Method to access multimedia contents associated to a geographical area

• US 9,167,378 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2008
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STMicroelectronics NV
• Original Assignee: STMicroelectronics International N.V. (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Inventors: Romano, Fabio
• Primary Examiner(s): MANOHARAN, MUTHUSWAMY GANAPATHY
• Application Number:
  US12/183,861
• Publication Number:
  US 20090036147A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,637 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

A method is for accessing multimedia contents associated with a geographical area including a plurality of items, the multimedia content being stored on a multimedia content provider having information of one or more of the items. The method provides an IC Card application for enabling a mobile device to detect a geographical area of interest, connect to the multimedia content provider and select at least one multimedia content of the detected geographical area of interest, download the selected multimedia content into a memory of the IC Card, provide an identification code of an item located into the detected geographical area of interest, and access a portion of the multimedia content which stores information of the identified item.

Claims

1. A method of accessing a plurality of multimedia contents associated with a geographical area including a plurality of items, each multimedia content being stored in a multimedia content provider and including information of at least one of the items, the method comprising:

providing an IC card application for a mobile device to execute the following

detect the geographical area and send the detected geographical area to a memory of an IC card, with the geographical area being detected by identifying the geographical area from among a list of geographical areas stored in the memory of the IC card,

connect to the multimedia content provider and select content from the plurality of multimedia content associated with the detected geographical area,

download and send the selected multimedia content to the memory of the IC Card, and

receive an identification code associated with an item of the plurality thereof located in the detected geographical area and access information about the item in the selected multimedia content.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the IC card application for the mobile device causes the mobile device to cooperate with a cellular network to detect the geographical area.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein the list of geographical areas is divided into a plurality of subsets of geographical areas.

4. A method according to claim 3 wherein the selected multimedia content is selected from multimedia content associated with a subset of the geographical area.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein the identification code is received wirelessly from a device associated with the item and stored in the memory of the IC card.

6. A method according to claim 5 wherein the wireless identification code is received by a wireless device included in the IC Card.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein the identification code is received from user input of the identification code into an input device of the mobile device.

8. A method of interfacing an IC card with a mobile device comprising:

using an IC card to cause the mobile device to

detect a geographical area and send the detected geographical area to a memory of the IC card, with the geographical area being detected by identifying the geographical area from among a list of geographical areas stored in the memory of the IC card,

connect to a multimedia content provider and select content from a plurality of multimedia content associated with the detected geographical area,

download and send the selected multimedia content to the memory of the IC Card, and receive an identification code associated with an item located in the detected geographical area and access information about the item in the selected multimedia content.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein the IC card application for the mobile device causes the mobile device to cooperate with a cellular network to detect the geographical area.

10. A method according to claim 8 wherein the identification code is received wirelessly from a device associated with the item and stored in the memory of the IC card.

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein the wireless identification code is received by a wireless device included in the IC Card.

12. An IC card comprising:

an IC card substrate; and

a processor and a memory carried by the IC card substrate and cooperating to cause a mobile device to

detect a geographical area and send the detected geographical area to the memory of the IC card, with the geographical area being detected by identifying the geographical area from among a list of geographical areas stored in the memory of the IC card,

connect to a multimedia content provider and select content from a plurality of multimedia content associated with the detected geographical area,

download and send the selected multimedia content to the memory of the IC Card, and

receive an identification code associated with an item located in the detected geographical area and access information about the item in the selected multimedia content.

13. An IC card according to claim 12 wherein the processor and the memory cause the mobile device to cooperate with a cellular network to detect the geographical area.

14. An IC card according to claim 12 wherein the list of geographical areas is divided into a plurality of subsets of geographical areas.

15. An IC card according to claim 14 wherein the selected multimedia content is selected from multimedia content associated with a subset of the geographical area.

16. An IC card according to claim 12 wherein the identification code is received wirelessly from a device associated with the item and stored in the memory of the IC card.

17. An IC card according to claim 16 wherein the wireless identification code is received by a wireless device included in the IC Card.

18. An IC card according to claim 12 wherein the identification code is received from user input of the identification code into an input device of the mobile device.

19. An integrated circuit for an IC card comprising:

a processor configured to cause a mobile device to

detect a geographical area and send the detected geographical area to a memory of the IC card, with the geographical area being detected by identifying the geographical area from among a list of geographical areas stored in the memory of the IC card,

connect to a multimedia content provider and select content from a plurality of multimedia content associated with the detected geographical area,

download and send the selected multimedia content to the memory of the IC Card, and

receive an identification code associated with an item located in the detected geographical area and access information about the item in the selected multimedia content.

20. An integrated circuit according to claim 19 wherein the processor and the memory cause the mobile device to cooperate with a cellular network to detect the geographical area.

21. An integrated circuit according to claim 19 wherein the list of geographical areas is divided into a plurality of subsets of geographical areas.