Abstract:
A system, method and computer readable medium for targeting messages delivered by wireless communication comprising determining at least one target space within at least one wireless communications network, determining a notification list comprising at least one recipient in said at least one target space, determining at least one notification message, and transmitting said at least one notification message through said at least one wireless communications network to at least one recipient on said notification list.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     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. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     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&#39;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. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     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. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to specific embodiments and to the accompanying drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  represents a wireless communications system; 
         FIG. 2  is a flowchart representing a targeted notification process; 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart representing a process for determining a notification list; 
         FIG. 4  represents an interface for providing notification data; and 
         FIG. 5  represents a system for providing targeted notifications. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     With reference to  FIG. 1 , there is shown a network space  10  serviced by a plurality of serving stations  11 ,  12 ,  13 ,  14 . Each serving station is associated with a wireless communications network and is capable of serving mobile stations  21 ,  22 ,  23 ,  24  within the network space  10 . As is known in the art, a wireless communications network, for example network  28 , has a Home Location Register (HLR)  25  with database  26 , and a Visitor Location Register (VLR)  27 . As is well known, the HLR  25  stores registration information, via database  26 , for each mobile station registered to the network, the registration information including a current or last known location for the mobile station. The VLR  27  provides a database storing details of all the mobile stations that are currently visiting the service area of the network  28 . Other components common to wireless networks are omitted for clarity. 
     In the illustration of  FIG. 1 , serving stations  11 ,  12 ,  14  each correspond to associated wireless network  28  while serving station  13  is associated with wireless network  29 . 
     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  FIG. 1  and to the flowchart  100  of  FIG. 2 . 
     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, i.e. 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  FIG. 1  and to the flowchart  200  of  FIG. 3 . 
     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 serving 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  and/or VLR  27  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. 
     In one embodiment, a recipient may specify, for example through their user profile, a frequency at which they receive notifications from a notification service. By way of example, a first subscriber to a subscription service may elect to receive notifications every half hour, while a second subscriber may elect to receive notifications hourly. The system may generate the concatenated list every half hour. At an odd half hour, the system determines that the first subscriber receives a notification message but that the second subscriber does not. At the even half hour, both the first and second subscribers receive the notification message. 
     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  FIG. 4 . In the graphic interface  33 , a user is able to select a map  34  or one or more subregions  36  of a map. The user may also enter a notification message into the field  35 . With this information entered, the processor  33  is able to process the region data and the notification message to then send the notification message to all mobile stations within the entered regions. The data may be entered at the time the notification is to be sent, or the notification may be scheduled, for example by entering scheduling information into field  37 . 
     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 system provides priority based notifications, an example of which will be described with reference to a shopping mall. Shoppers at a shopping mall serviced by a wireless network may register in a queue for a service at a particular shop. By registering their position in the queue, the shopper is then free to roam the shopping mall until they progress to the front of the queue, at which time, the shopper returns to the particular shop to undertake the relevant service. The notification service may be used to inform the shoppers of their position in the queue. That is, when the recipient list is generated, each recipient is provided with a tailored notification message that informs the recipient of their priority position in the queue and/or the expected waiting time. The notifications may be generated periodically, for example every 15 minutes, or every time the queue progresses. 
     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  FIG. 5 , a traffic management authority  50  schedules a traffic report notification through the computer system  30 . The traffic report notification within computer system  30  provides a reference link to a database  51  which maintains up to date traffic information. The traffic management authority  50  may schedule the traffic reports for regular intervals, for example, hourly, through the computer system  30 . The traffic reports can be targeted to specific areas, such as areas serviced by major roads, suburbs, or any suitably definable area. In the example shown, the traffic management authority schedules a first notification targeted to area  52  serviced by station  55  and a second notification targeted to area  53  serviced by station  56 . A recipient  54  who has opted to receive a traffic update service will receive the hourly reports for as long as they are in a designated area. Initially, the recipient is in area  52  and so receives traffic reports targeted to area  52 . As the recipient  54  journeys to area  53  (as shown in ghosted outline), the recipient  54  will receive traffic reports targeted to area  53 . Thus, the recipient receives the traffic information most relevant to their location. 
     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  FIG. 1  enters a target space  40 , the HLR  25  and/or VLR  27  will register that the recipient is within the target space. This registration may trigger the processor  31  to provide the recipient with a notification message pertaining to the target space  40 . That is, a notification list is determined in response to a recipient entering the target space  40 . The notification list may have a single record pertaining to the recipient  21  or may have additional records pertaining to other recipients who have recently entered the target space. With reference now to the traffic management embodiment of  FIG. 5  described above, the recipient  54  may receive a traffic report as soon as the recipient enters region  52  and then receive a further traffic report as the recipient enters region  53 . That is, the recipient does not rely on a notification schedule in order to receive notification messages but instead receives the notification messages as soon as is relevant, ie, immediately upon entering the respective target space. 
     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.