This disclosure relates to wired and wireless communications, geospatial location technology, indoor and outdoor electronic dynamic display technology, portable wireless display devices and the Internet. More specifically this disclosure relates to: (1) a central system for the collection of publisher's message content to be sent to a subscriber recipient's portable wireless display devices and electronic display devices, indoor and outdoor, stationary fixed position and mobile, (2) a central system for the collection of subscriber recipients requesting specific message content be delivered to their portable wireless display device based on the subscriber's geospatial location, date interval and time interval, (3) a subscriber recipient's portable wireless display device capable of determining a publisher's message content being observed by the subscriber recipient, (4) a central system for providing the publisher recipient observation data and statistics, (5) publisher's specifying the display of their message content based on the static or dynamic geospatial location of either/or/and; a)the subscriber recipient's portable wireless display device, b)the static geospatial location of a dynamic display device indoor or outdoor, and c) the dynamic geospatial location of a dynamic display device indoor or outdoor. This end to end system between recipients, both subscribers and non subscribers, and publishers utilizes heretofore unavailable methods, apparatuses and enabling technologies combined in this invention.
Recipients of publisher message content are inundated with publisher message content from a number of means. The postal service delivers bulk mail at a discount postage rate to allow advertisers, both local and nationwide, to send publisher message content to recipients for their products and services. Radio and television delivers publisher message content, both public and private, to recipients. Telemarketers and political organizations use both land line telephones and cellular phones to deliver message content to recipients as well as gather demographic data. The most recent method to deliver message content is the use of a recipient's email account and even a recipient's business or work email account.
Marketing and advertising is constantly searching for ways and means to deliver publisher message content in a more focused manner in order to optimize results for monies spent on marketing and advertising. For example, marketing and advertising rates for radio and television vary with the time of day and the programming event on radio or television. Stationary signage rates vary with geospatial location, usually based on the traffic flow of people that have visual contact with the signage. These techniques are still based on mass numbers of recipients yielding a very small percentage of results. To better focus on types of recipients, advertising will apply product and service advertisements based on the audience of a radio or television programming event, especially sports programming. This works well for large advertisers but is too expensive for small local businesses that offer sports products and services that would also be applicable to the viewing audience.
As technology evolves, especially in wireless technology, advances in miniaturization, lower power consumption and display technology provides technology enablers that allow for multiple modes of message content as well as delivery methods. Today the modes of message delivery range from simple text messaging to streaming audio and streaming video in the palm of a recipient's hand. The delivery methods range from traditional stationary and mobile static signage to wireless portable devices.
All of the traditional methods to deliver message content deliver results based on the volume of message content delivered to a volume of recipients. These methods are usually not focused on either the recipient's need for the message content or the geospatial location of the recipient which would more easily permit the recipient to take immediate action on the publisher's message content
Recipients also have a need to find products and services and these needs change with geospatial location and time. This is especially relevant when the recipient is traveling or is at a geospatial location where the recipient does not have familiarity with the local retail infrastructure, surface streets or businesses. In addition, events that occur regarding the recipient also create a recipient's dynamic need for products and services not needed prior to the event.
Publishers spend monies on message content, some of which is seasonal, some of which is market driven, some of which is event driven. For example seasonal items such as clothing, need to purge end of season stock in order to make room for the next season's stock. An example of market driven items, such as a new movie, may only appear at certain theatres. An example of event driven items, such as a gas fired electric generator, may be caused by power outages resulting from a severe storm.
Today recipients are inundated with irrelevant message content yet still have a need for specific message content based on the current needs of the recipient and the recipient's geospatial location. The challenge is how to deliver message content that the recipient needs and allows the recipient to acquire the product or service needed in a timely manner.
The product or service for the recipient can also be provided from the public sector. Emergency information, such as evacuation routes, can be broadcast to both stationary and mobile dynamic display devices. Today Amber Alerts generated by law enforcement on public dynamic display devices could be delivered on private stationary and mobile dynamic display devices dramatically increasing the coverage for public service message delivery.
Clearly, there is a need for an improved end to end system for message content delivery based on the current geospatial location of the recipient for both private and public publishers of message content that improves the current state of the art. Additionally, there is a need to provide this new capability to small businesses and individuals as well as traditional advertising companies and large businesses.
According to the present state of the art, it is therefore the object of this invention to provide an end to end system comprised of (1) existing, (2) enabling and (3) newly disclosed technology components, apparatuses and methods that uniquely addresses needs of publishers and recipients (i.e. subscribers and non subscribers) for the delivery of message content based on geospatial location of the recipients and the geospatial location of dynamic display devices both stationary and mobile, both outdoor and indoor.
It is another object of this invention to provide for the delivery of message content based on date and the geospatial location of dynamic display devices both stationary and mobile, both outdoor and indoor.
Yet another object of this invention to provide for the delivery of message content based on date and time interval and the geospatial location of dynamic display devices both stationary and mobile, both outdoor and indoor.
Yet another object of this invention to provide for the delivery of message content based on day of the week or day of the week and time interval and the geospatial location of dynamic display devices both stationary and mobile, both outdoor and indoor.
Yet another object of this invention to provide for the delivery of message content based on a subscriber's request for specific message content based on geospatial location of the subscriber.
Yet another object of this invention to provide for the delivery of message content based on a subscriber's request for specific message content based on geospatial location of the subscriber and 1) date or day of the week or the date or 2) date or day of the week and a time or time interval.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide publishers with data and statistics of recipient observation of publisher's message content.
