Consumer self-profiling GUI, analysis and rapid information presentation tools

• US 9,619,567 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2012
• Issued: 04/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rally AG LLC (Teledesic Corporation)
• Original Assignee: nFluence Media, Inc.
• Inventors: Roundtree, Brian, Allan, Kevin, Munslow, William, Pratt, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Kieu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Calderon, IV, Alvaro R
• Application Number:
  US13/707,578
• Publication Number:
  US 20130167085A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,587 Days
• Field of Search: 715745, 715810, 235375, 709203, 705 12, 705 141- 1473, 705 261- 272, 705310, 705319
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history

Abstract

An input and processing system allows user input information such as user affinity to efficiently determine user characteristics from content as well as novel input of commands such as copy/paste on a small mobile device screen among other computing devices. A client/server is also made more efficient due to the enhanced gathering of information. Also disclosed is a system for rapid presentation of information such as barcodes at barcode scanners. A system can request multiple barcodes, coupons or the like by detecting a signal from a scanner that information presented has been read.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium having web browser plug-in instructions stored thereon that are executable by processor electronics to:

in response to a web browser receiving a touch and hold input point or mouse hover input point performed by a user on a webpage rendered to the user on a display screen, receive a user input point event from the web browser, wherein the webpage was rendered on the display screen based on webpage information received from a content provider computing device;

find a first item of content rendered on the webpage nearest to the user input point on the webpage by analyzing a structure of a document object model of the webpage and the user input point event;

in response to finding the first item of content on the webpage, find a second item of content rendered on the webpage which is both rendered nearest to the first item of content and is within the contents of a lowest common ancestor of the first item of content and the second item of content by analyzing the structure of the document object model of the webpage;

designate the second item of content as information related to the first item of content; and

in response to the user inputting an affinity gesture on the first item of content and related information by the user dragging the first item of content and related information in a predefined direction, transmit a reference to the first item of content and transmit any related information or a reference to any related information to a remote computing device to use the first item of content and related information to update a profile of likely characteristics of the user.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to identify a link associated with the first item of content.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to transmit the link to the remote computing device.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to assign a record of the affinity gesture to the first item of content.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to transmit the record to the remote computer.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that are executable by the processor electronics in which in response to a determination of a relationship between the first item of content and the related information, display indicia on the webpage.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the reference to the first item of content is a URL or URI where the item of content is located or a reference to the identity of the first item of content.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium having web browser plug-in instructions stored thereon that are executable by processor electronics to:

in response to a web browser receiving a touch and hold input point or mouse hover input point by a user on a webpage in a web browser window that is displayed on a display screen, receive a user input point event from the web browser, wherein the webpage was displayed based on webpage information received from a content provider computing device;

find a first item of content on the webpage that is nearest to the user input point by analyzing a structure of a document object model of the webpage and the user input point event;

analyze the structure of the document object model to find another item of content rendered on the webpage which is rendered nearest to the first item of content;

in response to finding the another item of content, find a lowest common ancestor of both the first item of content and the another item of content by further analyzing the structure of the document object model;

in response to finding the lowest common ancestor, designate contents of the lowest common ancestor as information related to the item of content; and

in response to a user affinity gesture performed by the user on the first item of content and related information, send information regarding the user affinity gesture and the contents of the lowest common ancestor to a remote computer system to update a profile that indicates one or more likely characteristics of the user based on the related information.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein in further response to the user affinity gesture performed by the user on the first item of content and related information, send to the remote computer system at least a portion of the item of content, or a reference to an identity of the first item of content or a reference to an address where the first item of content is located.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by processor electronics to:

receive an indication from a web browser plug-in installed on a remote computing device of a user affinity for a first item of content displayed to a user on a webpage on a display screen of the remote computing device;

receive a reference from the web browser plug-in to the first item of content and a reference to another item of content rendered on the webpage in which the first item of content was determined by the web browser plug-in to be related to the another item of content on the webpage, by the web browser plug-in executing the steps of;

receiving a user touch point event caused by a user touch point input on the webpage displayed on the remote computing device display screen;

finding the first item of content on the webpage which is content nearest to that of the user touch point input by analyzing a structure of a document object model of the webpage and the touch point event;

finding the another item of content on the webpage which is content rendered nearest to the first item of content on the webpage by analyzing the structure of the document object model of the webpage;

finding a lowest common ancestor between the first item of content and the another item of content by analyzing the structure of the document object model of the webpage; and

designating the descendants of the lowest common ancestor as information related to the first item of content; and

associate one or more likely characteristics of the user based on a user'"'"'s response indicating if they have an affinity for the first item of content and also based on the determined related information.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by processor electronics to:

receive a reference to or a portion of a first item of content and a reference to or a portion of another item of content from a remote computing device, wherein the first item of content and the another item of content were rendered on a webpage displayed on a display screen of the remote computing device in which the first item of content was determined by the remote computing device to be related to the another item of content on the webpage, by the remote computing device executing the steps of;

receiving a user input point event caused by a user input point on the webpage displayed on the remote computing device display screen;

