Augmented reality gaming for physical goods

• US 10,664,863 B1
• Filed: 09/27/2016
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mishra, Pragyana K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ansari, Azam A
• Application Number:
  US15/277,398
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: 705 1466
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

Techniques for maintaining information that identifies an association of a virtual asset to an item, updating the association of the virtual asset to a user profile, and generating a recommendation for another item based on the updated association may be described herein. For example, data may be received in response to a user device interacting with a machine-readable identifier of an item. An association of a virtual asset may be updated to reflect that the virtual asset is associated with a user profile instead of the item in response to receiving the data. In some embodiments, a recommendation may be generated and provided to the user device that identifies other vendors or items based at least in part on the updated user profile.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

maintaining, by a computer system, information that identifies associations of a plurality of virtual assets to a plurality of items offered by an electronic marketplace, a virtual asset of the plurality of virtual assets being a tradeable and collectible digital entity;

maintaining, by the computer system, a user profile that identifies a portion of virtual assets of the plurality of virtual assets associated with a user;

receiving, by the computer system and from a user device of the user, an image of an item of the plurality of items, the image captured by the user device;

receiving, by the computer system and from the user device, user input that tags one or more regions of the image in response to a user interacting with the image on the user device;

identifying, by the computer system, a particular item of the plurality of items in the image based at least in part on an image recognition algorithm, the user input, and an item catalog maintained by the electronic marketplace;

identifying, by the computer system, a particular virtual asset of the plurality of virtual assets that is associated with the particular item identified in the image based at least in part on the information;

updating, by the computer system, the user profile with the particular virtual asset, the user profile associated with the user device, the associating of the particular virtual asset to the user profile including mapping the virtual asset to the user profile;

clustering the user profile into one or more groups of the user profiles based at least in part on a threshold associated with a group of the one or more groups, a type of virtual assets associated with the user profile, and a number of the virtual assets associated with the user profile;

generating, by the computer system, a recommendation that identifies another item of the plurality of items based at least in part on the user profile, the associated particular virtual asset, a virtual asset of the plurality of virtual assets associated with the another item, and the one or more groups of user profiles associated with the user profile; and

transmitting, by the computer system to the user device and the one or more groups of the user profiles, the recommendation for presentation via an augmented reality presented by the user device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer system and from the user device, data that identifies a provision of the portion of the virtual assets associated with the user profile, the portion of the virtual assets of the plurality of virtual assets; and

crediting, by the computer system, the user profile with a corresponding item based at least in part on the provision of the portion of the virtual assets, the corresponding item associated with the portion of the virtual assets in the electronic marketplace.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information further identifies associations of the portion of the plurality of virtual assets to one or more vendor locations.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information further identifies associations of the portion of the plurality of virtual assets to a portion of a web site.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the computer system, an offer that identifies a reward of the particular virtual asset upon visiting a specific location in an area; and

transmitting, by the computer system, the offer to the user device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising awarding, by the computer system, the particular virtual asset to the user profile based at least in part on first geo-location information provided by the associated user device and second geo-location information that corresponds to the specific location in the area.

7. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

maintaining, by a computer system, first information that identifies an association of an item offered by a vendor to a virtual asset of a plurality of virtual assets, the virtual asset being a tradeable and collectible digital entity;

maintaining, by the computer system, a user profile that identifies a portion of virtual assets of the plurality of virtual assets associated with a user;

receiving, by the computer system and from a user device of the user, data obtained in response to the user device interacting with a machine-readable identifier associated with the item;

receiving, by the computer system and from the user device, user input that tags one or more regions of an image included in the data, the user input received in response to a user interacting with the image on the user device;

updating, by the computer system, the user profile to associate the user profile with the virtual asset based at least in part on the data, the user input, and the first information, the associating of the virtual asset to the user profile including mapping the virtual asset to the user profile;

clustering the updated user profile into one or more groups of user profiles based at least in part on a threshold associated with a group of one or more groups, a type of virtual assets associated with the updated user profile, and a number of the virtual assets associated with the updated user profile;

generating, by the computer system, a first recommendation that identifies a plurality of vendors based at least in part on the updated user profile, the virtual asset, and a particular virtual asset associated with another item, and the one or more groups of user profiles associated with the updated user profile; and

transmitting, by the computer system, the first recommendation to the user device and the one of more groups of the user profiles for presentation via an augmented reality presented by the user device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the first recommendation further comprises a geographic location for each vendor of the plurality of vendors.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising generating, by the computer system, a second recommendation that identifies a plurality of items associated with the plurality of virtual assets based at least in part on the virtual asset and the portion of virtual assets associated with the user profile.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer system and from the user device, second information that comprises a review of the item offered by the vendor; and

updating, by the computer system, the user profile to associate the user profile with the virtual asset that was previously associated with the item based at least in part on the first information and the second information.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein updating, by the computer system, the user profile to associate the user profile with the virtual asset is further based at least in part on click stream information of the user associated with the user device, the click stream information corresponding to a web site associated with the vendor.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein updating, by the computer system, the user profile to associate the user profile with the virtual asset is further based at least in part on second information that identifies the user associated with the user device participating in a service provided by the vendor.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising generating, by the computer system, a second recommendation that identifies other services provided by the vendor based at least in part on the updated user profile and the second information.

14. A computer system, comprising:

memory that stores computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor configured to access the memory and execute the computer-executable instructions to collectively at least;

maintain information that identifies an association of a virtual asset to an item, the virtual asset being a tradeable and collectible digital entity;

maintain a user profile that identifies a portion of virtual assets of a plurality of virtual assets associated with a user;

receive, from a user device of the user, data that identifies an interaction with the item in an augmented reality projected by the user device;

receive, from the user device, an image of the item and user input that tags one or more regions of the image in response to a user interacting with the image on the user device;

update the information to associate the virtual asset to the user profile instead of the item, the user profile associated with the user device, the associating of the virtual asset to the user profile including mapping the virtual asset to the user profile;

cluster the user profile into one or more groups of user profiles based at least in part on a threshold associated with a group of the one or more groups, a type of virtual assets associated with the user profile, and a number of the virtual assets associated with the user profile;

generate a notification about the association of the virtual asset with the user profile and an identification of another item based at least in part on a particular virtual asset associated with the another item, the virtual asset, and the one or more groups of the user profiles associated with the user profile; and

transmit, to the user device and the one or more groups of the user profiles, the notification, the notification configured to be presented via the augmented reality projected by the user device.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

provide, to the user device, a catalog of the plurality of virtual assets, the catalog identifying items associated with each virtual asset of the plurality of virtual assets;

receive, from the user device, a selection of the particular virtual asset of the plurality of virtual assets via the catalog;

generate a recommendation for a particular item that corresponds to the particular virtual asset; and

transmit, to the user device, the recommendation.

16. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to generate an offer for the particular virtual asset that is associated with a particular item based at least in part the user profile, the offer being provided for a certain time period.

17. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the data received form the user device that identifies the interaction with the item in the augmented reality projected by the user device further identifies a geo-location of the user device and the item.

18. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising the computer-executable instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to transmit, to the user device, a recommendation for a vendor based at least in part on the data that further identifies the geo-location of the user device and the item, the recommendation providing instructions to travel to the vendor.

19. The computer system of claim 14, further comprising the computer-executable instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to transmit, to the user device, a recommendation for a particular item and corresponding particular virtual asset based at least in part on the group of the one or more groups for the user profile.