Apparatuses, methods, and computer programs for displaying information on signs

• US 20040036622A1
• Filed: 10/09/2002
• Published: 02/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: VERT Inc.
• Original Assignee: VERT Inc.
• Inventors: Porter, Edward W., Dukach, Semyon, Mankins, Matt W.D., DʼAgostino, Salvatore A., Selker, Edwin J., Fridman, Leonid, Harkavy, Brad
• Application Number:
  US10/168,149
• Publication Number:
  US 20040036622A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/691.6
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 21/04 by land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 21/042 the advertising matter being fixed on the roof of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 27/00 Combined visual and audible advertising or displaying, e.g. for public address

Abstract

A system shows messages on electronic displays, including networks of outdoor displays, such as displays mounted on vehicles. With such vehicle displays, a display'"'"'s current geographical location can be sensed, such as by a GPS receiver in the vehicle or by multiple wireless receivers separate from the vehicle. The sensed location can then be used to select which messages are shown the display. Different values can be associated with showing messages on displays at different locations and times, and values associated with the locations and time through which a display travels can be summed, such as for charging advertisers or crediting vehicle operators. The system can be controlled by a computer system, such as an e-commerce site, which allows advertisers to upload message content, select messages, and select the time and place at which a messages is to be shown, either directly or by specifying criteria for the system to select such times and places. Message content and information controlling which messages are shown when and where can be downloaded to displays, such as by wireless. Displays can have cameras associated with them. These can be used to derive information about potential audiences to be used in the selection of when and where to show messages. The cameras can also be used to gather other types of information, including traffic and weather information. Image and speed information can be combined from multiple display and then be distributed, such as by showing it on the system'"'"'s displays.

Claims

1. A method of displaying information comprising:

1sensing the current geographical location of a publicly visible electronic information display mounted on a moving vehicle; and

selecting the information shown on the display as a function of its changing location;

wherein said sensing of location is performed by using multiple wireless communication receivers to determine the location of a wireless signal transmitted by a wireless transmitter which moves with the information display.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein:

the sensed vehicle location is transmitted to control circuitry on said vehicle; and

said control circuitry selects which information to show on display as a function of said sensed location.

3. A method as in claim 1 wherein:

the sensed vehicle location is sent to a central computer system which does not move with the vehicle;

the central computer system selects which information is to be shown on the vehicle mounted display as a function of the sensed location; and

the central system transmits one or more messages to control circuitry on the vehicle which causes the selected information to be displayed on said vehicle mounted display.

4. A method of displaying information comprising:

sensing the current geographical location of a publicly visible electronic display mounted on a moving vehicle; and

changing the information shown on the display as a function of said sensed vehicle locations;

—

associating different values with having information shown on the display at different locations and different times; and

calculating a sum of the values associated with the showing of information on said display at a series of locations and time corresponding to a sequence of said sensed vehicle locations and the corresponding times at which such locations have been sensed.

5. A method as in claim 4 wherein:

an advertiser has agreed to pay for the showing of certain information on said display;

the amount agreed to be paid for the showing of information varies as a function of time and location at which the information is shown; and

said calculated sum is charged to said advertisers.

6. A method as in claim 4 further including crediting the calculated sum to the operator of the vehicle.

7. A method as in claim 6 further including generating a human perceptible representation of said sum inside said vehicle, so the sum can be communicated to a driver of the vehicle.

8. A method as in claim 7 further including generating inside said vehicle a human perceptible representation of the different values associated with showing information at different locations and times, so that the different values can be communicated to a driver of the vehicle

9. A method as in claim 4 wherein an on-line auction is used to set different prices which are charged for having a display show information at different geographic location and different times, and said different values used to calculate said sum are a function of said prices.

10. A method of displaying information comprising:

sensing the current geographical location of one or more moving electronic information displays;

changing the information shown on the display as a function of its location;

receiving, over a computer network, a customer'"'"'s selection of criteria for selecting at what places and times said customer wants a customer messages to be shown on one or more of said displays;

controlling which customer messages are shown on which of one or more moving displays at which times at which sensed geographical locations as a function of the said customer selection criteria received over said network.

11. A method as in claim 10 wherein said receipt over a network of customer selected criteria includes:

receiving bids over said computer network for the right to display images on one or more of said displays according to said customer selected criteria; and

using a computerized auction process to determine which bids result in the purchase of rights to display images according to said customer selected criteria.

12. A method as in claim 10 wherein:

said customer selected criteria can include one or more criteria defining a desired demographic characteristic of the desired audience for the display of the customer message; and

said method uses a demographic database indicating the demographic characteristics of potential audiences at different locations to select at what locations messages should be shown based on one or more such customer selected demographic criteria.

13. A method as in claim 12 wherein:

said demographic database indicates the demographic characteristics of potential audiences both as a function of locations and time; and

said method uses the database to select both at what locations and what times messages should be shown.

14. A method as in claim 12:

wherein;

said customer selected criteria can include the price charged for the display of messages according to certain other criteria; and

said method uses a price database to store prices for display of messages according to different combinations of customer selectable criteria; and

said method further includes automatically selecting a set of one or more times and locations which most optimally satisfies a set of customer selected criteria, given a customer selected price criterion, using information in the demographic and price databases.

15. A computerized system including:

one or more vehicles each including;

an electronic display;

an electronic location indicator for providing an indicating the vehicle'"'"'s current location; and

an electromagnetic receiver for receiving wireless information from a control network determining which different images are to be shown on the information display as it travels through different locations at different times; and

a control network including;

programming for receiving over a computer network a selection of a message, and a selection of one or more times and places in which the selected message is to be shown on one or more of said displays; and

an electromagnetic transmitter for transmitting information determining which images are to be shown on said vehicle information displays at what times as a function of said selections of message, time, and place received over said computer network.

16. A computerized system as in claim 15 wherein said programming for receiving over a network said selections of time and place includes programming for:

receiving bids over said computer network for the right to display messages on one or more of said displays at one or more selected times and one or more selected places; and

using a computerized auction process to determine which bids result in the purchase of rights to display messages at said selected times and places.

17. A method of displaying information comprising:

displaying messages on each of a plurality of outdoor electronic displays, each having computerized control electronics;

providing an on-line e-commerce site which enables customers to select to purchase over a computer network the right to show one or more images on said displays as a function of location and time;

communicating from said e-commerce site to the control electronics of individual electronic displays information controlling which images they should run at which times as a result of said on-line purchases.

18. A method as in claim 17 wherein said e-commerce site:

receives bids over said computer network for the right to display images on one or more of said displays at a one or more location at one or more times; and

uses a computerized auction process to determine which bids result in the purchase of rights to display images at which times and locations.

19. A method as in claim 17:

wherein some of said outdoor information displays are mounted on vehicles so as to be publicly visible from outside said vehicles;

the current geographic location of each such vehicle is automatically determined as it travels; and

the system determines which images to show on a vehicle'"'"'s display as a function of the determination of its different locations as it travels and as a function of which customers selected to purchase the right to display images at such locations at the time such vehicles travel through them.

20. A method as in claim 17 further including:

receiving over said computer network at said e-commerce site a computer readable representation of a messages to be shown in association with a purchase selected over said network; and

transmitting said message representations from said e-commerce site to a display'"'"'s control electronics so the message can be shown by the display at the time and location associated with said selected purchase.

21. A method as in claim 17 wherein:

said e-commerce site provides an on-line interface allowing a customer to select one or more criteria to be used in selecting the time and place at which a customer'"'"'s message is to be shown; and

said system automatically selects when a given display is to show the customer'"'"'s message as a function of said customer selected criteria.

22. A method as in claim 21 wherein said customer selected criteria can include a desired time for the display of a message.

23. A method as in claim 21 wherein said customer selected criteria can include a desired location for the display of a message.

24. A method as in claim 23 wherein:

at least some of said displays are mounted on vehicles;

said method includes sensing the location of said vehicles as they move;

said selection of when a given display is to show a message is as a function of when a vehicle on which a given display is mounted is sensed as being with said desired location.

