Abstract:
Geographic merchandise matching system, associated apparatus and method are provided. In an embodiment, a hand-held apparatus integrates user geographic location and a merchandise matching condition, and queries a merchandise service platform. An information matching module of the merchandise service platform accesses a merchandise database, a geography database and a comment database for sorting to form a matching result, and sends the matching result back to the handheld apparatus.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This patent application is based on Taiwan, R.O.C. patent application No. 099121717 filed on Jul. 1, 2010. 
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present disclosure relates to a geographic merchandise matching system, associated apparatus and method thereof, and more particularly, to a handheld apparatus providing a merchandise matching service including geographic merchandise matching information, associated apparatus and method thereof according to its geographic location. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Mobile phones, personal digital assistants, notebook computers, digital cameras and digital camcorders have become some of the most ubiquitous consumer electronics in recent years. Handheld devices, such as mobile phones, with positioning system have become increasingly prevalent and, as a result, the geographic location of a given handheld device may now be determined according to the wireless positioning signals sent from a positioning satellite. Providing value-added applications to handheld devices has become a focus of research and design for manufacturers. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    To make effective use of the positioning system equipped in handheld devices, an embodiment of the present invention utilizes a handheld apparatus to integrate the geographic location of the device itself with a matching requirement about merchandise information to generate a query to a merchandise service platform; the merchandise service platform accesses a merchandise database, a geographic database and a review database for sorting those information to form a matching result that best satisfies the matching requirement, and sends the matching result back to the handheld device. 
         [0005]    For example, when a user is searching for merchandise using the handheld apparatus of the present invention, the user may utilize the character recognition feature, the barcode recognition feature and/or the input module of the apparatus for input of the characters (for example, the name of the merchandise or related keywords) and/or the identification of the merchandise (e.g., merchandise&#39;s barcode) as a matching requirement for the merchandise to be searched; and the apparatus automatically integrates this matching requirement with the geographic location of the handheld apparatus as a matching inquiry input, and sends this matching inquiry input to the merchandise service platform via the apparatus utilizing its communication feature. The merchandise service platform searches/accesses the merchandise database, the geographic database and/or the rating database to start selection/matching/sorting according to the matching requirement and the geographic location, and then sends the matching result back to the handheld apparatus. In an embodiment, the merchandise service platform in the present disclosure may identify stores that sell the merchandise associated with the inquiry and selects and sorts stores according to the geographical location of the handheld apparatus and the geographic locations of the stores, so that the most nearby store(s) that sells the queried merchandise can be located based on the location of the user (within a fixed range). Thus, embodiments of the present invention may provide users an intuitive, user-friendly, and instant geographic merchandise matching service. 
         [0006]    An object of embodiments of the present invention is to provide a geographic and merchandise information matching system structured on a handheld apparatus and a merchandise service platform. In an embodiment, the handheld apparatus comprises a positioning system, an image character recognition module, a barcode recognition module, an input module, a network connection module and a data reading module. The positioning module receives a wireless positioning signal and provides corresponding positioning information representing the geographical location of the handheld apparatus. The image character recognition module recognizes a character in an image, and the barcode recognition module recognizes a barcode in an image, the input module receives user&#39;s input and the data reading module integrates the characters, barcodes and/or the user inputs described above and provide those data as a matching condition. 
         [0007]    In an embodiment, the merchandise service platform comprises an information matching module, an access interface, a geographic database, a merchandise database and a rating database. The information matching module receives the positioning information and the matching condition, accesses the geographic database, the merchandise database and the rating database via the access interface, and provides the matching results related to the merchandise information according to the positioning information and the matching condition given by the handheld apparatus, and the matching result is then sent back to the network connection module in the handheld apparatus. 
         [0008]    The matching condition sent out from the handheld apparatus may comprise merchandise&#39;s barcode, name, the name of the store, or searching keywords . . . etc. At the merchandise service platform end, the merchandise database may comprise a plurality of related store information and a plurality of merchandise information; and each of the related store information may correspond to one store, wherein the information may comprise the store&#39;s name and related information (i.e. an identification number/or website) and/or the name of a supplying store, the barcode number, the merchandise&#39;s quantities, the selling price and other related information. The merchandise information may comprise the name of the merchandise, the barcode number, information relating to the manufacturer/producer (i.e. the identification number/or the website), and information relating to the merchandise (i.e. the manufacturing date, the expiration date, or suggested price . . . etc), the picture of the merchandise and/or other relating information. The geographic database may include a plurality of default geographical locations, where each of the geographic locations corresponds to one store and/or one manufacturer. The rating database records one or a plurality of rating scores and/or comments for each of the stores and/or manufacturers, and records information such as the date and source of each of the rating scores and comments (reviewer). 
