Displaying advertising using transit time data

• US 9,082,134 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2014
• Issued: 07/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zzzoom LLC
• Original Assignee: Zzzoom LLC
• Inventors: Gishen, Kayle
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee, Tyler J
• Application Number:
  US14/219,182
• Publication Number:
  US 20140257949A1
• Time in Patent Office: 482 Days
• Field of Search: 701/400, 701/537, 701/538, 705/14.49, 705/14.5
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0266 based on the position of the vehicle

Abstract

Planning the presentation of advertisements to travelers, includes using a computer and software to receive data pertaining to a departure time, a location of one or more travelers, a starting location of the traveler, and a vendor event, including a time and location for the event. The received information is used to calculate available time between the departure time and the time of the event, and to calculate, for a given mode of travel, a travel time from the starting location to the event location and then to the departure location. The calculated travel time plus a predetermined amount of time at the event location is compared with the calculated amount of time available, and if the calculated amount of time available is at least equal, present an advertisement corresponding to the vendor event to the traveler.

Claims

1. A method of planning the presentation of advertisements, comprising:

using at least one computer to execute software stored on non-transitory media, the software configured to;

receive data pertaining to a departure time and departure location of one or more travelers;

receive data pertaining to a starting location of the traveler;

determine an amount of available time between a current time and the departure time;

calculate an isoline corresponding to an area the one or more travelers could travel to from the starting location of the traveler to arrive at the departure location within the available time;

calculate an approximating polygon area based upon the isoline;

test for inclusion of at least one vendor location within the polygon area;

cause presenting an advertisement, corresponding to a vendor event associated with one of the vendor locations tested to be included within the polygon area, upon at least one of a computer of the traveler, or an electronic advertising media that can be perceived by the traveler.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the software is further configured to receive the starting location of the traveler from a computing device located together with the traveler.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein approximating a polygon area includes forming a two dimensional metaball.

4. The method of claim 1, further including planning a route for the one or more traveler from the starting location to the vendor location corresponding to the advertised vendor event.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating an approximating polygon area is carried out by sampling the isoline data along particular direction vectors.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the traveler has not reached the starting location when the advertisement is presented.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating an approximating polygon area is carried out by using a Marching Squares model.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating an approximating polygon area is carried out by using at least one of the Convex Hull and Concave Hull approach.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein testing for inclusion includes polygon triangulation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein testing for inclusion includes breaking the polygon into triangles previous to a realtime requirement, wherein the triangles are used for fast time inclusion testing in realtime.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein testing for inclusion includes representing the isoline as a circle skewed by the formula

(lat−

userLat)²+(lon−

userLon)²−

timeInfluence=radius²,

wherein the skewed circle is used for fast time inclusion testing in realtime.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is at least one of a sale, a show, a class, a lecture, and a restaurant.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the boundary area is a skewed offset bounding area derived from a plurality of isochrones.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the mode of travel is selected from the group consisting of on foot, skates, scooter, bicycle, pulled cart, electric cart, motorcycle, car, bus, boat, train, plane, and moving walkway.

15. A computing system including the at least one computer and software of claim 1.

16. A method of planning the presentation of advertisements, comprising:

using at least one computer to execute software stored on non-transitory media, the software configured to;

receive data pertaining to a departure time and departure location for a previously planned trip of one or more travelers;

receive data pertaining to a starting location of the traveler;

determine an amount of available time between a current time and the departure time;

calculate an isoline corresponding to an area the one or more travelers could travel to from the starting location of the traveler to arrive at the departure location within the available time;

calculate an approximating polygon area based upon the isoline;

test for inclusion of at least one vendor location within the polygon area using polygon triangulation;

cause presenting an advertisement corresponding to a vendor event associated with one of the vendor locations tested to be included within the polygon area, upon at least one of a computer used by the traveler, or an electronic advertising media that can be perceived by the traveler while traveling.

17. A system for planning the presentation of advertisements, comprising:

at least one computer configured to execute software stored on non-transitory media, the software configured to;

receive data pertaining to a departure time and departure location of one or more travelers;

receive data pertaining to a starting location of the traveler;

calculate an isoline corresponding to an area the one or more travelers could travel to from the starting location of the traveler to arrive at the departure location within the available time;

calculate an approximating polygon area based upon the isoline;

test for inclusion of at least one vendor location within the polygon area;

select and cause presenting of an advertisement corresponding to a vendor event associated with one of the vendor locations tested to be included within the polygon area, upon at least one of a computer used by the traveler, or an electronic advertising media that can be perceived by the traveler.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein testing for inclusion includes breaking the polygon area into triangles to enable fast inclusion testing.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein polygon approximation is carried out using at least one of Convex Hull and Concave Hull approaches.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the polygon area is approximated as a skewed circle based on weighting vectors.