System and method for wireless communication to permit audience participation

• US 9,510,148 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 11/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IP Investment Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Mobilitie, LLC (Bai Communications Pty Ltd.)
• Inventors: Jabara, Gary B., Linder, Lloyd Frederick, Simon, David Brett
• Primary Examiner(s): Safaipour, Bobbak
• Application Number:
  US13/834,001
• Publication Number:
  US 20130203036A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,355 Days
• Field of Search: 455/3.06, 455/3.05, 455/41.2, 455/515, 455/517, 463/42, 463/29
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/27 characterised by a large display in a public venue, e.g. in a movie theatre, stadium or game arena
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/32 using local area network [LAN] connections
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/46 Computing the game score
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/822 Strategy games; Role-playing games A63F13/825, A63F13/828 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/406 Transmission via wireless network, e.g. pager or GSM
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/51 Server architecture
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8023 the game being played by multiple players at a common site, e.g. in an arena, theatre, shopping mall using a large public display
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8064 Quiz
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10861 sensing of data fields affixed to objects or articles, e.g. coded labels postal sorting B07C3/14, conveying articles B65G47/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

User equipment (UE) includes a short-range transceiver configured for communication with a plurality of wireless access points (APs) distributed throughout a venue. The individual UEs can communicate with the venue via the APs. The UEs can be configured to play interactive games with the venue, some of which may be displayed on the large screen in the venue and others that are displayed on the display of the UE. Data may be sent to the UEs individually or in groups. The data may be in the form of advertising, text messaging, images, video, multimedia, or the like. An array of UEs can receive portions of an overall image and function as individual pixels in a large display.

Claims

1. A method for audience participation using user equipment (UE) wireless communication devices in a venue configured with a plurality of wireless access points (APs) comprising:

transmitting data requiring a response from the plurality of APs to the UEs within the venue;

receiving the response from individual ones of the UEs at the plurality of APs;

providing the responses to a server for processing; and

displaying response results, wherein transmitting data requiring a response comprises initially transmitting data to a first one of the plurality of APs and displaying an image on respective displays of the UEs connected to the first AP, the received response comprising data received from the individuals ones of the UEs connected to the first AP, and displaying response results comprises transmitting data to a second one of the plurality of APs and displaying the image on respective displays of the UEs connected to the second AP, wherein the image is initially displayed on the respective displays of the UEs connected to the first AP and the image moves to the respective displays of the UEs connected to the second AP.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the second AP is randomly selected.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the second AP is selected based on the data received from the individuals ones of the UEs connected to the first AP.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the image displayed on the respective displays of the UEs connected to the first AP is a beach ball and the beach ball is initially displayed on the respective displays of the UEs connected to the first AP and the beach ball moves to the respective displays of the UEs connected to the second AP.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first AP has a radio coverage area in the venue and the second AP is selected based on its location having a coverage area adjacent to the coverage area of the first AP in the venue wherein the image is initially displayed in a first region of the venue corresponding to the coverage area of the first AP and the image moves to a second region of the venue adjacent to the first region of the venue corresponding to the coverage area of the second AP.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the image displayed on the respective displays of the UEs in the first region of the venue and the graphic design moves to the respective displays of the UEs in the second region of the venue.

7. A system to permit audience participation in a venue using user equipment (UE) wireless communication devices in the venue comprising:

a plurality of wireless access points (APs) each having an area of radio coverage, each of the plurality of APs being configured to communicate with any of the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs;

a server communicatively coupled to the plurality of APs and configured to provide data to the plurality of APs and to receive data from the plurality of APs;

wherein the plurality of APs initially transmit data requiring a response from the plurality of APs to the UEs within the venue and to receive the responses from individual ones of the UEs;

the server being configured to receive the responses and to process the responses to thereby provide processed results to a display, wherein the responses from individual ones of the UEs comprise location data indicating a location of the individual UEs within the venue, the server being further configured to process the location data and to subdivide an image into a plurality of smaller image portions and assign each of the image portions to a particular one of the UEs based on the location data, the APs being further configured to transmit the image data portions to the respective ones of the UEs based on the location data for display on a display of the UEs wherein the displays of the respective individual ones of the UEs are configured to display the individual ones of the image portions and collectively display the image.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the image is a frame in a series of video frames and the server is further configured to process each of the series of video frames by subdividing the individual frames in the series of video frames into smaller image portions for transmission to the respective ones of the UEs based on the location data wherein the displays of the respective individual ones of the UEs are configured to display the individual ones of the video frame portions and collectively display the video frames.

9. A system to permit audience participation in a venue using user equipment (UE) wireless communication devices in the venue comprising:

a plurality of wireless access points (APs) each having an area of radio coverage, each of the plurality of APs being configured to communicate with any of the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs; and

a server communicatively coupled to the plurality of APs and configured to provide data to the plurality of APs;

the server being configured to send information to at least a portion of the plurality of APs for transmission to the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs in the portion of the plurality of APs to control the flashing of the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs in the portion of the plurality of APs.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the information sent from the server to the portion of the plurality of APs controls the flash rate of the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs in the portion of the plurality of APs.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the information sent from the server to the portion of the plurality of APs controls the flash rate of the plurality of UEs in synchrony with music playing at the venue.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein each of the plurality of UEs has a display and the information sent from the server to the portion of the plurality of APs controls the flash color of the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs in the portion of the plurality of APs.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the server is configured to provide the same information to each of the plurality of APs.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the server is configured to provide the information to each of the plurality of APs in a timed order to thereby create an appearance of a moving image.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the server is configured to provide the same information to each of the plurality of APs in a timed order to thereby create an appearance of a moving image.

16. The system of claim 9 wherein one of the plurality of UEs is initially within the area of radio coverage of a first of the plurality of APs and moves to within the area of radio coverage of a second of the plurality of APs, the flashing of the first of the plurality of UEs initially being controlled by information sent by the server to the first of the plurality of APs and the flashing of the first of the plurality of UEs being controlled by information sent by the server to the second of the plurality of APs after the UE moves to within the area of radio coverage of the second of the plurality of APs.

17. A method to permit audience participation in a venue using user equipment (UE) wireless communication devices in the venue comprising:

sending data from a server to a plurality of wireless access points (APs), the plurality of wireless access points (APs) each having an area of radio coverage;

each of the plurality of APs communicating with any of the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs; and

the server sending information to at least a portion of the plurality of APs for transmission to the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs in the portion of the plurality of APs to control the flashing of the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs in the portion of the plurality of APs.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein sending information comprises sending information to control the flash rate of the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs in the portion of the plurality of APs.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein sending information comprises sending information to control the flash rate of the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs in synchrony with music playing at the venue.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein each of the plurality of UEs has a display and sending information comprises sending information from the server to the portion of the plurality of APs to control the flash color of the plurality of UEs within the area of coverage of the respective APs in the portion of the plurality of APs.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein sending information comprises sending the same information to each of the plurality of APs.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein sending information comprises sending the information to each of the plurality of APs in a timed order to thereby create an appearance of a moving image.

23. The method of claim 17 wherein sending information comprises sending the same information to each of the plurality of APs in a timed order to thereby create an appearance of a moving image.

24. The method of claim 17 wherein one of the plurality of UEs is initially within the area of radio coverage of a first of the plurality of APs and moves to within the area of radio coverage of a second of the plurality of APs, the flashing of the first of the plurality of UEs initially being controlled by information sent by the server to the first of the plurality of APs and the flashing of the first of the plurality of UEs being controlled by information sent by the server to the second of the plurality of APs after the UE moves to within the area of radio coverage of a second of the plurality of APs.