Patent Application
20140011515
The present application relates generally to electronic commerce.
A contract to be made by an agent on behalf of a principal is considered to be the contract of the principal and not that of the agent. It allows the principal to approve somebody to carry out her duties, either for a precise purpose or generally (i.e., to conduct transactions). The agency relationship is typically entered into by informal agreement, but also can occur by formal agreement (in certain cases, the agency affiliation must be specified in writing).
The current wireless and locationing technologies, with their improved speed of data and location capabilities provide new opportunities for business growth by enhancing integration between business with physical premises and internet based commerce. General wireless technologies such as cellular, WLAN, Bluetooth, ZigBee, RF-ID and other positioning technologies like GPS, databases mapping base stations and access point, multilateration and other technologies provide a method for taking advantage of proximity between users of wireless devices.
A geo-fence is a virtual perimeter for a real world geographic area. A geofence can be dynamically generated as in a radius around a point location that could be stationary or mobile. A geofence can be a predefined set of boundaries connecting points expressed by latitude and longitude, like neighborhood boundaries. Geofencing has been made possible by the introduction of locationing techniques like, for example, the GPS (Global Positioning System) technology or the multilateration technology and the miniaturization of electronic components that have made the GPS a standard feature in mobile phones and portable electronics in general (User Equipment).
Various aspects and examples of the invention are set out in the claims. According to a first aspect of the present invention, a method comprises receiving an indication that a user equipment has received a wireless digital identifier signal associated to an agent equipment because of at least a location criteria associated to the location of said agent equipment in relation to said user equipment and sending to said user equipment indicia of whether said wireless digital identifier signal belongs to an entry in a data structure predetermined, at least in part, by a principal equipment.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a method comprises broadcasting by an agent equipment a wireless digital identifier to an user equipment wherein said wireless digital identifier belongs to an entry in a data structure predetermined, at least in part, by a principal equipment and said entry is associated with information that a principal wants to share with a user based upon, at least in part, the location of said user equipment and said agent equipment.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a user apparatus comprises a receiver configured to receive a wireless digital identifier signal based upon, at least in part, the location of said user apparatus and of an agent apparatus and further configured to receive an indication of whether said wireless digital identifier signal belongs to a data structure predetermined, at least in part, by a principal equipment; and an indicator configured to indicate an entry in said predetermined data structure corresponding to said wireless digital identifier signal, wherein said entry is associated with digital information that a principal wants to share.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a user apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause said user apparatus to receive a wireless digital identifier signal related to an agent apparatus and trigger an indication that said wireless digital identifier signal belongs to a data structure predetermined, at least in part, by a principal equipment wherein said indication is conditional, at least in part, upon at least a location criteria associated with the location of said agent apparatus in relation to said user apparatus.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a method comprises receiving an indication that certain conditions associated to the location of both a user apparatus and an agent apparatus meet a location criteria associated with the location of said agent apparatus in relation to said user apparatus; and determining whether a wireless digital identifier associated with said user apparatus and a wireless digital identifier associated with said agent apparatus belong to a data structure that is populated, at least in part, by receiving data information from a principal apparatus, wherein said data structure further comprises data information to be sent to at least said user apparatus for the purpose of evaluating a business proposal.
For a more complete understanding of example embodiments of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:
An example embodiment of the present invention and its potential advantages are understood by referring to
In
BS 135 and its related network can be compliant to 3GPP, 3GPP2, or WiMAX specification. In an example embodiment, BS 135 is connected through Interface 175 to Core Network (CN)/Internet 130. CN/Internet 130 may connect or allow connection to server 100 using Interface 132. Interfaces or data connections 175, 132 can be wireless or wired connections.
A wireless digital identifier (ID agent) may be sent via an Interface or Data Connection 142 (for example, WLAN) from Agent equipment 160 to User Equipment 165 wherein an application, stored in Memory 120, is running Said application may cause said wireless digital identifier (ID agent) to be sent to Server 100, together with a wireless digital identifier associated with the user of User Equipment 165 (ID user), via Cellular Link 141 to base station BS 135 and from there via Interfaces or data connections 175, 132 and Core Network (CN)/Internet 130 to said Server 100.
