Patent Application
20160021233
This application relates to accessing a quick code to invoke a scheduling application, and more particularly to viewing a scheduled event by a mobile device based on the quick code interaction.
Conventionally, identifying availability for certain events requires a user to walk to the event location and determine whether availability is currently present. Also, a user may identify a website or other information resource and determine whether there is any availability, space, time slots, etc.
The conventional approach to identifying availability and access for a particular event or location requires several efforts by the user to obtain access to the information source, check the availability, and then perform a subsequent selection and also a confirmation or assurance selection to confirm the schedule has been updated to accommodate the user's request. Multiple steps or operations required to schedule an event require time and other resources.
One embodiment of the present application may include a method that provides receiving a quick code identifier in a request from a mobile device, accessing an application corresponding to the quick code, transmitting application information to the mobile device, receiving a schedule selection from the user device, and updating the application to include the schedule selection.
Another embodiment of the present application may include an apparatus that provides a receiver configured to receive a quick code identifier in a request from a mobile device, a processor configured to access an application corresponding to the quick code, and a transmitter configured to transmit application information to the mobile device, and wherein the receiver is configured to receive a schedule selection from the user device, and the processor is configured to update the application to include the schedule selection.
It will be readily understood that the components of the present application, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following detailed description of the embodiments of a method, apparatus, and system, as represented in the attached figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the application as claimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the application.
The features, structures, or characteristics of the application described throughout this specification may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. For example, the usage of the phrases “example embodiments”, “some embodiments”, or other similar language, throughout this specification refers to the fact that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Thus, appearances of the phrases “example embodiments”, “in some embodiments”, “in other embodiments”, or other similar language, throughout this specification do not necessarily all refer to the same group of embodiments, and the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.
In addition, while the term “message” has been used in the description of embodiments of the present application, the application may be applied to many types of network data, such as, packet, frame, datagram, etc. For purposes of this application, the term “message” also includes packet, frame, datagram, and any equivalents thereof. Furthermore, while certain types of messages and signaling are depicted in exemplary embodiments of the application, the application is not limited to a certain type of message, and the application is not limited to a certain type of signaling.
According to one example, the user 102 may initiate a mobile device 110 access operation by accessing the QR code 120 which is likely mounted against the wall or is displayed on an electronic display monitor, which can be dynamically updated to accommodate changes to the code or the monitor itself. The user may engage the QR code 120 via a camera scan of the code 120 via the mobile device 110, which initiates a particular web link or mobile device application 125 on the mobile device 110. Once the QR code data is received by the mobile device 110, the mobile device may automatically invoke an application for a calendar or other scheduling application that enables the user to be identified and select an access option to the venue. For this example, a user may be attempting to setup a time to access a conference room that is identified by the QR code. The QR code may identify the conference room among other conference rooms by name, the QR code may also trigger a communication session establishment message from the mobile device to a server which retrieves schedule information from a database or schedule server 130 and shares that schedule or calendar information 132 with an application on the mobile device 110. The information may include available time slots, blocked time slots or other information related to the access of that particular conference room.
The QR code being accessed could trigger a digital data extraction that matches the QR identifier to a particular location stored in a database (i.e., conference room ‘A’). The information may also provide an application trigger and user preferences which are stored separately from the application. For example, the application may invoke a calendar schedule for that particular conference room. User preferences may be invoked to automatically populate the calendar with a calendar selection awaiting approval. For example, if the user history information or user preferences are based on earliest times, then the calendar application may access the preferences/history and identify an earliest time available for that conference room associated with the QR code.
The device may be using an ISO/IEC 18004:2006 standard for QR code identification and protocol establishment. Accessing the code may launch a web-based control application that may be used to control wireless enabled and/or web enabled devices in the conference room, such as lights, video projectors, drop-down screens, automatic window blinds, motor controlled demonstration platforms, etc. The conference room schedule uniform resource locator (URL) is generally static but may be updated periodically based on the server trolling cycle (e.g., 15 minutes, 20 minutes, etc.). The scheduling information will be current within that defined trolling period. As a result, the URL will not need to be changed and the QR code will function as required. The user access and rights to use the application may provide components necessary to manage the user access attempts and provide the user access rights on a room-to-room basis. The schedule server 130 may provide anonymous access to the mobile scheduling web application. Anonymous access in the system is implemented using the ‘GUEST’ account and ‘GUEST’ permissions. The server administrator can enable the GUEST account to effectively permit anonymous access to the web application(s) so access may be provided. The calendar application 132 is pre-stored in the schedule server 130.