Existing Technology Components and Methods:
Other than the examples of existing state of the art technology components and methods already described in the BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION, additionally the existing state of the art components and methods of the end to end system disclosed by this invention can be seen in the following U.S. Patent documents:
2003/0055725 A1 (hereinafter referred to as the 725 Patent application) discloses an end to end system that uses the Internet and wireless portable devices with subscribers. This invention discloses pushing lists of advertisements, converted from advertiser inputs via an advertiser input screen, stored in a database, converted to a format supported by the subscriber's wireless display device from which the subscriber selects advertisements of interest to be further converted and pushed to wireless subscribers. The three steps disclosed by the 725 Patent application are as follows described in the 725 Patent application section “DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION”, column 1, page 2: “(Si) collecting advertisement information from the advertiser and storing the database by using the advertisement input unit; (S2) storing the advertisement information in the database, extracting related information from the database by the request of the advertisement list-producing unit, and converting the extracted information into a markup language document fit for a wireless internet protocol of the mobile communication terminal; and (S3) reading in, if the mobile communication terminal user requests an advertisement transfer through connections, the advertisement information from the database, converting and transferring the read information into a markup language fit for the mobile communication terminal” The recipient (referred to as mobile communication terminal users in the 725 Patent) is pushed a SMS (Short Message Service) text message to visit the system's Website to select from a list of message content categorized by type of product or service. As disclosed in the BACKGROUND OF INVENTION section of this invention, recipients in the 725 Patent application are inundated with message content with is not specific to the recipient nor related to the recipient's current geospatial location. In addition, according to the disclosure of the 725 Patent application the only means of delivering message content is by the recipient's “mobile communications terminal” where the content of this invention is specific for recipients, relevant to the recipients' current geospatial location and uses the additional message content delivery means of stationary and mobile signage.
2002/0120518 A1 (hereinafter referred to as the 518 Patent application) discloses a system and method for using public display devices in conjunction with kiosks to gather demographic information about the people that would see the display. The kiosks would dispense shopping bags or offer some other form of compensation for viewers entering demographic information. Once demographic information is entered the data base server would display advertisements specific to the demographic data entered at the kiosk. Another embodiment would be using cameras to gather demographic information on gender, race and age to determine what advertisements to display. As disclosed in the BACKGROUND OF INVENTION section of this invention, recipients in the 518 Patent application are inundated with message content with is not specific to the recipient nor related to the recipient's current geospatial location. Additionally the 518 Patent application discloses a method for controlling inventory of products at multiple geospatial locations, clearly not the embodiment of this invention.
2002/0087401 A1 (hereinafter referred to as the 401 Patent application) discloses a method and system to “broadcast advertising to a mobile communication device”. FIG. 1 of the 401 Patent application is ambiguous regarding the functionality of GPS communication paths 112 and 114 since they are not cited in the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION of the 401 Patent application, the role of GPS to for these communications paths is not defined. What is disclosed is to provide the mobile device driving directions to the advertising sources. FIG. 1 of the 401 Patent application also discloses a plurality of “advertising broadcast systems” and not a central system as disclosed by this invention. FIG. 3 of the 401 Patent application discloses GPS used as a locating means for display booths and the mobile device but there is no disclosure as to how GPS will work inside reinforced structures such as trade show hall.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,397 (hereinafter referred to as the 397 Patent) discloses a method and apparatus for displaying advertising content on a client's computer system using email delivery. This disclosure is not the embodiment of the invention disclosed herein. The 397 Patent “SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION” column 2, line 65 states: “The present invention provides a method and apparatus for scheduling the distribution, downloading and presentation of a continuously changing display to computer users.” The 397 Patent further discloses in the next paragraph an advertisement display scheduler that is resident on the client's computer. The 397 Patent discloses client's submitting a profile that determines advertising content scheduled for the client, unlike the invention of this proposal which allows subscribers to dynamically request to be notified of products and services within the subscribers' geographic area.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,228,341 B2 (hereinafter referred to as the 341 Patent) discloses a method whereby there are 5 different scheduling algorithms for scheduling the play back of audio or video. The content is scheduled on a plurality of media player units each controlled by a player controller. Unlike the invention of this disclosure there is no concept in the 341 Patent as to the geospatial location of the media player units determining the message content. In the “SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION” section, column 2, line 40, the 341 Patent states: “More concisely stated, the present invention supports the following scheduling methods:
a. The assignment of a relative frequency of play method;
b. A recurring interval method;
c. A specified time of play method (time base);
d. An external event or condition trigger; and
e. Category filtering.”
Therefore the 341 Patents invention is the scheduling methods for content on “media players”. The invention disclosed herein allows publishers to determine the start date, start time, end date, end time, interval, duration and geospatial location of the stationary or mobile dynamic display devices for message content to recipients. Furthermore, the 341 Patent has no disclosure related to subscribers or publishers of message content disclosed herein, rather the 341 Patent uses the concepts of “broadcast” and “audience” in both the “DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS” SECTION, column 3 line 20, column 3 line 64, column 9 line 65, column 10 line 15, column 12 line 65-66, column 13 line 3, column 13 line 5, column 13 line 8 and in the ‘What is claimed is:” in claim 1, claim 3, claim 4, claim 12, claim 13, claim 14, claim 16, claim 17, claim 25, claim 29 and claim 30.