         [0009]    The information matching module in the merchandise service platform queries the merchandise database, the geographic database and the rating database according to the positioning information and the matching condition in the handheld apparatus to generate a matching result. This matching result comprises at least a matching data subset, wherein each matching data subset may comprise the name of the merchandise, network connection information, comment related information (i.e., the queried merchandise and/or rating score and comment of the store), the merchandise&#39;s barcode, pricing related information, styling related information, store related information, navigation path and/or the picture of the merchandise . . . etc. The information matching module may evaluate a corresponding matching level for each of the data subset, and may sort each of the data subsets in the matching result according to its matching level. For example, the information matching module may access the corresponding default geographic location of the store of each of the matching data subsets and compute the matching level by calculating the distance between the location of a handheld apparatus and the location of a store; and assigns a higher matching level to the store that is closer to the geographical location of the handheld apparatus so the corresponding matching data subset may be sorted closer to a top of a sorted list. Besides using the geographical distance, the matching level of the information matching module may also be computed by integrating the related information including the merchandise&#39;s selling price, the rating scores of the merchandise and/or the store, the matching condition of the merchandise and/or the store . . . etc. 
         [0010]    Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a handheld apparatus comprising a positioning system, a data reading module, a network connection module and a matching access module. The positioning system provides the positioning information representing the geographic location of the handheld apparatus. The data reading module provides a matching condition, and the matching access module acquires a matching result according to the positioning information and the matching result. The network connection module sends the position information and the matching result to the merchandise service platform, and receives the matching result utilizing the information matching module; the matching result relates to the matching information, and is generated according to the positioning information and the matching condition. The handheld apparatus may further include a geographic database so the matching access module may access the geographic database to acquire the matching result according to the positioning information and the matching condition. 
         [0011]    Still another object of the present disclosure is to provide a geographic merchandise matching method applicable in a handheld apparatus, the method including recognizing image information to form a matching condition; sending positioning information and the matching condition of the handheld apparatus; and receiving a matching result to the handheld apparatus. The matching result is generated according to the positioning information and the matching condition and is related to merchandise information. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    The present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0013]      FIG. 1  depicts a geographic merchandise matching system in an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
           [0014]      FIG. 2  depicts related information to  FIG. 1 . 
           [0015]      FIG. 3  depicts an applicable embodiment of the geographic merchandise matching system in  FIG. 1 . 
           [0016]      FIG. 4  depicts another embodiment of the geographic merchandise matching system in the present disclosure. 
           [0017]      FIG. 5  depicts another embodiment of the geographic merchandise matching system in the present disclosure. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0018]      FIG. 1  illustrates a merchandise and geographic information matching system  10  of an embodiment of the present disclosure. The merchandise and geographic information matching system  10  presented here may be structured on a merchandise service platform  200 , and on at least one handheld apparatus  100  illustrated in  FIG. 1 . The handheld apparatus  100  may be a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a notebook computer, a digital camera and/or a digital camcorder having a positioning system  24 , an image character recognition module  12 , a barcode recognition module  14 , an input module  16 , an output module  18 , a network module  22  and a data reading module  20 . The positioning module  24  receives a wireless positioning signal SP and provides corresponding positioning information SG, and this positioning information SG corresponds to the geographic location of the handheld apparatus  100 . The output module  18  may comprise one or a number of displays/display panels/display lights and/or headsets/speakers, and shows the operation information and conditions of the handheld apparatus  100  to users using pictures/character images/and/or voices/sounds. 
