Shopping assistance service
First Claim
1. A shopping assistance service method, comprising the steps of:
- (a) capturing information, by a user using a mobile device, about an item of interest at a business premises where the item is being offered and sending said information, at the time of capture, to a service system over a communication link including a mobile radio infrastructure;
(b) at the service system;
(i) receiving the information,(ii) determining a physical location associated with said information, and(iii) processing said information to identify at least the type of item of interest; and
(c) delivering to said user at least one of comparative-pricing and availability data for items of the type identified in step (b) for other business premises relative to said physical location, said data being categorized into zones of different physical accessibility of the business premises as they relate to the physical location of the user, the delivering step being over a communication link originating at the service system and including a mobile radio infrastructure.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A shopping assistance method and service system is provided in which a shopper captures information about an item of interest (90) and sends it over a mobile radio infrastructure (10) to a service system (40). At the service system, the information is processed to identify at least the type of item of interest. A determination is also made of a location associated with the information, this location will generally be that of the store (92) where the shopper captured the information, but could also be the shopper'"'"'s home location. The service system next carries out a specific task (72) relating to the identified item (90), such as obtaining comparative prices, and then provides a report back to the shopper, the contents and/or organisation of the report taking account of the location previously determined as being associated with the information.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A shopping assistance service method, comprising the steps of:
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(a) capturing information, by a user using a mobile device, about an item of interest at a business premises where the item is being offered and sending said information, at the time of capture, to a service system over a communication link including a mobile radio infrastructure; (b) at the service system; (i) receiving the information, (ii) determining a physical location associated with said information, and (iii) processing said information to identify at least the type of item of interest; and (c) delivering to said user at least one of comparative-pricing and availability data for items of the type identified in step (b) for other business premises relative to said physical location, said data being categorized into zones of different physical accessibility of the business premises as they relate to the physical location of the user, the delivering step being over a communication link originating at the service system and including a mobile radio infrastructure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A shopping-assistance service system, comprising:
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a receiving subsystem receiving offer information about an item of interest from a user using a mobile device physically located at a business premises; a processing subsystem for processing said information to identify at least the type of said item of interest; a location-determining subsystem for determining a physical location associated with the received said offer information and the physical location of the user; a task subsystem for obtaining, for the type of item identified by the processing subsystem, at least one of comparative-pricing and availability data with respect to other business premises, the task subsystem being arranged to categorize said data according to zones of different physical accessibility of the business premises as they relate to the physical location of the user; and an output subsystem for sending the categorized data to the user. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification