Interaction analyzer

• US 8,384,550 B2
• Filed: 07/02/2012
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Craine, Ari
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Shirley
• Application Number:
  US13/540,041
• Publication Number:
  US 20120268270A1
• Time in Patent Office: 239 Days
• Field of Search: 340/573.1, 340/539.13, 340/457, 340/10.1, 340/686.1
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence

Abstract

A method of analyzing participant activity includes providing an identification unit to a participant, receiving signals from the identification unit, determining location of the participant based on the received signals, storing the location information and the associated timestamp and analyzing the stored information.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of identification units, each of the plurality of identification units being associated with a different one of a plurality of participants and carried by the plurality of participants at a conference; and

a monitoring station that;

determines that at least two of the plurality of participants have interacted with one another in response to determining that locations associated with the at least two participants were in close proximity to one another and have associated timestamps that overlap for at least a predetermined amount of time; and

receives a request from at least one of the at least two of the plurality of participants that have interacted with one another to provide information about at least one of remaining ones of the at least two of the plurality of participants that have interacted with one another,

wherein a tracking module receives the information from an external transmitter device that resides at a vendor booth at a conference;

wherein the tracking module in a first one of the plurality of identification units transmits the information to a tracking module of a second one of the plurality of identification units for storage in the tracking module of the second one of the plurality of identification units and for subsequent relay from the second one of the plurality of identification units to the monitoring station; and

wherein the tracking module in the first one of the plurality of identification units receives information from the tracking module of the second one of the plurality of identification units which was received by the second one of the plurality of identification units from at least one other external transmitter device, and stores the information in the memory to relay the information to the monitoring station.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring station further provides the information about at least one of remaining ones of the at least two of the plurality of participants that have interacted with one another responsive to the request.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring station further determines when identification units carried by two of the participants are in close proximity to one another and have associated timestamps that overlap for at least the predetermined amount of time.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring station further:

receives signals from the plurality of identification units;

determines locations of each of the plurality of participants based on the signals from the plurality of identification units;

associates a timestamp with the locations of each of the plurality of participants to provide the associated timestamps for the locations of each of the plurality of participants;

stores the locations of each of the plurality of participants and the associated timestamps; and

analyzes the locations of each of the plurality of participants to determine an activity of the plurality of participants.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein tracking module transmits to the monitoring station an identification of signals that the identification unit has received from external transmitter devices.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the tracking module further transmits the identification of signals to the monitoring station using radio frequency signals.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the tracking module includes a radio frequency identification module that transmits the identification of signals to the monitoring station using radio frequency signaling.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the tracking module further responds to a request signal from the monitoring station by transmitting the identification of signals to the monitoring station.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the tracking module comprises a memory for storing information received from at least one external transmitter device, the tracking module further relays the information received from at least one external transmitted device to the monitoring station.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring station further determines a number of signals that are received from an external transmitter device at a particular location over a plurality of predetermined time periods, and ranks the signals by volume over the plurality of predetermined time periods.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined amount of time corresponds to a defined number of hours.

12. A monitoring station comprising a computing device, the computing device comprising:

an input means that receives signals from a plurality of identification units, each of the plurality of identification units being associated with different participants and is carried by a plurality of participants at a conference; and

a processor that;

analyzes locations of each of the different participants to determine an activity of each of the different participants and to determine that at least two of the different participants have interacted with one another in response to identifying that the locations of identification units associated with the least two different participants were in close proximity to one another and had associated timestamps that overlap for at least a predetermined amount of time; and

receives a request from at least one of the at least two of the plurality of participants that have interacted with one another to provide information about at least one of remaining ones of the at least two of the plurality of participants that have interacted with one another,

wherein a tracking module receives the information from an external transmitter device that resides at a vendor booth at a conference;

wherein the tracking module in a first one of the plurality of identification units transmits the information to a tracking module of a second one of the plurality of identification units for storage in the tracking module of the second one of the plurality of identification units and for subsequent relay from the second one of the plurality of identification units to the monitoring station; and

wherein the tracking module in the first one of the plurality of identification units receives information from the tracking module of the second one of the plurality of identification units which was received by the second one of the plurality of identification units from at least one other external transmitter device, and stores the information in the memory to relay the information to the monitoring station.

13. The monitoring station of claim 12, wherein the processor further provides the information about at least one of remaining ones of the at least two of the plurality of participants that have interacted with one another responsive to the request.

14. The monitoring station of claim 12, where the processor further:

determines locations of each of the different participants based on the signals from the plurality of identification units that are received and associates a timestamp with the locations of each of the different participants that are determined to provide the associated timestamps for each of the different participants.

15. The monitoring station of claim 14, further comprising a memory that stores the locations of each of the different participants that are determined and the associated timestamps for each of the different participants.

16. The monitoring station of claim 12, wherein the tracking module transmits to the monitoring station an identification of signals that the identification unit has received from external transmitter devices.

17. The monitoring station of claim 12, wherein the processor further determines a number of signals that are received from an external transmitter device at a particular location over a plurality of predetermined time periods, and ranks the signals by volume over the plurality of predetermined time periods.