TECHNIQUES FOR EMBEDDING VIRTUAL POINTS OF SALE IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA CONTENT

• US 20160140532A1
• Filed: 11/13/2015
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute
• Original Assignee: The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute
• Inventors: DEDIASHVILI, Yosi, KLIPER, Roi
• Granted Patent: US 10,824,987 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR

Abstract

A method for embedding a virtual point of sale in electronic media content. The method comprises: identifying product-related information of at least one product in the electronic media content, wherein the electronic media content does not explicitly offer to sell the at least one product; identifying at least one vendor having the at least one product in stock, wherein the at least one product is interrelated to the identified product-related information, wherein identification is based on an estimated inventory of each of the at least one product for each of the at least one vendor; generating a virtual point of sale based on the identified at least one vendor and the identified at least one product; and causing a display of the generated virtual point of sale on the electronic media content.

Claims

1. A method for embedding a virtual point of sale in electronic media content, comprising:

identifying product-related information of at least one product in the electronic media content, wherein the electronic media content does not explicitly offer to sell the at least one product;

identifying at least one vendor having the at least one product in stock, wherein the at least one product is interrelated to the identified product-related information, wherein the identification is based on an estimated inventory of each of the at least one product for each of the at least one vendor;

generating a virtual point of sale based on the identified at least one vendor and the identified at least one product; and

causing a display of the generated virtual point of sale on the electronic media content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each estimated inventory is a probability that the corresponding vendor has the at least one product in stock.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least one vendor having the at least one product in stock further comprises:

identifying at least one vendor offering the at least one product; and

determining whether each of the at least one offering vendor has the product in stock, wherein the determination is based on the at least one estimated inventory.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a physical location of each identified vendor is in the vicinity of a geographical location of a user.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein determining whether each of the at least one vendor has the product in stock further comprises:

retrieving, from an inventory management system, an estimated inventory for each of the at least one offering vendor.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, based on the at least one product, at least one associated product; and

identifying, based on the at least one associated product, at least one associated product vendor having the associated product in stock, wherein the generated virtual point of sale includes the at least one associated product and the at least one associated product vendor.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each associated product vendor is identified when the associated product vendor is one of the identified at least one vendor.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one associated product vendor is identified based on a proximity of each associated product vendor to each of the at least one vendor.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated virtual point of sale is displayed as any of:

an overlay, a replacement of content in the electronic media content, and in place with content in the electronic media content.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each vendor is at least a brick-and-mortar store.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated virtual point of sale allows a user to complete a transaction regarding the at least one product.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein completing the transaction includes at least one of:

confirming a purchase, paying for the at least one product, and providing directions to a geographical location of the at least one vendor.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein completing the transaction further comprises:

establishing a direct communication channel between the vendor device and a user device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein completing the transaction further comprises:

sending the transaction information to an inventory management system.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the at least one product further comprises:

performing at least one of;

textual analysis, and image analysis.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying the electronic media content to include a call-to-action interactive feature.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

embedding a script in the electronic media content, wherein the script is configured to control, using a plurality of flags, at least attributes of the call-to-action interactive feature and elements of the electronic media content to be modified.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein embedding a script in the electronic media content further comprising:

providing a permission mechanism to prevent overriding of values of the flags.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic media content includes any one of:

a webpage, a mobile application, an e-book, and an electronic game.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for causing one or more processing units to execute the method according to claim 1.

21. A system for embedding a virtual point of sale in electronic media content, comprising:

a processing unit; and

a memory, the memory containing instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, configure the system to;

identify product-related information of at least one product in the electronic media content, wherein the electronic media content does not explicitly offer to sell the at least one product;

identify at least one vendor having the at least one product in stock, wherein the at least one product is interrelated to the identified product-related information, wherein the identification is based on an estimated inventory of each of the at least one product for each of the at least one vendor;

generate a virtual point of sale based on the identified at least one vendor and the identified at least one product; and

cause a display of the generated virtual point of sale on the electronic media content.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein each estimated inventory is a probability that the corresponding vendor has the at least one product in stock.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the system is further configured to:

identify at least one vendor offering the at least one product; and

determine whether each of the at least one offering vendor has the product in stock, wherein the determination is based on the at least one estimated inventory.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein a physical location of each identified vendor is in the vicinity of a geographical location of a user.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the system is further configured to:

retrieve, from an inventory management system, an estimated inventory for each of the at least one offering vendor.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the system is further configured to:

identify, based on the at least one product, at least one associated product; and

identify, based on the at least one associated product, at least one associated product vendor having the associated product in stock, wherein the generated virtual point of sale includes the at least one associated product and the at least one associated product vendor.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein each associated product vendor is identified when the associated product vendor is one of the identified at least one vendor.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the at least one associated product vendor is identified based on a proximity of each associated product vendor to each of the at least one vendor.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the generated virtual point of sale is displayed as any of:

an overlay, a replacement of content in the electronic media content, and in place with content in the electronic media content.

30. The system of claim 21, wherein each vendor is at least a brick-and-mortar store.

31. The system of claim 21, wherein the generated virtual point of sale allows a user to complete a transaction regarding the at least one product.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein completing the transaction includes at least one of:

confirming a purchase, paying for the at least one product, and providing directions to a geographical location of the at least one vendor.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the system is further configured to:

establish a direct communication channel between the vendor device and a user device.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein the system is further configured to:

send the transaction information to an inventory management system.

35. The system of claim 31, wherein the system is further configured to:

perform at least one of;

textual analysis, and image analysis.

36. The system of claim 31, wherein the system is further configured to:

modify the electronic media content to include a call-to-action interactive feature.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the system is further configured to:

embed a script in the electronic media content, wherein the script is configured to control, using a plurality of flags, at least attributes of the call-to-action interactive feature and elements of the electronic media content to be modified.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the system is further configured to:

provide a permission mechanism to prevent overriding of values of the flags.

39. The system of claim 21, wherein the electronic media content includes any one of:

a webpage, a mobile application, an e-book, and an electronic game.

40. A method for embedding a virtual point of sale in electronic media content, comprising:

identifying at least one product in the electronic media content, wherein the electronic media content does not explicitly offer to sell the at least one product;

identifying at least one vendor offering the at least one product, wherein a physical store of each identified vendor is in the vicinity of a geographical location;

determining, for each identified vendor, whether the identified vendor has the at least one product in stock, wherein the determination is based on at least one estimated inventory of each of the at least one product for the identified vendor;

generating a virtual point of sale based on each vendor determined to have the product in stock and the identified at least one product; and

causing a display of the generated virtual point of sale on the electronic media content.

41. A method for embedding a virtual point of sale in electronic media content, comprising:

identifying at least one product in the electronic media content, wherein the electronic media content does not explicitly offer to sell the at least one product;

identifying at least one vendor having the at least one product in stock, wherein the identification is based on an estimated inventory of each of the at least one product for each of the at least one vendor;

identifying, based on the identified at least one product, at least one associated product;

identifying, based on the at least one associated product, at least one associated product vendor having the associated product in stock;

generating a virtual point of sale based on the identified at least one vendor, the identified at least one associated product vendor, the identified at least one product, and the identified at least one associated product; and

causing a display of the generated virtual point of sale on the webpage.