Apparatuses, methods and systems for ambiguous code-triggered information querying and serving on mobile devices

• US 8,407,220 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 03/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Upland Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Augme Technologies Incorporated (Upland Software, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fitzpatrick, Dudley, Snyder, Jason Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Chbouki, Tarek
• Application Number:
  US11/864,821
• Publication Number:
  US 20080200160A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,006 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

The disclosure details the implementation of apparatuses, methods, and systems for ambiguous code triggered information querying and serving on mobile devices. Information and/or advertisement providers may use a code triggered information server to serve context, demographic, and behavior targeted information to users via mobile devices. Users, in turn, trigger the provision of information by scanning or observing codes or information. Often, codes scanned by novice users and/or using mobile devices may be ambiguous and/or obscured. Consequently, the present system may implement disambiguation processes to the code scans so as to clarify their identity. The disambiguated scans, together with geographic, temporal, and user-specific information, are obtained by the server that receives, processes, and records the message. Based on these messages and a user profile—which may include continuously updated user-specific behavior information, situational and ambient information, an accumulated history of scanned code messages, and integration with outside database information—the server selects information to serve to the users'"'"' mobile devices from an information base. The code triggered information server allows for the serving of information that is demographic, interest, location, and time specific. It also allows providers to track user behavior and provide anticipatory information.

Claims

1. A processor-implemented method for processing and responding to ambiguous content requests, the method comprising:

accumulating by a processor operating on a server interest activity information provided by a mobile device and associating the interest activity information with user identifying information;

accumulating by the processor user situational information provided by the mobile device and associating the user situational information with the user identifying information;

updating by the processor a dynamic portion of a user profile associated with the user identifying information with the accumulated user activity information and the accumulated user situational information;

receiving by a processor a scanned code image from the mobile device, wherein the scanned code image is not fully decodable;

applying by the processor at least one scanned code disambiguation process to the received scanned code image to identify two or more possible codes;

predicting from the quasi-static portion and the updated dynamic portion of the user profile a most likely code from the two or more possible codes;

applying via the processor a rule using the quasi-static portion, the updated dynamic portion and the most likely code to select information from an information database; and

sending by the processor the selected information to the user device for presentation to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received scanned code image is sent via MMS.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the received scan code image is sent to a short code address.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the requested content is set to a user device via MMS.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user situational information is selected from the group consisting of at least one of an ambient conditions group, a news group, a financial data group, a sport events group, an entertainment group, a security warnings group, a geographic locations group and an Internet activities group.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the quasi-static portion of the user profile comprises attributes selected from the group consisting of a mobile device identifier, a user name, a user address, a user phone number, a user e-mail address, a user age, a user gender, a user race, a user marital status, a user family size, a user job title, a user annual income, a list of user interests, and user contact information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein user interest activity information comprises a code previously captured by the mobile device, wherein the dynamic portion of the user profile comprises a history of codes captured by the mobile device, and wherein the history comprises for each captured code the code, a time of capture, a location of the mobile device at the time of capture, a medium from which the code was captured, and code descriptive information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user situational information further comprises a geographic location of the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the situational information further provides a context from which the scanned code image was acquired.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the situational information comprises a location at which the scanned code image was acquired.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one scanned code disambiguation process comprises a scanned code image enhancement.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the scanned code image enhancement is configurable to perform downsizing, noise removal, contrast adjustment, brightness adjustment, image tilting, image rotating, focus adjustment, and edge recognition.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the accumulated user activity interest information comprises a record of user behavior.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity interest information comprises a code previously captured by the mobile device.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein sending via the processor the message to the mobile device comprises sending the message to a website accessible to the mobile device.

16. A processor-implemented method for processing and responding to ambiguous content requests, the method comprising:

accumulating by a processor operating on a server interest activity information provided by a mobile device and associating the interest activity information with user identifying information;

accumulating by the processor user situational information provided by the mobile device and associating the user situational information with the user identifying information;

updating by the processor a dynamic portion of a user profile associated with the user identifying information with the accumulated user activity information and the accumulated user situational information;

receiving by a processor a scanned code image from the mobile device, wherein the scanned code image is sent to a short code address via MMS and wherein the scanned code image is not fully decodable;

applying by the processor at least one scanned code disambiguation process to the received scanned code image to identify two or more possible codes;

predicting from the quasi-static portion and the updated dynamic portion of the user profile a most likely code from the two or more possible codes;

applying via the processor a rule using the quasi-static portion, the updated dynamic portion and the most likely code to select information from an information database; and

sending by the processor the selected information to the user device for presentation to the user via MMS.

17. An apparatus for processing and responding to ambiguous content requests, the apparatus comprising:

a memory;

a processor disposed in communication with said memory, and configured to issue a plurality of instructions stored in the memory, wherein the instructions are issuable to perform operations comprising;

accumulating interest activity information provided by a mobile device and associating the interest activity information with user identifying information;

accumulating user situational information provided by the mobile device and associating the user situational information with the user identifying information;

updating a dynamic portion of a user profile associated with the user identifying information with the accumulated user activity information and the accumulated user situational information;

receiving by a processor a scanned code image from the mobile device, wherein the scanned code image is not fully decodable;

applying at least one scanned code disambiguation process to the received scanned code image to identify two or more possible codes;

predicting from the quasi-static portion and the updated dynamic portion of the user profile a most likely code from the two or more possible codes;

applying via the processor a rule using the quasi-static portion, the updated dynamic portion and the most likely code to select information from an information database; and

sending the selected information to the user device for presentation to the user.

18. A processor-accessible medium for processing and responding to ambiguous content requests, the processor-accessible medium comprising:

processor readable instructions stored in the processor-accessible medium, wherein the processor readable instructions are issuable by the processor to perform operations comprising;

accumulating by a processor operating on a server interest activity information provided by a mobile device and associating the interest activity information with user identifying information;

accumulating by the processor user situational information provided by the mobile device and associating the user situational information with the user identifying information;

updating by the processor a dynamic portion of a user profile associated with the user identifying information with the accumulated user activity information and the accumulated user situational information;

receiving by a processor a scanned code image from the mobile device, wherein the scanned code image is not fully decodable;

applying by the processor at least one scanned code disambiguation process to the received scanned code image to identify two or more possible codes;

predicting from the quasi-static portion and the updated dynamic portion of the user profile a most likely code from the two or more possible codes;

applying via the processor a rule using the quasi-static portion, the updated dynamic portion and the most likely code to select information from an information database; and

sending by the processor the selected information to the user device for presentation to the user.