25. A method as in claim 23 wherein said customer selected criteria can also include a desired time.

26. A method as in claim 21 wherein said customer selected criteria can also include a characterization of a desired audience for the display.

27. A method as in claim 26 further comprising:

using sensors to obtain information from the vicinity of a given display;

using electronics to characterize information received from sensor; and

using such characterizations to determine whether or not it is likely a desired audience characterization exists in the vicinity of the given display;

wherein said selection of when a given display is to show a message is a function of said determination.

28. A method as in claim 26 wherein said selection of when a given display is to show a message is a function of whether or not the desired audience characterization is estimated to exist in the vicinity of the given display based on a database of different audience characteristics at different locations.

29. A method as in claim 28 wherein:

said database stores audience characteristics which vary both as a function of location and time; and

said selection of when a given display is to show a message is a function of the audience characteristics stored in said database for a time corresponding to the time of the potential showing and for the location of the given display.

30. A method as in claim 21 wherein said customer selected criteria can also include a distance in time from an event.

31. A method as in claim 30 wherein said customer selected criteria can also include a distance in space from the location of an event.

32. A method as in claim 21 wherein said customer selected criteria can also include proximity to one or more business establishments of a given type.

33. A method as in claim 17 wherein:

said e-commerce site provides a user interface allowing a customer to select one or more criteria to be used in selecting the time and place at which the customer'"'"'s message is to be shown; and

said method automatically selects one or more combinations of place and time which best match the customer selected criteria.

34. A method as in claim 33 wherein

said site:

displays on-line said automatically selected place-time combinations to the customer; and

allows a customer'"'"' to select on-line to have a message displayed at one or more of said displayed place/time combinations; and

said method uses said customer selections of place-time combinations to determine which messages are shown on which displays at which times.

35. A method as in claim 33 wherein the site uses an optimization scheme to select a set of one or more place/time combinations which best match said selected criteria, as determined by a distance metric in a multi-dimensional space defined by said criteria.

36. A method as in claim 17 wherein said site downloads software over said computer network to a browser which enables a user of the browser to make said purchase selections by means of a point-and-click user interface.

37. A method as in claim 17 wherein said site has an on-line programming interface having a set of publicly specified messages which can be sent by a client computer over a computer network to cause said site to perform specified functions, so a programmer can independently write programming to run on client computers that can select which of such specified messages to send over a computer network to said e-commerce site so as to determine which of said purchase selections are made.

38. A method as in claim 17 wherein said site provides a programming interface to the computerized control electronics of individual displays, which interface has a set of publicly specified messages which can be sent by said control electronics to cause the site to selectively perform desired functions and which can be sent by said site to cause said control electronics to perform desired functions, so as to allows programmer to independently write display control programming which can cause such display control electronics to display messages under the control of said site.

39. An e-commerce site comprising:

a computer system including one or more computers;

one or more communication interfaces for allowing said computer system to communicate with;

a network of outdoor electronic displays; and

customer computers over an internetwork;

programming for providing an on-line interface allowing customers to select on-line one or more criteria for determining where and when they desire individual customer messages to be shown by said network of displays; and

programming for sending to said displays control information to control which customer messages individual ones of said displays show as a function of said customer selected criteria.

40. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said site'"'"'s computer system includes:

programming for receiving over the internetwork the content of said customer messages; and

programming for sending the content of said uploaded customer messages to said displays.

41. An e-commerce site as in claim 40 wherein said computer system'"'"'s programming includes programming for sending the contend of said uploaded customer message and control information enabling the uploaded message to be shown on one or more of said outdoor display, all within an hour of the time at which such information is downloaded.

42. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein:

at least some of said outdoor displays are mounted on vehicles so as to be publicly visible from the exterior of said vehicles; and

the site'"'"'s computer system includes programming for;

receiving tracking information from such vehicle displays including information indicating the different locations at different times of individual vehicle mounted displays, and

using said tracking information to calculate bills for customers of the site as a function of the different positions of vehicles at different times.

