Abstract:
Methods and apparatus for implementing multi-user casual interactions between users, a plurality of shared display devices, and/or a plurality of third-party devices. The methods include the ability for any user, without any registration prerequisite, to enter content on a handset and to cause certain content changes to be displayed on certain shared display devices, as well as related content information to be sent back to the requesting user&#39;s handset and optionally to other users&#39; handsets or to certain third-party devices. The methods also include the ability for an operator to use a graphical user interface to create and manage the rules that control such behavior depending, among other parameters, on the user&#39;s submissions or on other users&#39; submissions over a period of time. The methods enable the rules to be extended in an unlimited fashion thanks to the ability to interconnect with a plurality of third-party services.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to provisional Application Ser. No. 61/299,028, filed Jan. 28, 2010 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The term “Crowdversation Engine” has been replaced by the term “Conversation Engine.” 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to providing services to groups or to organizations providing services to groups. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    With the advent of the Internet and the mobile Internet, organizations have the need to differentiate by sending more and more information, in a plurality of forms, about products and services to users, whether they are at home, at the office, or on-the-go. 
         [0004]    As users lead increasingly fragmented lives under constant information overload, they can only absorb new information when it is relevant to them, available at the right time and in the right form. 
         [0005]    To address this issue of relevancy, industry efforts are primarily directed at using some piece of information provided directly or indirectly by the user to select the relevant information to present to such user in a simple isolated transaction that is not related to a prior transaction or to the next one. 
         [0006]    For example, Google Adwords™ uses search keywords to present advertising that is relevant to the user during their current activity. The next search using a different keyword will produce different advertising content unrelated to the first search. 
         [0007]    Waterfall Mobile™ (www.waterfallmobile.com) provides SMS-based services allowing marketers to send information about a product or service in response to a keyword sent from a mobile phone. When the same user sends a different keyword, they will get a different answer, unrelated to their first request. 
         [0008]    Elo TouchSystems™ provides interactive digital signage systems capable of providing specific information in response to users touching a particular area on the screen, but the transaction does not automatically identify the user, resulting in the impossibility to relate one transaction to the next one with the same user. Additionally, the resulting information displayed on the touchscreen is not available in a form that the user can take away and use easily once they have walked away from the touchscreen. 
         [0009]    As the context and the environment continuously change, organizations need to adjust their messages constantly and are often faced with limitations of existing solutions designed mainly for providing the same information to a large number of users without consideration for the real-time needs and wants of such audience. For example, digital signage systems are mainly designed to display a fixed sequence of media content during a given period of time according to fixed rules set up in advance by an operator. 
         [0010]    To address the issue of multi-user interaction, existing multi-user collaborative solutions require participants to be invited or to sign up before they can start interacting with the group. This requirement is a hindrance for mobile users who are only casually interested in participating and do not want to go through any type of process to get started. 
         [0011]    There is a significant challenge to providing the relevant information to any particular user depending on their expressed or implicit needs, their preferences, their individual constraints, and their historical transactions with the organization, at the right time and in the right form, while requiring users to provide only a minimum amount of personal information in each instance, and adjusting to the fact that users have different personalities and can change their minds over time. 
         [0012]    Relevant Literature: 
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Matsuzawa , et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,865,840 presents an information processing apparatus and mobile terminal device.
 
Dooley , et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,865,831 presents a method of updating content for an automated display device.
 
Tuzhilin , et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,865,546 presents a method for notification in a network
 
Celi, Jr. , et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,865,436 presents a method for using images transferred from a mobile device.
 
Bathurst, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,864,937 presents a control for en electronic multi-pod conferencing system.
 
Kim, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,861,184 presents a method for displaying menu items in a mobile device.
 
Aleksic U.S. Pat. No. 7,861,007 presents a method for multimedia display in a mobile device
 
Ismail, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,860,937 presents a system of messaging and service for mobile computers.
 
Gheorghe, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,860,925 presents a recommendation method based on weighted values.
 
Ramer, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,860,871 presents a user history influenced search system adapted to mobile devices.
 
