Dynamic interactive zone driven proximity awareness system

• US 9,306,660 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2013
• Issued: 04/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm technologies international, ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm technologies international, ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Graube, Nicolas, Saund, Saranjit Singh, Athsani, Athellina Rosina Ahmad, James, Arthur, Simon, Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): AKINYEMI, AJIBOLA A
• Application Number:
  US13/747,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20140113560A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,168 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• 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

A system of short-range communication devices identify specific regions of interest within an area. In addition, a set of ranges or zones is defined for each of the short-range communication devices and conditions and actions are assigned to the zones. A client device senses a short-range communications device and associates conditions and actions to the client device. The client device determines its zone, analyzes the conditions and, if at least one condition is met, triggers the action(s). The history or context of the client device within the area may be analyzed to generate additional conditions and/or actions, or to modify existing conditions and/or actions associated with the specific zones.

Claims

1. A method for triggering actions based on proximity between a client device and at least one short-range transponder in a predetermined area, the method performed by the client device and comprising:

sensing a signal provided by the at least one short-range transponder, the sensed signal having at least one signal characteristic and including a label defining the short-range transponder;

associating the label with multiple zones of a plurality of zones, at least one condition and at least one action, wherein the multiple zones are defined in terms of the at least one signal characteristic, and the at least one condition and the at least one action are associated with at least one zone of the multiple zones, wherein associating the label with the multiple zones comprises;

determining respective probabilities, based on the at least one signal characteristic, that the client device is associated with each of the multiple zones; and

associating the client device with one zone of the multiple zones corresponding to the highest probability; and

analyzing the at least one condition based on the at least one signal characteristic of the sensed signal; and

triggering the at least one action when the client device is associated with the one zone and the at least one condition is met.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the label to a server; and

receiving, from the server, data describing the multiple zones, the at least one condition and the at least one action.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one short-range transponder includes a plurality of short-range transponders in a covered area, each having a respective label, wherein the receiving comprises:

receiving, from the server, data describing a plurality of zones associated with the plurality of labels; and

storing the received data in a memory of the client device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of transponders includes all transponders in the covered area.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the covered area is a retail establishment and each of the plurality of zones defines a level of proximity between the client device and a corresponding region of interest in the retail establishment.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the at least one zone based on the sensed signal; and

associating the at least one zone with the at least one condition and the at least one action.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one of the plurality of zones is defined based on respective labels defined for multiple ones of the plurality of short-range transponders.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the multiple zones represents a respectively different range of values of the at least one signal characteristic.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the sensed signal further includes at least one data value that associates the label with the multiple zones.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one data value includes a power specification of the signal.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one signal characteristic includes at least one of signal strength, signal round-trip time, signal arrival time, signal quality and signal phase.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one short-range transponder includes a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device, and the sensed signal comprises a BLE advertisement message including the label.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording historical data representing activity of the client device in the predetermined area; and

analyzing the recorded historical data.

14. A client device configured to present actions to a user based on proximity of the client device to at least one short-range transponder in a predetermined area, the client device comprising:

a receiver configured to sense a signal provided by the at least one short-range transponder, the sensed signal having at least one signal characteristic and including a label defining the short-range transponder;

a processor including application software configured to cause the processor to;

associate the label with at least one zone, at least one condition and at least one action, wherein the at least one zone is defined in terms of the at least one signal characteristic, and the at least one condition and the at least one action are associated with the at least one zone, wherein the at least one zone includes a plurality of zones associated with the label;

determine respective probabilities that the client device is in each zone to associate the client device with the zone having the highest probability;

analyze the at least one condition based on the at least one signal characteristic of the sensed signal; and

trigger the at least one action when the client device is associated with the one zone and the at least one condition is met.

15. The client device of claim 14, further including:

a communications interface configured to;

send the label to a server; and

receive, from the server, the at least one zone, the at least one condition and the at least one action.

16. The client device of claim 15, wherein the communications interface includes one of a WLAN interface, a cellular transceiver or a mesh network transceiver.

17. The client device of claim 15, further comprising a cache memory;

wherein;

the at least one short-range transponder includes a plurality of short-range transponders positioned within a covered area, each having a respective label;

the communications interface is further configured to receive data describing multiple zones, multiple conditions and multiple actions associated with the each of the plurality of labels and to store the received data in the cache memory; and

the processor is configured to associate respective ones of the plurality of zones with each of the plurality of labels.

