Patent Application
20150149562
The present invention relates generally to communication systems and specifically to a system and method that enables communication using item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information associated with individuals, organizations, and/or other entities. The system provides alerts, notifications, and messaging communication of information to PDA's, cellular phones, smartphones, tablets, tablet PC's, computers, servers, software systems, applications, databases, mobile devices, and any other devices, by utilizing item and/or product Identification number and/or identification code information.
There is a need for a method and/or system to alert, notify, and/or message individuals, organizations, companies and/or other entities, with information, for example, information pertaining to lost items such as electronics products, computers, phones, wallets, carrying cases, keys, medication containers, medical devices, and/or any other item and/or product that are lost or missing that require contacting the item owners, individuals, organizations, companies and other entities (such as item owners, insurance companies, warranty providers, corporate logistics departments, manufacturers, and any other individual, company or entity) based on item and/or product Identification number and/or identification code information. There is a need for a communication method and system that receives item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information (product serial number, item number, universal product code, barcode, custom code, system generated code, quick response code, electronic product code, unique product identifiers, and/or any other identifying item and/or product code) along with alert, notification, and message communication information, location, contact information, and/or images, which are then sent via any single or multiple methods of communication to the individuals or entities in real-time and/or scheduled event alerts, notifications, and messaging communication.
There are also financial impacts pertaining to lost and/or missing items and/or products that require contacting item owners, other individuals, companies and/or entities that are associated with the item identification code.
There are also safety concerns pertaining to lost items that may have a health related impact that requires contacting the item owners, other individuals, companies and/or entities that are associated with the item identification code.
There are also security and privacy concerns pertaining to putting personal information such as individual names, company names, physical addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers on items that may have a security and/or privacy impact on individuals, companies, organization, and/or any other entity that requires or prefers anonymity.
Therefore multiple reasons, purposes, and needs exist for enabling communication methods for alerts, notifications and messages to individuals, entities, and/or systems based on item identification codes.
The present invention satisfies the above described needs, and provides a method, system, a computer program product, and mobile device application product that uses item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information (product serial number, item number, universal product code, barcode, custom code, system generated code, quick response code, electronic product code, unique product identifiers, and/or any other identifying item and/or product code) and user location information (IP address, Mobile GPS, etc.) to send real-time alerts, notifications, or messages to individual users, organizations, external systems, and/or any other entity and/or third party systems. The system receives item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information, user location, contact information, optional images, and alert, notification, and/or messaging information, which are captured by the system, and are then sent via alerts, notifications, and messages to computers, phones, smartphones, tablets, tablet PCs, PDAs, or other mobile devices, external systems, servers, and/or any device via Electronic mail (Email), Mobile Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Mobile Application Notifications, System Notifications, Application Programming Interface (API), and/or any third party systems.
The present system recognizes user location to add validation and details pertaining to the location and time of when the event was triggered and entered into the system.
In one aspect of the invention, users, in the vicinity or in the possession of a lost item and/or product where the owner, organization, or any other individual or entity that is associated with the item is needed or is required to be contacted, can access the system via computer, phone, smartphone, tablet, computer, PDA, or any other device and enter the item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information, and message detail and submit the alert, notification and/or message within the system to engage the contact(s) associated with the item Identification number and/or identification code information.
In another aspect of the invention, lost item and/or product owners, other individuals, companies, organization, or any other entity that is associated with the item identification code in the system database, will receive the alert, notification, and/or message in real-time or as a scheduled task, to their mobile devices, smartphones, tablets, PCs, PDAs, servers, applications, and/or any other device via Email, SMS, MMS, Mobile App, API, and/or any third party system.
When a user sends an event notification via the system, personal information such as contact information is optional and may or may not be included as part of the alert, notification, and/or message in the system.
In another aspect of the invention, when a user sends a notification to the system, an image file such as a photo file may be uploaded into the system and included as part of the alert, notification, and/or message to the individuals or entities associated with the item identification code.
In another aspect of the invention, item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information (product serial number, item number, universal product code, barcode, custom code, system generated code, quick response code, electronic product code, unique product identifiers, and/or any other identifying item and/or product code) can be entered manually into the system or can be entered by utilizing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software in combination with a device camera (PC camera, mobile device camera, or any other device with camera functionality) and/or image file/photo file (example. Jpeg, bmp. tif, etc.). The OCR software provides the ability to automatically capture and import the item identification code image. The system will automatically convert the image into text and input that text into the item identification code input fields within the system.
