Method for providing kiosk service offerings in a personal area network

• US 7,584,269 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2001
• Issued: 09/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions Holdings Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Willner, Berry E., Stern, Edith H., Moore, Victor S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jaroenchonwanit; Bunjob
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chankong; Dohm
• Application Number:
  US09/803,256
• Publication Number:
  US 20020129170A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,098 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/201, 379/144.05, 379/93.05, 379/93.07, 455/3.01
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A method for delivering electronic services in a personal area network (PAN) can include providing a kiosk in a publicly traversable area. The kiosk can be configured to deliver electronic services over short-range radio communications links to wireless devices in a personal area network (PAN). The kiosk also can be configured to communicate over an existing physical communications link medium. A PAN can be established in the publicly traversable area. Electronic services can be selectably retrieved through the existing physical communications link medium into the kiosk. Finally, the retrieved selected electronic services can be delivered to wireless devices in the PAN over the short-range radio communications link. Notably, the step of establishing a PAN in the publicly traversable area can include establishing a BLUETOOTH-based PAN with wireless devices in the publicly traversable area. In addition, the step of providing a kiosk first can include retrofitting an existing kiosk both with a short-range radio frequency communications system, and with a host computing device for selectively retrieving electronic services over the existing physical communications link medium, and for delivering selected electronic services to the wireless devices in the PAN. Second, the retrofitted kiosk can be activated in the publicly traversable area.

Claims

1. A method for providing kiosk service offerings comprising:

retrofitting an existing, publicly-located, and fixed positioned kiosk with a host computing device for selectively retrieving electronic services from remote servers over an existing physical communications link to an existing communications network and a short-range frequency communications system for delivering selected electronic services over a short-range frequency communications link to wireless devices in a personal area network PAN,

wherein the electronic services include data and applications;

maintaining a list of available electronic services provided by the kiosk, wherein a portion of the available electronic services are stored locally within the kiosk and wherein a different portion of the available electronic services are retrievable by the kiosk from the remote servers of the existing communications network via the existing physical communications link;

establishing a short-range frequency wireless communications link with a wireless device in said PAN;

in response to a subscriber query received from the wireless device, generating a subscriber-specific list of available electronic services by selecting among the list of all available electronic services, wherein the selection is based upon at least one of a subscriber prioritization, a predetermined value assigned to the subscriber, advertising revenues associated with each available service, and communication resources of the wireless device;

conveying the subscriber-specific list to the wireless device for presentment to the subscriber;

receiving at the kiosk a request for at least one of the available electronic services included in the subscriber-specific list, the request being received from the wireless device;

determining whether the requested electronic services wholly reside in the kiosk and whether components of the requested electronic services reside in the kiosk;

if it is determined that the requested electronic services wholly reside in the kiosk, delivering the requested electronic services to the wireless device in the PAN without retrieving the requested electronic services over the existing physical communications link;

if it is determined that certain components of the requested electronic services reside in the kiosk, delivering the certain components to the wireless device while retrieving remaining components of requested electronic services over the existing physical communications link; and

if it is determined that none of the requested electronic services resides in the kiosk, retrieving the requested electronic services over the existing physical communications link and delivering the retrieved electronic services to the wireless device in the PAN.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of establishing a wireless communications link with said wireless device in said PAN comprises:

establishing a BLUETOOTH-based communications link with said wireless device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said kiosk was a single purpose kiosk before said retrofitting step, and wherein the kiosk has at least two purposes after the retrofitting step, one of the two purposes being a new purpose for proving electronic services and another of the two purposes being an original purpose of the kiosk.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said existing physical communications link is selected from the group consisting of a telephone network communications link and a data communications link.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of retrieving specified electronic services over said existing communications network comprises retrieving electronic messages from an electronic mail server communicatively linked to said kiosk over said existing physical communications link.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of retrieving specified electronic services over said existing physical communications link comprises retrieving an application from an application service provider (ASP) communicatively linked to said kiosk over said existing physical communications link.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said delivering step further comprises:

said kiosk delivering electronic mail to an electronic mail client in said wireless device.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said retrieved application is retained within and remains executable by the wireless device even after said wireless device is disconnected from said PAN.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprises delivering retrieved components of said requested electronic services to said wireless device while retrieving remaining components of said requested electronic services.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the kiosk functions as a wireless access point for accessing an Internet.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the existing, single-purpose, publicly-located, and fixed positioned kiosk is selected from the group consisting of a payphone, a ticket counter, and a gasoline station island.

