Beacon-implemented system for mobile content management

• US 9,629,064 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2016
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bkon Connect, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Bkon Connect, Inc.
• Inventors: Graves, Richard C., Blanz, Chris, Zenerino, Beat, Huber, Kevin, Thornton, Greg
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Duc M
• Application Number:
  US15/076,368
• Publication Number:
  US 20160277999A1
• Time in Patent Office: 393 Days
• Field of Search: 4554141, 4554142, 455434, 4554561, 4554563, 4554261, 709203, 709217, 709218
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• 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 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/64 using geofenced areas
• 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 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• 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 40/244 using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers

Abstract

A mobile content management system includes a plurality of distributed beacon transmitters, each configured to continuously broadcast messages including a URL, the URL having a host domain address and an identifier unique to the respective beacon embedded therein. Client devices proximate to one or more of the beacons, and having appropriate browser applications executed thereon, are able to receive the broadcast messages and subsequently transmit content requests to the host server associated with the URL. The host server is further configured to identify the beacon from the unique identifier, and return an appropriate destination URL to the client device for user selection, at which point the browser may for example be redirected to a content server associated with the destination URL for content presentation. The system may further include a hosted and administrator-facing web portal wherein at least destination URLs associated with the respective beacons may be remotely designated.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of beacon transmitters, each of said transmitters configured to broadcast wireless messages comprising a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) having embedded therein a host domain address and an identifier for the respective beacon transmitter;

one or more servers configured to

generate a hosted user interface enabling designation by an authorized user of content to be accessed by client devices proximate the respective beacon transmitter, in accordance with a destination URL with an address different from the host domain address, and further enabling the administrative user to define one or more tags, and

responsive to a content request from a client device comprising the host URL and the identifier for the respective beacon transmitter, to provide access via a browser executed by the client device to content designated for the respective beacon transmitter by generating a return message to the client device including the destination URL and the one or more tags,

wherein the one or more servers are further configured to enable the administrative user via the hosted user interface to set up and pre-designate alternate destination web pages for a beacon and simply swap between them, or to automatically swap between them according to a predetermined schedule.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of said transmitters comprises a respective asymmetric key pair, and is further configured to generate a different unique identifier for each broadcasted message using the asymmetric key pair,

further wherein the one or more servers are configured to

authenticate one or more beacon transmitters in accordance with a content request from a client device comprising respective ones of said unique identifiers, by retrieving and implementing the asymmetric key pairs associated with the respective beacon transmitters, and

responsive to the authentication of the one or more beacon transmitter, to provide access via the client device browser to the designated content.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the asymmetric key pair comprises a public key and a private key stored in association with the one or more servers.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more servers are further configured to process one or more information tags appended to the host URL in the content request, and to include one or more of the information tags to the destination URL in the return message to the client device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein access to the content is provided via one or more of a hosted web portal and redirection of the executed browser to a third party URL designated via the user interface.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the content request comprises a first request from the client device, and

wherein the one or more servers are configured, responsive to authentication of the beacon transmitters associated with the first request, to

coordinate with a browser executed by the client device to generate selectable tokens associated with content designated for the authenticated beacon transmitters in accordance with the respective tags, and

responsive to a second request from the client device associated with a token selection, to provide access via the browser to the respectively designated content.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the selectable token comprises a hyperlink associated with the third party URL, and visual information associated with a hosted proxy for the third party URL, and

the user interface generated by the one or more servers for the authorized user further enables dynamic adjustments to the visual information associated with the hosted proxy.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more servers are further configured, responsive to authentication of a beacon transmitter associated with the first request, to generate a message string to the browser comprising the destination URL and the unique identifier for the beacon transmitter as one of the one or more tags.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the unique identifier for the beacon transmitter is appended to the resource locator as a query variable or a hash extension.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers are further configured:

responsive to the first request, to generate at least a first time stamp,

wherein a time delay is calculated between an initial scan of the beacon transmitter and user selection of the token associated with the resource locator for the respectively designated content, and

wherein the one or more servers are further configured to generate a unique transaction identifier for each first time stamp in combination with a respective beacon identifier.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the user interface further enables designation by the authorized user of a campaign identifier associated with the designated content, and

the one or more servers are further responsive to authentication of a beacon transmitter associated with the first request to generate the message string to the browser comprising the resource locator, the unique identifier for the beacon transmitter, and the campaign identifier.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the user interface further enables designation by the authorized user of an offer identifier associated with the designated content, and

the one or more servers are further responsive to authentication of a beacon transmitter associated with the first request to generate the message string to the browser comprising the resource locator, the unique identifier for the beacon transmitter, and the offer identifier, and

responsive to the second request, to generate a unique offer variable for validation against the respective transaction identifier.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more servers are configured to process the wireless messages comprising the host URL and the identifier for the respective beacon transmitter in a first mode,

wherein the one or more servers are configured in an installation mode associated with any one or more of the plurality of beacons, and further responsive to a content request associated with the one or more respective beacons,

to return a destination URL for a hosted self-install interface requesting installation information,

to capture installation information entered via the hosted self-install interface and displayed on a browser proximate a respective beacon in installation mode, and

to revert to the first mode upon capture of the entered information by the server.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more servers are further configured to remotely enable an administrative user via the hosted user interface to determine installation information to be captured during the installation mode, and to selectively re-initiate the installation mode for one or more of the plurality of beacons.