43. An e-commerce site as in claim 42 wherein the site'"'"'s computer system includes programming for sending traffic information to said vehicle mounted displays and control information for causing said displays to show said traffic information.

44. An e-commerce site as in claim 42 wherein said tracking information also includes information about which messages have been shown at which locations and which times by said vehicle mounted displays.

45. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said customer selected criteria can include a desired location for the showing of a customer message.

46. An e-commerce site as in claim 45 wherein said customer selected criteria can also include a desired time for the showing of a customer message.

47. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said customer selected criteria can include a selection of one or more selectable types of display upon which the customer desires messages to be shown.

48. An e-commerce site as in claim 47 wherein said selectable types of displays include types based on different display size.

49. An e-commerce site as in claim 47 wherein:

individual displays in said network of displays are mounted on vehicles at various locations relative to said vehicles; and

said selectable types of displays includes types based on different display positioning relative to the vehicle on which they are mounted.

50. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said customer selected criteria can also include a characterization of a desired audience for the showing of a customer message.

51. An e-commerce site as in claim 50 wherein said site'"'"'s computer system includes programming for accessing a demographic database, which associates different audience characteristics which different combinations of place and time, to determine which place/time combinations best match a customer selected audience characterization.

52. An e-commerce site as in claim 50 wherein said audience characterization can include a desired income characteristic of audience.

53. An e-commerce site as in claim 50 wherein said audience characterization can include a desired age characteristic of audience.

54. An e-commerce site as in claim 50 wherein said audience characterization can include a desired ethnic characteristic of audience.

55. An e-commerce site as in claim 50 wherein said audience characterization can include a desired behavioral or psychological characteristic of audience.

56. An e-commerce site as in claim 50 wherein said audience characterization can include a desired number of people in audience.

57. An e-commerce site as in claim 50 wherein said audience characterization can include a desired characterization of the distance from one or more audience members to the display used to show a message.

58. An e-commerce site as in claim 50 wherein said audience characterization can include a desired characterization of the time one or more audience members will have to view the display.

59. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said customer selected criteria can also include a distance in time from an event.

60. An e-commerce site as in claim 59 wherein said customer selected criteria can also include a distance in space from the location of an event.

61. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said site'"'"'s computer system includes place/time selection programming for automatically selecting one or more combinations of place and time which best match the customer selected criteria.

62. An e-commerce site as in claim 61 wherein said site'"'"'s computer system includes:

programming for causing said on-line interface to;

display said automatically selected place/time combinations to customer; and

allow a customer to select to have a message displayed at one or more of said displayed place/time combinations; and

programming for causing said control information sent so said displays to control which customer messages are shown on said displays as a function of said customer selection of one or more of said displayed place/time combinations.

63. An e-commerce site as in claim 61 wherein said place/time selection programming encodes an optimization scheme for selecting a set of one or more place/time combinations which best match said selected criteria using a distance metric in a multi-dimensional space defined by said criteria.

64. An e-commerce site as in claim 63 wherein:

said customer selected criteria can include an indication of a desired limitation on the cost which a customer is to pay for the display of messages; and

said optimization scheme is coded to select a set of one or more place/time combinations which stay within said cost limitation and yet best match other customer selected criteria.

65. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said programming for providing an on-line interface includes programming for downloading software over said computer network to a browser on a client computer which enables a human user of the browser to select options provided by the site by means of a point and click user interface.

66. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said programming for providing an on-line interface includes programming which defines a publicly available on-line accessible programming interface which defines messages which can be sent by a client computer to cause the e-commerce site to selectively perform desired functions, so as to allow programmer to independently write programming which determines which options provided by the site to select.

67. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said programming for sending to said displays control information provides a programming interface to the displays, which interface has a set of publicly specified messages which can be sent by said site to said display and by said display to said site to cause the site and the display to selectively perform desired functions, so as to allows programmer to independently write display control programming which can cause one or more of said outdoor displays running such programming to display messages under the control of said site.

68. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said programming for providing an on-line interface includes:

programming for allowing customers to purchase on-line the right to display in the future messages according to a set or one or more customer selected criteria; and

programming for allowing customers who have purchased such rights to resell them on-line over said site.

69. An e-commerce site as in claim 39 wherein said programming for providing an on-line interface includes:

programming for allowing customers to select on-line the right to show a message according to a set or one or more customer selected criteria; and

programming for allowing customers to also select on-line which message they desire to have shown at times and places defined by such criteria.

70. An e-commerce site as in claim 69 wherein said programming for allowing customers to select which message they desire to have shown includes programming allow customers who have made such a message selection to select on-line to change such selection to one selecting a different message.

71. An internetwork site comprising:

a computer system including one or more computers;

one or more communication interfaces for allowing said computer system to communicate with;

a network of outdoor electronic displays; and

customer computers over an internetwork;

programming for receiving from customer computers over the internetwork an upload containing the content of customer messages; and

programming for sending to said outdoor displays the contents of said uploaded customer messages and control information to control when individual displays show individual ones of said customer messages.

72. A method of displaying messages on each of a plurality of displays comprising:

using separate cameras to derive images of an area near each of said displays;

using such images to characterize the potential audience associated with the location in which each such image was taken;

using such audience characterizations to select which messages to show on which displays.

73. A method as in claim 72 wherein:

said cameras are used to derive images of areas near displays at successive points in time;

successive images received from within each of a plurality of locations are used to produce time-sensitive characterizations of the potential audience associated with each such location at different points in time;

the time-sensitive audience characterizations for each of different locations are used to select which messages to show on which displays at which times.

74. A method as in claim 73 wherein:

said displays are mounted on vehicles so as to be publicly visible from the exterior of such vehicles;

each such vehicle has one of said cameras mounted on it;

said images derived from each such vehicle include images of different areas near the vehicle at different times, as the vehicle travels; and

image information is combined from cameras on multiple vehicles to derive said time-sensitive audience characterizations.

75. A method as in claim 72 wherein said audience characterization characterizes the number of people in the potential audience for seeing a message shown on a given display.

76. A method as in claim 72 wherein said audience characterization characterizes the number of a given type of people in the potential audience for seeing a message shown on a given display.

77. A method as in claim 72 wherein said audience characterization characterizes the types of vehicles in which there might be potential viewers.

78. A method as in claim 77 wherein machine vision recognition is used to recognize types of vehicles in information from images taken by said cameras.

79. A method as in claim 78 wherein:

said displays and cameras are mounted on vehicles; and

the method includes selecting in real time which images to show from a given vehicle as a function of one or more vehicle types recognized in real time images from one or more cameras mounted on the given vehicle.

80. A method as in claim 72 wherein real time audience information derived from images taken by a given display'"'"'s associated camera is used within real time to select which messages are to be shown on the given display.

81. A method as in claim 72 wherein audience information derived from one or more of said cameras from corresponding locations and/or times in the past is used to select which messages to show on a given display.

82. A method as in claim 72 wherein machine vision recognition is used to derive audience information from images by automatically determining which parts of images, if any, correspond to separate people.

83. A method as in claim 72 wherein human vision recognition is used to derive audience information from images by automatically determining which parts of images, if any, correspond to separate people.

84. A computerized system including:

a plurality of vehicles each carrying;

a publicly visible electronic display;

a computer for controlling the electronic display;

a wireless transmitter and receiver connected to said computer;

a camera for taking images from the vehicle as it travels, which is connected to said computer;

programming for sending image information derived from the camera to a central system;

a central system comprised of one or more computers, said central system including;

a wireless transmitter and receiver;

programming for transmitting control information to said vehicles'"'"' computers, over the central system'"'"'s wireless transmitter, controlling which messages are shown on the vehicles'"'"' displays; and

programming for receiving, over the central system'"'"'s wireless receiver, image information transmitted from a plurality of such vehicles.

85. A system as in claim 84 wherein:

said image information contains information about vehicle traffic in the vicinity of said cameras; and

said central system has programming for storing information derived from image information received from a plurality of said vehicles indicating the rate of flow of traffic at each of a plurality of locations.