2003/0080999 A1 (hereinafter referred to as the 999 Patent application) discloses a method and apparatus for the delivery of advertising content to a plurality of “media outlets” including all traditional forms of advertising, printed and electronic. The 999 Patent application has the concept of a “seller interface” and a “buyer interface” and resembles an E-commerce system whereby sellers create advertisements, manage inventory and process electronic orders from buyers. As disclosed in the BACKGROUND OF INVENTION section of this invention, recipients in the 999 Patent application are inundated with message content with is not specific to the recipient nor related to the recipient's current geospatial location. Reinforcement of the lack of message content delivery functionality being based on the buyer's geospatial location in the 999 Patent application can be seen in its “FIG. 2D” where the buyer interface is disclosed as a traditional computer workstation containing a “Video Monitor” as known in the art. The 999 Patent Application also states: “[0104] Any Client-side program that resides on the Buyer Interface 5000 to facilitate the reading and or viewing or pages or presentations on the Internet or Intranet. Typically pages or presentations are based on the HTML display language or one of its successors or derivatives for presentations. Examples of Browser software are Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.” Clearly the 999 Patent application has no knowledge or disclosure of the markup languages other than HTML which would be required to support a plurality of stationary and mobile display devices other traditional computer workstations. Finally, in the 999 Patent application there is no disclosure of providing message content delivery based on the geospatial location of the buyer (i.e. recipient) nor allowing the seller (i.e. publisher) to select message content delivery based on geospatial location of either the recipient's portable wireless display device or the geospatial location of the stationary or mobile dynamic display devices disclosed herein.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,409 (hereinafter referred to as the 409 Patent) discloses “A system and method for scheduling and controlling delivery of advertising in a communications network and a communications network and remote computer program employing the system or the method”. The 409 Patent discloses in FIGS. 1-3 a method if displaying advertising content on a region of the screen of a computer monitor. Correspondingly, the claims of the 409 Patent describe the same method and there is no disclosure nor claims related to portable wireless display devices, stationary or mobile dynamic display devices, nor message content delivery based on the geospatial location of either recipients or dynamic display devices as disclosed by this invention. As disclosed in the BACKGROUND OF INVENTION section of this invention, recipients in the 409 Patent are inundated with message content with is not specific to the recipient nor related to the recipient's current geospatial location.
2001/0003846 A1 (hereinafter referred to as the 846 Patent application) discloses “[0020] The exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide an integrated streaming media system capable of generating and distributing broadcast quality streaming media content to a large number of remote nodes located over a large geographic area. In the exemplary embodiments, the network automation and integration may extend beyond the production and generation facilities to extend the capability of centrally scheduled network control to remote geospatial locations, if necessary, where programming content can be specifically customized for the particular remote geospatial location and/or region.” The large geographical area of the 846 Patent invention is not the embodiment of the invention disclosed herein. Furthermore, the 846 Patent application in FIG. 12 and FIGS. 13A, 13B and 13C disclose the “viewers” of the content utilizing televisions and set top boxes as known in the television cable industry which is not the embodiment of the invention disclosed herein. In the 846 Patent application FIGS. 13D and 13E disclose using a Web server to distribute streaming media to home computers and being able to originate content from a home computer notated as “Home Based Processing Unit”. There is no disclosure in the 846 Patent application related to geospatial location based message content delivery as in the disclosure of the invention herein.
2002/0178445 A1 (hereinafter referred to as the 445 Patent application) discloses in FIG. 1 the subscriber receiving advertisements on their home television or home computer and there is no illustration or disclosure of the subscriber receiving advertisement by portable wireless display devices or public dynamic display devices, stationary or mobile. The 445 Patent discloses and claims a method for displaying advertising to subscribers based on either displaying an advertising guide menu or receiving a subscriber request for an advertisement to be stored for display when available. There is no disclosure in the 445 Patent application related to geospatial location based message content delivery as in the disclosure of the invention herein. Correspondingly, in the claims of the 445 Patent application there is no disclosure nor claims related to portable wireless display devices, stationary or mobile dynamic displays nor message content delivery based on the geospatial location of either recipients or dynamic display devices as disclosed by this invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,029 B1 (hereinafter referred to as the 029 Patent) discloses an intermediate server between kiosk computers and advertisers. According to the 029 Patent this allows the kiosks to passively obtain content from multiple advertisers allowing the kiosk to be a more simple computer according to “DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION”, column 4 line 55. In addition the intermediate server isolates the kiosks from direct access to the Internet allowing only appropriate content being displayed on the kiosk. There is no disclosure in the 029 Patent application related to geospatial location based message content delivery as in the disclosure of the invention herein. Correspondingly, in the claims of the 029 Patent application there is no disclosure nor claims related to portable wireless display devices, stationary or mobile dynamic displays nor message content delivery based on the geospatial location of either recipients or dynamic display devices as disclosed by this invention.
Enabling Technology Components and Methods:
Dynamic digital display technology for outdoor use has several technology challenges:
2009/0146919 A1 (Hereinafter referred to as the 919 Patent application) discloses a large scale LED display invention that solves the problems with dynamic digital displays described above. The 919 Patent application states: “[0038] A large scale LED display 10 in accordance with the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, has height by width dimensions on the order of 3 m×6 m to 24 m×32 m or approximately 10 ft.×20 ft. to 80 ft.×105 ft. However, it should be appreciated, that the present invention can be used for displays that are larger or smaller as well. A display that is approximately 24 m×32 m has 480 pixels×640 pixels or a total of 307,200 pixels. These large scale LED displays are intended for both indoor use and outdoor use. The large scale display in accordance with the present invention is extremely robust and can withstand harsh outdoor environments while providing distortion free displayed images. Moreover, segments of the display can be readily replaced.” The 919 Patent application also discloses “[0039] For example, where the center-to-center spacing between adjacent LED modules is 50 mm or greater, one or more red, one or more blue and one or more green LEDs can provide a light output for the display of 5,000 nits or greater depending upon the flux density of the LEDs so that the display 10 is suitable for use outdoors in sunlight.”