In a possible implementation, Server 100 will pair ID agent with ID user and probe for possible matches using the data structures that will be described in
In another implementation, it is User Equipment 165 that sends ID user to Agent Equipment 160 via an Interface or Data Connection 142 wherein an application, stored in Memory 115 is running Said application will cause both ID agent and ID user to be sent over to Server 100 via Cellular Link 140 and the various data connections described in the previous example. Again, an algorithm running on Server 100 may pair ID agent with ID user with the associated datagram and query for possible matches.
In another implementation, the sending of the IDs may not be necessary, as a database of wireless digital identifiers, data structures and matching algorithm can be already stored in Memory 120 or Memory 115. Said data could be updated from time to time via a wired or wireless connection to a Server 100.
In some scenarios, Principal Equipment 110 may not even belong to the person acting as a principal. A principal can in fact control the terms and conditions of a business offer via instructions, data and terms uploaded on Memory 102 of Server 100 by means of any equipment capable of connecting to Core Network (CN)/Internet 130. These instructions can be uploaded via Interfaces or Data Connections 125, 131 and Core Network (CN)/Internet 130. These connections can be wireless or wired connections; a base station or access point (not shown in
In one scenario, Principal Equipment 110 may represent and be used by a business entity, a principal, who wants to display his latest product via a testimonial such as an enthusiastic previous client for example. Such client will act as an agent and will be carrying around Agent Equipment 160 and a product that principal wants to sell. For example, a car dealer could be a principal and an enthusiastic client might be authorized by such dealer to become an agent for the dealer. The agent may carry around a new car and advantageously display and advertize the product to potential clients by means of the present invention.
In a possible implementation, when User Equipment 165 is within Radio Range Area 170, both user and agent (and even principal) can be alerted that a match has occurred. User of User Equipment 165 can accept the invitation for the product demonstration via Input-Output Module 121. All these data and information can be sent over Cellular Link 141, 140, Interfaces or Data Connections 175, 132, 131, 125, 142 and Core Network (CN)/Internet 130. In a possible implementation, User Equipment 165 may also receive data facilitating the meeting with the agent, for example via compass-like element indicated by Output Module 121 displaying an arrow pointing at the agent's position, or via turn-by-turn instructions that will guide user to the agent. In a possible implementation, pictures of the agent and the user may also appear via Input-Output Module 121 and Input-Output Module 116 to facilitate the identification of the agent and the user by the other party. Alternatively, if user accepts the prompt for a meeting with an agent, it can be Agent Equipment 160 receiving data facilitating the meeting. In one possible implementation if user accepts the prompt for a meeting an algorithm running on Server 100 may provide both Agent Equipment 160 and User Equipment 165 with data and instructions in order to reach a conveniently located meeting place. Said places could be commercial places such as bars or restaurants that for a fee can become the default or sponsored places where the system can route agents and users. On those premises, said users and agents can possibly enjoy the services and the personalized offers made by said commercial establishments.
In one implementation, once user and agent have exchanged information about the product, user may, via Input-Output Module 121, decide to accept the offer. Said acceptance can be preliminary or final. User Equipment 165 may send said acceptance information to Server 100 and from there Principal Equipment 110 could retrieve it. If the acceptance is preliminary user may be given only a limited amount of time, a grace period, to take advantage of the offer he has received via the agent, go to the business premises of principal, finalize the acceptance and collect the good or services he has purchased, for example a car.
The person skilled in the art will recognize that many variations do exist to the approaches described. For example, the offer may have restrictions such as a minimum number of users preliminarily accepting it. Alternatively, an agent may have some goods with him and payments and transactions of goods may already occur during the interaction between agent and user.
