Patent Grant
9565520
This invention relates to a system and method for providing targeted notifications and in particular to providing targeted notifications to users of wireless communications devices.
Wireless communications devices have become a preferred communications device for many users. A wireless communications device allows a user to be in communication with relevant information sources regardless of the recipient's location. Methods and systems exist for allowing a recipient to subscribe to a notification service to receive desired information such as sporting scores, stock market reports and the like. These notifications are broadcast to all subscribed recipients without the notification being targeted specifically to the recipient.
The present invention provides enhancements to existing notification services by supporting notifications targeted to specific recipients, in particular by targeting notifications to recipients within an area.
In one embodiment of the disclosure, a method for targeting messages delivered by wireless communication comprises determining at least one target space within at least one wireless communications network; determining a notification list comprising at least one recipient in the target space; determining at least one notification message; and transmitting at least one generated notification message through the at least one wireless communications network to at least one recipient on the notification list.
In one embodiment of the disclosure, a wireless communications system comprises at least one wireless communications network; at least one mobile station registered on the wireless communications network; at least one processor; and at least one memory; wherein the memory stores at least one target space; wherein the processor is adapted to determine at least one mobile station serviced by the wireless communications network within the target space; and wherein the processor is adapted to cause transmission of at least one notification message to the at least one mobile station within the at least one target space through the at least one wireless communications network.
In one embodiment of the disclosure, a computer readable medium comprises instructions executable on at least one processor for receiving a definition of a target space; determining a list of mobile stations within the defined target space; and causing at least one wireless communications network to provide at least one notification message to at least one of said mobile stations in said list of mobile stations.
The invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to specific embodiments and to the accompanying drawings in which:
With reference to
In the illustration of
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a computer system 30 having at least one processor 31 and at least one memory 32 storing an instruction set that is executable on the processor 31. The computer system is in communication with the wireless networks 28, 29 through any suitable communications interface. The computer system 30 includes an interface 33 for controlling the processor as will be described below.
A method for providing targeted notification in accordance with an embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to
At step 101, a target space 40 is determined within the network space 10. The target space may be determined by retrieving a pre-defined target space from the memory 32, or may be defined, for example, by a user inputting a target space such as a geographic region through the interface 33. At step 102, the processor determines a notification list being a list of intended recipients within the target space 40, ie mobile stations 21, 22, 23. At step 103, the processor determines a notification message to be sent to the recipient list. The notification message may be determined by retrieving a message from a message database, such as from memory 32 or from an external database as will be described in greater detail below. Alternatively, a user may enter a notification message through interface 33.
The processor 31 then pushes the notification message to each of the recipients in the notification list, ie mobile stations 21, 22, 23 (step 104) through the networks 28, 29, using known techniques.
A process for determining the notification list will now be described with reference to
A target space 40 has been defined at step 201, for example in a manner described above. At step 202, the processor 31 determines the stations 11, 12, 13 serving the target space 40. The serving stations may be determined using a map, stored in memory 32, that associates a list of serving stations with their respective coverage area. Alternatively, the target space may be defined as a list of serving stations such that the steps of defining the target space 40 and determining the serving stations 11, 12, 13 occur concurrently.
With the serving stations 11, 12, 13 known, the processor 31 then determines each of the networks 28, 29 associated with the serving stations (step 203). The processor then sequentially queries the networks 28, 29 to determine the mobile stations currently active in the target space. Selecting a first network 28, the processor 31 commences the query by providing a list of the relevant serving stations 11, 12 to the network 28 (step 204). The network runs its own internal query to the HLR 25 to determine the mobile stations that are currently being served by the serving stations 11, 12. For serving stations 11, 12, the current mobile stations are mobile stations 21, 22. The list of mobile stations is then received as a query response from the network 28 by the processor 31 (step 205). The processor 31 then repeats the query process for the network 29 in respect of serving station 13, and for each network providing serving stations to the target space 40.
No query is provided to a network in respect of mobile serving stations 24, as the initial processing determines that the mobile serving stations 24 do not service the target space 40.
