Geographic advertising using a scalable wireless geocast protocol

• US 9,118,428 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2009
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hall, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): MAPA, MICHAEL Y
• Application Number:
  US12/641,054
• Publication Number:
  US 20110105151A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,077 Days
• Field of Search: 4554141-4142, 4554561-4563, 725/32, 725/35, 725/42, 705/14.4, 705/14.49, 705/14.5, 705 1457- 1458, 705 1466- 1467, 370/312, 370/338
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/216 using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/31 Communication aspects specific to video games, e.g. between several handheld game devices at close range
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/40 Processing input control signals of video game devices, e.g. signals generated by the player or derived from the environment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/812 Ball games, e.g. soccer or baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/406 Transmission via wireless network, e.g. pager or GSM
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1845 broadcast or multicast in a specific location, e.g. geocast protocols for adapting network applications to user terminal location H04L67/52; services specially adapted for wireless communication networks making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 : using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 : Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 : Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Geographic advertising utilizes a location of a mobile communications device to infer potential interest in a product and/or service. A scalable network protocol is utilized to provide advertisements, coupons, discounts, or the like, to mobile communications devices that are within a select geographic area or areas. A geographically addressed message is formulated based on the location of a potential customer and the content to be provided to potential customer. A message is generated at the time it is sent based on a current location of mobile communications device in the select geographic area. A protocol is utilized that replaces an IP address with a geographic location.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a wireless mobile device, a broadcast signal from a communications device formatted in accordance with a location based wireless geocast protocol which comprises a packet comprising an indication of a geographic region of intended reception of the broadcast signal instead of an identifier of a recipient, the broadcast signal comprising an indication of an advertisement message;

comparing a location at which the broadcast signal was received with the geographic region of intended reception;

when the location at which the broadcast signal was received is not at least one of;

the same as, a part of, or overlaps with the geographic region of intended reception, not processing the advertisement message;

when the location at which the broadcast signal was received is at least one of;

the same as, a part of, or overlaps with the geographic region of intended reception, rendering the advertisement;

determining whether to retransmit the message based upon three parameters comprising the number of times the advertising message was previously received, the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the communications device from which the message was sent, and the proximity of the wireless mobile device to a center of the geographic region of intended reception; and

when it is determined that the message is to be retransmitted, then retransmitting the message.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein content of the broadcast signal is formulated at a time when it is sent.

3. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the advertisement is rendered at least one of visually, audibly, or mechanically.

4. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein content of the rendered advertisement comprises at least one of text, a graphic, an image, multimedia, or audio.

5. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether to retransmit the message based upon the number of times the advertising message was previously received comprises:

determining whether the wireless mobile device has received the advertising message at least a predetermined number of times;

when the wireless mobile device has not received the advertising message at least a predetermined number of times, then determining whether message is to be retransmitted based upon the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the communications device from which the message was sent, and the proximity of the wireless mobile device to a center of the geographic region of intended reception.

6. The method in accordance with claim 5, further comprising, when it is determined to resend the message, resending the message in accordance with the location at which the signal was received.

7. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether to retransmit the message based upon the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the communications device from which the message was sent comprises:

determining whether the message was sent from a location closer than some minimum distance from the location of receipt of the message; and

when it is determined that the message was not sent from a location closer than some minimum distance from the location of receipt of the message, then determining whether the message is to be retransmitted based upon the number of times the advertising message was previously received and the proximity of the wireless mobile device to a center of the geographic region of intended reception.

8. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether to retransmit the message based upon the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the approximate center of the geographic region of intended reception comprises:

determining whether the location of receipt of the message is closer to the center of the geographic region than the location from which the message was sent; and

when it is determined that the location of receipt of the message is closer to the center of the geographic region than the location from which the message was sent, then determining whether the message is to be retransmitted based upon the number of times the advertising message was previously received and the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the communications device from which the message was sent.

9. A wireless mobile communications device comprising:

a processor; and

memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising;

receiving, by the device, a broadcast signal from a communications device formatted in accordance with a location based wireless geocast protocol a packet comprising an indication of a geographic region of intended reception of the broadcast signal instead of an identifier of a recipient, the broadcast signal comprising;

an indication of a location of a sender of the signal; and

an indication of an advertisement message;

comparing a location at which the signal was received with the geographic region of intended reception;

when the location at which the broadcast signal was received is not at least one of;

the same as, a part of, or overlaps with the geographic region of intended reception, not processing the advertisement message;

when the location at which the broadcast signal was received is at least one of;

the same as, a part of, or overlaps with the geographic region of intended reception, rendering the advertisement via the device;

determining whether to retransmit the message based upon three parameters comprising the number of times the advertising message was previously received, the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the communications device from which the message was sent, and the proximity of the wireless mobile device to a center of the geographic region; and

when it is determined that the message is to be retransmitted, then retransmitting the message.

10. The device in accordance with claim 9, wherein content of the broadcast signal is formulated at a time when it is sent.

11. The device in accordance with claim 9, wherein content of the rendered advertisement comprises at least one of text, a graphic, an image, multimedia, or audio.

12. The device in accordance with claim 9, the operations further comprising, when it is determined to resend the message, resending the message in accordance the location at which the signal was received.

13. The device in accordance with claim 9, wherein the operation of determining whether to retransmit the message based upon the number of times the advertising message was previously received comprises:

determining whether the message was received at least a predetermined number of times; and

when it is determined that the message has not been received the predetermined number of times, then determining whether the message is to be retransmitted based on the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the communications device from which the message was sent, and the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the center of the geographic region.

14. The device in accordance with claim 9, wherein operation of determining whether to retransmit the message based upon the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the communications device from which the message was sent comprises:

determining whether the message was sent from a location closer than some minimum distance from the location of receipt of the message; and

when it is determined that the message was not sent from a location closer than some minimum distance from the location of receipt of the message, then determining whether the message is to be retransmitted based on the number of times the advertising message was previously received and the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the center of the geographic region.

15. The device in accordance with claim 9, wherein the operation of determining whether to retransmit the message based upon the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the center of the geographic region comprises:

determining whether the location of receipt of the message is closer to the center of the geographic region than the location from which the message was sent; and

when it is determined that the location of receipt of the message is closer to the center of the geographic region than the location from which the message was sent, then determining whether the message is to be retransmitted based on the number of times the advertising message was previously received, and the proximity of the wireless mobile device to the communications device from which the message was sent.