In a possible implementation, principal has a great deal of control over not only the content and conditions of the offer but also over the modalities by which Agent Equipment 160 may operate in relation to the principal-agent mechanism that has been described. For example, a principal may restrict the broadcasting of the wireless digital identifier to certain time windows during the day or to determined locations. A principal may also render Agent Equipment 160 active or inactive, modify certain parameters and data as described in
In addition, in case of multiple agents and multiple users in the same area having profiles that could be causing multiple alerts or invites to meet, the algorithm contained in Memory 102 and running on Server 100 may distribute and rebalance the load among agents according to a range of principal's preferences. The principal may input these preferences by means of a Principal Equipment 110 and send these preferences and settings over to Server 100. Alternatively, a fourth entity, in addition to the principal, the agent and the user, namely a business entity running the principal-agent service and having access to Server 100 which is hosting the matching algorithm, can define the details of said algorithm and manage any possible conflicts and interferences.
In one example embodiment, the data structure in
In the embodiment described in
In the example of
In this example, the principal controls the data in Column 213. This column contains a web address pointing at content that a User Equipment 165 can display to a user after he is notified that an agent is in proximity. A notification to a user may occur only if the offer meets the parameters and conditions contained in the data structures described in
Column 214 contains a summary of the offer. The person skilled in the art will recognize that different scenarios are possible. For example, a principal can make more than one offer. Alternatively, a principal can assign different offers to different agents. In another possible scenario, an agent may represent more than one principal.
Column 215 includes restrictions that a principal may impose upon users. For example, Field 217 includes a geographical restriction and a class restriction, “only military personnel’. Field 217 may affect the matching of certain offers with certain users if those users do not conform to the restrictions imposed. Field 218 gives an example of a temporal restriction. A temporal restriction could also be the imposition of a set time window in during the day when users in proximity to agents can receive an offer. Field 219 represents another geographical restriction that a principal may impose upon users and agents. In this example, users will be able to receive alerts and notifications about proximity only within a predefined geographical geofenced area. Another example could be the setting up of exclusion areas. For example, principals may set up exclusions areas. Users may not be able to receive alerts if within a specified area; (or agents may not be able to be matched with users if within the area.) Field 220 represents an example of additional restrictions that a principal may impose. For example, an offer may not be valid unless at least fifteen users have accepted, at least preliminarily, said offer. In addition, a principal may set up a maximum number of offers that can be accepted by users. Once a maximum number of offers have been accepted, notifications of additional offers to users may be barred. This function may be particularly useful when principal uses more than one agent and the inventory of goods or the availability of services that can be offered is limited.
Column 216 provides the location of the various principals. In certain business models, it can be advantageous that the good or the service is delivered at the principal's location to a user when said user preliminarily accepts the offer tendered by an agent by means of an application running on his User Equipment 165. In certain implementations, the application may point to the closest dealer carrying the item, in this case a watch, as described by Field 221. In this implementation, the principal could be the owner of the particular brand of watches and to him it may not matter which of his dealers will be closing the sale. In another implementation, an algorithm that may be running in Server 100 may point the same user to a specific dealer using the dealer's location or the level of items on inventory as parameters. In other implementations, the application may point to a specific dealer or shop as described in Field 222. In this case, the principal could be that specific dealer or a particular shop that would honor the offer, not the brand owner. In one implementation, the application running on User Equipment 165 may provide directions to the principal's place of business. In other implementations, an algorithm running on server 100 may choose a particular dealer according to certain parameters such as the distance between user's home and the closest dealer and provide directions to said dealer to User Equipment 165.
Fields 350, 360, 370 and 380, all contained in Column 310, represent essentially data and information that are pertinent to categories of good and products of interest to user of User Equipment. Column 320 may contain more specific details within the broad category of services and goods that may interest a specific user. In one possible implementation, the user can populate these fields via a drop-down list. A drop down list is a user interface control element (“widget” or “control”), similar to a list box, which allows a user to choose one value from a list. In this implementation, the various principals may control the values in these drop-down lists and these values will structure their agents' offerings and user's possible elections.
