Systems and methods for injecting content

• US 8,868,740 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nomadix, Inc. (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nomadix, Inc. (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Pitchaikani, Balaji, Brusseau, Eric Christopher, Olshansky, Vadim, Feldman, Peter Matthew, Zumbahlen, Charles Scott, Salem, Elyas Manzur
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Rupal
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ahmed, Mohammed
• Application Number:
  US11/864,319
• Publication Number:
  US 20080148383A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,580 Days
• Field of Search: 709/225, 709/219, 709/221, 709/223, 709/224, 726/12
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure include systems and methods for injecting content into a webpage at or local to a network access gateway. For example, in an embodiment, a network access gateway is provided for accessing the internet. A user logs onto the internet through the network access gateway and request a webpage. The gateway requests the webpage from the webpage provider. Before the gateway delivers the webpage to the user, the gateway, or a content injection engine local to the gateway, injects content, such as, for example, advertisements or other useful information, into the webpage and then sends the altered webpage to the user.

Claims

1. A method of determining whether provided content is present on a client device in a visitor based system where a client device accesses network content through a hardware gateway device which allows a client device to access network content without requiring user reconfiguration of the client device, the method comprising:

receiving a request for client desired content at a gateway device from a client device, wherein the gateway device allows a client device to request and receive content without requiring user reconfiguration of the client device;

receiving the client desired content at the gateway device from a third party server;

injecting a first interactive agent into the client desired content to create gateway allowed content, wherein the first interactive agent is configured to transmit a status indication to the gateway device indicating that the agent is present on the client device, the first interactive agent further configured to display an interactive user interface on the client device, the first interactive agent further configured to receive an interaction from the client device, and the first interactive agent further configured to transmit interaction data to the gateway device representing the interaction, the interaction comprising a request for a visitor-based service to be transmitted to an external service provider via the gateway device, the request for the visitor-based service being transmitted in association with an identifier of a user of the client device;

sending the gateway allowed content to the client device from the gateway device;

determining if the status indication was not received at the gateway device; and

initiating a process of injecting a second interactive agent only in response to a second request for client content and based on at least the determination that the status indication from the first interactive agent was not received.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the second interactive agent is the same as the first interactive agent.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the status indication comprises data indicating whether the gateway allowed content is visible on the client device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactive agent comprises an applet.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive agent is further configured to determine whether the content is visible on the client device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive agent is an applet.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the third-party service provider is one of:

a restaurant, a hotel, an airport, a convention center, a school, a coffee shop, a convention center, a cruise ship, a plane, a stadium, a library, a photocopier, a business service.

5. A system configured to determine whether provided content is present on a client device in a visitor based system where a client device accesses network content through a hardware gateway device which allows a client device to access network content without requiring user reconfiguration of the client device, the system comprising:

a hardware gateway device configured to receive a client content request from a client device, wherein the hardware gateway device is configured to allow a client device to request and receive content without requiring user reconfiguration of the client device, wherein the hardware gateway device is further configured to receive the requested client content from a third party server and inject a first interactive agent into the client desired content to create allowed content, and wherein the hardware gateway device is further configured to send the allowed content to the client device, wherein the allowed content appears to the client device as the requested client content;

wherein the first interactive agent is configured to transmit a status indication to the hardware gateway device indicating that the agent is present on the client device, the first interactive agent further configured to display an interactive user interface on the client device, the first interactive agent further configured to receive an interaction from the client device, and the first interactive agent further configured to transmit interaction data to the hardware gateway device representing the interaction, the interaction comprising a request for a visitor-based service to be transmitted to an external service provider via the hardware gateway device, the request for the visitor-based service including data identifying the client device and

the hardware gateway device further configured to determine if the status indication from the first interactive agent was not received and based on at least the determination that the status indication from the first interactive agent was not received, initiating a process of injecting a second interactive agent in response to a second request for client content.

8. A visitor based network hardware system capable of injecting content into requested content, the visitor based network hardware system comprising:

a network access gateway which provides visitor based network access to a client device without requiring user reconfiguration to access the network;

a content injection engine which injects content into user requested network content at the gateway device in response to a first request for content;

wherein the injected content comprises a first interactive agent configured to transmit a status indication indicating that the agent is present on the client device, the first interactive agent further configured to display an interactive user interface on the client device, the first interactive agent further configured to receive an interaction from the client device, the interaction indicating an instruction to a service provider to perform a specified visitor-based service, and the first interactive agent further configured to transmit interaction data representing the interaction, the interaction data comprising data associated with a user of the client device; and

the content injection engine further configured to determine if the status indication from the first interactive agent was not received and based on at least the determination that the status indication from the first interactive agent was not received, initiating a process of injecting a second interactive agent only in response to a second request for content.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the network access gateway and the content injection engine are comprised within the same housing.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the network access gateway and the content injection engine are comprised within separate housings.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the injected content is obtained from a local server.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the injected content further comprises advertising content.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the injected content adds to the requested network content.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the injected content frames the requested network content.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the injected content replaces at least a portion of the requested network content.