Locating portable wireless communication devices indoors, particularly in reinforced buildings and subterranean structures, currently relies on wireless triangulation and/or Time Distance Of Arrival (TDOC) cellular techniques. The accuracy is poor and is directly proportional to tower density and the affects of multipath, caused by distortion effects on wireless signals. Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) would normally be used as a means of dead reckoning, but are typically large and very expensive and have poor performance at low acceleration rates such as walking/jogging/running. INS systems also consume a lot of power which is not desirable for portable devices. Accelerometers alone only provide linear rates of acceleration. To obtain rotational changes, such as a change in direction, gyroscopes must be used, again suffering from the same problems as accelerometers. Compass devices have been used to substitute compass heading changes as a means for determining a change in direction, but indoors, especially in reinforced buildings, the metal distorts magnetic fields and the compass solution has a high error factor.
2009/0326851 A1 (hereinafter referred to as the 851 Patent application) discloses Micro Electronic Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology applied to accelerometers and gyroscopes that has a small form factor, high accuracy that can dead reckon a person walking and consumes low power. The 851 Patent application states: “[0017] The invention can provide a means of measuring angular rates and acceleration when GPS data are not present for long periods of dead time. An on-board GPS can be integrated with the IMU to initiate accurate solutions when GPS data are available.” Additionally the 851 Patent Application states: “[0019] The fully integrated IMU of the present invention is lightweight and compact in size for mounting on individuals, such as soldiers, to detect movement, as well as to determine instantaneous motion change and new position on low-cost stabilization platforms. The invention in a preferred embodiment has a volume less than 1.9 in.3 and a weight of less than 0.05 pound.”
2002/0194914 A1 (hereinafter referred to as the 914 Patent application) “ABSTRACT” discloses: “Inertial trackers have been successfully applied to a wide range of head mounted display (HMD) applications including virtual environment training, VR gaming and even fixed-base vehicle simulation, in which they have gained widespread acceptance due to their superior resolution and low latency.” Additionally the 914 Patent application discloses in column 1 [0002]:” InterSense of Burlington, Mass., has pioneered the commercial development of motion tracking systems using miniature MEMS based inertial sensors, and now offers a broad product line of inertial hybrid trackers.
A commercial example of this miniature INS technology can be found in a product named NavChip™. The NavChip™ product sheet states: “At roughly the size of a penny, the NavChip™ employs ground breaking MEMS technology to provide unprecedented low noise and stability. As the industry's first commercial IMU chip, the NavChip represents a 12-fold improvement in angular random walk and a 6-fold improvement in bias in-run stability compared to previous commercial-grade MEMS IMUs. This device claims less than 1% linear drift over distance traveled resulting in an accuracy of 10 meters for every Km traveled. The power consumption is 120 mW. Therefore the size, power consumption and error rate make it capable of accurately dead reckoning a portable wireless display device indoors. With a rotational error of 0.5%, accurate headings are also available.
2008/0144264 A1 (Hereinafter referred to as the 264 Patent application) discloses an invention that relates to a three part housing a wireless communication device that can be head worn with a multimedia display that flips up to provide a visor. The 264 Patent application states: “When worn by the user 600, the left and right ear mounts 340, 440 hook onto respective left and right ears of the user 600. The recess 550 also accommodates the nose of the user. Thus, the three part housing wireless communications device 100 can be readily worn by the user 600 in a manner similar to that of wearing glasses.” This would enable indoor message content delivery at near-store accuracy when integrated with miniature INS as disclosed in this invention. The integrated INS would also work with hand held portable wireless display devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,454,290 B2 (Hereinafter referred to as the 290 Patent) discloses a combined GPS (Global Positioning System) and INS (Inertial Navigation System) to determine the attitude (location, elevation & orientation) of a vehicle. The 290 Patent in the “SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION” states: “This invention provides a low cost and robust GPS-INS attitude system for vehicles.” The mobile dynamic display device controller disclosed in this invention utilizes the 290 Patent disclosure as an integrated INS module.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,031,454 (Hereinafter referred to as the 454 Patent) discloses a UHF antenna based system that describes a radar responsive tag that utilizes very low power, has better azimuth and range precision that cellular CDMA methods, better penetration into subterranean and reinforced buildings, is less influenced by multipath errors and has a very small form factor.
Recognition of images, as opposed to character (text) recognition such as OCR (Optical Character Recognition), as is known in the art, is not commonplace, especially for 3 dimensional aspects. An advertiser that desires confirmation that advertising content has been acknowledged by a viewer has few means to obtain this information electronically.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,639,881 B2 (Hereinafter referred to as the 881 Patent) discloses a method for performing visual recognition tasks for image recognition in two dimensions. The 881 Patent states: “The subject invention relates generally to recognition, and more particularly to systems and methods that employ grammatical parsing to facilitate in visual recognition tasks.” The invention disclosed herein uses visual recognition as a resident application on portable wireless display devices both hand held and head mounted.
Newly Disclosed Components and Methods:
This invention of an end to end system comprised of methods and apparatuses that utilizes geospatial location as a basis of message content delivery. This invention integrates publishers and recipients of message content and reduces the amount of meaningless message content that inundates recipients and better focuses a publishers' message content to recipients. Additionally, a new portable wireless display device is disclosed that provides valuable feedback to publishers related to positive confirmation of consumer viewing of publisher message content.
Publishers can be private or public entities. Recipients are comprised of subscribers and non subscribers. Message content is delivered on a plurality of dynamic display devices which can be portable wireless, mobile wireless signage or stationary signage, indoor or outdoor. A central system integrates publishers and recipients across the Internet and implements a high performance, available and reliable Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) providing services to publishers and recipients. For publishers which are advertisers, the end to end system provides feedback information in real time regarding subscribers that are viewing message content which is a valuable reinforcement for the development of advertising message content.
