Communication redirect via short-range communication for digital item retrieval

• US 8,626,135 B1
• Filed: 10/17/2012
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Schilit, William Noah, Want, Roy, Fritz, Robert Douglas III
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Fayyaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hanidu, Ganiyu A
• Application Number:
  US13/654,140
• Time in Patent Office: 447 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404, 455/567, 455/41.1, 455/41.2, 455/414.1, 455/456.1, 4554563-4566, 455/517, 705/14.41, 705/14.45, 705/14, 705/27, 705/1, 709/224, 709/218, 709/219, 709/226, 709/206
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

In general, techniques for using short range communication, such as near-field communication (NFC), to redirect the communication of a computing device to receive digital items selected at a kiosk may include receiving, by a computing device and from a kiosk computing device via a first communication pathway comprising short-range wireless communication, a device identifier associated with the kiosk computing device, wherein the kiosk computing device is operable to receive a selection of a digital item. The techniques may further include sending, by the computing device, a request for access to the digital item based at least in part on the device identifier associated with the kiosk computing device. The techniques may further include receiving, by the computing device via a second communication pathway, access to the digital item based at least in part on the device identifier.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device and from a kiosk computing device via a first communication pathway comprising a first short-range wireless communication pathway, a device identifier associated with the kiosk computing device, wherein the kiosk computing device is operable to receive a selection of a digital item out of a plurality of digital items, and wherein the device identifier does not change regardless of the selected digital item and does not identify the digital item;

sending, by the computing device, a request for access to the digital item based at least in part on the device identifier associated with the kiosk computing device; and

in response to sending the request, receiving, by the computing device via a second communication pathway, access to the digital item selected at the kiosk computing device based at least in part on the device identifier, the second communication pathway being different from the first communication pathway.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending, by the computing device, the request for access to the digital item comprises:

sending, by the computing device to a remote system, the request for access to the digital item based at least in part on the device identifier associated with the kiosk computing device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the access to the digital item comprises:

receiving, by the computing device, the access to the digital item at the remote system.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the access to the digital item comprises:

receiving, by the computing device, the digital item from the remote system.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the device identifier includes a universal resource locator (URL) that references an Internet resource provided by the remote system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein sending the request comprises:

accessing, by the computing device, the Internet resource referenced by the URL.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the access to the digital item comprises:

communicating, by the computing device, with the kiosk computing device based at least in part on the device identifier; and

receiving, by the computing device and from the kiosk computing device via the second communication pathway, the digital item.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second communication pathway comprises a wireless communication pathway.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second communication pathway comprises a second short-range wireless communication pathway.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the second communication pathway comprises the Internet.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the device identifier further comprises:

receiving, by the computing device via the first short-range wireless communication pathway, the device identifier from a tag device associated with the kiosk computing device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the computing device includes a near-field communication (NFC) module;

the tag device comprises a passive NFC tag; and

the first short-range wireless communication pathway comprises an NFC pathway.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital item includes one or more of an electronic book, an audio file, and a video file.

14. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors; and

a short-range wireless communication module configured to receive, via a first short-range wireless communication pathway and from a kiosk computing device, a device identifier associated with the kiosk computing device, wherein the kiosk computing device is operable to receive a selection of a digital item out of a plurality of digital items, and wherein the device identifier does not change regardless of the selected digital item and does not identify the digital item; and

wherein the one or more processors are configured to;

send a request for access to the digital item based at least in part on the device identifier associated with the kiosk computing device, and

in response to sending the request, receive, via a second communication pathway, the access to the digital item based at least in part on the device identifier.

15. A computer-readable storage device comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one programmable processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by a computing device and from a kiosk computing device via a first communication pathway comprising a first short-range wireless communication pathway, a device identifier associated with the kiosk computing device, wherein the kiosk computing device is operable to receive a selection of a digital item out of a plurality of digital items, and wherein the device identifier does not change regardless of the selected digital item and does not identify the digital item;

sending, by the computing device, a request for access to the digital item based at least in part on the device identifier associated with the kiosk computing device; and

responsive to sending the request, receiving, by the computing device via a second communication pathway, the access to the digital item based at least in part on the device identifier.

16. A method comprising:

receiving, by a kiosk computing device, a selection of a digital item out of a plurality of digital items;

sending, from the kiosk computing device to a computing device via a first communication pathway comprising a first short-range wireless communication pathway, a device identifier associated with the kiosk computing device that enables the computing device to access the digital item, wherein the digital identifier does not change regardless of the selected digital item and does not identify the digital item; and

sending, by the kiosk computing device via a second communication pathway, an indication of the digital item for access by the computing device based at least in part on the device identifier, the second communication pathway being different from the first communication pathway.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein sending the device identifier further comprises:

sending, by the kiosk computing device to the computing device using a tag device associated with the kiosk computing device, the device identifier.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the computing device includes a near-field communication (NFC) module;

the tag device comprises a passive NFC tag; and

the first short-range wireless communication pathway comprises a NFC pathway.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein sending the indication of the digital item comprises:

sending the indication of the digital item from the kiosk computing device to the computing device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the indication of the digital item comprises the digital item.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein sending the indication of the digital item comprises:

sending, by the kiosk computing device, the indication of the digital item to a remote system via the second communication pathway.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the indication of the digital item comprises the digital item.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the device identifier further includes a universal resource locator (URL) that references an Internet resource provided by the remote system.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the indication of the digital item comprises a redirection pointer to the digital item.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein the digital item is included in a zone out of a plurality of zones in the kiosk computing device.

26. The method of 25, wherein sending the device identifier comprises sending, by the kiosk computing device using a tag device associated with the zone that includes the digital item, the device identifier, wherein the tag is included in a plurality of tag devices associated with the kiosk computing device.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the device identifier identifies the kiosk computing device and the zone that includes the digital item.