Linking articles to content via RFID

• US 7,316,347 B2
• Filed: 01/07/2005
• Issued: 01/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: McGraw Hill LLC
• Original Assignee: Ctb Mcgraw Hill
• Inventors: Poor, David Deas Sinkler
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Thien M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Labaze; Edwyn
• Application Number:
  US11/030,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20060151592A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375, 235/462.01, 235/472, 235/385, 235/487, 235/470, 235/381, 235/472.01, 235/472.02, 707/1, 707/10, 705/1, 705/10, 705/27, 705/28
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9554 by using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A method and system to link an article such as a publication to supplemental content through the use of an RFID tag embedded or attached to the article. Based on the electronic data within the RFID tag, a computer system or other network enabled device obtains specific and appropriate supplemental content for the publication or for a specific copy of a the publication. While the primary application of the invention deals with printed publications, connecting to a server as the source of the supplemental content via a network or the internet, and displaying supplemental content through a standard browser, the system and method can be advantageously used to obtain supplemental content for a variety of documents or objects and the content can be obtained from a variety of sources.

Claims

1. A method for providing supplemental content comprising:

encoding a URL in an RFID tag;

attaching or embedding the RFID tag to an article which conveys content to a user of the article;

reading digital data, including said URL, from said RFID tag using a reader adapted to read digital data from an RFID tag;

transmitting said digital data to a processing device adapted to detect the presence of said URL;

accessing a supplemental content web page corresponding to said URL from a storage device if said processing device detects the presence of said URL in the digital data read from said RFID tag by said reader, said supplemental content web page including supplemental content relating to the content conveyed by the article;

transmitting said supplemental content web page to a delivery device adapted to deliver web page content;

delivering said supplemental content via said delivery device;

generating content interaction data, said content interaction data being reflective of a user'"'"'s interaction with the supplemental content, the content interaction data being readable by said reader; and

in connection with subsequent access to supplemental content, using the content interaction data to determine which supplemental content located in accordance with the supplemental content-accessing data, shall be retrieved and delivered to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the article is selected from the group comprising:

a publication, software, portable audio-visual recording media, portable audio recording media, and packaging.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the processing device is a computer.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the delivery device is a computer monitor.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the storage device is accessed by a server on a communication network.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the processing device is a computer and the delivery device is a computer monitor.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of accessing a supplemental content web page further comprises the steps of:

establishing a connection from the computer to the server;

the computer automatically sending the URL to the server;

the server using the URL to access the content stored in the storage device; and

using a browser to display the content associated with the URL provided by the server.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising writing the content interaction data to the RFID tag.

9. A method for providing digital supplemental content comprising:

encoding supplemental content-accessing data in an RFID tag, said supplemental content-accessing data including a URL for a server adapted to access content within a digital storage medium and transmit said content over a digital communication network;

attaching or embedding the RFID tag to an article which conveys content to a user of the article;

reading digital data, including the supplemental content-accessing data, from said RFID tag using a reader adapted to read digital data from an RFID tag;

transmitting the supplemental content-accessing data to a computer in communication with the reader;

using the computer to automatically establish a connection to the server;

using the computer to automatically send the URL to the server to access supplemental content associated with the URL within the digital storage medium;

retrieving the supplemental content associated with the URL, said supplemental content associated with the URL including supplemental content relating to the content conveyed by the article;

transmitting said retrieved supplemental content with the server to a delivery device adapted to deliver said retrieved content;

using a browser to display the supplemental content associated with the URL provided by the server;

generating content interaction data, said content interaction data being reflective of a user'"'"'s interaction with the supplemental content, the content interaction data being readable by said reader; and

in connection with subsequent access to supplemental content, using the content interaction data to determine which supplemental content located in accordance with the supplemental content-accessing data, shall be retrieved and delivered to the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the article is selected from the group comprising:

a publication, software, audio-visual recording media, audio recording media, and packaging.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising writing the content interaction data to the RFID tag.

12. A system for providing digital content comprising:

an RFID tag encoded with supplemental content-accessing data, said supplemental content accessing data including a URL defining a location within a digital storage medium at which the supplemental content is stored;

an article to which said RFID tag is attached or embedded, wherein said article conveys content to a user and said supplemental content is related to the content conveyed by the article;

a reader adapted to read digital data, including said supplemental content-accessing data, from said RFID tag;

a server in communication with said reader and constructed and arranged to receive the URL and retrieve content from the location identified by said URL;

a browser in communication with said server and constructed and arranged to display the supplemental content retrieved by said server;

an RFID coding device constructed and arranged to write content interaction data to the RFID tag, said content interaction data being reflective of a user'"'"'s interaction with the supplemental content, the content interaction data being readable by said reader, wherein, in connection with subsequent access to supplemental content, the content interaction data is used by the server to determine which supplemental content located in accordance with the supplemental content-accessing data, shall be retrieved and delivered to the user.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said article is selected from the group comprising:

a publication, software, audio-visual recording media, audio recording media, and packaging.

14. The system of claim 12 in which the delivery device is a computer monitor.