Ueno, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,859,483 presents an electronic conference control device and conference assistant method.
 
Kramer, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,856,360 presents a system for providing a service to venues where people aggregate based on the demographics of the attendees.
 
Yoon, at al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,809,786 presents an apparatus for remotely controlling household appliances.
 
Bearman U.S. Pat. No. 7,801,946 presents a system for accessing web services via an instant messaging client.
 
Schindler, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,800,622 presents a method for selective access of display data sequencing in mobile computing.
 
Shionoya, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 7,725,400 presents a method for managing viewing of a particular pre-recorded content.
 
Kropivny U.S. Pat. No. 7,765,266 presents a method for publishing content during a communication.
 
Kropivny U.S. Pat. No. 7,765,261 presents a method for supporting a multiple-party communication on a plurality of computer servers.
 
Pell, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,565,175 presents a method of mobile information services.
 
Shimizu U.S. Pat. No. 7,526,316 presents a method for mobile phone and mobile phone control.
 
Lee, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,366,549 presents a method for controlling external display via an integrated mobile device.
 
Savage, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,322,516 presents a method for conducting self-service transaction in a bank from a remote terminal.
 
Guyot, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,231,205 presents a method for changing graphical data by mobile devices.
 
Coffman, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,126 presents a system for conversational computing via a conversational virtual machine.
 
Smith, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,594,673 presents a method for visualization for collaborative information.
 
Bayrakeri U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,680 presents a method for multi-user extension mechanism for client-server system
 
