Data Synthesis Using Near Field Communication

• US 20170104512A1
• Filed: 10/11/2016
• Published: 04/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores Texas LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: White, Richard Andrew, Lewis, Ricky L., Johnson, Christopher Soames, Clark, Jimmie Russell
• Granted Patent: US 10,498,398 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72451 according to schedules, e.g. using calendar applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/04 including near field communication means, e.g. RFID
• 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

Methods and systems are provided for synthesizing and displaying distributed data using Near Field Communication (NFC). A system includes a plurality of NFC-enabled mobile devices, a NFC base transmitter generating a Radio Frequency (RF) field, and a central computing device in electronic communication with the NFC base transmitter. Each NFC-enabled mobile device has a NFC payload encoding a unique user identifier that corresponds to a quantity of user data associated with a mobile application on that mobile device. The NFC base transmitter is configured to the NFC payload(s) of mobile devices being within a certain range of the RF field. The system is programmed to generate a plurality of user interface elements based on the quantities of user data, and instruct a display device to render a visual representation of each user interface element at display coordinates determined based on the quantities of user data.

Claims

1. A system for synthesizing and displaying distributed data using Near Field Communication (NFC) comprising:

a plurality of NFC-enabled mobile devices, each NFC-enabled mobile device having a NFC payload encoding a unique user identifier associated therewith, each one of the unique user identifiers corresponding to a quantity of user data associated with a mobile application resident on the associated one of the NFC-enabled mobile devices;

a NFC base transmitter generating a Radio Frequency (RF) field, the NFC base transmitter configured to detect an associated one of the NFC payloads in response to one or more of the NFC-enabled mobile devices being within a range of the RF field, the NFC base transmitter further configured to at least one of transmit additional user data to the detected NFC-enabled mobile device for updating the quantity of user data or receive the quantity of user data associated with the mobile application from the NFC-enabled mobile device in response to detection of the NFC payload; and

a central computing device in electronic communication with the NFC base transmitter, the central computing device including a processor and a memory, the memory storing each quantity of user data received from each NFC-enabled mobile device and instructions that, when executed by the processor;

programmatically generate a plurality of user interface elements based on the quantities of user data stored in the memory, and

instruct a display device to render a visual representation of each user interface element at display coordinates determined based on the quantities of user data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein programmatically generating the plurality of user interface elements further comprises updating at least one previously created user interface element.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein programmatically generating the plurality of user interface elements further comprises creating a new user interface element.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the user interface elements is visually represented as a virtual sticky note.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each quantity of user data includes user-assigned task related data.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the user-assigned task-related data includes at least one of a status identifier, a completion percentage, a predicted completion date, user velocity, or task relationship data.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional NFC base transmitter in electronic communication with the central computing device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one additional NFC base transmitter is located in a different geographical location than the NFC base transmitter.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional display device, in electronic communication with the central computing device.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one additional display device is located in a different geographical location than the display device.

11. A method for synthesizing and displaying distributed data using Near Field Communication (NFC) comprising:

detecting, by an NFC base transmitter, a NFC payload associated with one of a plurality of NFC-enabled mobile devices in response to the associated one of the NFC-enabled mobile devices being within a range of a Radio Frequency (RF) field generated by the NFC base transmitter, the NFC payload encoding a unique user identifier corresponding to a quantity of user data associated with a mobile application resident on the associated one of the NFC-enabled mobile devices;

at least one of transmitting, by the NFC base transmitter, additional user data to the detected NFC-enabled mobile device for updating the quantity of user data or receiving, by the NFC base transmitter, the quantity of user data associated with the mobile application resident on the NFC-enabled mobile device in response to detection of the NFC payload;

receiving, at a central computing device in electronic communication with the NFC base transmitter, the received quantity of user data, the central computing device including a processor and a memory, the memory storing a plurality of received quantities of user data associated with a plurality of mobile applications resident on the plurality of NFC-enabled mobile devices;

programmatically generating, by the processor, a plurality of user interface elements based on the plurality of received quantities of user data stored in the memory; and

instructing, by the processor, a display device to render a visual representation of each user interface element at display coordinates determined based on the plurality of received quantities of user data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein programmatically generating the plurality of user interface elements further comprises updating at least one previously created user interface element.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein programmatically generating the plurality of user interface elements further comprises creating a new user interface element.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising modifying, in response to receiving a user input at a user interface of at least one of the plurality of the NFC-enabled mobile devices, at least a portion of the quantity of user data.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein each quantity of user data includes user-assigned task related data.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the user-assigned task-related data includes at least one of a status identifier, a completion percentage, a predicted completion date, user velocity, or task relationship data.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

detecting, by at least one additional NFC base transmitter, an additional NFC payload associated with an additional one of the plurality of NFC-enabled mobile devices in response to the associated additional one of the NFC-enabled mobile devices being within a range of an additional Radio Frequency (RF) field generated by the NFC base transmitter, the additional NFC payload encoding an additional unique user identifier corresponding to an additional quantity of user data associated with an additional mobile application resident on the associated additional one of the NFC-enabled mobile devices;

at least one of transmitting, by the additional NFC base transmitter, additional user data to the detected additional one of the plurality of NFC-enabled mobile devices for updating the additional quantity of user data or receiving, by the additional NFC base transmitter, the additional quantity of user data associated with the additional mobile application resident on the additional NFC-enabled mobile device in response to detection of the additional NFC payload;

receiving, at the central computing device in electronic communication with the additional NFC base transmitter, the received additional quantity of user data

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one additional NFC base transmitter is located in a different geographical location than the NFC base transmitter.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising instructing, by the processor, at least one additional display device to render the visual representation of each user interface element.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the at least one additional display device is located in a different geographical location than the display device.