The present invention thus discloses several apparatuses, techniques and methods regarding improved publisher message content delivery based on geospatial location/date/time domain of recipients that facilitates the objectives of this invention.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the more pertinent and important features of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood so that the present contribution to the art can be more fully appreciated. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and the specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
Table 1 describes the different video formats.
Table 2 describes the different audio formats.
Table 3 describes the different graphic formats.
Table 4 describes the different markup language types.
The end to end system depicted in
The central system 1 interfaces subscribers 2 of message content to publishers 3 of message content utilizing the communications infrastructure provided by the Internet 6, the wireless network 7 and WiFi and WiMax networks 8. The central system 1 also interfaces recipients 10 of message content to publishers 3. The end agents of message content delivery are portable wireless display devices 15 with recipients 10, indoor stationary dynamic display device signage 11, outdoor stationary dynamic display device signage 13, and outdoor mobile dynamic display device signage 14. The role of the central system is to deliver message content by the geospatial location of the recipient 10 who is either a subscriber 2 or a non subscriber 10, (i.e. everyone else).
The geospatial location of the recipient 10, who is the superset comprised of subscribers 2 and non subscribers 10, is the key attribute since it allows the recipient 10 to act or respond based on the type of message content delivered. The central system 1 uses the geospatial location of the portable wireless display devices with subscribers 2, a subset of recipients 10, to deliver message content specifically requested by the subscribers 2.
The geospatial location of the recipients 10 can be obtained by several methods:
Once the central system 1 knows the geospatial location of recipients 10 and subscribers 2, it can fulfill the message content delivery provided by the publishers 3. Publishers 3 are comprised of private 4 and public 5 entities. The publishers 3 are provided a plurality of means to provide message content to the central system 1.
Examples of Publishers:
The top tier of the central system 1 architecture interfaces with the Internet 6 via firewalls 18 as is known in the art of Internet based information processing and E-commerce. The firewalls 18 protect the central system 1 from such things as denial of service attacks and the infusion or injection of viruses as known in the art into the operating systems and applications executing on servers behind the firewalls 18.
The 1st tier subnetwork 19 interfaces the servers that provide standard Internet services of E-mail, Websites, device communication gateways and File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The E-mail servers 20 provide email services to publishers 3, subscribers 2, E-commerce servers 27 and the application servers 28. The Web Servers 21 host the Web services that provide the browser services between the Application Servers 28 and the other components of the end to end system such as subscribers 2, publishers 3 and portable wireless display devices 15. The FTP servers 22 provide file transfer services to subscribers 2, publishers 3 and portable wireless display devices 15, indoor stationary dynamic display devices 11, outdoor stationary dynamic display devices 13 and mobile dynamic display devices 14. The gateway servers 106 provide availability, high throughput and assured delivery of data from recipients' 10 and subscribers' 2 portable wireless display devices to the gateway servers 106 of the central system 1. The gateway servers 106 also provide assured delivery of publishers 3 message content to portable wireless display devices 15 as well as mobile and stationary dynamic display devices 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 11, 13, 42, 45, 46. The gateway servers 106 provide flow control by sending UDP packets with updated lists of gateway server 106 IP addresses to prevent congestion or to route around gateway outages.
The 2nd tier subnetwork 23 interfaces the business logic implemented in the servers 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 to the web services on the 1st tier Web services 20, 21, 106 and 22. The management servers 24 manage resources, monitors and controls performance for the business logic tier, especially congestion on the real time gateway servers 106. The geospatial information servers 25 provide translation between coordinates of latitude and longitude, postal address layers, map layers and other feature layers for the business logic tier. The real time communication servers 26 provide the services for chat, text messaging, voice, graphics, streaming audio and streaming video for the business logic tier. The E-commerce servers 27 provide E-commerce services for subscribers 2 and publishers 3. The application servers 28 provide a plurality of application services for the central system 1, subscribers 2, publishers 3, recipients 10 and dynamic display devices 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 11, 13, 42, 45, 46. The application servers 28 provide the custom applications that implement the business logic for the central system 1. The mobile information servers 29 maintain attribute information specific to each portable wireless display device 15. The file servers 30 maintain the application files that are uploaded and downloaded between the components of the end to end system. The streaming media servers 31 that deliver streaming audio and streaming video content to portable wireless display devices 15, stationary and mobile dynamic display devices 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 11, 13, 42, 45, 46. The directory servers 32 maintain a directory of all components of the end to end system. All storage of temporary variables and service thread attributes for tier 2 servers are stored locally on the respective servers thereby not competing for data base servers 34. This is possible because of the SOA transactions that are data driven and data is never lost due to assured delivery end to end.
The 3rd tier subnetwork 33 interfaces the business logic in the 2nd tier to the clustered and federated data base servers 34. The data base servers 34 provide the usual and customary functions of storage, retrieval, updating and archiving of all data in the central system 1.
The processor component 52 of the dynamic display controller module 53 is a typical embedded processor as is known in the art for devices. One such example is the ARM 7, ARM 9 and ARM 11 family of 32 bit processors from ARM. Such processors are low power, small form factor and can interoperate with up to 16 attached coprocessor modules such as display controllers, audio controllers, wireless communication modules, serial bus controllers, digital input/output modules and analog input/output modules.
