Patent Application
20110214318
The present invention relates generally to paper stock cards and, more particularly, to paper stock cards having memory for storing digital content and a wireless transceiver to transfer digital content from the paper stock card to the recipient user devices.
Paper stock cards, such as greeting cards and post cards, traditionally comprise printed images and text. Some greeting cards may also include an audio synthesizer to reproduce sounds, such as music or a recorded message. Such prior art greeting cards are thus limited in the type of content that the cards can deliver to the recipient Cards with electronic displays for displaying images are also known, but are prohibitively expensive to produce. Accordingly, there is a need for a greeting card that is both inexpensive to produce and capable of delivering any type of digital content to a recipient of the card.
The present invention provides a wireless greeting card or post card that is capable of delivering virtually any type of digital content to a recipient of the card. More specifically, a wireless device having memory is incorporated into a card substrate, e.g., a card substrate. The wireless device includes a low power transceiver for communicating with a recipient user device in close proximity to the wireless card. Digital content, such as ringtones or audio files, images, video, and other multimedia, short text messages, and applets, can be stored in memory on the wireless card. When activated, the wireless device on the wireless card may establish a communicating link with the recipient user device and transfer the digital content to the recipient user device. The digital content may include an application program for rendering the digital content by the recipient device. In some embodiments, digital content may be streamed to a nearby device and rendered to the user.
One exemplary embodiment of the wireless card comprises a card substrate; a memory disposed on said card substrate for storing digital content; a wireless transceiver disposed on said card substrate for communicating with a recipient user device; a switch for activating said wireless transceiver and control unit by a recipient of the wireless card; and a control unit operatively connected to the memory, wireless transceiver, and switch. The control unit is configured to establish communication with said recipient user device and to transfer said digital content stored in memory to said recipient user device responsive to activation of said switch by a recipient of said paper stock card.
The control circuit on the wireless card may be configured to detect the presence of the recipient user device and to automatically establish a communication link with the recipient user device.
In some embodiments, the recipient user device may comprise a cellular phone and the control unit may be configured to simulate a base station for communicating with said cellular phone.
In some embodiments, the digital content comprises an electronic card to be rendered by the recipient device. The digital content may further include an application program for rendering the digital content. The application program may be transferred along with the electronic card to the recipient user device.
Another exemplary embodiment of the invention comprises a method implemented by a wireless device disposed on a greeting card, post card, announcement, invitation, or other card for transferring digital content to a nearby user device. The method comprises establishing a communication link between the wireless device on the paper stock card and the recipient user device; and transferring digital content stored in memory on the paper stock card to the user device.
In some embodiments, the method further comprises detecting presence of a recipient user device in proximity to the paper stock card;
In some embodiments, the recipient user device comprises a cellular phone and the method further comprises simulating a base station to transfer content to the cellular phone.
In some embodiments, the digital content comprises an electronic card to be rendered by the recipient user device. The digital content may further comprise an application program for rendering the digital content. The method may include transferring the application program along with the electronic card to the recipient user device.
Referring now to the drawings,
A highly integrated and greatly simplified wireless communication device 20 can be constructed on a flex circuit 16 or simple circuit board at very low cost and integrated into a paper stock substrate or other substrate 12. The wireless communication device 20 could be very thin and operate at very low power, which would be sufficient to communicate with recipient devices in close proximity. The wireless communication device 20 may be designed for a single use to implement a few simple functions. The wireless communication device 20 could operate on a small watch-like battery with a capacity of 20-50 mAh, which is approximately 5-10% the capacity of a typical mobile phone battery. In one exemplary embodiment, a simplified GSM, GPRS, or WCDMA transceiver operating on a single channel at a single frequency could be used. The wireless communication device 20 could simulate a base station in a mobile communication network to communicate with the user device 50. In other embodiments, the wireless communication device may be capable of peer-to-peer communications with the recipient user device 50.
When a recipient user device 50 is detected, the wireless communication device 20 establishes a communication link with the detected device (block 106). In some embodiments, the user of the recipient user device may be required to accept an invitation to establish a communication link with the wireless communication device 20. In other applications, the recipient user device 50 may include an application program that “recognizes” wireless paper stock cards from a particular manufacturer and automatically establishes a communication link with the wireless paper stock card. A greeting card company may offer the application to users for use with greeting cards from that manufacturer.
Once the communication link is established, the wireless card 10 transfers digital content from memory 28 to the recipient user device 50. In some embodiments, the user may be required to indicate acceptance before the transfer is made. In other embodiments, the digital content may be transferred without further user input from the user. The digital content may, as noted above, comprise ring tones or other audio files, image files, a short text message, applets, or other multimedia content.
In some embodiments, the user application in the recipient user device 50 may render the multimedia content to the user. For example, the digital content may comprise an electronic greeting card that is played to the user after it is downloaded from the wireless paper stock card 10. The wireless card 10 may, in some embodiments, store the user application for rendering the digital content to the user, which is transferred along with the digital content to be rendered. In other embodiments, the media content may be added to the user's library of media content. For example, if the multimedia content comprises a ring tone, the new ring tone may be stored in a folder with other ring tones and added to a list of ring tones available to the user. If the media content is an image, the media content may be added to a folder of other images.
Another aspect of the invention comprises a greeting card application that can be stored in the memory of the recipient user device 50 that is specially adapted for communicating with wireless greeting cards from one or more manufacturers. The recipient wireless device 50 may comprise a cellular phone, personal digital assistant, laptop computer, or other device with wireless communication capability.
The present invention is suitable for use in virtually any kind of greeting card, including post cards, invitation, announcements, or other cards that are typically printed on paper stock.
The present invention may, of course, be carried out in other specific ways than those herein set forth without departing from the scope and essential characteristics of the invention. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended to be embraced therein.