Bayrakeri U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,602 presents a method for multi-user interaction of multimedia communication
 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0013]    The present invention provides a method and apparatus for creating and managing the rules that control in real-time how, when and what information content is provided to any number of users simultaneously interacting with the system by submitting in sequence one or more messages and receiving a custom response to each of their submissions. 
         [0014]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism for controlling the communications between an entity and a group of users, or between groups of users, to facilitate the creation, publishing and distribution of dynamic content in the conversation between the entity and each user, or between users among themselves. 
         [0015]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism where users can be addressed individually as well as collectively. 
         [0016]    Another aspect of the invention is the mechanism where such conversations are being carried through the usage of a user device (such as a handset), a shared display device (such as a digital sign), and an entity-controlled device (such as a computer system). 
         [0017]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to direct the custom response in real-time to a shared device and/or a private device depending on certain rules and on the nature of the information contained in said custom response. 
         [0018]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to determine which shared device is the most relevant for each interacting user, depending on their physical location and/or the content they are submitting. 
         [0019]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to set up such rules and their associated actions in a graphic and visual way without requiring any programming language skills. 
         [0020]    Another aspect of the present invention is the rule selector mechanism used to control when a rule is selected depending on the user submission and the context of the submission. 
         [0021]    Another aspect of the present invention is the rule condition mechanism used to define which action or set of actions should be performed once a given rule has been selected. 
         [0022]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to associate an adaptive self-modifying agent to each of the actions triggered by the rule condition of a selected rule. 
         [0023]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to associate an external agent to a given action triggered by the rule condition of a selected rule. 
         [0024]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to set up such rules and their associated actions in a graphic and visual way without requiring any programming language skills. 
         [0025]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to associate an event to a selected rule to facilitate the segmentation of the population of users having interacted with the system. 
         [0026]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to enable the submission by an authorized user to securely, dynamically and remotely change the parameters of some rule selectors and/or rule conditions resulting in an altered, adaptive behavior of the system. 
         [0027]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to specify which content should be displayed publicly and which content should be displayed privately on the handset of the interacting user. 
         [0028]    Another aspect of the present invention is the state engine mechanism used to alter the behavior of some rule selectors and/or some rule conditions depending on previous interactions by other users relative to such rules or their associated events. 
         [0029]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to allow users to have multiple personalities while interacting through the system with the same organization without losing the benefit of receiving a customized service. 
         [0030]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to manage the control of the content displayed on one public device between a plurality of users using their handsets based on a combination of rules depending on the nature of the needs of each user. 
         [0031]    Another aspect of the present invention is the mechanism used to automate the generation of rules for the common use cases for any given market segment. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0032]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating some of the major functional components of a computer system required to produce conversational interactions between a plurality of handsets  100  and a plurality of shared display devices within a digital signage sub-system  140 , including the conversation engine sub-system  120  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0033]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating some of the major functional components of the conversation engine sub-system  120 , including the conversation engine  124  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0034]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating some of the major functional components of the digital signage sub-system  140 , including one or more display devices  146  and their associated media players  144  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0035]      FIG. 4  is a detailed block diagram expanded from  FIG. 1  by illustrating in detail the conversation engine sub-system  120  and the digital signage sub-system  140  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0036]      FIG. 5  is a diagram illustrating the data flows between users, display devices, information service providers and the conversation engine  124  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0037]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating the sequence of operations involved in the conversation engine  124  upon reception of a user-generated content submission in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0038]      FIG. 7  is a schematic block diagram of a method to implement the various rules and agents of the conversation engine  124  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0039]      FIG. 8  is a schematic block diagram of a method to implement the relationship between rules, agents and events within the conversation engine  124  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0040]      FIG. 9  is a schematic block diagram of a method to implement certain features of an agent  340 , such as the adaptive self-modifying function  343 , and the third-party extension interface  344  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0041]      FIG. 10  is a simulation of a user interface screen employed in defining the rules of the conversation engine  124  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0042]      FIG. 11  is a schematic block diagram of a method to implement a user interface screen to capture the parameters of the application  500  of present invention in a given use case, and to generate the associated rules designed to effect the requirements of the application in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0043]    The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and the scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein. 
