Patent Publication Number: US-2015066621-A1

Title: Method and apparatus for providing advertisements to customers

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention generally relates to advertisements, and more particularly to providing targeted advertisements to customers. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Many stores, track customer purchases in order to keep a database of the buying habits of their customers. This is usually accomplished by offering “rewards cards” to their customers to increase customer loyalty. These reward cards (i.e. loyalty cards, club cards, preferred customer cards, etc.) provide the customer with discounts or points for a future purchases in return for personal information. Retailers use the personal information to track purchasing habits of their customers. A backend database is used for tracking customer purchases (customer preferences) along with techniques to determine more efficient marketing campaigns and advertising opportunities. 
     Prior-art systems have been designed to provide targeted advertisements to customers based on their shopping habits. For example, US Pub. No. 2002/0174025, entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING TARGETED ADVERTISING AND PERSONALIZED CUSTOMER SERVICES, (incorporated by reference herein) provides for a system that tailors specific advertisements to customers that are currently shopping. 
     With the many hundreds of items a customer may purchase on a regular basis, it is often difficult to determine products the customer is looking for when they enter a store. For example, a shopper may enter the store with the intent of doing their weekly grocery shopping, or the shopper may enter the store with the intent of picking up an energy drink before heading to the gym. As is evident, it would be beneficial to target different advertisements to the shopper in the above two scenarios. Any technique that aides in determining a shopper&#39;s intent (intended products to purchase) would be beneficial to a system providing targeted advertisements to the shopper. Therefore a need exists for a method and apparatus for providing targeted advertisements to shoppers that targets advertisements to the shopper based on their intent. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying figures where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views, and which together with the detailed description below are incorporated in and form part of the specification, serve to further illustrate various embodiments and to explain various principles and advantages all in accordance with the present invention. 
         FIG. 1  is block diagram illustrating a general operational environment, according to one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a system for providing targeted advertising and personalized customer services using a wireless communication device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a flow chart showing operation of the systems of  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 . 
     
    
    
     Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In order to address the above-mentioned need, a method and apparatus for providing targeted advertisements are provided herein. During operation a system will determine a shopper&#39;s intent based on the shopper&#39;s attire (i.e., what the shopper is wearing and/or carrying). Specific advertisements will be sent to the shopper based on the shopper&#39;s attire. Because advertisements will be provided to shoppers based on the shopper&#39;s attire, shoppers will be more likely to receive an advertisement better tailored to their current needs. 
     It should be noted that a shopper&#39;s attire is not necessarily limited to what the clothing worn by the shopper. It is intended that the term “attire” means anything worn or carried by the shopper. For example, items like sunglasses, purses, bags, jewelry, or any other item carried by a shopper are considered herein to be part of a shopper&#39;s attire. It should also be noted that the terms customer, individual, and shopper are meant to be interchangeable. These terms are meant to describe a person who is shopping for particular items. 
     With the above in mind, if a shopper enters a store carrying multiple shopping bags, it can be assumed that many items will be purchased and that the shopper is shopping for their weekly grocery supplies. On the other hand, if the shopper enters the store carrying no bags and dressed in workout clothes, it can be assumed that the shopper is in the store to pick up a few needed items related to a workout. In each case, advertisements may be targeted to the shopper accordingly. For example, in the first scenario, advertisements may be presented to the shopper that relate to sales on a customer&#39;s preferred grocery items (past purchases of grocery supplies). In the second scenario, advertisements may be presented to the shopper that relate to sports fitness products. Thus, in the first scenario the shopper may be provided with the weekly sales on vegetables and meats, where in the second scenario the shopper may be provided with sale information on sports energy drinks or nutritional supplements. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a system  100  for providing targeted advertising. The system is preferably similar to the system described in the &#39;025 publication discussed above. The system  100  can be implemented in or for a store, shopping mall, or other shopping area or environment. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the system  100  includes a data processor  14 , multiple communication interfaces  16  (only one shown), a customer service database  17 , an advertisement database  18 , a video/image analytics engine  124 , a camera  125 , and at least one customer interface  20 . Customer interface  20  (including display device  23 ) may comprise a personal-digital assistant (PDA)  20  carried by a user such as a customer, or may simply comprise a customer&#39;s smartphone running an appropriate application, and serving as a customer interface to system  100 . In alternate embodiments of the present invention interface  20  may comprise devices using other means of communications such as, but not limited to voice-mail, email, text, messaging, etc. Regardless of the form customer interface  20  takes, interface  20  will comprise a graphical user interface that provides targeted advertisements to the user of device  20 , and will be described below in system  100  as a user&#39;s smartphone. 
     The smartphone  20  comprises a conventional smartphone capable of short-range wireless communication  22  with the communication interface  16  according to known communication techniques such as infrared communication or “Bluetooth” techniques. Although not shown in  FIG. 1 , device  20  also contains a communication interface. 
     To provide short-range wireless communication  22  between the smartphone  20  and the communication interface  16 , e.g., using Bluetooth techniques, each of the smartphone  20  and the communication interface  16  includes therein a Bluetooth radio unit known in the art. 
     When the smartphone  20  carried by the customer is present within a predetermined communication range of the communication interface  16  and the smartphone  20  is in a state where communication is enabled, the communication interface  16  initiates communication with the smartphone  20  through any short-range wireless communication such as the Bluetooth radio units according to Bluetooth techniques, and is able to access automatically certain information or files stored in the smartphone  20 , such as shopping list files, to-do list information, purchase history, product preferences, etc. One or any combination of this information is referred to herein as “preference information” identifying products, brands, stores, language, color, currency, size, or any other item preferred by the customer. This information is added to customer service database  17 , which may added/appended to past customer-preference information. 
     The communication interface  16  transmits the preference information collected from the customer&#39;s smartphone  20  to the data processor  14 . The data processor  14  then processes the preference information and utilizes this information and previously collected preference information (such as purchased items) as variables used to select appropriate advertisements for the customer. 
     To select appropriate advertisements that would be likely to interest the customer, i.e., to provide targeted advertising to the customer, the data processor  14  correlates preference information with a list of advertisements that are available in advertisement database  18  and is configured to select appropriate advertisement(s) based on the correlation results according to certain criteria. The advertisements can be stored in the advertisement database  18  or any other location accessible by the data processor  14 . The selected advertisements are communicated to the customer&#39;s smartphone  20  via the short-range wireless communication  22 , and displayed on a display device  23  such as a screen on the smartphone  20 . Different targeted advertisements may be displayed on the display device  23  as the customer roams around the store or appropriate shopping area. In one embodiment of the present invention an advertisement may comprise sale information on items that the user of device  20  may be interested in purchasing. 
     Accordingly, the present invention advantageously provides targeted advertising and advertisements using the smartphone or other communication device registered by the customer based on the customer&#39;s preference information. 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a system  200  for providing targeted advertising and personalized customer services using a wireless communication device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the system  200  includes a data processor  14 , a communication interface  16 , a customer service database  17 , an advertisement database  18 , and a shopping cart attachment device  50 , all operatively coupled. In this embodiment, in lieu of the customer&#39;s smartphone  20  ( FIG. 1 ), the communication interface  16  communicates with the shopping cart attachment device  50 . 
     The shopping cart attachment device  50  is preferably installed on a conventional shopping cart that customers use during their shopping. The shopping cart attachment device  50  includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit)  51 , a display device  52 , memory  53 , a communication interface  54 , and a customer card reader  55 , all operatively coupled. The communication interface  54  is configured to perform short-range wireless communication  22  with the communication interface  16  using known communication techniques such as infrared or Bluetooth communication techniques, a combination of Bluetooth and wireless or wired LAN, etc. 
     The customer card reader  55  is a conventional card reader for reading a customer card  62  such as a membership card, a credit card, a debit card, a customer ID card. The customer card  62  includes a storage unit  80  for storing the customer&#39;s personal information, preference information, etc. The storage unit  80  can be in the form of an optical medium, a magnetic stripe, a chip, a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag, a hologram, etc. Depending on the type of the storage unit  80 , the type of the customer card reader  55  will vary. For example, if the storage unit  80  of the customer card  62  is a RFID tag, the customer card reader  55  will be a RFID tag reader for scanning radio signals from the RFID tag wirelessly. If the storage unit  80  of the customer card  62  is a semiconductor chip, then the customer card reader  55  is a smart card reader for reading the chip when the customer card  62  is inserted into the card reader  55 . All these storage units and card readers are well known in the art. If the storage unit  80  is a RFID tag, the customer&#39;s preference information pre-stored in the RFID tag of the customer card  62  can be updated on a regular basis by rewriting wirelessly the information stored in the RFID tag according to known RFID tag techniques as the customer&#39;s preference changes. In addition, the storage unit  80  can be configured to store therein the demographic information about the owner of the card  62 . The demographic information can supplement the preference information to provide more targeted advertising and more personalized customer services. 
     In the systems of both  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 , camera  125  and video analytics engine  124  may be utilized to better tailor advertisements sent to the shopper. In both scenarios where the customer preferences are, and are not available to the system, an attempt at determining the shopper&#39;s intent may be made by analyzing what the shopper is wearing and/or carrying, and providing advertisements based on what the shopper is wearing and/or carrying. In this situation, data processor  14  (which may comprise a microprocessor) will:
         associate a particular shopper with a particular device  20 ;   determine customer preferences (if available), which may include past items purchased by the user of device  20 ,  50 , and items existing on the customer&#39;s shopping list;   determine the shopper&#39;s attire;   determine appropriate advertisements based on the shopper&#39;s attire and the customer preferences (if available); and   transmit the appropriate advertisements to the user.       

