The present invention relates generally to the field of mobile computing devices, and more specifically, to systems and methods for providing advertisement data to a mobile computing device.
Mobile devices may be used to provide location-based advertisements to users of mobile devices. As a user travels, advertisements may be displayed on a mobile device the user is carrying based upon the geographic location of the mobile device. For example, if a user walks past a restaurant, an advertisement (e.g., coupon, discount, general advertisement, etc.) may be displayed on the user's mobile device.
However, with the increasing usage of mobile devices and location-based advertisements, users may receive numerous advertisements, where many may be totally irrelevant to the user, and where it may be difficult to identify relevant or useful advertisements because of the high number of advertisements being received.
Disclosed is a system and method for providing location-based advertisements using a mobile computing device. In some embodiments, the advertisement data is based upon both the location of the mobile computing device and user-specific data stored on or retrievable by the mobile computing device.
Referring to
As shown in
According to an exemplary embodiment, housing 12 is configured to hold a screen such as display 18 in a fixed relationship above a user input device such as user input device 20 in a substantially parallel or same plane. This fixed relationship excludes a hinged or movable relationship between the screen and the user input device (e.g., a plurality of keys) in the fixed embodiment. Device 10 may be a handheld computer, which is a computer small enough to be carried in a hand of a user, comprising such devices as typical mobile telephones and personal digital assistants, but excluding typical laptop computers and tablet PCs.
In various embodiments, housing 12 could be any size, shape, and dimension. In some embodiments, housing 12 has a width 13 of no more than about 200 mm or, alternatively, no more than about 100 mm. According to some of these embodiments, housing 12 has a width 13 of no more than about 85 mm or, alternatively, no more than about 65 mm. According to some embodiments, housing 12 has a width 13 of at least about 30 mm or, alternatively, at least about 50 mm. According to some of these embodiments, housing 12 has a width 13 of at least about 55 mm.
In some embodiments, housing 12 has a length 15 of no more than about 200 mm or, alternatively, no more than about 150 mm. According to some of these embodiments, housing 12 has a length 15 of no more than about 135 mm or, alternatively, no more than about 125 mm. According to some embodiments, housing 12 has a length 15 of at least about 70 mm or, alternatively, at least about 100 mm. According to some of these embodiments, housing 12 has a length 15 of at least about 100 mm.
In some embodiments, housing 12 has a thickness 17 of no more than about 150 mm or, alternatively, no more than about 50 mm. According to some of these embodiments, housing 12 has a thickness 17 of no more than about 30 mm or, alternatively, no more than about 25 mm. According to some embodiments, housing 12 has a thickness 17 of at least about 10 mm or, alternatively, at least about 15 mm. According to some of these embodiments, housing 12 has a thickness 17 of at least about 50 mm.
In some embodiments, housing 12 has a volume of up to about 2500 cubic centimeters or, alternatively, up to about 1500 cubic centimeters. In some alternative embodiments, housing 12 has a volume of up to about 1000 cubic centimeters or, alternatively, up to about 600 cubic centimeters.
Referring now to
Device 10 comprises a receiver 38 which comprises analog and/or digital electrical components configured to receive and transmit wireless signals via antenna 22 to provide cellular telephone and/or data communications with a fixed wireless access point, such as a cellular telephone tower, in conjunction with a network carrier, such as, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, etc. Device 10 can further comprise circuitry to provide communication over a local area network, such as Ethernet or according to an IEEE 802.11x standard or a personal area network, such as a Bluetooth or infrared communication technology.
Device 10 further comprises a microphone 36 (see
Device 10 further comprises a location determining application, shown in
Device 10 may be arranged to operate in one or more location determination modes including, for example, a standalone mode, a mobile station (MS) assisted mode, and/or an MS-based mode. In a standalone mode, such as a standalone GPS mode, device 10 may be arranged to autonomously determine its location without real-time network interaction or support. When operating in an MS-assisted mode or an MS-based mode, however, device 10 may be arranged to communicate over a radio access network (e.g., UMTS radio access network) with a location determination entity such as a location proxy server (LPS) and/or a mobile positioning center (MPC).
Device 10 further comprises a memory 42 coupled to or as part of processor 40. Memory 42 may store a variety of information, data, applications, files, etc. that may be used or accessed using device 10. According to an exemplary embodiment as shown in
According to an exemplary embodiment, calendar data 50 may include various data related to an electronic calendar application capable of being run on device 10. For example, calendar data 50 may include data regarding various appointments such as location data (e.g., an individual's residence, a commercial establishment, an address or other geographic indicator such as a city, state, etc., a conference room number, and so on), time/date data (e.g., a date and/or time for a specific appointment, data regarding a recurring appointment, etc.), attendee data, and other data related to an appoint or meeting. According to an exemplary embodiment, calendar data 50 may include, for example, a name of an individual or commercial establishment that may be used to determine an associated geographic location (e.g., by looking up the name in a contacts application). According to various other exemplary embodiments, calendar data 50 may include a variety of other types of data, information, and so on.