         [0044]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a computer system including resources to produce conversational interactions between a plurality of handsets  100  and a plurality of shared display devices within a digital signage subsystem  140  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention.  FIG. 1  includes handset  100 , wireless carrier  105 , aggregator  110 , conversation engine sub-system  120 , digital signage sub-system  140 , third-party devices  170 , and information service providers  180 , which are interconnected through distinct networks  103 ,  106 ,  112 ,  116 ,  118 ,  128 ,  162 , and  172 . 
         [0045]    A subject using handset  100  enters content in the form of text or multimedia (picture, graphic, sound, or video) or computer file and sends the content through the wireless network  103  to their wireless carrier  105 . The wireless carrier  105  receives the content and forwards it through the network  106  to the aggregator service provider  110 , who forwards it to the conversation engine sub-system  120  through the succession of networks  112 ,  116  and  118 . 
         [0046]    The conversation engine sub-system  120  receives the content and processes it, optionally connecting with each of the external information service providers  180  through the networks  118 ,  116  and  172 , the network  172  being distinct for each of the information service providers  180 . 
         [0047]    The conversation engine sub-system  120  prepares the content targeted to the handset  100 , the digital signage sub-system  140 , the third-party devices  170 , and sends each prepared content to its respective targeted destination. 
         [0048]    The content targeted to the handset  100  is sent through the networks  118 ,  116 , and  112  to the aggregator service provider  110  who forwards the content through the network  106  to the wireless carrier  105  who forwards the content through the wireless network  103  to the handset  100 . 
         [0049]    The content targeted to the digital signage sub-system  140  is sent through the networks  118 ,  116 ,  128 . 
         [0050]    The content targeted to each of the third-party devices  170  is sent through the networks  118 ,  116 , and  162 , the network  162  being distinct for each of the third-party devices  170 , and can be either a wireline or a wireless network or a hybrid combination thereof. 
         [0051]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating some of the major functional components of the conversation engine sub-system  120 , including the engine server  125 , the database server  150  and the delivery server  160 , in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
         [0052]    The engine server  125  includes the conversation engine  124  in the memory  122 . The engine server  125  accesses the scenario data stored in the database server  150  to feed the conversation engine  124  which processes each user generated content  210  and stores transactional data back into the database server  150 . 
         [0053]    The content stored in the database server  150 , or by an information service provider  180 , or generated by the engine server  125 , is prepared by the conversation engine  124  according to the selected rules and sent through the delivery server  160  to each of its intended recipients, the handset  100 , the digital signage subsystem  140 , or the third-party devices  170 , as represented in  FIG. 1 . 
         [0054]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating some of the major functional components of the digital signage sub-system  140 , including the content management server  142 , one or more media players  144 , and one or more digital display devices  146 , the media players  144  being connected to the content management server through the network  143 , and the media players  144  being each connected to one or more display device  146  through the bus  145 , in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
         [0055]      FIG. 4  is an expansion of  FIG. 1  and a detailed block diagram illustrating a computer system including resources to produce conversational interactions between a plurality of handsets  100  and a plurality of shared display devices within a digital signage subsystem  140  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention.  FIG. 4  includes handset  100 , wireless carrier  105 , aggregator  110 , engine server  125 , conversation engine  124 , content management server  142 , media player  144 , display device  146 , database server  150 , and delivery server  160 , which are interconnected through distinct networks  103 ,  106 ,  112 ,  116 ,  118 ,  128 ,  143 ,  162  and  172 , and bus  121  and  145 . 
         [0056]    A subject using handset  100  enters user generated content  210  in the form of text or multimedia (picture, graphic, sound, video) or computer file and sends the content through the wireless network  103  to their wireless carrier  105 . The wireless carrier  105  receives the content and forwards it through the network  106  to the aggregator service provider  110 , who forwards it to the engine server  125  through the succession of networks  112 ,  116  and  118 . 
         [0057]    The engine server  125  receives the content  210  and processes it in the conversation engine  124  located in memory  122 . The engine server  125  accesses the scenario data stored in the database server  150  to feed the conversation engine  124  which processes the content  210  and stores transactional data back into the database server  150  through the network  118 , and with each of the external information service providers  180  through the networks  118 ,  116  and  172 , the network  172  being distinct for each of the information service providers  180 . 
         [0058]    The content stored in the database server  150 , or by an information service provider  180 , or generated by the engine server  125 , is prepared by the conversation engine  124  according to the selected rules and sent through the delivery server  160  to each of its intended recipients, the handset  100 , the content management server  142 , the third-party devices  170 . The delivery server  160  determines the most appropriate mechanism to send each prepared content to its targeted destination. 