         [0019]    The character image recognition module  12  in the handheld apparatus  100  may recognize characters from an image, whereas the barcode recognition module  14  may recognize a barcode from an image. An optical sensor (not shown in the figure) may be set in the handheld apparatus  100  for the image character recognition module  12  and the barcode recognition module  14 . And the image character module  12  then may receive the image and determine if there are any recognizable characters, digits and/or symbols in the image; if there are such characters, digits or symbols then the image character recognition module  12  may recognize it. Similarly, the barcode recognition module  14  can recognize one-dimension or two-dimension barcodes and output the characters and/or digits carried in the barcode. Furthermore, the handheld apparatus  100  may also read images from a storage media (like a memory card and or such non-volatile storage media, not shown in the figure) as the images to be analyzed by the character recognition module  12  and the barcode recognition module  14 . The handheld apparatus  100  further comprises the input module  16  for receiving user inputs, wherein the input module  16  may comprise buttons, keyboard, pointing apparatus and/or trackball . . . etc. When the geographic and merchandise information matching system  10  is in operation, the data reading module  20  may integrate the character, barcode and/or user input to generate a matching requirement MQ. The network connection module  22  modulates the matching requirement MQ and the positioning information SG to a matching input Mi of the merchandise service platform  200 . 
         [0020]    In  FIG. 1 , the merchandise service platform  200  comprises an information matching module  30 , an access interface  26 , a geographic database  32 , a merchandise database  36 , and a rating/review database  34  in the embodiment. The information matching module  30  receives a matching input Mi sent from the handheld apparatus  100  and acquires the positioning information SG and the matching requirement MQ, and it accesses the geographic database  32 , the merchandise database  36 , and the rating database  34  via the access interface  26 , and provides a matching result Mo according to the positioning information SG and the matching requirement MQ in the handheld apparatus  100  and then sends a matching result Mo back to the handheld apparatus  100 . 
         [0021]    The handheld apparatus  100  sends out the matching requirement MQ where the requirement may include barcode numbers, names of the store, brand names of the merchandises and/or keywords information . . . etc. At the merchandise service platform end  200 , the merchandise database  36  may store a plurality of store related information and a plurality of merchandise information (not shown in the figure). The store related information corresponds to respective stores, in which the information may include the name of the store and various information relating to the store (i.e. the store&#39;s address, its identification number and/or the store&#39;s web address) and/or the name of the store, the barcode number, the quantity of merchandise available, the pricing related information (i.e., the selling price, discount and/or promotion of each of the merchandise) and styling related information (i.e. whether the store has a complete collection of the merchandise in terms of styling and their quantities). Each merchandise information can correspond to one merchandise, including the name of the merchandise, the barcode number, manufacturer-related information (i.e. the identification number and/or the web address), the merchandise related information (i.e., the manufacturing date, expiration date and/or suggested price, and merchandise&#39;s web address . . . etc), the picture of the merchandise and/or the variations of the merchandise (i.e. the colors and sizes), etc. The geographic database  32  records a plurality of default geographic locations (not shown in the figure), and each of the default geographic locations corresponds to a store, the manufacturer&#39;s geographic location and/or the place of origin of the merchandise. The rating/review database  34  records rating/review related information for each of the merchandise, manufacturer and/or store, for example, the rating levels and/or reviews (not shown in figure), and records the source (the reviewer) and the date of each of the rated score and comment and the related information. 
         [0022]    The information matching module  30  in the merchandise matching platform  200  generates the matching result Mo, depicted in  FIG. 2 , by querying/indexing/searching/selecting the merchandise database  36 , the geographic database  32  and/or the rating database  34  according to the positioning information SG and the matching requirement MQ in the handheld apparatus  100 ; the matching result Mo comprises matching data subsets represented using u( 1 ), u( 2 ) to u(n) and u(n+1) in  FIG. 2 . For example, the matching data subset u(n) in the embodiment may include the name of the merchandise  201 , the name of the store  202 , the network connection information  203 , the rating level of the merchandise and/or the store  204  and/or reviews  210 , the pricing information  205 , the styling information  206 , the merchandise&#39;s barcode  211 , the store related information  207 , the navigation route  208 , and graphics about the merchandise and/or the store  209  and/or other information  212 . The information matching module  30  may access the various types of information described above. 
         [0023]    Furthermore, the information matching module  30  may decide the navigation route  208  by relating the merchandise database  36  to the geographic database  32 ; the navigation route may provide a route planning that sets the geographical location of the handheld apparatus  100  as the starting point and the related store locations in matching data subset u(n) as the destination/end point. In addition, the information matching module  30  may also relate the merchandise database  36  to the rating database  34  to provide rating information related to the merchandise and/or the store related to the matching data subset u(n), for example, the rating score  204  and a comment  210 . The comment  210  may be in characters and/or pictures. The information matching module  30  may be related from the merchandise database  36  to the geographic database  32  and/or the rating database  36 , to provide other information  212  for the matching data subset u(n). For example, the other information  212  may be the merchandise quantity the store has in stock, the manufacture date, release date, expiration date, suggested price, available discount, gift, promotional event and/or related commercials (i.e., commercial keywords) relating to the merchandise. 
