DYNAMIC INTERACTIVE ZONE DRIVEN PROXIMITY AWARENESS SYSTEM

• US 20140113560A1
• Filed: 01/23/2013
• Published: 04/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm technologies international, ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cambridge Silicon Radio Limited (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Graube, Nicolas, Saund, Saranjit Singh, Athsani, Athellina Rosina Ahmad, James, Arthur, Simon, Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 9,306,660 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A system of short-range communication devices identify specific regions of interest within an area. In addition, a set of ranges or zones is defined for each of the short-range communication devices and conditions and actions are assigned to the zones. A client device senses a short-range communications device and associates conditions and actions to the client device. The client device determines its zone, analyzes the conditions and, if at least one condition is met, triggers the action(s). The history or context of the client device within the area may be analyzed to generate additional conditions and/or actions, or to modify existing conditions and/or actions associated with the specific zones.

Claims

1. A method for triggering actions based on proximity between a client device and at least one short-range transponder in a predetermined area, the method comprising:

sensing, by the client device, a signal provided by the at least one short-range transponder, the sensed signal having at least one signal characteristic and including a label defining the short-range transponder;

associating the label with at least one zone, at least one condition and at least one action, the at least one zone being defined in terms of the at least one sensed signal characteristic, the at least one condition and the at least one action being associated with the at least one zone;

analyzing the at least one condition based on the at least one signal characteristic of the sensed signal; and

triggering the at least one action if the at least one condition is met.

2. The method of claim 1, further including the steps of:

sending, by the client device, the at least one label to a server; and

receiving, from the server, data describing the at least one zone, the at least one condition and the at least one action.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one short-range transponder includes a plurality of short-range transponders in a covered area, each having a respective label, and the step of receiving, from the server device data describing the at least zone includes receiving from the server device data describing a plurality of zones associated with the plurality of labels and storing the received data in a memory of the client device

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of transponders include all transponders in the covered area.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the covered area is a retail establishment and each of the plurality of zones defines a level of proximity between the client device and a corresponding region of interest in the retail establishment.

6. The method of claim 1, further including the steps of:

determining, by the client device the at least one zone based on the sensed signal; and

associating, by the client device, the at least one zone with the at least one condition and the at least one action.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one of the plurality of zones is defined based on respective labels defined for multiple ones of the plurality of short-range transponders.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one zone includes a plurality of zones associated with the label, each of the plurality of zones representing a respectively different range of values of the at least one signal characteristic.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the sensed signal further includes at least one data value that associates the label with the at least one zone.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one data value includes a power specification of the broadcast signal.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one signal characteristic includes at least one of signal strength, signal round-trip time, signal arrival time, signal quality and signal phase.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one short-range transponder includes a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device and the step of sensing the signal includes sensing a BLE advertisement message, including the label.

13. The method of claim 1, further including the step of recording, by the client device, historical data representing activity of the client device in the predetermined area, wherein the step of analyzing the at least one condition includes analyzing the recorded historical data.

14. A client device for presenting actions to a user based on proximity of the client device to at least one short-range transponder in a predetermined area, the client device comprising:

a receiver that senses a signal provided by the at least one short-range transponder, the sensed signal having at least one signal characteristic and including a label defining the short-range transponder;

a processor including application software configured to cause the processor to;

associate the label with at least one zone, at least one condition and at least one action, the at least one zone being defined in terms of the at least one sensed signal characteristic the at least one condition and the at least one action being associated with the at least one zone;

analyze the at least one condition based on the at least one signal characteristic of the sensed signal; and

trigger the at least one action if the at least one condition is met.

15. The client device of claim 14, further including:

a communications interface configured to;

send the at least one label to a server device; and

receive, from the server device, the at least one zone, the at least one condition and the at least one action.

16. The client device of claim 15, wherein the communications interface includes one of a WLAN interface, a cellular transceiver or a mesh network transceiver.

17. The client device of claim 15, further comprising a cache memory;

wherein;

the at least one short-range transponder includes a plurality of short-range transponders positioned within a covered area, each having a respective label, and the communications interface is further configured to receive data describing a plurality of zones, a plurality of conditions and a plurality of actions associated with the plurality of labels and to store the received data in the cache memory; and

the processor is configured to associate the plurality of zones with the plurality of labels.

18. The client device of claim 17, wherein the covered area is a retail establishment and each of the plurality of zones defines a level of proximity between the client device and a corresponding region of interest in the retail establishment.

19. The client device of claim 14, further including the software application being configured to cause the processor to:

determine the at least one zone based on the sensed signal; and

associate the at least one zone with the at least one condition and the at least one action.

20. The client device of claim 14, wherein at least one of the plurality of zones is defined based on respective labels defined for multiple ones of the plurality of short-range transponders.

21. The client device of claim 14, wherein the at least one zone includes a plurality of zones associated with the label, and the processor is configured to determine respective probabilities that the client device is in each zone to associate the client device with the zone having the highest probability.