Column 330 may consist of a data field pertaining to the user such as gender, income, social categories that the user himself may fill up or chose from a drop down lists. In particular, Data Field 354 may contain a wireless digital identifier (ID user) unique to User Equipment 165 or unique to user of User Equipment 165; in this case, user may have to log in into the application with his login data and password as previously noted. Other data fields, such as Field 372, may collect and store information pertaining to patterns of the user in time and space without the user's intervention so that, for example, it may be possible to predict where certain users could be at certain times. Agent, principals and the business entity running this service may use this information to build maps indicating clouds of spatial and time probability for various typologies of users. These clouds may represent probabilities of where certain users could be located at various times of a day on certain days of the week.
Data Field 381 may contain data records of the matches that have occurred in time and space and records of whether the user has chosen to pursue a proposed meeting with an agent. In one possible implementation, users may also rate agents after the meeting has occurred and those data may be available to principal. Data Field 381 may also contain exclusions, namely particular agents or particular offers that a user may decide not to pursue in the future.
Column 340 contains user preferences. For example, Data Field 353 may contain restrictions pertaining to time windows during the day in which a match should never occur. Data Field 352 may contain restriction pertaining to locations where a match should never occur. For example, it could be inconvenient to receive matches when at work or at home. Data Field 351 may contain restrictions pertaining to the offer. For example, unless the good is with the agent and the user will be able to see it during the meeting a match and a notification should not occur. Data Field 361 may contain restrictions pertaining to the level of discount a user may get if he decides to pursue the opportunity offered by the agent. Certain users may decide that they want to receive notifications only for goods or services at a deep discount. Data Field 371 may contain keywords for products of particular interest to the user. These keywords could be used to trigger matches for particular offers.
Data Field 382 may contain privacy and other various preference settings. For example, user may choose which data the algorithm should use to produce the matching or which personal data can be displayed to agent or others. In another implementation, Data Field 381 may also contain preferences such as public places and commercial establishments that the matching algorithm, in one possible implementation running on server 100, may use to suggest a convenient meeting place for agent and the user to interact. For example, user may prefer certain coffee shops as meeting places so the algorithm may indicate as a meeting place a particular coffee shop conveniently located between agent and user after a match has been obtained, communicated and accepted by both, agent and user. In one possible implementation, the algorithm may also guide user and agent to the meeting place.
User Equipment 165 is a general example of a terminal device that users can operate. It could be a traditional mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a laptop computer, an e-book reader, an entertainment console or controller, wearable hardware such as augmented reality headsets, a tablet computer or any other equivalent portable device that may be used to communicate with other devices or with a server. Principal equipment can instead be portable or fixed. User Equipment 165 can include at least one Processor 420 and at least a Memory 430 including computer program instructions. The at least one processor 420 can be embodied by any computational or data processing device, such as a central processing unit (CPU) or application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The at least one processor 420 can be implemented as one or a plurality of controllers.
Memory 430 may contain an application software running in User Equipment 165. The memory 430 may also contain at least a portion of Principal-Agent Data Structure 200 or User Profile 300 as discussed in
User Equipment 165 may include a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and/or a Near Field Communication (NFC) Module 440 with an antenna (not shown). The RFID/NFC Module 440 may operate using traditional RFID frequencies or NFC frequencies. In one implementation these RFID/NFC Modules 440 contained in User Equipment 165 and Agent Equipment 160 may send a wireless digital identifier, ID agent, and a wireless digital identifier, ID user, to the same RFID reader located in the same premises, a bar for example. An algorithm located on Server 100 may infer the proximity of the agent associated with ID agent and the user associated with ID user. An algorithm residing on Server 100, can associate these IDs to the data structures described in
User Equipment 165 may also include an I/O User Interface 450. I/O User Interface 450 may allow inputting information via a touch screen or a QWERTY keyboard. I/O User Interface 450 may also include a vibrating notification module, a speaker or a monitor (or any combination thereof). User Equipment 165 may also include one or more Transceiver 460 configured to operate in conjunction with one or more Antenna 470 to communicate wirelessly. In one embodiment, the Antenna Unit 470 may support beam forming and/or multiple input multiple output (MIMO) operations. As is known to those skilled in the art, MIMO operations may provide spatial diversity, which is to overcome difficult channel conditions and/or increase channel throughput. The Antenna 470 may include antenna tuning and/or impedance matching components, RF power amplifiers, and/or low noise amplifiers. User Equipment 165 can be optimized to support multiple transceivers using multiple wireless standards.