         [0024]    When the matching data subsets u( 1 ) to u(n+1) are included as the matching result Mo, the information matching module  30  may start evaluating a corresponding matching level for each matching data subset, then the information matching module  30  selects and sorts each matching data subset in the matching result according to its matching level. For example, the information matching module  30  may access the corresponding default geographic location (like the geographic location of the store) for the store of each matching data subset from the geographic database  32 , and compute the corresponding matching level of each matching data subset according to the distance between the geographic location of the handheld apparatus  100  and the default geographic location. For example, a store (and its corresponding matching data subset) that is closer to the handheld apparatus  100  geographically should be assigned with a higher matching level so the corresponding matching data subset may be sorted closer to the top of any sorted list. Comparatively, a store that is geographically farther than a predefined distance from the handheld apparatus  100  may be eliminated and screened out from the matching results Mo. For another example, the information matching module  30  may first find the closest public transportation route relative to the handheld apparatus  100  and the further evaluate the matching level by comparing the store corresponding to certain matching data subsets with each stop in that transportation route, and the store that is the closest to a given certain stop in the route may be assigned the highest matching level. Besides the geographical distance, the information matching module  30  may also integrate the related pricing information  205  (the selling price of the merchandise), the rating/reviews of the merchandise/store  204 , and the relevance of the matching requirement of the store/merchandise to calculate the matching level. 
         [0025]    In the embodiment depicted in  FIG. 3 , the output module of the handheld apparatus  100  (which may comprise a display panel) may display matching data subsets u(n), u(n+1) in the matching result Mo (in  FIG. 2 ) as the corresponding output units op(n), op(n+1) such that the information in the corresponding matching data subset can be displayed clearly, and be easily read from the output unit. For example, as illustrated in the  FIG. 3 , the output unit op(n) may show picture  209 , and display the name of the store  201 , name of the merchandise  202 , the pricing related information  205 , the merchandise&#39;s barcode number  211  and other information  212 , and use simple and clear symbols to display the rating  204 . The comment  210 , the positioning route  208  and the network connection information  303  then may be displayed as hyperlinks so users may click the link to retrieve more information form the web. 
         [0026]    Besides optically retrieving images to recognize the merchandise related information and to form the matching requirement using the handheld apparatus  100 , the handheld apparatus  100  may also utilize other sources to retrieve and recognize the image. For example, the handheld apparatus  100  may receive an image via the network connection module  22  utilizing its communication feature, like the images sent from other users using other handheld apparatus, to form the matching result by recognizing the image. Through the operation of the geographic and merchandise information matching system  10  of the present disclosure, users are not only provided with a user-friendly and intuitive geographic merchandise matching service that satisfies his/her instant need of geographic information but it has also provided a value-added application for the handheld apparatus. 
         [0027]    Reference is again made to  FIG. 1 . In the merchandise service platform  200  of the present disclosure, besides the users of the handheld apparatus  100 , under an appropriate access control, the access interface  26  may also make access to the data in the geographic database  32 , the rating database  34 , and the merchandise information database  36  available to the service provider  40  (the service provider of the geographic and merchandise information matching system  10 , for example) to access, update, maintain and/or search the geographic database  32 , rating database  34 , and merchandise information database  36 . For example, under the access control, the network user  46  may write into the rating database  34 , and may only read, browse, search but may not modify the contents in the geographic database  32  and the merchandise information database  36 . The administrator  38  (for example, each owner of the store and/or the manufacturer of the merchandise) then may update some of the data in the merchandise information database  36 , and may read from the rating database  34 , but may not modify it. 
         [0028]    In addition, the merchandise service platform  200  of the present disclosure may set a webpage information retrieval apparatus  28 , the apparatus may automatically access and retrieve related webpage data  48  of the merchandise on the internet, and update the rating database  34 , the merchandise information  36  and/or the geographic database  32 . For example, this webpage information retrieval apparatus  28  may be realized as a web crawler, a web spider, a web robot or similar auto-indexing mechanisms used in the web search engines. 