         [0059]    The content targeted to the handset  100  is sent through the networks  118 ,  116 , and  112  to the aggregator service provider  110  who forwards the content through the network  106  to the wireless carrier  105  who forwards the content through the wireless network  103  to the handset  100 . 
         [0060]    The content targeted to the appropriate display device  146  is sent through the networks  118 ,  116 ,  128  to the Content Management Server  142 , which processes and forwards it through the network  143  to the media player  144 , which sends the processed content to the display device  146 . 
         [0061]    The content targeted to each of the third-party devices  170  is sent through the networks  118 ,  116 , and  162 , the network  162  being distinct for each of the third-party devices  170 . 
         [0062]      FIG. 5  is a diagram illustrating the data flows between a user using the handset  100  in an interactive conversation with a display device  146  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
         [0063]    The diagram includes the handset  100 , third-party users using a device  170 , a display device  146 , information service providers  180  and the conversation engine  124 . 
         [0064]    A subject using the handset  100  submits user-generated content  210  to the conversation engine  124  and receives in return a custom response  220 . At the same time, and depending on the submitted content  210 , the conversation engine could send playlist changes  230  forcing the display device  146  to display some content more relevant to the interacting user. 
         [0065]    Depending on the selected rules triggered by the submitted content  210 , the conversation engine  124  sends notifications  240  to third-party devices. The conversation engine can also send requests  260  to third-party information service providers who send in response results  280  that are automatically processed by the conversation engine to alter the behavior of some rules, or the content ultimately sent to the handset  100 , the display device  146  or third-party devices  170 . 
         [0066]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating the sequence of operations involved in processing a user-generated content  210  submission in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
         [0067]    Upon reception of a user-generated content  210 , the system determines the most relevant user personality  212  based on: a) a handset identifier associated with the handset  100  used to send the user-generated content  210 ; b) the current state machine associated with said handset identifier; c) the potential event  400  associated with each agent  340  to be invoked later in the sequence of operations. 
         [0068]    The conversation engine uses the rule selectors  310  to select the relevant rules and using the rule conditions  330  of the selected rules to select the agents  340  to invoke in order to complete the processing of the user-generated content  210  by the conversation engine  124 . 
         [0069]    The custom response  220  sent back to the interacting user is an aggregate of the custom responses prepared by each invoked agent  340 . Similarly, the content  230  displayed on the display device  146  is a combination of the contribution of one or more invoked agents  340 . The content  240  sent to the third party devices  170  is also a combination of the content prepared by one or more agents  340 . 
         [0070]      FIG. 7  is a schematic block diagram of a method to implement the various modules of the conversation engine  124  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
         [0071]    The conversation engine  124  processes the user-generated content  210  according to one or more scenarios  300 . Each scenario  300  is composed of one or more Rules  320  to be processed in a sequence that can be altered when invoking certain agents  340 . 
         [0072]    Each Rule  320  is composed of two sets of agents, the positive agents  331  and the negative agents  332 . The positive agents  331  are invoked if the rule condition  330  is met at run-time, while the negative agents  332  are invoked if the rule condition  330  is not met at run-time. 
         [0073]    Each set of agents  331  and  332  can contain zero or more agents  340 . 
         [0074]      FIG. 8  is a schematic block diagram of a method to implement the relationship between rules, agents and events within the conversation engine  124  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
         [0075]    Each agent  340  can be associated with zero or one event  400  at most. Agents  340  from different rules  320  can be associated to the same event  400 , and agents within one rule  320  can be associated with different events  400 . 
         [0076]      FIG. 9  is a schematic block diagram of a method to implement certain features of an agent  340  , such as the adaptive self-modifying function  343 , and the third-party extension interface  344  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
         [0077]    The adaptive self-modifying function  343  can be applied to any agent  340 , including the invoking agent, and is capable of modifying the agent parameters  341  and/or the agent function  342  at run time, thereby changing the behavior of the conversation engine  124  in unpredictable albeit deterministic ways. 
         [0078]    The adaptive self-modifying function  343  can also generate automatically a new set of rules  320  based on the submitted content, thereby extending the behavior of the conversation engine for all subsequent submissions. 
         [0079]    The third-party extension interface  344  issues a web service request to one or more information service providers  180  built by the agent function  342  from the run time values of the agent parameters  341 . The resulting responses received from the information service providers  180  are then returned in aggregate to the agent function  342  for formatting and integration within the outcome object  349 . 
         [0080]      FIG. 10  is a simulation of a user interface screen employed in defining the rules of the conversation engine  124  in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
         [0081]    Each rule  320  is composed of a rule selector  310 , a rule condition  330 , a set of positive agents  331  and a set of negative agents  332 . In order to hide complexity, the components of a rule  320  should be hidden until a user interface widget  321  is triggered. 
         [0082]      FIG. 11  is a schematic block diagram of a method to implement a user interface screen to capture the parameters of the application  500  of present invention in a given use case, and to generate the associated rules designed to effect the requirements of the application in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
