readable media containing processing instructions, that when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to:

receive context information relating to a current state of a user, the context information including device presence information that is automatically generated by a communication device associated with the user and including a geographic location of the communication device;

select an advertisement to present to the user based on the geographic location of the communication device, in which advertisements corresponding to merchants are selected according to a distance between the merchants and the geographic location of the communication device; and

transmit the selected advertisement to the communication device for presentation to the user.

25. The computer-readable media of claim 24, where the processing instructions further cause the processors to:

cause the communication device to vibrate or emit an audible sound or visual indicator to signal the arrival of the advertisement at the communication device.