According to an exemplary embodiment, contacts data 52 may include information regarding specific contacts, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, fax numbers, and contact-specific notes (e.g., notes about the specific contact such as a birthday, anniversary, etc.). Processor 40 may utilize contacts data 52 to look-up various types of data (e.g., to determine an address when only a name is known, etc.). According to various other exemplary embodiments, contacts data 52 may include a variety of other types of data, information, and so on.
According to an exemplary embodiment, messaging data 54 may include information related to a variety of messaging applications including email, text messaging, short message service (SMS), and so on. For example, messaging data may include the content of an email, a text message, etc., email addresses, text messaging addresses, etc., and so on. According to various other exemplary embodiments, messaging data 54 may include a variety of other types of data, information, and so on.
According to an exemplary embodiment, personal preference or personal profile data 56 may include data that is specific to a user. Personal preference data 56 may be data that a user may customize by providing input to device 10. For example, device 10 may permit a user to set up a profile (e.g., by filling out an electronic form, answering a set of predetermined questions, providing key words, etc.) for himself or herself that identifies certain likes, dislikes, etc., such as favorite foods, favorite destinations, favorite sports, and so on (including least favorite preferences). As discussed in more detail below, this data may be accessed by processor 40 to filter advertisement data that is being directed to a user from various advertisement services, such that the relevancy of the advertisement data provided to the user, and therefore the usefulness of the advertisement data to the user, is improved. According to various alternative exemplary embodiments, personal preference data 56 may include a variety of other types of data, information, and so on, in addition to that disclosed herein. Furthermore, processor 40 may permit a user to update, customize, reconfigure, etc. personal preference data 56.
According to an exemplary embodiment, personal preference data 56 may further include parameters that define the number, type, frequency, etc. of the advertisement data that is delivered to device 10. For example, a user may indicate that they do not wish to receive any advertisement data (e.g., for a certain period of time), or the user may wish to limit the amount of advertisement data received (e.g., 2 ads per hour, 5 ads per day, etc.) or the type of advertisement data received (e.g., a user may indicate that they do not wish to receive pop-up ads or other type of ads). In a further exemplary embodiment, processor 40 may store any undelivered advertisement data that may later be accessed by a user (e.g., processor 40 may store all pop-up ads in a designated file or application that a user may access at their convenience). Other personal preference data 56 may be provided according to various other exemplary embodiments in order to further define and/or restrict the delivery of advertisement data to device 10.
According to various other exemplary embodiments, device 10 may utilize other data 58 as user-specific data 48 in accordance with the various embodiments disclosed herein. It should be understood that the various types of user-specific data 48 described herein are provided for purposes of illustration, and not limitation, and user-specific data 48 may include other data 58 not specifically addressed herein depending on the specific embodiment (e.g., data related to web-sites the user has visited using device 10, bookmarks or favorites for web-sites, data downloaded from a user's social networking account on a web-site (e.g., a MySpace or Facebook account), data related to audio and/or video clips (e.g., songs, videos, etc.), to-do lists, memo applications, gaming applications, etc.). The present disclosure is intended to be applicable to all such embodiments.
Referring to
According to various exemplary embodiments, the advertisement data may include a variety of information and be provided in a variety of ways. For example, advertisement data may be provided to a user of device 10 in the form of a visual image provided on display 18. For example, an icon (see, e.g.,
Referring to
For example, referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Processor 40 then identifies the location data (e.g., an address, a city, etc.) associated with the appointment (step 82). According to an exemplary embodiment, processor 40 may determine the location data for the appointment by parsing the text of a calendar entry (e.g., “Meeting at Joe's Restaurant”) and referencing contacts data 52 to determine whether there is an address associated with “Joe's Restaurant” in contacts data 52. Alternatively, an address may be provided directly in the appointment data, which processor 40 may then use as the location data for the appointment. Further, a user may be prompted for or manually input the location data for an appointment if processor 40 cannot otherwise determine the location data for the appointment.
Processor 40 then determines the location of device 10 (step 84) using, for example, GPS application 44 or another suitable location-determining application. Alternatively, a user may be prompted for or otherwise manually input an alternative location (e.g., in the case of when the user knows he or she will be at another location in the near future, etc.).
Based upon the location data from the appointment and the location of device 10 (or other alternative location provided by the user), processor 40 may then provide advertisement data (step 86), for example, along the driving route between the location of the appointment and the current location of device 10 within a predetermined distance of the location of the appointment and/or the current location of device 10, and so on.
For example, referring to
According to an alternative exemplary embodiment, processor 40 may further take into account user-specific data 48 in conjunction with locations 100, 102 in providing the advertisement data to device 10. For example, processor 40 may filter the types of restaurants on driving route 104 for which advertisement data is provided to device 10. This provides an additional filtering mechanism and increases the relevancy of the advertisement data delivered to the user of device 10. According to various other exemplary embodiments, a wide variety of other user-specific data 48 may be taken into account in providing advertisement data to device 10 in accordance with the embodiments shown in
While the detailed drawings, specific examples and particular formulations given describe exemplary embodiments, they serve the purpose of illustration only. The hardware and software configurations shown and described may differ depending on the chosen performance characteristics and physical characteristics of the computing devices. The systems shown and described are not limited to the precise details and conditions disclosed. Furthermore, other substitutions, modifications, changes, and omissions may be made in the design, operating conditions, and arrangement of the exemplary embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.
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