86. A system as in claim 85 wherein said central system includes programming for transmitting to one or more of said vehicles'"'"' computers information it has stored about rates of flow of traffic at one or more locations and information for causing said vehicles'"'"' computers to cause the vehicles'"'"' displays to show said traffic information.

87. A system as in claim 84 wherein:

said image information contains information about the weather in the vicinity of said cameras; and

said central system has programming for storing information derived from image information received from a plurality of said vehicles indicating the weather at each of a plurality of locations.

88. A system as in claim 87 wherein said central system includes programming for sending to one or more vehicles'"'"' computers information it has stored about weather at one or more locations and information for causing said vehicles'"'"' computers to cause the vehicles, displays to show said weather information.

89. A system as in claim 84 wherein:

said image information contains information about the potential audience for messages shown on the vehicles display in the vicinity of said cameras; and

said central system has programming for storing information derived from said image information received from a plurality of said vehicles characterizing the potential audience for seeing messages shown on vehicle displays at each of a plurality of locations.

90. A system as in claim 84 wherein:

each vehicle'"'"'s computer includes visual recognition programming for recognizing patterns in images from the computer'"'"'s associated camera; and

the image information sent to the central system includes indications of which patterns have been recognized in the images from said camera.

91. A system as in claim 84 wherein:

the image information sent to the central system includes transmitted two-dimensional images derived from said camera; and

one or more of the central system'"'"'s computers includes visual recognition programming for recognizing patterns in said transmitted images.

92. A method for public display of messages comprising:

carrying a publicly visible electronic display mounted on a vehicle;

sending a wireless message to the vehicle including traffic information for one or more locations that indicates the traffic flow at each such location; and

displaying said traffic information on said display.

93. A method as in claim 92 wherein said display is carried on the vehicle so that it faces backward relative to said vehicles, so it can be read by people driving behind the vehicle.

94. A method as in claim 92 further including:

sensing the location of said vehicle as it travels; and

selecting for which one or more locations traffic information is to be displayed on the vehicle at a given time as a function of the sensed location of that vehicle at that time.

95. A method as in claim 94 further including:

selling the display of commercial messages on said vehicle;

sending one or more wireless messages to the vehicles including a commercial message; and

selecting when to show a given commercial message on the vehicle'"'"'s display as a function of the sensed location of the vehicle.

96. A method as in claim 92 further including:

selling the display of commercial messages on said vehicle;

sending one or more wireless messages to the vehicles including a commercial message; and

displaying said commercial message on said display.

97. A method of displaying information comprising:

on each of a plurality of vehicles having an attached electronic display;

sensing the current geographical location of the vehicle;

changing the information shown on the display as a function of its location;

transmitting information from the vehicle to a central system, including information about its geographic location at successive points of time;

on the central system;

compiling information in the central system about the speed of the vehicle at successive locations as determined from such transmitted information; and

combining such information from said plurality of vehicles to compile traffic information about rates of traffic in multiple locations;

transmitting from the central system traffic descriptions of the rate of traffic flow at each of such multiple locations.

98. A method as in claim 97 wherein said traffic information is transmitted back to individual vehicles and is shown on their information displays.

99. A method comprising:

carrying an electronic displays mounted on each of a plurality of vehicles;

sensing each vehicle'"'"'s location and speed;

selecting which messages to show on a vehicles display as a function of its sensed location at different times;

combining sensed location and speed information from multiple vehicles to create a database containing information on the rate of traffic flow at each of a plurality of locations; and

generating human perceptible descriptions of the traffic flow at each of a plurality of locations.

100. A method as in claim 99 wherein said selection of which messages to show on a vehicle'"'"'s display also making said selection as a function the vehicle'"'"'s sensed speed.

101. A method as in claim 99 wherein human perceptible description of traffic flow includes showing information about the traffic flow at each of one ore more locations on each of a plurality of said vehicle displays.

102. A method as in claim 101 further including selecting for which one or more locations traffic flow information is shown on the display of a given vehicle as a function of the sensed location of the given vehicle.