Merchandise and geographic information matching system, associate apparatus and method

• US 8,762,231 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2011
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xueshan Technologies Inc. (Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MStar Semiconductor Incorporated (MediaTek, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Chun-Ming, Wu, Yu-Chieh
• Primary Examiner(s): Pond, Rob
• Application Number:
  US13/023,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20120005046A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,231 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Geographic merchandise matching system, associated apparatus and method are provided. In an embodiment, a hand-held apparatus integrates user geographic location and a merchandise matching condition, and queries a merchandise service platform. An information matching module of the merchandise service platform accesses a merchandise database, a geography database and a comment database for sorting to form a matching result, and sends the matching result back to the handheld apparatus.

Claims

1. A merchandise and geographic information matching system, comprising:

a handheld apparatus, comprising;

a positioning system, for receiving a wireless positioning signal and providing corresponding positioning information which represents a geographic location of the handheld apparatus; and

a network module, for transmitting the positioning information and a matching requirement, wherein the matching requirement is generated on the handheld apparatus and is based on information received from another handheld apparatus; and

an information matching module comprising a processor and associated memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor cause the information matching module to receive the positioning information and the matching requirement to provide a matching result accordingly, and to transmit the matching result to the handheld apparatus, wherein the matching result is related to merchandise information,

wherein the matching result is based on a closest public transportation route to the handheld apparatus, including given stops on said closest public transportation route.

2. The merchandise and geographic information matching system according to claim 1, wherein the matching requirement comprises at least one of a merchandise barcode, a name of a merchandise, a name of a store or a keyword.

3. The merchandise and geographic information matching system according to claim 1, wherein the matching result comprises at least a matching data subset comprising at least one of a name of a merchandise corresponding to merchandise, network link information providing a website address, review related information, pricing related information, styling related information, store related information corresponding to a store, a navigation route for providing route planning with the geographic location of the handheld apparatus as a starting point and a geographic location of the store as an end point, a picture displaying the merchandise;

or a merchandise barcode corresponding to the merchandise.

4. The merchandise and geographic information matching system according to claim 3, wherein each matching data subset corresponds to a matching level, and the information matching module sorts the matching data subsets in the matching result according to the matching levels of the matching data subsets.

5. The merchandise and geographic information matching system according to claim 4, further comprising:

an access interface and a geographic database, the information matching module accessing the geographic database via the access interface, wherein the geographic database records a plurality of default geographic locations corresponding to different stores respectively.

6. The merchandise and geographic information matching system according to claim 5, wherein the information matching module accesses one of the default geographic locations from the geographic database according to the store or the merchandise recorded in one of the matching data subsets, and generates the matching level corresponding to the matching data subset according to a geographic distance between the default geographic location and the geographic location of the handheld apparatus.

7. The merchandise and geographic information matching system according to claim 6 further comprising:

a merchandise database and a review database, wherein the information matching module accesses the merchandise database and the review database via the access interface to create the matching data subsets and to evaluate the matching levels of the matching data subsets.

8. The merchandise and geographic information matching system according to claim 1, wherein the handheld apparatus further comprises:

a data reading module, for providing the matching requirement.

9. The merchandise and geographic information matching system according to claim 8, wherein the handheld apparatus further comprises:

an character recognition module, for recognizing a character from an image, wherein the data reading module provides the matching requirement according to the character which is recognized.

10. The merchandise and geographic information matching system according to claim 8, wherein the handheld apparatus further comprises:

a barcode recognition module, for recognizing a barcode from an image, and the data reading module provides the matching requirement according to the barcode.

11. The merchandise and geographic information matching system according to claim 8, wherein the handheld apparatus further comprises:

an input module, for receiving user input, and the data reading module provides the matching requirement according to the user input.

12. A handheld apparatus comprising:

a processor and associated memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor cause;

a positioning system to receive a wireless positioning signal and provide corresponding positioning information, where the positioning information represents a geographic location of a handheld apparatus;

a recognition module to recognize an image information to generate a matching requirement, wherein the matching requirement is generated on the handheld apparatus and is based on information received from another handheld apparatus; and

a network module to transmit the positioning information and the matching requirement;

wherein the network module further receives a matching result generated according to the positioning information and the matching requirement, and the matching result is related to merchandise information, and

wherein the matching result is based on a closest public transportation route to the handheld apparatus, including given stops on said closest public transportation route.

13. The handheld apparatus according to claim 12 further comprising a matching access module and a local database, and the matching access module accesses the local database to acquire the matching result according the positioning information and the matching requirement.

14. A merchandise and geographic information matching method applied in a handheld apparatus, the method comprising:

recognizing image information to form a matching requirement, wherein the matching requirement is generated on the handheld apparatus and is based on information received from another handheld apparatus;

transmitting positioning information and the matching requirement; and

receiving a matching result;

wherein the matching result is generated according to the positioning information and the matching requirement and the matching result is related to merchandise information and

wherein the matching result is based on a closest public transportation route to the handheld apparatus, including given stops on said closest public transportation route.

15. The merchandise and geographic information matching method according to claim 14, wherein the matching result comprises a plurality of matching data subsets, each matching data subset, having store related information or merchandise related information, corresponding to a matching level, the method further comprises:

sorting the matching data subsets according to the matching levels in the matching result.

16. The merchandise and geographic information matching method according to claim 15 further comprising:

accessing a geographic database that records a plurality of default geographic locations corresponding to different stores.

17. The merchandise and geographic information matching method according to claim 16, wherein the accessing of the geographic database comprises accessing one of the default geographic location of the store or the merchandise that corresponds to each of the geographic locations according to the store or the merchandise corresponding to each matching data subset;

and the method further comprises;

generating each matching level of each matching data subset by calculating the geographic distance between geographic location of the handheld apparatus and the default geographic location.

18. The merchandise and geographic information matching method according to claim 17 further comprising:

accessing a merchandise database and a review database to create the matching data subsets, and evaluating the matching levels of the matching data subsets.

19. The merchandise and geographic information matching method according to claim 14, wherein recognizing the image information comprises recognizing a barcode from the image information.

20. The merchandise and geographic information matching method according to claim 14, wherein recognizing the image information comprises recognizing a character in the image information.