System and method for providing location based services at a shopping facility

• US 8,983,488 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2008
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sweeney, Jeffrey, Rooks, Kelsyn
• Primary Examiner(s): Prez-Gutirrez, Rafael
• Assistant Examiner(s): VU, QUOC THAI NGOC
• Application Number:
  US12/332,537
• Publication Number:
  US 20100151821A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,287 Days
• Field of Search: 4554141-4144, 455/466, 4554041-4042, 4554561-4566, 455/457, 705/14.4, 705 1441- 1449, 705/14.5, 705 1451- 1459, 705/14.6, 705 1461- 1469, 705/14.7, 705 1471- 1473
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

Embodiments of the disclosed invention include a system and a method for providing location-based services to consumers of a shopping facility. In one embodiment, a consumer creates a user account, user profile, and registers one or mobile devices. The system monitors for the presence of the registered mobile devices within one or more shopping facilities. The system transmits advertising material corresponding to the user created profile to a detected registered mobile device in response to the registered mobile device being within a specified range of a store associated with the user created profile.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for providing location based services to consumers, the computer implemented method comprising:

registering a mobile device associated with a user for the location-based services;

creating a user profile that includes a plurality of stores and interests associated with the user, wherein the user profile further includes demographic information associated with the user;

monitoring for the presence of the mobile device in a shopping facility using a plurality of femto cells placed at different areas of the shopping facility;

in response to detecting the presence of the mobile device in a shopping facility;

performing a criminal records check on the user based upon the demographic information included in the user profile, wherein an identity of the user is determined by communicating with a service provider'"'"'s subscriber account data base or performing a reverse phone lookup;

in response to receiving a user-generated request for advertising materials, determining if the mobile device is within a specified range of a store in the shopping facility by triangulating the signal of the mobile device using the plurality of femto cells, wherein the store is one of the plurality of stores associated with the user profile;

responsive to the mobile device being within the specified range of the store in the shopping facility, retrieving advertising information associated with the store from a marketing database;

transmitting the advertising information to the mobile device, wherein the advertising information includes an advertised item and a number of the advertised item available at the store;

generating a marketing report using the demographic information associated with the user and information about items purchased by the user, wherein the marketing report breaks down the average costs of items by income level, race, and age; and

providing the marketing report to at least one of the stores in the shopping facility.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the advertising information includes an electronic coupon.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, wherein the electronic coupon includes a scannable barcode.

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

determining whether the user uses the electronic coupon for purchasing an item at the store; and

responsive to a determination that the user uses the electronic coupon for purchasing an item at the store, charging a fee to a company associated with the store.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the fee is a flat fee for the electronic coupon being used to purchase at least one item from the store.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the fee is a percentage of a sale associated with a purchase of one or more items at the store.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the fee is a periodic charge for placing advertising information associated with the store in the marketing database.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 4, further comprising maintaining a receipt database comprising an electronic receipt associated with items purchased using the electronic coupon, wherein the database is searchable by the user to retrieve the electronic receipt for returning at least one of the items purchased using the electronic coupon to the store.

9. A set of data processing systems for providing location based services to consumers, the set of data processing systems comprising:

memory for storing computer usable program code;

one or more processing units in communication with the memory, wherein the one or more processing units executes the computer usable program code to;

register a mobile device associated with a user for the location-based services;

create a user profile that includes a plurality of stores and interests associated with the user, wherein the user profile further includes demographic information associated with the user;

monitor for the presence of the mobile device in a shopping facility using a plurality of femto cells placed at different areas of the shopping facility;

in response to detecting the presence of the mobile device in a shopping facility;

perform a criminal records check on the user based upon the demographic information included in the user profile;

wherein an identity of the user is determined by communicating with a service provider'"'"'s subscriber account data base or performing a reverse phone lookup;

in response to receiving a user-generated request for advertising materials, determine if the mobile device is within a specified range of a store in the shopping facility by triangulating the signal of the mobile device using the plurality of femto cells, wherein the store is one of the plurality of stores associated with the user profile retrieve advertising information associated with the store from a marketing database;

transmit the advertising information to the mobile device, wherein the advertising information includes an advertised item and a number of the advertised item available at the store;

generating a marketing report using the demographic information associated with the user and information about items purchased by the user, wherein the marketing report

breaks down the average costs of items by income level, race, and age; and

providing the marketing report to at least one of the stores in the shopping facility.

10. The set of data processing systems of claim 9, wherein the advertising information includes an electronic coupon.

11. The set of data processing systems of claim 10, wherein the electronic coupon includes a scannable barcode.

12. The set of data processing systems of claim 10, wherein the one or more processing units further executes the computer usable program code to:

determine whether the user uses the electronic coupon for purchasing an item at the store; and

charge a fee to a company associated with the store in response to a determination that the user uses the electronic coupon for purchasing an item at the store.

13. The set of data processing systems of claim 12, wherein the fee is a flat fee for the electronic coupon being used to purchase at least one item from the store.

14. The set of data processing systems of claim 12, wherein the fee is a percentage of a sale associated with a purchase of one or more items at the store.

15. The set of data processing systems of claim 12, wherein the fee is a periodic charge for placing advertising information associated with the store in the marketing database.

16. The set of data processing systems of claim 12, wherein the one or more processing units further executes the computer usable program code to maintain a receipt database comprising an electronic receipt associated with items purchased using the electronic coupon.