METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTERACTIVE MOBILE OFFER SYSTEM BASED ON PROXIMITY OF MOBILE DEVICE TO MEDIA SOURCE

• US 20160142995A1
• Filed: 01/25/2016
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Actv8 Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Actv8 Incorporated
• Inventors: Shuster, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 9,426,772 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4122 additional display device, e.g. video projector digital output for controlling a plurality of local displays G06F3/1423
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41415 involving a public display, viewable by several users in a public space outside their home, e.g. movie theatre, information kiosk
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43072 of multiple content streams on the same device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Content which is related to content being provided by a media source is synchronized with content being provided by the media source. A mobile device operates to receive content which is related to the content being provided by the media source. The system operates based on mobile device location, and the media source location. Based on the location, a server can determine what content is being provided by the media source and can therefore serve related content based on that to the mobile device. It works passively with periodic regular updates of the mobile device location or actively through the use of a button (touch screen, keyboard, etc.) on the mobile device to signal the server to check its location and therefore identifying which media source the mobile device is near.

Claims

1. A system for enabling desired content related to content being provided by at least one media source to be sent to a mobile device comprising:

a) a location detection process server configured to receive location information from said mobile device and determine a location of a nearest one of said at least one media source, and determine whether the mobile device is within a predetermined distance from said determined location;

b) a media content lookup server coupled to said location detection process server configured to determine if predetermined content exists which corresponds to content provided by said at least one media source at said determined location and said mobile device is determined to be within said predetermined distance;

c) a media source data management server configured to operate in coordination with said location detection process server, said media content lookup server, and a related content server to cause said related content server to send data to said mobile device which is related to said content provided by said media source at said determined location if said mobile device is determined to be within said predetermined distance.

4. The system defined by claim 1 wherein said location detection process server determines the location of the nearest one of said at least one media source by accessing a data table maintained by said media source data management server which contains a media source identifier and a latitude and longitude for each of said at least one media source.

5. The system defined by claim 1 wherein said media content lookup server and said media source data management server operate to determine if said related content server includes data which is related to said content on said media source at said determined location using a media source ID corresponding to said media source, and a media ID corresponding to said content.

6. The system defined by claim 5 wherein said media source data management server further operates to perform a lookup of related content for said content provided by said media source corresponding to a media ID by using the media source ID, and the media ID.

7. The system defined by claim 6 wherein said media source data management server further operates to instruct said related content server to send said related content data to said mobile device determined to be within said predetermined distance using a related content table having records wherein for each media ID, there is a corresponding media source ID and a corresponding related content ID.

8. The system defined by claim 1 wherein said related content is provided to said mobile device by one of said mobile device initiating a request for said related data by a pulling operation and said related data being pushed to said mobile device without a specific request being initiated by said mobile device.

9. The system defined by claim 1 wherein upon determining that said mobile device is within said predetermined distance, said media source data management server sends a signal to said mobile device to sample an audio signal from said media source or a device related to said media source to identify said media source content and send said identified media source content to said media source data management server which operates in cooperation with said related content server to send data to said mobile device which is related to said content being provided by said media source as determined by said sampled audio signal.

10. The system defined by claim 1 wherein said media source content is identified by a predetermined uniform resource locator to identify a network resource containing said media source content.

18. The system defined by claim 1 where said at least one media source has a moving location which location is dynamically provided to said location detection process server.

21. The system defined by claim 1 wherein said media source is a gaming device.

24. The system defined by claim 1 wherein said mobile device provides said location information in response to a trigger signal.

27. The system defined by claim 24 wherein said trigger signal is provided by one of an audio watermark and a wireless beacon.

2. A method for providing content to a mobile device which is related to content provided by a media source comprising:

a) sending a location and content provided by said media source;

b) determining a location of the mobile device by receiving location information from said mobile device;

c) if said media source location and mobile device location are within a predetermined distance of each other, sending content to said mobile device which is related to said content provided by said media source.

11. The method defined by claim 2 wherein said determining a location and content being provided comprises accessing a data table which contains a media source identifier and latitude and longitude for said media source.

19. The method defined by claim 2 wherein said media source has a moving location which location is dynamically provided to said location detection process server.

20. The method defined by claim 2 wherein said at least one media source has a moving location which moving location is dynamically provided to said location detection process server.

22. The method defined by claim 2 wherein said media source is a gaming device.

25. The method defined by claim 2 wherein said mobile device provides said location information in response to a trigger signal.

28. The method defined by claim 25 wherein said trigger signal is provided by one of an audio watermark and a wireless beacon.

3. A method for enabling desired content related to content provided by at least one media source to be sent to a mobile device comprising:

a) receiving location information from said mobile device;

b) determining a location of a nearest one of said at least one media source to said received location;

c) determining whether the mobile device is within a predetermined distance from said determined location;

d) determining if predetermined content exists which corresponds to said content provided by said media source at said determined location;

e) sending data to said mobile device which is related to said content provided by said media source at said determined location if said mobile device is determined to be within said predetermined distance.

12. The method defined by claim 3 wherein said determining if predetermined content exists which corresponds to content being provided by a media source comprises using a media source ID corresponding to said media source, a media ID corresponding to said content and a last start time corresponding to a time when said media source first began providing said content.

13. The method defined by claim 12 wherein said sending data comprises performing a lookup of related content corresponding to the media ID by using the media source ID, and the media ID.

14. The method defined by claim 13 further comprising sending said related content data to said mobile device determined to be within said predetermined distance using a related content table having records wherein for each media ID, there is a corresponding media source ID and a corresponding related content ID.

15. The method defined by claim 3 wherein said sending data to said mobile device comprises one of said mobile device initiating a request for said related data by a pulling operation and pushing data to said mobile device without a specific request being initiated by said mobile device.

16. The method defined by claim 3 wherein upon determining that said mobile device is within said predetermined distance, said method further comprises:

sending a signal to said mobile device to sample an audio signal from said media source or device related to said media source to identify said content provided by said media source;

receiving from said mobile device said identified content provided by said media source or device related to said media source; and

sending data to said mobile device which is related to said content being provided by said media source as determined by said sampled audio signal.

17. The method defined by claim 3 wherein said content provided by said media source is identified by a predetermined uniform resource locator to identify a network resource containing said content provided by said media source.

23. The method defined by claim 3 wherein said media source is a gaming device.

26. The method defined by claim 3 wherein said mobile device provides said location information in response to a trigger signal.

29. The method defined by claim 26 wherein said trigger signal is provided by one of an audio watermark and a wireless beacon.