System and method for wireless communication to permit audience participation

• US 9,675,883 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2015
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IP Investment Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Mobilitie, LLC (Bai Communications Pty Ltd.)
• Inventors: Linder, Lloyd Frederick, Simon, David Brett, Jabara, Gary Bernard
• Primary Examiner(s): Safaipour, Bobbak
• Application Number:
  US14/743,921
• Publication Number:
  US 20150289103A1
• Time in Patent Office: 726 Days
• 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:

determining a location of a selected portion of the UEs within the venue;

subdividing an image into smaller image portions;

transmitting individual ones of the image portions to individual ones of the selected portion of the UEs based on the location of the individual ones of the selected portion of the UEs; and

displaying the individual ones of the image portions on displays of the respective individual ones of the selected portion of the UEs wherein the displays of the respective individual ones of the selected portion of the UEs display the individual ones of the image portions and collectively display the image;

wherein the image is a series of video frames and subdividing the image into smaller image portions comprises sequentially subdividing the individual frames in the series of video frames into smaller image portions for each respective one of the individual frames in the series of video frames, transmitting individual ones of the image portions for each respective one of the individual frames in the series of video frames to individual ones of the selected portion of the UEs based on the location of the individual ones of the selected portion of the UEs, and displaying the individual ones of the image portions for each respective one of the individual frames in the series of video frames on displays of the respective individual ones of the selected portion of the UEs wherein the displays of the respective individual ones of the selected portion of the UEs sequentially display the individual ones of the image portions in the series of video frames and collectively display the series of video frames.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the selected portion of UEs have been authenticated in a manner that the identity of the user has been verified for each UE in the selected portion of UEs and the authenticated UEs transmit location data to the APs.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the location of a selected portion of the UEs comprises identifying a seat location in the venue for each of the selected portion of the UEs.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein determining the seat location comprises each of the selected portion of the UEs scanning a graphical code corresponding to the seat location in the venue and transmitting the graphical code to a server for processing to thereby determine the location in the venue for each of the selected portion of the UEs.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising altering the image wherein subdividing the image comprises subdividing the altered image, wherein displaying the individual ones of the image portions comprises displaying the individual ones of the altered image portions on displays of the respective individual ones of the selected portion of the UEs wherein the displays of the respective individual ones of the selected portion of the UEs display the individual ones of the altered image portions and collectively display the altered image.

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

determining a location of each of a plurality of UEs within the geographic area;

a server transmitting data to the plurality of UEs wherein the data transmitted to each of the plurality of UEs is based on the location of individual ones of the plurality of UEs within the geographic area; and

displaying at least a portion of the received data on displays of the respective individual ones of plurality of UEs,

wherein the geographic area is a venue with seats and the data is an image comprising a series of video frames, the method further comprising;

the server sequentially subdividing individual frames in the series of video frames into smaller image portions for each respective one of the individual frames in the series of video frames;

transmitting individual ones of the image portions for each respective one of the individual frames in the series of video frames to individual ones of the plurality of UEs based on seat locations of the individual ones of the plurality of UEs; and

displaying the individual ones of the image portions for each respective one of the individual frames in the series of video frames on displays of the respective individual ones of the plurality of UEs wherein the displays of the respective individual ones of the plurality of UEs sequentially display the individual ones of the image portions in the series of video frames and collectively display the series of video frames.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the location of each of the plurality of UEs is performed by receiving location data from each of the plurality of UEs.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the location of each of the plurality of UEs is performed using data provided by at least one of the plurality of APs.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the location of each of the plurality of UEs is performed by determining a proximity of each of the plurality of UEs to one of the plurality of APs.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the seat location of each of the plurality of UEs comprises each of the plurality of UEs transmitting the respective seat locations to the server for processing to thereby determine the location in the venue for each of the plurality of UEs.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the seat location comprises each of the plurality of UEs scanning a graphical code corresponding to the seat location in the venue and transmitting the graphical code to the server for processing to thereby determine the location in the venue for each of the plurality of UEs.