         [0083]    In an application of the present invention, a plurality of parameter values are defined in an input form. Upon submission of the parameters, a new set of rules  320  is automatically generated and inserted within the current active scenario. The corresponding rules  320  can then be modified directly by accessing the individual agents  340  within the rules. 
         [0084]    The foregoing description includes examples of the present invention. It is naturally not possible to describe every conceivable combination of modules, components or methods for purposes of describing the present invention. However, one of ordinary skill in the art may easily recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the present invention are fully possible. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to embrace all such combinations, alterations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “including” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising,” as comprising is used as a transitional word in a claim. 
       EXAMPLES 
       [0085]    In an embodiment of the present invention, customers in a fast food restaurant can inspect the menu choices on a large display device, send a request to display the daily specials on the sign and the nutritional facts on their handset. Users can also order their desired meal by entering a code on their handset, which will update an event list in the kitchen to trigger the preparation of the meal. When a meal is ready, an operator checks a box on a screen triggering another rule that sends a notification to the handset of the customer who ordered the meal. 
         [0086]    In an alternative embodiment, a shopper in an appliance store can request a public display device to play a video explaining how to use a given appliance they are interested in. During the playback of the video, additional instructions appear on the screen enabling the shopper to download more detailed information about the product. Using a third-party application on their handset, the shopper might be able to find the same item at a better price in a store nearby. The display device can also display a call to action encouraging such shoppers to copy the information about the competing store and their publicized price, and submit such information from their handset to the store. In return, the shopper receives a custom response, including, for example, a time-limited discount coupon matching the competitor&#39;s price, for immediate purchase. 
         [0087]    The shopper can also send another message, or use a qualified third-party mobile application, to trigger another rule using an agent that will notify a third-party social network service provider of the special discount they just got. 
         [0088]    In another embodiment, a patient in a doctor&#39;s waiting room can read from the flat screen TV instructions on how to get more detailed information about a procedure they are considering, and have the corresponding tutorial video either displayed on the TV or more privately downloaded onto their handset. Instructions on the TV can also enable patients or their parents to request notifications prior to the next scheduled appointments, for example to have dental braces checked. 
         [0089]    In another embodiment, participants in a group brainstorming session within a corporate business seminar or workshop can contribute to a group think process by submitting ideas, asking or answering questions using their mobile phones, with the aggregate list of ideas, questions, or answers displayed on a shared digital screen, followed by the ability to interact with the content by voting on the submissions for example. 
         [0090]    In another embodiment, participants in such a group brainstorming session can use their mobile phones to contribute ideas tagged as anchors or boosters attached to a virtual sailboat displayed on the shared screen, thereby collectively controlling the speed of the boat with their submissions, gaining insights about the consequences of each individual contribution on the aggregate system or collective goals. 
         [0091]    In another embodiment, subscribers on the go can use simple feature phones to check the local TV program, to access the local schedule for their favorite TV shows, to search for the schedule of a particular type of entertainment, or to control a remote DVR to record a show they do not want to miss. Based on their current geographical location, they can be presented with the locally-available channels. Alternatively the user can enter a ZIP code to get the corresponding local channel list. 
         [0092]    In another embodiment, real-estate agents can enter any listed home for sale to show them to prospective buyers. Upon approaching a listed home, the agent texts the house PIN from their registered mobile phone. After credential verification, the conversation engine sends an “unlock” command to the electronic door lock to let the agent into the house. The system identifies the agent by the mobile phone used during the process and keeps a traceable record of all visits to the home. 
         [0093]    In another embodiment, a parking garage owner can set up a payment system without any digital infrastructure investment. A large poster at the entrance explains how to request an available parking space by texting a simple keyword followed by the car&#39;s license plate number. The system returns the location of an available parking space with a clickable link to a directions map. The driver completes the up-front payment with their mobile phone and is required to check out upon leaving the space to release their liability. A reminder message is sent to the driver shortly before the expiration deadline, enabling the driver to submit additional payment as appropriate. The parking attendant is notified when a car exceeds their paid allocated time. 
       INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY 
       [0094]    The present invention applies industrially to environments with public or private signage designed to enable venues and organizations to provide information or services to, and/or capture submissions, contributions or feedback from, visitors, participants or passers-by. More particularly, the present invention applies industrially to market such as, but not limited to, hospitality, retail, healthcare, education, transportation, entertainment, corporate workshops, and more. 
         [0095]    In another alternative industrial application, the present invention can be applied to machine-to-machine communications whereby the handsets are replaced, in totality or partially, by machines capable of exchanging messages with the conversation engine through a wireline or a wireless connection ultimately with an access to a communication network such as the Internet.