The user authentication may be performed by a persisted authentication token/cookie. In operation, the application can authenticate returning users based on a previous login session. The “Sign On” prompt/page may include an optional “Remember Me” option that, if checked, the web application will persist a session authentication token as an encrypted browser cookie. Upon subsequent access to the mobile scheduling web application, the user authentication token can be provided to the server 152 to validate the user's identity and grant the user access without requiring the user to resubmit their credentials. This user authentication token/cookie will expire after a predetermined time frame (e.g., 5 day, 10 days, 30 days, etc.) of non-use or renew its expiration date if the user accesses the mobile scheduling web application within the expiration window. Examples of the scheduling application information may include start/end time, organizer name, subject, attendees, and message. According to other examples, separate schedules for separate entities could also be presented, such as “are you an office space renter/temporary associate”, “a motivational speaker”, “a fitness instructor”, etc.
The quick code may provide a location identifier and a type of application to be accessed. The quick code identifier provides the location identifier of a particular conference room and the application includes a scheduling calendar application. The system may also provide identifying a present schedule based on the location identifier of the particular conference room, retrieving user preferences for scheduling an event, applying the user preferences to a scheduling function that considers multiple variables, including the user preferences, availability of the room, user priority (e.g., low, medium, high), user status (e.g., active, in-active, contractor, employee, senior employee, etc.). The application may then automatically select a time slot for the user device or user based on the user preferences being applied to the scheduling function. As a result, the user profile may be applied to the scheduling function. The user can be authenticated and the user profile priority may be applied to the scheduling function to automatically select the time slot for the user. The application may receive confirmation from the user device of the selected time slot, and update the calendar application to include the selected time slot.
The operations of a method or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a computer program executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A computer program may be embodied on a computer readable medium, such as a storage medium. For example, a computer program may reside in random access memory (“RAM”), flash memory, read-only memory (“ROM”), erasable programmable read-only memory (“EPROM”), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a compact disk read-only memory (“CD-ROM”), or any other form of storage medium known in the art.
An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor may read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an application specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”). In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components. For example
As illustrated in
Although an exemplary embodiment of the system, method, and computer readable medium of the present invention has been illustrated in the accompanied drawings and described in the foregoing detailed description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims. For example, the capabilities of the system of
One skilled in the art will appreciate that a “system” could be embodied as a personal computer, a server, a console, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cell phone, a tablet computing device, a smartphone or any other suitable computing device, or combination of devices. Presenting the above-described functions as being performed by a “system” is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way, but is intended to provide one example of many embodiments of the present invention. Indeed, methods, systems and apparatuses disclosed herein may be implemented in localized and distributed forms consistent with computing technology.
It should be noted that some of the system features described in this specification have been presented as modules, in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a module may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom very large scale integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices, graphics processing units, or the like.
A module may also be at least partially implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. An identified unit of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions that may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified module need not be physically located together, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module and achieve the stated purpose for the module. Further, modules may be stored on a computer-readable medium, which may be, for instance, a hard disk drive, flash device, random access memory (RAM), tape, or any other such medium used to store data.
Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustrated herein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices, and may exist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system or network.
It will be readily understood that the components of the invention, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the detailed description of the embodiments is not intended to limit the scope of the invention as claimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the invention.
One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that the invention as discussed above may be practiced with steps in a different order, and/or with hardware elements in configurations that are different than those which are disclosed. Therefore, although the invention has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, it would be apparent to those of skill in the art that certain modifications, variations, and alternative constructions would be apparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention. In order to determine the metes and bounds of the invention, therefore, reference should be made to the appended claims.
While preferred embodiments of the present application have been described, it is to be understood that the embodiments described are illustrative only and the scope of the application is to be defined solely by the appended claims when considered with a full range of equivalents and modifications (e.g., protocols, hardware devices, software platforms etc.) thereto.