18. The client device of claim 17, wherein the covered area is a retail establishment and each of the plurality of zones defines a level of proximity between the client device and a corresponding region of interest in the retail establishment.

19. The client device of claim 14, the software application further configured to cause the processor to:

determine the at least one zone based on the sensed signal; and

associate the at least one zone with the at least one condition and the at least one action.

20. The client device of claim 17, wherein at least one of the plurality of zones is defined based on respective labels defined for multiple ones of the plurality of short-range transponders.

21. The client device of claim 14, wherein the sensed signal further includes at least one data value, and the software application is configured to cause the processor to associate the label with the at least one zone based on the at least one data value.

22. The client device of claim 21, wherein the at least one data value includes a power specification of the signal.

23. The client device of claim 14, wherein the at least one signal characteristic includes at least one of signal strength, signal round-trip time, signal arrival time, signal quality and signal phase.

24. The client device of claim 14, wherein the at least one short-range transponder includes a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device and the receiver includes a BLE receiver.

25. The client device of claim 15, further including a historical storage memory for recording historical data representing activity of the client device in the predetermined area, wherein the at least one condition received from the server is an augmented condition and the application software is configured to cause the processor to analyze the augmented condition in terms of the recorded historical data.

26. The client device of claim 14, wherein the application software is configured to cause the processor to display a message via a user interface, included within the client device, as the at least one action.

27. A method for providing conditions and actions to a client device based on proximity between the client device and at least one short-range transponder in a predetermined area, the method performed by a server and comprising:

receiving a query from the client device;

responsive to the query, associating the at least one short range transponder with a label defining the at least one short-range transponder;

searching at least one database responsive to the label to retrieve multiple labels associated respectively with multiple short-range transponders and retrieving a plurality of zones, a plurality of conditions and a plurality of actions corresponding to the multiple labels;

accessing, from the at least one database, a plurality of parameter sets defining the respective plurality of zones associated with the multiple labels; and

transmitting the parameters defining the plurality of zones, the plurality of conditions and the plurality of actions to the client device.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the at least one condition of the plurality of conditions includes a condition that triggers at least one action of the plurality of actions responsive to a current estimated zone of the client device corresponding to at least one zone of the plurality of zones.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the at least one condition includes a condition that triggers the at least one action responsive to a current estimated zone of the client device corresponding to the at least one zone and at least one previous estimated zone of the client device corresponding to at least one other zone.

30. The method of claim 27, further including:

receiving a client identifier from the client device; and

retrieving at least one of demographic data or prior purchasing data from the at least one database pertinent to the client identifier;

wherein the plurality of conditions includes a condition that triggers the at least one action responsive to the retrieved demographic or prior purchasing data.

31. A server apparatus configured to provide conditions and actions to a client device based on proximity of the client device to short-range transponders in a predetermined area, the apparatus comprising:

a transceiver configured to transmit and receive data to and from the client device;

at least one database containing zone definitions associated with labels corresponding to respective short-range transponders and conditions and actions associated with the labels;

a processor, coupled to the at least one database, and software that configures the processor to;

receive, from the transceiver, a signal characteristic and a label defining the at least one short-range transponder;

search the at least one database responsive to the received label to retrieve at least one of the zones associated with the label, the at least one of the zones defined in terms of the signal characteristic;

determine at least one of the conditions and at least one of the actions associated with the at least one zone;

access, from the at least one database, at least one set of parameters defining the at least one zone; and

transmit, via the transceiver, the parameters defining the at least one zone, the at least one condition and the at least one action to the client device.

32. The server apparatus of claim 31, wherein the parameters include at least one of a zone map, a range of distances for the at least one zone or values of the signal characteristic defining a probability distribution to be used to estimate zone membership.

33. The server apparatus of claim 31, wherein the software further configures the processor to determine the at least one condition and the at least one action associated with the zone responsive to a region of interest corresponding to the at least one transponder.

34. The server apparatus of claim 31, further including:

a service gateway configured to provide access to at least one database external to the server apparatus;

wherein and the software further configures the processor to determine the at least one condition and the at least one action associated with the zone responsive to product promotions retrieved via the service gateway.

35. The server apparatus of claim 31, further including:

a service gateway configured to provide access to at least one database external to the server apparatus;

wherein and the software further configures the processor to determine the at least one condition and the at least one action associated with the zone responsive to demographic data retrieved via the service gateway.

36. The server apparatus of claim 31, further including a mesh network interface configured to communicate with the short-range transponders.