Once all networks have been queried, the processor concatenates the list of mobile stations (step 206). The processor then generates a notification that is to be sent to the target space (step 207), for example in the manner described above. The notification may be generated as a preset notification stored in memory 32 or may be input by a user through the interface 33. Alternatively, the notification message may be generated by retrieving the notification message from a third party database as will be described in greater detail below.
The processor 31 then pushes the notification message to each of the recipients in the concatenated list, ie mobile stations 21, 22, 23 (step 208) using known techniques. Instead of providing a notification message to all mobile stations within the target space, the processor may further process the list of mobile stations to select only eligible recipients, such as those that have opted in to a notification service. A registration of recipients who have opted for a notification service may be stored in memory 32 and accessed to determine the eligible recipients.
As described above, the computer system 30 provides an interface 33, for example through an internet interface, allowing authorized users to provide notification data into a notification record. An example of an interface 33 is shown as a graphic user interface in
In one alternative, instead of providing a specific notification message 35, a user may provide a link 38 to a third party database where notification messages are stored. Such a system allows a third party user to update and maintain the notification messages, without being required to access the computer system 30.
In one embodiment, the processor executes a scheduling routine that controls the scheduling of notification messages in accordance with schedule information entered through the interface. The scheduling routine allows a user to enter a notification into the system once, with updates to notification messages being provided by means of a link to a notification message database. Each time the notification executes, the processor retrieves the most up to date notification message through the specified link.
An example of a notification may be a geographic report, such as a traffic or weather report targeted to a specific area. In a traffic report example, illustrated in
As well as regular reports, the traffic management authority may also provide urgent notifications by providing the information to the computer system 30 and scheduling the urgent notification for immediate transmission.
The ability to provide urgent notifications makes the invention suitable for providing emergency notifications targeted to regions in which the emergency is current. Emergency notifications may include storm warnings, flood warnings, terrorism warnings etc. For example recipients in one region of a storm affected area may be notified of a first evacuation route while recipients in a second area may be notified of a second evacuation route. Urgent notifications may also have a commercial nature, for example notification of sales and similar events.
The above described embodiments provide examples of pushing notification messages to recipients. That is, the timing of the notification is controlled from the message provider viewpoint, for example under the control of a notification scheduler. In an alternative embodiment, notification messages may be pulled from the system by the recipient. When a recipient, eg recipient 21 in
The skilled addressee will readily understand that the invention relates to the methods and systems for providing targeted notifications, not the specific types of communications provided. Therefore, all manner of communications, including but not limited to voice, data, text message, VOIP, email, fax, multimedia etc and their equivalents are considered to be within the scope of the invention. Similarly, the present invention is considered to be independent of the type of mobile telecommunications device employed, with, for example, mobile telephones, pagers, personal digital assistants, WAP enabled devices etc being considered as equivalent and hereinafter referred to as mobile stations.
Although embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated in the accompanied drawings and described in the foregoing 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 of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims. For example, the capabilities of the invention can be performed fully and/or partially by one or more of the blocks, modules, processors or memories. Also, these capabilities may be performed in the current manner or in a distributed manner and on, or via, any device able to provide and/or receive information. Further, although depicted in a particular manner, various modules or blocks may be repositioned without departing from the scope of the current invention. Still further, although depicted in a particular manner, a greater or lesser number of modules and connections can be utilized with the present invention in order to accomplish the present invention, to provide additional known features to the present invention, and/or to make the present invention more efficient. Also, the information sent between various modules can be sent between the modules via at least one of a data network, the Internet, an Internet Protocol network, a wireless source, and a wired source and via plurality of protocols.
This application is a continuation from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/863,436, filed Sep. 28, 2007, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LOCATION-BASED TARGETED NOTIFICATIONS USING WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICES”, the entire contents of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20040259540 | Banerjee | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20050066044 | Chaskar | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 11863436 | Sep 2007 | US |
| Child | 14726972 | US |