In another aspect of the invention, item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information (product serial number, item number, universal product code, barcode, custom code, system generated code, quick response code, electronic product code, unique product identifiers, and/or any other identifying item and/or product code) can be captured by the system via barcode scanning and/or quick response code (QR Code) reading and/or scanning.
In another aspect of the invention, item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information (product serial number, item number, universal product code, barcode, custom code, system generated code, quick response code, electronic product code, unique product identifiers, and/or any other identifying item and/or product code) may be added and/or attached to the product via inscription, sticker, magnet, tag, stitching, sewing, printing, and/or any other method of including and/or adding item identification codes to any item and/or product.
The various features of the present invention and the manner of attaining them will be described in greater detail with reference to the following description, claims, and drawings, wherein reference numerals are reused, where appropriate, to indicate a correspondence between the referenced items, and wherein:
The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar elements. While embodiments of the invention may be described, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For example, substitutions, additions, or modifications may be made to the elements illustrated in the drawings, and the methods described herein may be modified by substituting, reordering, or adding stages to the disclosed methods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limit the invention. Instead, the proper scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims.
Disclosed methods provide for a communication method and system using item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information and message information to alert, notify, and/or message item and/or product owners, other individuals, companies, organization, and/or any other entities. The system and method of the present invention receives item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information, message details, location information, contact information, and/or image files and uses the item and/or product identification number and/or identification code information (product serial number, item number, universal product code, barcode, custom code, system generated code, quick response code, electronic product code, unique product identifiers, and/or any other identifying item and/or product code) to identify the individual, company, organization, and other entity associated with the item and/or product, and the system then sends the notification in real-time to the receiving individual and/or entity via Email, SMS, MMS, Mobile App Notifications, System Notifications, API, and/or any third party systems.
Environment 100 may be used with multiple third party systems 180 to integrate the present system server 102 and send communication alerts, notifications, and/or messages and send and receive system information via system connection such as an application programming interface (“API”) for example.
The database 104 may include a third party record for each user 150, 152, 154, any individual, organization, and/or entity, each receiving computer and system 140, 142, 144, 146, 148, any third party system 180, any item identification numbers 110, 112, 114, any sending user, 120, 122, 124, and any sending computing device 130, 132, 134. The database 104 may further include any association between any of these entities.
Server 102 includes program logic comprising computer source code, scripting language code or interpreted language code that is compiled to produce executable file or computer instructions that perform various functions of the present invention. In another embodiment, the program logic of server 102 may be distributed among more than one of server 102, computers 130, 132, 134 and computing devices 140, 142, 144, 146, 148, and third party system 180, or any combination of the above.
Note that although server 102 is shown as a single and independent entity, in one embodiment of the present invention, the functions of server 102 may be integrated with another entity, such as one of the one or more of computing devices 130, 132, 134, 140, 142, 144, 146, 148, and 180. Further, server 102 and its functionality, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, can be realized in a centralized fashion in one computer system or in a distributed fashion wherein different elements are spread across several interconnected computer systems.
The process effectuated by the environment 100 of the present invention is as follows. The server 102 receives data from a sending computing device such as 130, 132, 134 pertaining to users such as 150, 152, 154 and/or computing devices such as 140, 142, 144, 146, 148, or any third party system such as 180. In
Subsequently, the server 102 executes the alerting, notifications, and messaging functions upon receiving item identification code information, message information, location information, contact information, and/or image files.
A high-level hierarchy of one embodiment of the lost item alert, notification, and message communication system is illustrated in
To initiate the alert, notification, and message communication process, the sending users initially access the system application, website, and/or mobile application as depicted in
The embodiments of the present invention, for example, are described above with reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations of methods, systems, and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. The functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order as shown in any flowchart. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.
While certain embodiments of the invention have been described, other embodiments may exist. Furthermore, although embodiments of the present invention have been described as being associated with data stored in memory and other storage mediums, data can also be stored on or read from other types of computer-readable media, such as secondary storage devices, like hard disks, floppy disks, or a CD-ROM, or other forms of RAM or ROM. Further, the disclosed methods' stages may be modified in any manner, including by reordering stages and/or inserting or deleting stages, without departing from the invention.
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
The invention is not limited to the specific details and representative embodiments shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined and differentiated by the following claims.