         [0029]    The merchandise service platform  200  may also set a user database (not shown in the figure) in each of the handheld apparatus, to record the user preference, condition of use and/or history record of usage of each handheld apparatus. For example, the user database in the handheld apparatus  100  may be used to record the geographic location and the matching requirements MQ that a user ever used to provide a more customized geographic and merchandise information matching service. For another example, the user may also record some of the matching requirements MQ as a frequently used matching requirement, and record some of the geographic locations as frequently used geographic locations; when the handheld apparatus  100  is around the frequently used geographic location, the system or the handheld apparatus  100  may automatically trigger the merchandise service platform  200  for matching the frequently used matching requirements. Or, the user of the handheld apparatus  100  may also manually enter a corresponding matching result Mo of a geographic location to the user database; when the handheld apparatus  100  is again approaching the manually entered geographic location, the handheld apparatus  100  then may automatically show the previous matching result Mo to the users. 
         [0030]      FIG. 4  illustrates the geographic and merchandise information matching system of another embodiment  10 ′ of the present disclosure; the geographic and merchandise information matching system is structured on a merchandise service platform  200 ′ with a handheld apparatus  100 ′ in  FIG. 4 . Similar to the handheld apparatus  100  in the  FIG. 1 , the handheld apparatus  100 ′ comprises a positioning system  24 , an image character recognition module  12 , a barcode recognition module  14 , an input module  16 , an output module  18 , a network connection module  22  and a data reading module  20 . The handheld apparatus  100 ′ further comprises a matching access module  50  and a local database  52 . The data reading module  20  may integrate the image character recognition module  12 , the barcode recognition module  14  and/or the characters/barcodes and/or the user inputs in the input module  16  to provide a matching requirement MQ, and the positioning system  24  receives a wireless positioning signal SP to provide a corresponding positioning information SG. 
         [0031]    In the embodiment of  FIG. 4 , the local database  52  in the handheld apparatus  100 ′ may be realized using a non-volatile memory that may cover the geographic database  32 , the merchandise database  36  and the rating database  34  in the  FIG. 1 . The matching access module  50  in the handheld apparatus  100 ′ may access, search, and index the local database  52  according to the matching input Mi. The matching input Mi is integrated from the matching requirement MQ and the positioning information SG. Then, the handheld apparatus  100 ′ may show the matching result Mo to the users via the output module  18 . In other words, the handheld apparatus  100 ′ may complete a geographic matching service via the local database  52  in this embodiment. 
         [0032]    On the other hand, the handheld apparatus  100 ′ may also set the network connection module  22  to exchange data with the merchandise service platform  200 ′. Similar to the merchandise service platform  200  in the  FIG. 1 , the merchandise service platform  200 ′ of the present embodiment also comprises the information matching module  30 ′, the access interface  26 , the geographic database  32 , the merchandise database  36  and the rating database  34 . Besides completing the geographic and merchandise information matching service using the local database  52  in the handheld apparatus  100 ′, the handheld apparatus  100 ′ may also send the matching input Mi via the network connection module  22  to the information matching module  30 ′, and generate a matching result Mo by accessing the geographic database  32 , the rating database  34 , and the merchandise database  36  from the information matching module  30 ′, and then send the matching result Mo back to network connection module  22  in the handheld apparatus  100 . 
         [0033]    Furthermore, the handheld apparatus  100 ′ may also update the local database  52  utilizing its communication feature via the network connection module  22  and the information matching module  30 ′. For example, the handheld apparatus  100 ′ may periodically connect with information module  30 ′ via the network connection module  22 , and if the geographic database  32 , the merchandise database  36  and/or the rating database  34  in merchandise service platform  200 ′ already have the updated data, then the information matching module  30 ′ may send the updated data to the handheld apparatus  100 ′ and add the newly added data into the local database  52  in the handheld apparatus  100 ′; the matching access module  50  in the handheld apparatus  100 ′ then may appropriately delete the outdated data in the geographic database  52 , and regularly send these information to the merchandise service platform  200 ′ to the user database (not shown in the figure) updated. 
         [0034]    In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the local database  52  does not cover all the data in the geographic database  32 , the rating database  34  and/or the merchandise database  36 . For instance, suppose that a user of the handheld apparatus  100 ′ is active only in a particular region, then the local geographic database  52  needs only to cover the data related to that particular region for providing the user the geographic merchandise matching service; when the location of the handheld apparatus  100 ′ is beyond that particular region, the handheld apparatus  100 ′ may request the merchandise service platform  200 ′ to provide the merchandise matching service rather than using the local database  52 , or, request the merchandise matching service platform  200 ′ to update the local database  52  in the handheld apparatus  100 ′. 