     The above-described steps will result in an advertisement being provided to a device based on what the shopper&#39;s attire. This will greatly aide in determining a shopper&#39;s intent when customer preferences are known and unknown. 
     Associating a Particular Shopper with a Particular Device  20 ,  50   
     During the use of system  100  or  200 , there may be many shoppers roaming a store. There must be a technique to associate particular shoppers that are detected by engine  124  with their associated devices  20  or  50 . In other words, when devices  20  or  50  are detected, a need arises to determine “who” is in possession of the detected devices  20 ,  50 . Thus, when a customer enters a store, video analytics engine  124  must be able to associate a particular shopper with a particular device  20  or  50 . 
     In both systems described above, many communication interfaces  16  may be distributed throughout an area. As discussed above, communications to devices  20  and  50  through interfaces  16  are preferably done via short-range communications  22  such as Bluetooth. Thus, when a customer enters a store, they will preferably pass in close proximity to at least one communication interface  16  to register their device  20  or  50 . When this occurs, camera  125  will detect the user and video analytics engine  124  will associate the detected user with the particular device being registered. This association will be maintained until the user exits the premises. 
     In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, facial recognition may be used by engine  124  to identify an associated device. For example, during a registration process, a user may have registered their face with a particular device  20 . When video analytics engine detects the presence of a particular face, data processor  14  can associate the face with a particular device  20 . 
     Determining Customer Preferences: 
     During operation of system  100  and  200 , a user may scan their customer loyalty card. When scanned, data processor  14  can access customer service database  17  to retrieve “customer preference information”. This information may comprise items for sale, such as past items purchased by the customer. Where facial recognition is used, customer preference information may be associated with a particular identified individual. 
     Customer preferences may also include items currently on the customer&#39;s shopping list. For example, the user of the system shown in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  may provide the system with a shopping list that may analyzed by processor  14  and added to the customer&#39;s preferred items. 
     Determining the Shopper&#39;s Attire: 
     The systems of  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  both employ video analytics engine  124  and camera  125  will employ standard video analytics software/hardware to determine the shopper&#39;s attire. For example, it might be determined that the user of device  20  or  50  is:
         carrying a single shopping bag;   wearing formal jewelry;   wearing no jewelry;   carrying multiple shopping bags;   carrying no shopping bag;   wearing sports attire;   wearing formal attire;   wearing casual attire;   etc.       

     Determining Appropriate Advertisements Based on What the Shopper&#39;s Attire: 
     There are two possible scenarios that exist when attempting to identify a customer&#39;s intent: 
     1. The customer&#39;s preferences are known; and
 
2. The customer&#39;s preferences are unknown.
 
     When a customer&#39;s preferences are known, advertisements are sent to the customer that are based the customer&#39;s preferences and their attire. When a customer&#39;s preferences are unknown, the systems of  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  will provide advertisements to the customer based solely on their attire (i.e., what they are wearing and/or carrying). 
     Determining the Customer&#39;s Intent when the Customer&#39;s Preferences are Known: 
     During the operation of the systems of  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 , processor  14  will identify the customer and obtain information on what the customer is wearing/carrying. Database  17  contains information such as Customer Jones purchased a sports drink when wearing workout clothes, Customer Jones purchased weekly groceries when carrying multiple bags into the store, Customer Jones purchased a cup of coffee when dressed in work attire (formal clothes), . . . , etc. Thus, past preference information will be associated with clothing or items carried at the time of purchase. Therefore, when Customer Jones enters the store, processor  14  will be provided the attire, this information can be used to determine past purchases for Customer Jones when dressed in that attire. So, for example, if Customer Jones enters the store wearing formal clothing, data processor  14  can access video analytics engine to determine the attire, then access database  17  to determine items purchased when wearing formal clothing. 
     Determining the Customer&#39;s Intent when the Customer&#39;s Preferences are Unidentified: 
     As discussed above, there may be instances when a customer&#39;s preferences cannot be obtained. When this occurs, the customers intent will then be based solely on what the customer&#39;s attire (i.e., what they are wearing and/or carrying). Advertisements are presented to the shopper based on what the shopper is wearing and/or carrying. 
     In addition to customer preference data for identified customers, database  17  may contain those items purchased by unidentified customers along with their attire. This information is then used to determine appropriate advertisements to present to customer&#39;s whose preferences remain unknown. For example, database  17  may contain information as shown in Table 1. 
     