The GPS receiver 54 receives the pseudo range messages 17 from the GPS satellites 16 (or any other satellite constellation such as GLONASS) in order to determine the geospatial location of the dynamic display. Other location means such as radar responsive tags or INS could be used in lieu of the GPS receiver 54 when GPS is not available. The GPS antenna 55 can either be mounted inside the IP67 case for the dynamic display controller module 53 or to an external antenna using an RF connector 63. For a dynamic display that is stationary 11, 13, 42, 45, 46 the GPS receiver can be used to allow the processor 52 algorithms to calculate differential corrections for the GPS receiver 54 calculated positions versus the surveyed position of the stationary dynamic display 11, 13, 42, 45, 46. These differential corrections can be sent to the central system 1 geospatial information server 25 thereby allowing the central system 1 to apply differential corrections to all portable wireless dynamic display devices 15 and mobile dynamic display devices 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41. These differential corrections can also be sent to portable wireless display devices 15 via short range wireless WLAN (802.11)/WiMax 67 and Bluetooth 64. This results in the ability to locate with a precision of a few centimeters instead of 10 meters. This especially important when locating portable wireless display devices 15 that are close to dynamic display devices, stationary 11, 13, 42, 45, 46 or mobile 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41. Using a differentially corrected GPS geospatial location as the reference point for the INS comprised of a 6 degree of freedom accelerometer and gyroscope module 56 results in greater precision for the dead reckoning provided by the INS module 56 because there is more precision for the dead reckoning starting point and the inherent cumulative errors over time and distance are reduced with a higher precision starting point. The INS module 56 can be eliminated for stationary dynamic displays 11, 13, 42, 45, 46.
The dynamic display controller module for a mobile dynamic display device will report its geospatial location to the central server whenever it detects movement for a programmable period of time, whenever it acquires a geospatial location means or when it acquires communication means with the central system.
The display controller 57 provides the interface to different types of displays 58 interfaced to the display controller 57. The display controller will change its control signals based on the type of display 58 interface such as composite, analog or digital. Other attributes to accommodate are serial data, parallel data, synchronization frequency, range of colors, number of lines, number of pixels and screen size. The display controller 57 contains the industry standard interfaces for displays such as composite video, component video, VGA (Video Graphics Array), SVGA (Super VGA), DVI (Digital Video Interface), S-Video, and HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface). The external display 58 attaches to the dynamic display controller using a weatherproof connector 88.
The power module 59 interfaces to external power sources that include 12-24 VDC, 110-200 VAC single phase 50-60 Hz, 220 two phase 60 Hz and 440 three phase 60 Hz. The power module 59 converts the external power to the lower voltages required by the modules and components comprising the dynamic display controller module 53.
The cellular module 60 provides a wireless IP communications interface to the global wireless frequency bands described in
The Bluetooth module 64 provides no cost local wireless communications either to the central system 1 via the Internet 6 for portable wireless display devices 15 near the dynamic display, controller module 53 or for wireless communications between the dynamic display controller module 53 and the portable wireless display devices 15. This link is used to exchange data between the portable wireless display device 15 and either the central system 1 or the dynamic display controller module 53. The Bluetooth module antenna 65 can either be mounted inside the IP67 case for the dynamic display controller module 53 or to an external antenna using an RF connector 66.
The WiFi or WiMax module 67 provides a wireless IP communications interface either to the central system 1 via the Internet 6 for portable wireless display devices 15 near the dynamic display controller module 53, for wireless communications between dynamic display controller modules 53, or for wireless communications between the dynamic display controller module 53. Using either 802.11 (WLAN or WiFi) or 802.16 (WiMax), dynamic display controller modules can provide a high speed communications interface and even locate portable wireless display devices 15 as well communicating with other mobile dynamic display devices 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 relative to the position of the dynamic display controller module's 53 current known position. This allows accurately locating a portable wireless display device 15, especially when the portable wireless display device 15 is using dead reckoning. The accurate position update can provide a geospatial location update to correct accumulated drift for the INS module integrated in the portable wireless display devices 15. Correspondingly, a mobile dynamic display device 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 that is currently using dead reckoning can get a geospatial location update when in close proximity to a stationary or mobile dynamic display device 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 11, 13, 42, 45, 46 receive the Bluetooth 8, WiFi 8 or WiMax 8 communications. The WiFi/WiMax module antennas 68 and 70 can either be mounted inside the IP67 case for the dynamic display controller module 53 or to an external antenna using an RF connectors 69 and 71.
The digital input/output module 72 provides digital or discrete inputs and outputs for the dynamic display controller module 53. Tamper detection 73 for the dynamic display controller module 53 can be implemented either by a switch or photodiode that is activated when the IP67 case 53 is opened. The vehicle brake input 74 triggers the dynamic display control module to display “STOP” (or STOP in other languages) in big red letters to prevent vehicles behind the mobile dynamic display device 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 vehicle 35, 38 from colliding with the mobile dynamic display device 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 vehicle 35, 38 while stopping. The power indicator 75 displays the status of external power 75 and battery backup power 76. The fault indicator 76 displays a diagnosed fault within the dynamic display controller module 53. The test indicator 77 displays the status of successful built in tests or that test software is communicating to the dynamic display controller module 53 via the RS-232/422 Test Interface 78.
The analog input module 79 provides analog inputs for the dynamic display controller module 53. Dynamic display controller module 53 temperature 80 is provided by a temperature probe inside the IP67 case. External power 75 is also available so that the dynamic display controller module can report the level of external power 75 to the central system 1.
The backup battery charging module 81 keeps the backup battery 76 charged. The backup battery keeps the dynamic display controller operational during external power 75 failure. The backup battery charging module 81 reports the voltage level of the backup battery 76.
The serial communications module 82 provides a high speed serial communications interface to the processor 52. The serial communications module 82 connects to the RS-232/422 Test Interface 78, the USB (Universal Serial Bus) communications module 83 and the Ethernet communications module 84 via a high speed serial bus available on the processor 52. The RS-232/422 test interface has a weatherproof DB9 connector 87, the USB communications module has a weatherproof USB connector 86 Ethernet communications module has a weatherproof RJ45 connector 85 on the IP67 dynamic display controller module case 53.
The audio module 89 provides the analog amplification and interface to speakers 90 attached to the dynamic display controller module 53 via connector 91.