finding the first item of content on the webpage which is content nearest to that of the user input point by analyzing a structure of a document object model of the webpage and the input point event;

finding the another item of content on the webpage which is content rendered nearest to the first item of content on the webpage by analyzing the structure of the document object model of the webpage;

finding a lowest common ancestor between the first item of content and the another item of content by analyzing the structure of the document object model of the webpage; and

designating the descendants of the lowest common ancestor as information related to the first item of content.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions that cause the processor electronics to cause retrieval of information about the item of content from a computing device that is referenced by a link associated with the item of content.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium having web browser plug-in instructions stored thereon that are executable by processor electronics to:

receive an initial input point event in response to an initial touch and hold input point or an initial mouse hover input point on a webpage rendered to a user on a computing device display screen;

find a first item of content that is rendered on the webpage nearest to that of the initial touch and hold input point or initial mouse hover input point by analyzing a structure of a document object model of the webpage and the initial input point event;

find another item of content rendered on the webpage that is rendered nearest to the first item of content on the webpage by analyzing the structure of the document object model of the webpage;

find a lowest common ancestor of both the first item of content and the another item of content by analyzing the structure of the document object model of the webpage;

designate contents of the lowest common ancestor as information related to the first item of content;

display a visual indication to the user on the webpage indicating the related information relationship between the contents of the lowest common ancestor and the item of content;

in response to receiving the initial input point event, partition a space surrounding the initial input point into at least two command zones in which a first command zone is associated to a user opinion of the contents of the lowest common ancestor;

receive an indication of a user gesture moving the contents of the lowest common ancestor towards one of the at least two command zones;

receive a final input point event caused by a final input point input caused by the user gesture on the webpage;

calculate an angular direction between the initial input point and the final input point;

based on the angular direction, determine which of the at least two command zones in which the user has moved the contents of the lowest common ancestor to; and

in response to determining which command zone the user has moved the contents of the lowest common ancestor to send information to remote computing device to update a profile that indicates one or more likely characteristics of the user.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that cause the processor electronics to cause the re-display of the contents of the lowest common ancestor at a location that is under the touch point of the user as the user is moving the touch point on the display screen while performing the gesture, wherein the re-display occurs in a first display which is displayed over a second display layer, the second layer configured to display the contents of the lowest common ancestor in the same location on the webpage that the contents of the lowest common ancestor were initially displayed to the user at while the user performs the gesture.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions that cause the processor electronics to further cause the display of indicia of whether the user is indicating a favorable or unfavorable impression of the contents of the lowest common ancestor over a space where the first item of content was first displayed as the user is performing the gesture.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that cause the processor electronics to:

perform a command on the first item of content if the angular direction is not within a range defined as providing a favorable impression of the contents of the lowest common ancestor or a range define as providing an unfavorable impression of the contents of the lowest common ancestor.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that cause the processor electronics to cause the display of a representation of whether the processor electronics recorded a favorable or unfavorable impression of the contents of the lowest common ancestor after the user has finished the gesture.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that cause the processor electronics to cause the display of a menu over the first item of content that indicates what command will be interpreted by the processor electronics depending on an angular direction in which the gesture is performed.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that cause the processor electronics to assign a tag to the first item of content based at least upon a URL or URI of a website from where the first item of content was obtained.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that cause the processor electronics to assign a tag to the first item of content based at least upon other content presented with the first item of content.

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that cause the processor electronics to send instructions to update the profile by transmitting one or more of:

GPS coordinates indicative of a location of the user, a time, a date, a user ID, a user browsing history, or user inputs.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the user gesture is a drag and drop gesture.

23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the visual indication displayed to the user on the webpage indicating the related information relationship comprises the display of a border around the contents of the lowest common ancestor on the webpage.

24. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the visual indication displayed to the user on the webpage indicating the related information relationship comprises shading at least the item of content on the webpage.

25. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing web browser plug-in instructions that are executable by processor electronics to:

present an indication associated with one or more items of contents displayed on a webpage that indicates that a user may perform an affinity gesture on the item of content by dragging the item of content in a predefined direction on a display screen in order to indicate that the user likes or dislikes the item of content;

in response to receiving a user input point event caused by a user input point on the webpage displayed on the display screen, find an item of content rendered to the user on the webpage that is nearest to the user input point by analyzing a structure of a document object model of the webpage;

cause the re-display of the item of content at a location that is continuously under the user input point as the user is dragging the user input point on the display screen while performing the affinity gesture, wherein the re-display of the item of content occurs in a first display layer which is displayed over a second display layer, wherein the second display layer is configured to continually display the item of content at a location on the webpage in which the item of content was initially rendered to the user; and

in response to the user performing the affinity gesture on the item of content, causing the transmission of a reference to the item of content to a remote computer system.

26. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 25, further comprising instructions that are executable by the processor electronics to detect the gesture by:

receiving an indication if the user has dragged a point of contact over the item of content in a predetermined direction.

27. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 25, further comprising instructions that are executable by the processor electronics to retrieve information from a content provider computing device referenced by a link between the item of content associated with another piece of data.