12. A method for delivering electronic services in a wireless personal area network (PAN) comprising:

retrofitting an existing, publicly-located, and fixed positioned kiosk with a host computing device for selectively retrieving electronic services from remote servers over an existing physical communications link to an existing communications network and a short-range frequency communications system for delivering selected electronic services over a short-range frequency communications link to wireless devices in a personal area network PAN, wherein the electronic services include data and applications;

maintaining a list of available electronic services provided by the kiosk, wherein a portion of the available electronic services are stored locally within the kiosk, and wherein a different portion of the available electronic services are retrievable by the kiosk from the remote servers of the existing communications network via the existing physical communications link;

establishing the PAN in a publicly traversable area;

in response to a subscriber query received from the wireless device, generating a subscriber-specific list of available services by selecting among the list of all available services, wherein the selection is based upon at least one of a subscriber prioritization, a predetermined value assigned to the subscriber, advertising revenues associated with each available service, and communication resources of the wireless device;

conveying the subscriber-specific list to the wireless device for presentment to the subscriber;

receiving from the wireless device a request for at least one of the available electronic services included in the subscriber-specific list;

determining whether the requested electronic services wholly reside in the kiosk and whether components of the requested electronic services reside in the kiosk;

if it is determined that the requested electronic services wholly reside in the kiosk, delivering the requested electronic services to the wireless device in the PAN without retrieving the requested electronic services over the existing physical communications link;

if it is determined that certain components of the requested electronic services reside in the kiosk, delivering the certain components to the wireless device while retrieving remaining components of requested electronic services over the existing physical communications link; and

if it is determined that none of the requested electronic services resides in the kiosk, retrieving the requested electronic services over the existing physical communications link and delivering the retrieved electronic services to the wireless device in the PAN.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said step of establishing a PAN in said publicly traversable area comprises:

establishing a BLUETOOTH-based PAN with wireless devices in said publicly traversable area.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said step of retrofitting the kiosk comprises retrofitting said kiosk so that the kiosk retains its original purpose while also performing a new purpose for proving electronic services;

and,

wherein the step of configuring said kiosk comprises activating said retrofitted kiosk in said publicly traversable area.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the kiosk functions as a wireless access point for accessing an Internet.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the wireless device includes input/output components configured as a user-interface for purposes related to the electronic services.

17. A method for providing electronic services to a wireless device, the method comprising:

configuring a kiosk with wireless communication capabilities to provide electronic services over short-range radio communications links to wireless devices in a personal area network (PAN), said kiosk also being configured to communicate over a physical communications link with an existing communications network for selectively retrieving electronic services from remote servers;

establishing a short-range radio communications link with a wireless device in said PAN;

in response to a subscriber query received from the wireless device, generating a subscriber-specific list of available electronic services by selecting among a list of all available electronic services, wherein the selection is based upon at least one of a subscriber prioritization, a predetermined value assigned to the subscriber, advertising revenues associated with each available service, and communication resources of the wireless device;

conveying the subscriber-specific list to the wireless device for presentment to the subscriber;

receiving at the kiosk a request for at least one of the available electronic services included in the subscriber-specific list, the request being received from the wireless device;

determining whether the requested electronic services wholly reside in the kiosk and whether components of the requested electronic services reside in the kiosk;

if it is determined that the requested electronic services wholly reside in the kiosk, delivering the requested electronic services to the wireless device in the PAN without retrieving the requested electronic services over the existing physical communications link;

if it is determined that certain components of the requested electronic services reside in the kiosk, delivering the certain components to the wireless device while retrieving remaining components of requested electronic services over the existing physical communications link; and

if it is determined that none of the requested electronic services resides in the kiosk, retrieving the requested electronic services over the existing physical communications link and delivering the retrieved electronic services to the wireless device in the PAN;

wherein the requested electronic services are configured for execution in said wireless device.