Personal index of items in physical proximity to a user

• US 7,540,419 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2003
• Issued: 06/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Amitay, Einat, Soffer, Aya
• Primary Examiner(s): Labaze; Edwyn
• Application Number:
  US10/675,155
• Publication Number:
  US 20050067492A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,072 Days
• Field of Search: 235/385, 235/375, 235/380, 235/472, 235/487, 235/383, 705/28, 705 20- 22
• US Class Current: 235/385
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A dynamic index may list physical items in the changing vicinity of a user or a generator of the index. The vicinity may be within the same space as the user or the generator, such as a store, a library, a shelf, an aisle, within a given radius, a street, a city, a campus, a building, an area and a park. The index may store information about the physical items near the user or generator, such as content found on tags associated with the physical items. The content might be a description of the physical items and their locations. The present invention also includes a system and method to generate such a dynamic index.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving RF signals from RFID tags on physical items in a vicinity around a changeable current location of a user, said signals containing information only about said physical items;

dynamically updating an index as the user changes location to contain said information about the physical items only in a current vicinity around a generator of said changeable current location of a user of said index;

said generator is at least one of a mobile device; and

searching said index to answer natural language queries from a user about said physical items in said current vicinity of said user.

2. A method according to claim 1 and wherein said user is in a space, said vicinity is within said space and said space is one of the following:

a store, a library, a shelf, an aisle, within a given radius, a street, a city, a campus, a building, an area and a park.

3. A method according to claim 1 and wherein said updating comprises listing information about said physical items, wherein said information comprises content found on tags associated with said physical items.

4. A method according to claim 3 and wherein said information comprises a description of said physical items and their locations.

5. A method comprising:

receiving RF signals from RFID tags on physical items in a vicinity, said signals containing information only about said physical items;

dynamically updating an index to contain said information only about the physical items in said vicinity around a generator of said index;

said generator is at least one of a mobile device; and

searching said index to answer natural language queries from a user about said physical items.

6. A method according to claim 5 and wherein a user is in a space, said vicinity is within said space and said space is one of the following:

a store, a library, a shelf, an aisle, within a given radius, a street, a city, a campus, a building, an area and a park.

7. A method according to claim 6 and wherein said indexing comprises updating said index with information from items only within said changeable space.

8. A method according to claim 6 and also comprising sensing the location of said generator.

9. A method according to claim 5 and wherein said updating comprises listing information about said physical items, wherein said information comprises content found on tags associated with said physical items.

10. A method according to claim 9 and wherein said information comprises a description of said physical items and their locations.

11. A method comprising:

wirelessly gathering information from RFID tags on physical items in a vicinity around a changeable current location of a user;

dynamically updating an index to contain only said information from a generator in said vicinity as said user moves;

said generator is at least one of a mobile device; and

searching said index to answer natural language queries from said user about said physical items.

12. A method according to claim 11 and wherein said user is in a space, said vicinity is within said space and said space is one of the following:

a store, a library, a shelf, an aisle, within a given radius, a street, a city, a campus, a building, an area and a park.

13. A method according to claim 11 and wherein said information comprises content found on tags associated with said physical items.

14. A method according to claim 11 and wherein said information comprises a description of said physical items and their locations.