         [0035]    In the embodiments of  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 4 , the handheld apparatus  100  and  100 ′ both comprise the image character recognition module  12  and the barcode recognition module  14 . The handheld apparatus in the present disclosure may also automatically generate the corresponding recognition condition according to the image character recognition result and the barcode result, separately, as depicted in the  FIG. 5 .  FIG. 5  includes the handheld apparatus  100 ′ as an example for illustration; the handheld apparatus  100  in  FIG. 1  can also be used in the embodiment. A store search module  21   a  and a merchandise search module  21   b  may be realized in the data reading module  20  in the handheld apparatus  100 ′ of  FIG. 5 . The store search module  21   a  utilizes the recognition result of the image character recognition module  12  as the keywords of the name of the store to form a corresponding matching requirement Qa to be the matching requirement MQ, and starts the corresponding search and matching. In other words, the auto-indexing of the characters of the store-related characters may start after the characters are recognized using the image character recognition feature in the handheld apparatus  100 ′, after the characters are retrieved from an advertisement and/or a marking. 
         [0036]    Similarly, the store search module  21   b  forms a corresponding matching requirement Qb according to the digits and/or characters recognized by the barcode recognition module  12 . In other words, the user may retrieve the one-dimensional and/or the two-dimensional barcode of the merchandise using the handheld apparatus  100 ′; and the auto-indexing of the related digits and/or characters of the related merchandise may start after the digits and/or the characters of the barcode are recognized utilizing the barcode recognition feature of the handheld apparatus  100 ′. 
         [0037]    The matching result Mo may be acquired after searching, indexing, and merchandise matching of the local geographical database base on the matching condition Qa and/or Qb. The matching result Mo may have one or more matching data subsets, where  FIG. 5  illustrates an embodiment of a matching data subset u′(n). The matching data subset u′(n) may also comprise the merchandise data content  501 , the store data content  502 , and the rating related information  503  and/or positioning path  504 . The store data content  501  may comprise the name of the merchandise, the network connection information (i.e., the website of the merchandise . . . etc.), the pricing related information (i.e., the suggested selling price), the styling related information, the merchandise&#39;s barcode, date of selling, date of manufacturing, warranty period, and/or the expiration date and/or the picture of the merchandise. The store data content  502  may also include the name of the store, the network connection information (i.e., the store&#39;s website), the pricing related information (i.e. the actual selling price of a particular merchandise and/or its discounts and/or any promotion availability), the styling related information (i.e., the quantities of in-stock merchandises of different styles) and/or the store related information (i.e., the picture of a store, and other branches, their identification number and/or addresses) . . . etc. The rating related information  503  may be the actual rating and/or comments of the merchandises and/or the stores. The navigation path  504  may be a geographic path navigated from the handheld apparatus  100 ′ to the location of the store, or to the merchandise&#39;s place of origin, the maintenance stops, and/or the manufacturer. Similar to the related discussion in  FIG. 2 , different matching data subsets of the matching result Mo may also be sorted according to the matching level. 
         [0038]    In the embodiment of  FIG. 1 ,  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5 , the features of image character recognition module  12  and the barcode recognition module  14  may be realized using software executables and/or recognition code of firmware of a processor (not shown in the figure) in the handheld apparatus  100  (and  100 ′). The communication feature between the network module  22  and the merchandise service platform  200  ( 200 ′) may be realized following the wireless communication specification for data transmission and receiving, for example, the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and/or the mobile wireless communication specification like the 3G wireless communication technology. The information matching module  30 ′ of the merchandise service platform  200 / 200 ′ may be realized by executing appropriate management programs, and the geographic database  32 , the rating database  34  and the merchandise database  36  may be realized using non-volatile memory apparatus, i.e., hard disks, optical discs and/or magnetic tape . . . etc. 
         [0039]    In summary, the present disclosure provides a user friendly, intuitive and convenient geographic merchandise matching service that combines both user&#39;s geographic location and their instant needs, and thus creates a value-added application for handheld apparatuses/positioning system. 
         [0040]    While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not to be limited to the above embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structure.