SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING LOCATION BASED SERVICES AT A SHOPPING FACILITY

• US 20100151821A1
• Filed: 12/11/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Embarq Holdings Company LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rooks, Kelsyn, Sweeney, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 8,983,488 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/410
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

Embodiments of the disclosed invention include a system and a method for providing location-based services to consumers of a shopping facility. In one embodiment, a consumer creates a user account, user profile, and registers one or mobile devices. The system monitors for the presence of the registered mobile devices within one or more shopping facilities. The system transmits advertising material corresponding to the user created profile to a detected registered mobile device in response to the registered mobile device being within a specified range of a store associated with the user created profile.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for providing location based services to consumers, the computer implemented method comprising:

registering a mobile device associated with a user for the location-based services;

creating a user profile that includes a plurality of stores and interests associated with the user;

monitoring for the presence of the mobile device in a shopping facility using a plurality of femto cells placed at different areas of the shopping facility;

determining if the mobile device is within a specified range of a store in the shopping facility by triangulating the signal of the mobile device using the plurality of femto cells, wherein the store is one of the plurality of stores associated with the user profile;

responsive to the mobile device being within the specified range of the store in the shopping facility, retrieving advertising information associated with the store from a marketing database; and

transmitting the advertising information to the mobile device.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the advertising information is an electronic coupon.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, wherein the electronic coupon includes a scannable barcode.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether the user uses the electronic coupon for purchasing an item at the store; and

responsive to a determination that the user uses the electronic coupon for purchasing an item at the store, charging a fee to a company associated with the store.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the fee is a flat fee for the electronic coupon being used to purchase at least one item from the store.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the fee is a percentage of a sale associated with a purchase of one or more items at the store.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the fee is a periodic charge for placing advertising information associated with the store in the marketing database.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 4, further comprising maintaining a receipt database comprising an electronic receipt associated with items purchased using the electronic coupon, wherein the database is searchable by the user to retrieve the electronic receipt for returning at least one of the items purchased using the electronic coupon to the store.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the user profile further includes demographic information associated with the user.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9, further comprising generating a marketing report using the demographic information associated with the user and information about items purchased by the user.

11. A set of data processing systems for providing location based services to consumers, the set of data processing systems comprising:

memory for storing computer usable program code;

one or more processing units in communication with the memory, wherein the one or more processing units executes the computer usable program code to;

register a mobile device associated with a user for the location-based services;

create a user profile that includes a plurality of stores and interests associated with the user;

monitor for the presence of the mobile device in a shopping facility using a plurality of femto cells placed at different areas of the shopping facility;

determine if the mobile device is within a specified range of a store in the shopping facility by triangulating the signal of the mobile device using the plurality of femto cells, wherein the store is one of the plurality of stores associated with the user profile;

retrieve advertising information associated with the store from a marketing database; and

transmit the advertising information to the mobile device.

12. The set of data processing systems of claim 11, wherein the advertising information is an electronic coupon.

13. The set of data processing systems of claim 12, wherein the electronic coupon includes a scannable barcode.

14. The set of data processing systems of claim 12, wherein the one or more processing units further executes the computer usable program code to:

determine whether the user uses the electronic coupon for purchasing an item at the store; and

charge a fee to a company associated with the store in response to a determination that the user uses the electronic coupon for purchasing an item at the store.

15. The set of data processing systems of claim 14, wherein the fee is a flat fee for the electronic coupon being used to purchase at least one item from the store.

16. The set of data processing systems of claim 14, wherein the fee is a percentage of a sale associated with a purchase of one or more items at the store.

17. The set of data processing systems of claim 14, wherein the fee is a periodic charge for placing advertising information associated with the store in the marketing database.

18. The set of data processing systems of claim 14, wherein the one or more processing units further executes the computer usable program code to maintain a receipt database comprising an electronic receipt associated with items purchased using the electronic coupon.

19. The set of data processing systems of claim 19, wherein the one or more processing units further executes the computer usable program code to generate a marketing report using the demographic information associated with the user and information about items purchased by the user.

20. A computer implemented method for providing a security feature at a shopping facility, the computer implemented method comprising:

monitoring a plurality of cellular signals transmitted by a plurality of mobile devices using a plurality of femto cells placed in different locations about the shopping facility;

determining subscriber information associated with a detected mobile device;

performing a criminal records check using the subscriber information associated with the detected mobile device; and

responsive to identifying a criminal offense associated with the subscriber information, alerting security personnel at the shopping facility of the location of the detected mobile device.