The non volatile memory 92 contains the boot loader, the software update loader, the current software program version and the previous software program version for the processor 52. The software program herein referred to as business logic, can be updated “over the air” as is known in the art using any of the wireless modules 60, 64 and 67 or via the serial communication modules 78, 83 and 84.
The volatile memory 93 contains temporary data used by the software executing in the processor 52. The volatile memory 93 also contains the message content to be displayed as well as the scheduling information.
At this stage software development can proceed with one or more approaches to generate the advertising message content on the central system 1.
At this stage the small business 101 can proceed with one or more approaches to generate the advertising message content on the central system 1.
At this stage the individual seller 102 can proceed with one or more approaches to generate the advertising message content on the central system 1.
For each advertising message content developed or updated, the publisher 4 then selects the time and date schedule and where advertising message content will be delivered and on what types of dynamic display devices are used. The geospatial servers provide the publisher with a graphical interface with maps, features and landmarks where stationary dynamic display devices 11, 13, 42, 45, 46 are located. This graphic interface also allows publishers to create circular or polygon geospatial location areas for the mobile dynamic display devices 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 to display message content. The application servers 28 get the information from the directory servers 32 on the attributes for each type of dynamic display devices 15, 11, 13, 14, 35, 38, 41, 43, 42, 45, 46, 94 selected by the publisher 4 and converts the message content graphics Table 3, message audio Table 2 and message content video Table 1. The application servers also convert the message content markup language Table 4 that is supported by each type dynamic display device selected 15, 11, 13, 14, 35, 38, 41, 43, 42, 45, 46, 94. The schedules, geospatial location rules and message content files for each stationary and mobile dynamic display device 11, 13, 42, 45, 46, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 are updated and placed on the file servers 30 to be delivered to each dynamic display device 11, 13, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 43, 42, 45, 46 selected by the publisher 4. The schedules and geospatial location rules form the business logic to be executed by the processor 52 in the stationary and mobile dynamic display devices 11, 13, 14, 35, 38, 41, 43, 42, 45, 46.
Subscriber 2 portable wireless display devices 15 and 94 are not delivered advertising message content until the schedule, geospatial location constraints and type of information requested criteria entered by the subscriber 2 are met.
Subscriber 2 requests are made available to publishers 4 of products and services by the central system 1 in order to provide information to publishers 4 about subscriber 2 demand for products and services.
Publishers 4 may also send coupons in the form of bar codes that allow subscribers 2 to have their portable wireless display device display scanned by the bar code reader at the point of sale for the publisher 4. This further permits the publisher 4 to track and monitor the success of the location based messaging campaign, reduces the amount of paper coupons retained by the subscriber 2 relieves the point of sale from processing paper coupons back to the publisher 4 for coupon reimbursement.
At this stage software development can proceed with one or more approaches to generate the advertising message content on the central system 1.
For each public service message content developed or updated, the publisher 5 then selects the time and date schedule and where advertising message content will be delivered and on what types of dynamic display devices are used. The application servers 28 get the information from the directory servers 32 on the attributes for each type of dynamic display devices 15, 11, 13, 14, 35, 38, 41, 43, 42, 45, 46, 94 selected by the publisher 5 and converts the message content graphics Table 3, message audio Table 2 and message content video Table 1. The application servers also convert the message content markup language Table 4 that is supported by each type dynamic display device selected 15, 11, 13, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 45, 46. The schedules, geospatial location rules and message content files for each stationary and mobile dynamic display device 11, 13, 42, 45, 46, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 are updated and placed on the file servers 30 to be delivered to each dynamic display device 11, 13, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 45, 46 selected by the publisher 5. The schedules and geospatial location rules form the business logic to be executed by the processor 52 in the stationary and mobile dynamic display devices 11, 13, 42, 45, 46, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41.
The current geospatial location of recipients 10 portable wireless display devices is provided to the central system 1 by the wireless networks 7 and 8.
The E-commerce servers 27 allow publishers 3 to specify the geospatial locations where their advertising or public service message content will be displayed. Publishers 3 can also specify the types of stationary or mobile dynamic display devices 11, 13, 42, 45, 46, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 to display their message content. Publishers 3 can specify a schedule and duration for the message content. Publishers 3 can select for directions to be displayed to their geospatial location from the current geospatial location of the stationary or mobile dynamic display device 11, 13, 42, 45, 46, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41. Publishers 4 can select to display discount coupon codes unique for each stationary or mobile dynamic display device 11, 13, 42, 45, 46, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 to track the effectiveness of different types of stationary or mobile dynamic display devices 11, 13, 42, 45, 46, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41.
The following examples are disclosed:
The above examples are not meant to disclose all possibilities, rather demonstrate the usage of the end to end system for different types of publishers 3 delivering specific message content of subscription or value based on the geospatial location of the recipients 10 and subscribers 2 with a schedule and options.
At this stage the subscriber 2 can proceed with subscribing to product and service notifications when the subscriber 2 is within a specified distance from where the product or service can be obtained.
Upon the subscriber 2 entering their wireless number for their portable wireless display device 15, the central system requests the type of portable wireless display device from the wireless network 7 and 8. If the type of device cannot be provided the central system 1 requests information about the subscriber's 2 portable wireless display device 15 so that the application servers 28 can correctly convert the publisher's 3 message content.
Once the type of subscriber 2 portable wireless display device is known the subscriber can allow portable wireless display device 15 resident applications to be downloaded from the central system 1 to the subscriber's 2 portable wireless display device 15. Resident applications can be mandatory and optional. Such applications would perform the following functions and services:
Subscriber 2 portable wireless display devices 15 and 94 are not delivered advertising message content until the schedule, geospatial location constraints and type of information requested criteria entered by the subscriber 2 are met.