In one example embodiment, User Equipment 165 may support simultaneous transmission of cellular (for example, GSM/UMTS/LTE/WiMAX) and non-cellular (for example, WLAN 495 or Bluetooth®/ZigBee 490) radio carriers. A Transmission Module GSM/UMTS/LTE/WiMAX 475 could be the medium by which User Equipment 165 and Agent Equipment 160 communicate with Server 100.
In one possible implementation, a GPS Module 410 may provide the location of User Equipment 165 and the location of Agent Equipment 160 to Server 100 via Data Link 140 and Data Link 141. The algorithm residing on Server 100, may associate the IDs of both Agent Equipment 160 and User Equipment 165 to the data structures described in
As discussed, the locationing component of the invention can be advantageously implemented in many different ways. When in closed environments, such as a shopping mall, the location data can be provided by different techniques. For example, choke points or grids, namely location indexing and presence reporting for tagged objects, can be used to provide location data when indoor. Other examples of techniques used to provide location are angle of arrival, time of arrival, received signal strength indication and inertial measurements.
Referring to
For the purpose of the present invention, the threshold location associated with User Apparatus 165 and Agent Apparatus 160 is a factor that may change with the evolution of technology. Non limiting examples of “threshold” are: 1) being within a certain geofenced area as defined by current location techniques such as GPS or multilateration, 2) being within the radio range of a radio carrier such as Bluetooth, 3) subscribing to the same base station BS 135 or access point with a mobile apparatus and 4) the logging in with an RFID identity by using an RFID reader located in a certain location, for example a bar or a restaurant.
The person skilled in the art may recognize that in practice, a principal may only be interested in receiving indications that a user has accepted the offer that said principal has tendered by means of one of his agents; however, for an offer to be accepted a match should occur first, therefore indications of accepted offers are generally subsets of a broad-spectrum collection of matching occurrences. In addition, a principal may also receive indications that a match has occurred via a set of analytics describing his agents' performances. It may in fact be useful for a principal to know the match to transaction rate for his agents in order to evaluate their performances.
In the embodiment described in
In a possible implementation, there is a hierarchy between preferences and settings in the three profiles. By the very nature of a principal-agent relationship, the system may give some deference to choices and preferences of a principal. For example, a principal may be able to control the areas in which the matching algorithm should allow a match between agent and user to occur by restricting where Agent Equipment 160 can operate for the purposes of the invention described. A principal may enable or disable agents as described in
In some implementations, agents may have a set of preferences and setting that they can choose. For example, an agent may bar matches around his home or workplace. He may also request the system to indicate where the closest matching user is located so that he can move close enough to allow the system to send an alert to said user when he is in proximity. Agents may also enable or disable their IDs as described in
In addition, the person skilled in the art will recognize that the three embodiments presented merely as examples and described in
Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in software, hardware, application logic or a combination of software, hardware and application logic. The software, application logic and/or hardware may reside on a user equipment, laptop, tablet, vehicle, access point, base station or radio node. If desired, part of the software, application logic and/or hardware may reside on a user equipment, laptop, tablet, or vehicle, part of the software, application logic and/or hardware may reside on an access point, base station or network node, and part of the software, application logic and/or hardware may reside on server or network node. In an example embodiment, the application logic, software or an instruction set is maintained on any one of various conventional computer-readable media. In the context of this document, a “computer-readable medium” may be any media or means that can contain, store, communicate, propagate or transport the instructions for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer, with one example of a computer described and depicted in
If desired, the different functions discussed herein may be performed in a different order and/or concurrently with each other. Furthermore, if desired, one or more of the above-described functions may be optional or may be combined.
Although various aspects of the invention are set out in the independent claims, other aspects of the invention comprise other combinations of features from the described embodiments and/or the dependent claims with the features of the independent claims, and not solely the combinations explicitly set out in the claims.
It is also noted herein that while the above describes example embodiments of the invention, these descriptions should not be viewed as limiting. Rather, there are several variations and modifications that can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.