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

determining a location of each of a plurality of UEs within the geographic area;

a server transmitting data to the plurality of UEs wherein the data transmitted to each of the plurality of UEs is based on the location of individual ones of the plurality of UEs within the geographic area; and

displaying at least a portion of the received data on displays of the respective individual ones of plurality of UEs;

wherein the server provides information for transmission by a selected one of the APs to any of the plurality of UEs within communication range of the first AP, the information providing an initial clue to a participant to lead the participant to a new location that is within communication range of a second one of the APs; and

providing additional information for transmission by the second one of the APs to UEs within communication range of the second AP, the additional information providing an additional clue to the participant to thereby lead the participant to a final location wherein the first participant to reach the final location is a contest winner.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the server provides the additional information for transmission by the second one of the APs to UEs within communication range of the second AP only if the UE was previously within range of the first AP.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein leading the participant to a new location and providing additional information is repeated for a plurality of APs wherein the participant must follow the clues to reach the final destination.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the initial clue provides information to respond to a query, the method further comprising:

transmitting the query by the second one of the APs;

receiving a response to the query from the participant UE; and

verifying that the response to the query is correct, wherein providing additional information for transmission by the second AP to the participant UE only occurs if the response to the query is correct.

16. A system to permit audience participation in a geographic area using user equipment (UE) wireless communication devices 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 each of the plurality of APs and to receive location data from each of the plurality of UEs, the server being further configured to process the location data and to provide data to at least a portion of the APs for transmission to the UEs wherein the data transmitted to each of the plurality of UEs is based on the location of individual ones of the plurality of UEs within the geographic area

wherein the geographic area is a venue with seats and the data is an image comprising a series of video frames, the system further comprising;

the server being configured to subdividing the image sequentially subdivide individual frames in the series of video frames into smaller image portions and to provide individual ones of the image portions for each respective one of the individual frames in the series of video frames to individual ones of plurality of APs for transmission to individual ones of the plurality of UEs based on seat locations of the individual ones of the plurality of UEs to thereby enable the individual ones of the plurality of UEs to display the corresponding individual ones of the image portions for each respective one of the individual frames in the series of video frames on displays of the respective individual ones of the plurality of UEs wherein the displays of the respective individual ones of the plurality of UEs sequentially display the individual ones of the image portions in the series of video frames and collectively display the series of video frames.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the server is configured to receive location data in the form of global positioning data received from at least a portion of the plurality of UEs.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the server is configured to receive location data in the form of location data provided by at least one of the plurality of APs.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the server is configured to receive location data based on a determination of a proximity of each of the plurality of UEs to one of the plurality of APs.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein the server is configured to receive location data in the form of seat location data transmitted by each of the plurality of UEs indicating the respective seat locations to the server for processing to thereby determine the location in the venue for each of the plurality of UEs.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the server is configured to receive location data in the form of seat location data generated by each of the plurality of UEs scanning a graphical code corresponding to the seat location in the venue and transmitting the graphical code to the server for processing to thereby determine the location in the venue for each of the plurality of UEs.

22. A system to permit audience participation in a geographic area using user equipment (UE) wireless communication devices 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 each of the plurality of APs and to receive location data from each of the plurality of UEs, the server being further configured to process the location data and to provide data to at least a portion of the APs for transmission to the UEs wherein the data transmitted to each of the plurality of UEs is based on the location of individual ones of the plurality of UEs within the geographic area,

wherein the server is configured to provide information for transmission by a selected one of the APs to any of the plurality of UEs within communication range of the first AP, the information providing an initial clue to a participant to lead the participant to a new location that is within communication range of a second one of the APs; and

wherein the server is further configured to provide additional information for transmission by the second one of the APs to UEs within communication range of the second AP, the additional information providing an additional clue to the participant to thereby lead the participant to a final location wherein the first participant to reach the final location is a contest winner.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the server is configured to provide the additional information for transmission by the second AP to a particular UE within communication range of the second AP only if the server previously provided the information for transmission by the first AP to the particular UE.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the server is configured to provide further information for transmission by a plurality of APs wherein the participant must follow the clues provided by the further information to reach the final destination.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein the initial clue provides information to respond to a query, the system further comprising:

the server being configured to provide a query for transmission by the second AP and to receive a response to the query from the participant UE; and

if the server verifies that the response to the query is correct, the server providing the additional information for transmission by the second AP to the participant UE.