For non head mounted portable wireless display devices 15, the subscriber could be requested by the publisher message content to capture an image or video using the camera on the subscriber's portable wireless display device. Optionally, the geospatial location of the recipient 15 or subscriber 2 can be determined to be within visual distance of the stationary or mobile dynamic display device 11, 13, 42, 45, 46, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 by the following means:
All of these methods disclosed are to provide publishers with feedback as to the effectiveness of their selection of stationary and mobile dynamic display devices 11, 13, 42, 45, 46, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41.
The portable wireless display device 15 has an resident application that continuously runs in the background which collects the current geospatial location from either the integrated GPS, the integrated INS, cellular tower based triangulation computed on the portable wireless display device 15, Cellular TDOA computed on the portable wireless display device 15, or receiving its geospatial location from a stationary or mobile dynamic display device 11, 13, 42, 45, 46, 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 via integrated Bluetooth, 802.11 WLAN or WiMax.
The resident application initially downloaded from the central server 1 when the subscriber 2 registered their portable wireless display device 15 executes in the background collecting geospatial location data (latitude and longitude) at a programmable interval set by command and control parameter messages received from the central system 1. The portable wireless display device 15 reports its geospatial location 107 using a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) message 108. UDP packets are very fast because they use a connectionless Internet protocol. Connectionless, as known in the art, requires no connection to be set up and disconnected by the wireless network 7, 8 reducing computation on the wireless networks 7, 8 as well as the source (sender) and destination (receiver) of the UDP data packet(s). Connectionless UDP data packet(s) also have no delivery confirmation, therefore the network processing time and costs associated with wireless network 7, 8 transport layer delivery services, as known in the art, are not incurred. If the route of the UDP packet(s) uses highly reliable networks then few UDP packet(s) will be lost. Since the end to end system relies on wireless networks 7, 8 the end to end reliability of the network is degraded. To assure that portable wireless display devices 15 can report their geospatial location and assure that message content can be delivered, the end to end system must implement assured delivery.
The UDP packet(s) are sent to the central system 1 firewall 18 with a destination IP address for a gateway server 106. The firewall validates the gateway server 106 IP address 109 and the portable wireless display device 15 unique ID number and if either are not valid, discards the UDP packet 110. The gateway server 106 sends a gateway ACK (acknowledgement) UDP packet 111 for the unique UDP packet sequence number to the central system 1 firewall 18 with the destination IP address of the portable wireless display device 15. This ACK UDP packet 112 resets the UDP packet sequence number timer in the resident application in the portable wireless display device 15 so that the UDP packet is not sent again due to failure of being delivered to the central system 1 gateway server 106. Should the portable wireless display device 15 not receive a gateway ACK UDP packet then after a period of time the portable wireless display device 15 will retransmit the UDP packet 110 to a different gateway server 106. This prevents UDP data packets from being lost due to a degraded wireless link or a gateway server 106 failure. UDP packets contain a unique packet sequence number, as is known it the art, to keep track of message packets that have been acknowledged, not acknowledged or negatively acknowledged.
The gateway server then parses the data 113 from the UDP packet 108 and spans two services; (1) to send the data to the data base server 34 and (2) to send the data to the application server 28.
The data base server 34 commits the data to the portable wireless display device geospatial location data base 114 and constructs 115 a data base commit ACK UDP packet 129 to be sent to the portable wireless display device 15 resident application. The UDP data packet 123 resets the second timer for the unique UDP packet sequence number in the resident application in the portable wireless display device 15 so that the UDP packet is not sent again due to failure of being committed to the geospatial location data base 114. This end to end acknowledgement implements assured delivery of portable wireless display device 15 geospatial location data. This method commits geospatial location data to the geospatial location data base 114 and spawns the message content delivery 116 by the fastest means possible. Additionally, the end to end system architecture assures that no data is lost.
The application server 28 must determine if the portable wireless display device 15, based on it's current geospatial location and subscription rules, if message content delivery is required 116. If the geospatial location and subscription rules are not met, no further action is required 117 and the transaction is complete. Should the geospatial location and schedule rules be met, a service is started on the directory server 32 to determine the type of portable wireless display device 15. This type definition 118 is passed as parameters when a service is started on the application server 28 to (1) convert the message content 119 to comply with the image, audio and video formats and markup language supported by the portable wireless display device 15 and (2) construct a UDP packet(s) to contain the message content 120. The message content UDP packet(s) 121 is sent to the portable wireless display device 15.
Upon successful reception of the message content UDP packet(s) 121 the portable wireless display device 15 transmits a message content ACK/NACK (Negative ACK) packet 124. If the UDP ACK/NACK packet does not arrive within a time limit, the message content UDP packet(s) will be sent again by the application server 28. If the message content ACK/NACK UDP packet 124 contains a NACK 125 then the message delivery will be retried 126 by reconstructing the message content 119 since a NACK indicates the message content UDP message packets 121 were receiver but there was an error. If the message content ACK/NACK UDP packet 124 contains an ACK 125 then a service is started on the E-commerce server 27 to close the message content delivery transaction and perform accounting for the publisher 3. A service will then be started on the data base server 34 to commit the transaction information to the message content delivery database 128.
The data flow for the mobile dynamic display devices 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 is similar. One exception is that whenever the display schedule and message content is updated by the central system 1 as a result if publishers 3 creating, editing or deleting message content, the message content delivered to the mobile dynamic display devices 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 contains the updated schedule rules and message content.
The data flow for the stationary dynamic display devices 11, 13, 42, 45, 46 is similar to the mobile dynamic display devices 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41. One difference is that the stationary dynamic display device 14, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 does not report geospatial location since it does not move.