22. The client device of claim 14, wherein the sensed signal further includes at least one data value and the software application is configured to cause the processor to associate the label with the at least one zone based on the at least one data value.

23. The client device of claim 22, wherein the at least one data value includes a power specification of the broadcast signal.

24. The client device of claim 14, wherein the at least one signal characteristic includes at least one of signal strength, signal round-trip time, signal arrival time, signal quality and signal phase.

25. The client device of claim 14, wherein the at least one short-range transponder includes a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device and the receiver includes a BLE receiver.

26. The client device of claim 14, further including a historical storage memory for recording historical data representing activity of the client device in the predetermined area, wherein the at least one condition received from the server is an augmented condition and the application software is configured to cause the processor to analyze the augmented condition in terms of the recorded historical data.

27. The client device of claim 14 further including a user interface wherein the application software is configured to cause the processor to display a message via the user interface as the at least one action.

28. A method for providing conditions and actions to a client device based on proximity between the client device and at least one short-range transponder in a predetermined area, the method comprising:

receiving by a server, a query from the client device;

responsive to the query, associating the at least one short range transponder with a label defining the at least one short-range transponder;

searching at least one database responsive to the received label to retrieve at least one zone associated with the label and to retrieve at least one condition and at least one action associated with the at least one zone;

accessing, from the at least one database, at least one set of parameters defining the at least one zone; and

transmitting the parameters defining the at least one zone, the at least one condition and the at least one action to the client device.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the searching at least one database to retrieve the at least one zone the at least one condition and the at least one action further includes retrieving from the database multiple zones associated with the label and at least one condition and at least one action associated with each of the multiple zones.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein:

the searching at least one database to retrieve the at least one zone, the at least one condition and the at least one action further includes retrieving multiple labels associated respectively with multiple short-range transponders and retrieving a plurality of zones, a plurality of conditions and a plurality of actions corresponding to the multiple labels; and

the accessing the parameters defining the at least one zone further includes accessing further parameter sets defining the plurality of zones associated with the multiple labels.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the predetermined area is a retail establishment, the multiple short-range transponders include all transponders in the retail establishment and the transmitting the parameters defining the at least one zone, the at least one condition and the at least one action to the client device includes transmitting the parameters defining the plurality of zones, the plurality of conditions and the plurality of actions.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein the at least one condition includes a condition that triggers the at least one action responsive to a current estimated zone of the client device corresponding to the at least one zone.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein the at least one condition includes a condition that triggers the at least one action responsive to a current estimated zone of the client device corresponding to the at least one zone and at least one previous estimated zone of the client device corresponding to at least one other zone.

34. The method of claim 28, further including:

receiving a client identifier from the client device; and

retrieving at least one of demographic data or prior purchasing data from the at least one database pertinent to the client identifier;

wherein the at least one condition includes a condition that triggers the at least one action responsive to the retrieved demographic or prior purchasing data.

35. Server apparatus for providing conditions and actions to a client device based on proximity of the client device to short-range transponders in a predetermined area, the apparatus comprising:

a transceiver for transmitting and receiving data to and from the client device;

at least one database containing zone definitions associated with labels corresponding to respective short-range transponders and conditions and actions associated with the labels;

a processor, coupled to the at least one database, and software that configures the processor to;

receive, from the transceiver, a label defining the at least one short-range transponder;

search the at least one database responsive to the received label to retrieve at least one of the zones associated with the label and to determine at least one of the conditions and at least one of the actions associated with the at least one zone;

access, from the at least one database, at least one set of parameters defining the at least one zone; and

transmit, via the transceiver, the parameters defining the at least one zone, the at least one condition and the at least one action to the client device.

36. Server apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the parameters include at least one of a zone map, a range of distances for the at least one zone or values of the signal characteristic defining a probability distribution to be used to estimate zone membership.

37. Server apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the software further configures the processor to determine the at least one condition and the at least one action associated with the zone responsive to a region of interest corresponding to the at least one transponder.

38. Server apparatus according to claim 35, further including:

a service gateway providing access to at least one database external to the server apparatus;

wherein and the software further configures the processor to determine the at least one condition and the at least one action associated with the zone responsive to product promotions retrieved via the service gateway.

39. Server apparatus according to claim 35, further including:

a service gateway providing access to at least one database external to the server apparatus;

wherein and the software further configures the processor to determine the at least one condition and the at least one action associated with the zone responsive to demographic data retrieved via the service gateway.

40. Server apparatus according to claim 35 further including a mesh network interface for communicating with the short-range transponders.

41. A short-range transponder for sensing proximity of at least one client device to at least one region of interest in a predetermined area, the transponder comprising:

a receiver that receives a signal provided by the at least one client device, the received signal having at least one signal characteristic;

a transceiver for transmitting the at least one signal characteristic and a label identifying the short-range transponder.

42. The short-range transponder according to claim 41 wherein the receiver receives data identifying the at least one client device and the transceiver transmits the data identifying the at least one client device to the server.

43. The short-range transponder according to claim 41, wherein the transceiver is a mesh transceiver.