Content distribution platform

• US 8,660,959 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2012
• Issued: 02/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ciright Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ciright Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Callahan, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Augustin, Evens J
• Application Number:
  US13/659,247
• Publication Number:
  US 20130060643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 489 Days
• Field of Search: 705/64
• US Class Current: 705/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/00 Visible signalling systems, e.g. personal calling systems, remote indication of seats occupied

Abstract

A system is adapted to manage the distribution of content to one or more cooperating media/substrates. The system receives data representative of environment conditions for one or more cooperating media/substrates adapted to display digital content. The media/substrates may be located in public spaces. The system compares the received data representative of environment conditions with selection criteria to identify content for distribution to the media/substrates. The selected content is distributed to the one or more cooperating media/substrates.

Claims

1. A content management and distribution system, comprising:

one or more computing processors; and

a computing memory communicatively coupled with the one or more computing processors, the computing memory having stored thereon computer executable instructions that cause the content management and distribution system to perform operations, comprising;

selecting by the content management and distribution system based upon one or more display system factors comprising any of the location of one or more display systems, physical size of the one or more display systems, physical orientation of the one or more display systems, and the operating status of the one or more display systems, a set of selection criteria to be used in identifying information for display at the one or more display systems;

receiving by the content management and distribution system data representative of one or more environment conditions that is collected by one or more environment condition sensing devices operatively cooperating with to the one or more display systems,

the environment conditions comprising one or more physical environment conditions at a building within a predetermined distance from the one or more display systems,

the one or more display systems being operatively connected to a communications network providing one or more data services comprising voice service, television service, and broadband connectivity service,

the physical environment conditions at a building occurring within a predetermined distance from the one or more display systems comprising;

the number of people, the occurrence of a commercial transaction, the occurrence of a one or more physical gestures from one or more persons, the utterance of spoken words, the motion of one or more animals, the movement of one or more people, the interaction with one or more data elements on the one more display systems, the shape of one or more persons, the amount of hair on one or more persons, the presence of facial hair on one or more persons, height of one or more persons, the skin tone of one or more persons, the presence of makeup on one or more persons, and the length of time a person is looking at the one or more display systems, and the length of time a person is looking at the one or more display systems;

applying by the content management and distribution system the selected set of selection criteria and the data representative of the one or more environment conditions in querying content data residing on the data store to select content for distribution; and

communicating the selected content to one or more display systems.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, further wherein the selected content comprises any of text content, graphic content, video content, audio content, and a combination thereof.

3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the one or more display systems comprise an existing television display unit.

4. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the one or more display systems comprise any of a mobile phone, a smart-phone, a kiosk, a directory display unit, an emergency information display unit, an electronic billboard, an electronic bulletin board, a television, an interactive ordering unit, a tablet computing device, a personal computer, and a mobile-enabled watch device.

5. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein the one or more environment condition sensing devices are integrated within the one or more display systems.

6. The system as recited in claim 5, wherein the digital communications network comprises a dedicated subscription-based communications network.

7. The system as recited in claim 5, wherein the selected content is overlaid over other content displayable on the one or more display systems comprising any of television content.

8. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein the selected content is selected based on the one or more environment conditions comprising the connectivity to a selected subscription-based data service, the subscription-based data service comprising a user interface application.

9. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the selected content is selected based on the one or more environment conditions comprising interactivity with the user interface application.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, the computing memory having stored thereon computer executable instructions that cause the content management and distribution system to perform further operations comprising tracking content that is distributed to the one or more display system and storing data representative of the tracked content.

11. The system as recited in claim 10, the computing memory having stored thereon computer executable instructions that cause the content management and distribution system to perform further operations comprising generating reporting data from the data representative of the tracked content.

12. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more display systems are adapted to receive content according to one or more instructions provided by the content management and distribution system and display the received content.

13. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more display systems further comprise an integrated computing processor operative to cooperate with the one or more environment condition sensing devices and executing one or more computing instructions to process the data representative of the one or more environment conditions sensed by the one or more environment condition sensing devices.

14. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the one or more environment condition sensing devices comprise any of one or more cameras, one or more motion sensors, one or more people counters, a communications network router, a credit card terminal, a weather station, a thermostat, a water meter, an electric meter, an audio microphone, a gaming console controller, a remote control, a smart-phone, a tablet computing device, a keyboard, a pointing device, and touch display panel.

15. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more display systems comprises a display panel for displaying content.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the one or more display systems comprise at least one of a light emitting diode display, a liquid crystal display, and a display pane having one portion comprising a light emitting diode display panel and a second portion having a liquid crystal display portion.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the one or more display systems is adapted to electronically receive content from the content management and distribution system.

18. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein of the one or more display systems comprise a display adapted to display content, a computing processor operable to cooperate with the one or more environment condition sensing devices adapted to sense the one or more environment conditions, and a communications component adapted to communicate with the content management and distribution system.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the one or more display systems further comprise a data store.

20. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more display systems are adapted to receive input from an operator, the input comprising at least one of the following:

voice;

text;

biometric data, payment data, and identification data.

21. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising one or more data stores operable to store data comprising at least one of the following:

content for distribution, guidelines for distributing content, tracking data identifying content previously distributed, and reporting data.

22. A computer implemented method for managing and/or distributing content, comprising:

at a computing system, selecting based upon one or more display system factors comprising any of the location of the one or more display systems, physical size of the one or more display systems, physical orientation of the one or more display systems, and the operating status of the one or more display systems, a set of selection criteria to be used in identifying information for display at the one or more display systems;

at the computing system, receiving data representative of one or more environment conditions that is collected by one or more environment condition sensing devices operatively cooperating with the one or more display systems,

the environment conditions comprising one or more physical environment conditions at a building within a predetermined distance from the one or more display systems,

the one or more display systems being operatively connected to a communications network providing one or more data services comprising voice service, television service, and broadband connectivity service,

the physical environment conditions at a building occurring within a predetermined distance from the one or more display systems comprising;

number of people, occurrence of a commercial transaction, occurrence of a one or more physical gestures from one or more persons, utterance of spoken words, motion of one or more animals, movement of one or more people, interaction with one or more data elements on the one more display systems, shape of one or more persons, amount of hair on one or more persons, presence of facial hair on one or more persons, height of one or more persons, skin tone of one or more persons, presence of makeup on one or more persons, and length of time a person is looking at the one or more display systems, and length of time a person is looking at the one or more display systems;

at the computing system, comparing the received data representative of one or more environment conditions with the selected set of selection criteria to select content for distribution; and

at the computing system, communicating the selected content to the one or more cooperating display systems.

23. The method as recited in claim 22, further comprising associating an identifier with each of the one or more cooperating display systems.

24. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein receiving data representative of one or more environment conditions of one or more cooperating display systems comprises receiving data representative of a user subscription to the one or more data services of the communications network.

25. The method as recited in claim 22, further comprising receiving selection criteria from a cooperating content provider.

26. The method as recited in claim 22, further comprising tracking the content that is distributed to the one or more cooperating display systems and storing the data representative of the tracked content.

27. The method as recited in claim 26, further comprising generating reporting data from the data representative of the tracked content.

28. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein receiving data representative of environment conditions comprises receiving data representative of environment conditions according to a schedule.

29. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computing system cause the computing system to perform operations, comprising:

at a computing system selecting based upon one or more display system factors comprising any of the location of the one or more display systems, physical size of the one or more display systems, physical orientation of the one or more display systems, and the operating status of the one or more display systems, a set of selection criteria to be used in identifying information for display at the one or more display systems;

at a computing system, receiving data representative of one or more environment conditions that is collected by one or more environment condition sensing devices operatively cooperating with the one or more display systems,

the environment conditions comprising one or more physical environment conditions at a building within a predetermined distance from the one or more display systems,

the one or more display systems being operatively connected to a communications network providing one or more data services comprising voice service, television service, and broadband connectivity service,

the physical environment conditions at a building occurring within a predetermined distance from the one or more display systems comprising;

number of people, occurrence of a commercial transaction, occurrence of a one or more physical gestures from one or more persons, utterance of spoken words, motion of one or more animals, movement of one or more people, interaction with one or more data elements on the one more display systems, shape of one or more persons, amount of hair on one or more persons, presence of facial hair on one or more persons, height of one or more persons, skin tone of one or more persons, presence of makeup on one or more persons, and length of time a person is looking at the one or more display systems, and length of time a person is looking at the one or more display systems;

at the computing system, comparing the received environment condition data with one or more environment condition criteria to select content for distribution; and

at the computing system, communicating the selected content to the one or more cooperating display systems.