PRESENTING SMART BILLBOARD CONTENT BASED ON OPTICAL PATTERN RECOGNITION OF VEHICLE INFORMATION

• US 20160110759A1
• Filed: 10/16/2014
• Published: 04/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Polehn, Donna L., Hughes, Kent W., Sanjeev, Kumar, Rados, Steven R., Krishnaswamy, Nithya, Chiang, David, Haynes, Thomas W.
• Granted Patent: US 11,004,111 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/625 License plates

Abstract

A system may use optical character recognition (“OCR”) techniques to identify license plates or other textual information associated with vehicles. Based on this OCR information, the system may determine additional information, such as users associated with the vehicles. The system may further obtain other information, such as history information associated with the vehicles and/or the users (e.g., via an “opt-in” data collection service). Ad content may be selected based on trends associated with the users and/or vehicles, and may be presented via “smart” billboards (e.g., billboards that may dynamically display different content).

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by one or more devices, information regarding a set of license plates associated with a set of vehicles that are located within a particular region,

the particular region being associated with a billboard device;

identifying, by the one or more devices and based on the information regarding the set of license plates, one or more trends associated with the set of vehicles;

selecting, by the one or more devices, ad content to display on the billboard device,

the ad content being selected based on the one or more trends associated with the set of vehicles; and

outputting, by the one or more devices, an instruction to the billboard device, the instruction causing the billboard device to present the selected ad content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding a particular license plate, of the set of license plates, includes a license plate number associated with the particular license plate.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the set of license plates includes text that has been identified using an optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) technique on one or more images that include the set of vehicles.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more images, that include the set of vehicles, have been captured within a predetermined duration of time.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an average speed of the set of vehicles; and

determining, based on the average speed of the vehicles, a duration that the selected ad content should be presented,

wherein the instruction further causes the billboard to present the selected ad content for the determined duration.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more user devices associated with one or more vehicles, of the set of vehicles,

wherein selecting the ad content, to display on the billboard device, is further based on identifying the one or more user devices associated with the one or more vehicles.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

identifying one or more trends, associated with the one or more user devices,

wherein selecting the ad content, to display on the billboard device, is further based on identifying the one or more trends, associated with the one or more user devices.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more trends, associated with the one or more user devices, are based on at least one of:

a location history of a particular user device, of the one or more devices,

a web browsing history of the particular user device, or

a purchase history associated with the particular user device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more trends, associated with the set of vehicles, are based on at least one of:

a location history associated with a particular vehicle, of the set of vehicles, or

a quantity or proportion of vehicles, of the set of vehicles, that are a particular make or model.

10. A device, comprising:

a memory device storing a set of processor-executable instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the processor-executable instructions, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions causes the processor to;

receive information regarding a set of license plates associated with a set of vehicles that are located within a particular region,

the particular region being associated with a billboard device;

identify, based on the information regarding the set of license plates, one or more trends associated with the set of vehicles;

select ad content to display on the billboard device,

the ad content being selected based on the one or more trends associated with the set of vehicles; and

output an instruction to the billboard device, the instruction causing the billboard device to present the selected ad content.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the one or more trends, associated with the set of vehicles, are based on at least one of:

a location history associated with a particular vehicle, of the set of vehicles, or

a quantity or proportion of vehicles, of the set of vehicles, that are a particular make or model.

12. The device of claim 10, wherein the information regarding the set of license plates includes text that has been identified using an optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) technique on one or more images that include the set of vehicles.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the one or more images, that include the set of vehicles, have been captured within a predetermined duration of time.

14. The device of claim 10, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions further causes the processor to:

determine an average speed of the set of vehicles; and

determine, based on the average speed of the vehicles, a duration that the selected ad content should be presented,

wherein the instruction, outputted to the billboard, further causes the billboard to present the selected ad content for the determined duration.

15. The device of claim 10, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions further causes the processor to:

identify one or more user devices associated with one or more vehicles, of the set of vehicles,

wherein selecting the ad content, to display on the billboard device, is further based on identifying the one or more user devices associated with the one or more vehicles.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions further causes the processor to:

identify one or more trends, associated with the one or more user devices,

wherein selecting the ad content, to display on the billboard device, is further based on identifying the one or more trends, associated with the one or more user devices.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the one or more trends, associated with the one or more user devices, are based on at least one of:

a location history of a particular user device, of the one or more devices,

a web browsing history of the particular user device, or

a purchase history associated with the particular user device.

18. A method, comprising:

receiving, by one or more devices, one or more images associated with a set of vehicles that are present on a particular portion of a road within a particular timeframe;

identifying, by the one or more devices and using an optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) technique, license plate information associated with the set of vehicles;

identifying, by the one or more devices and based on the license plate information, a set of users associated with the set of vehicles;

selecting, by the one or more devices, ad content,

the selecting being based on the information identifying the set of users; and

presenting, by the one or more devices, the ad content to the set of vehicles,

the presenting including presenting the ad content via a billboard display that is located within a particular proximity of the particular portion of the road.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving, from a particular user, of the set of users, linking information that identifies a license plate associated with the particular user,

wherein identifying the set of users includes identifying the particular user using the linking information and the license plate information.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

determining that a particular user, of the set of users, is associated with a particular vehicle, of the set of vehicles, based on;

a presence of a user device, associated with the particular user, in a same geographic location as the particular vehicle within a particular timeframe.