Patent ID: 6611196
Filing Date: 2003-08-26
Classification: G08B

Abstract:
A system for providing audio augmentation of a physical environment to users, the system comprising:an active badge associated with each user continuously emitting a digitally encoded infrared signal, each badge having a unique identification information; a plurality of sensors positioned at selected locations in the physical environment for receiving badge signals, each sensor including a FIFO queue for storing received badge signals and having unique identification information; at least one poller that selectively polls the plurality of sensors, wherein each sensor sequentially downloads the received badge signals from the FIFO queue to the poller and wherein the at least one poller collects positioning information that associates the selected location with the unique identification information of polled active badges with a time that the each sensor was read; a first server for processing and aggregating the positioning information; a second server for storing the positioning information and processing queries, wherein the positioning information is stored in table form and updated by the second server; a plurality of service routines provided to the second server, each of the plurality of service routines determining a peripheral auditory signal for said each user based on the query processing of the second server, the peripheral auditory signal being in signal range other than in a subliminal signal range and other than a signal within a full conscious area of a person's recognition; means for transmitting the peripheral auditory signal to the user; and, means for receiving the transmitted peripheral auditory signal.