       
         
           
               
               
               
             
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 Customer Name 
                 Preferred Items 
                 Attire 
               
               
                   
               
             
            
               
                 Jones 
                 Candy Bar 
                 Street clothes, 
               
               
                   
                   
                 no bag carried 
               
               
                 Jones 
                 Sports Drink 
                 Workout clothes, 
               
               
                   
                   
                 no bag carried 
               
               
                 Kim 
                 Coffee 
                 Formal Attire, 
               
               
                   
                   
                 no bag carried 
               
               
                 Customer having 
                 Hamburger, Bread, 
                 Street Clothes, 
               
               
                 Unknown preferences 
                 Fresh Vegetables, Acme 
                 multiple 
               
               
                 (unidentified customer) 
                 Cleaner, . . . , Batteries 
                 bags carried 
               
               
                 . . . 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     As mentioned above, the database  17  illustrated in Table 1 also contains entries for customer&#39;s who have unknown preferences. These customer&#39;s may comprise customers who are unable to be identified, or first-time shoppers. Thus, when a customer&#39;s preferences are not able to be determined, database  17  will provide information on past items purchased by such customers along with their attire. This information may be used when a customer&#39;s identity remains unknown. Thus, when a customer is unidentified, the systems of  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  may “identify” them as an “unidentified customer” so that past preference information may be used. 
       FIG. 3  is a flow chart showing operation of the system of  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 . The logic flow begins at step  300  where a customer is associated with a device by processor  14 . As discussed above, this step is used to determine what device is currently being used by the customer. At step  301  where processor  14  attempts to identify the customer using the device. If the customer is identified, then the logic flow continues to step  303 . If, however, the customer remains unidentified, then the logic flow continues to step  305  where the customer is tagged as an “unidentified” customer. At step  303 , processor  14  accesses analytics engine  124  to determine the customer&#39;s attire. As discussed above, the customer&#39;s attire may comprise what the customer is wearing, what the customer is carrying, or a combination of both. This information is then used by processor  14  at step  307  to search database  17  and predict the customer&#39;s intended products. More particularly, database  17  contains past purchases by the identified customer (customer preferences) along with the customer&#39;s attire when those items were purchased. Database  17  also contains past purchases by unidentified customers (or customers whose preferences are unknown) along with the unidentified customer&#39;s attire when those items were purchased. Once the customer&#39;s attire is determined (step  303 ), this information is accessed by processor  14  to determine past purchases when dressed in the identified attire (step  307 ). At step  309 , processor  14  accesses advertisement database  18  to determine an appropriate advertisement based on the customer preferences when dressed in the particular attire, and at step  311  the advertisement is wirelessly provided to the customer (e.g., to their smartphone) via transmission circuitry, wherein the advertisement is based on the customer&#39;s attire, and optionally, the customer&#39;s preferences. When basing the advertisement on the customer&#39;s preferences, the advertisement may comprise an advertisement regarding a product identified within the customer&#39;s preferences. 
     The logic flow may continue to step  313  where the customer preference database is updated. with items ultimately purchased by the customer. When adding these items to database  17 , processor  14  will also note the attire for the customer so that this information may be added as well. 
     Those skilled in the art will further recognize that references to specific implementation embodiments such as “circuitry” and “processors” may equally be accomplished via either on general purpose computing apparatus (e.g., CPU) or specialized processing apparatus (e.g., DSP) executing software instructions stored in non-transitory computer-readable memory. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein. 
     The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued. 
     Moreover in this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”, “having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. The terms “substantially”, “essentially”, “approximately”, “about” or any other version thereof, are defined as being close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and in one non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, in another embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1% and in another embodiment within 0.5%. The term “coupled” as used herein is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed. 
     It will be appreciated that some embodiments may be comprised of one or more generic or specialized processors (or “processing devices”) such as microprocessors, digital signal processors, customized processors and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and unique stored program instructions (including both software and firmware) that control the one or more processors to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of the method and/or apparatus described herein. Alternatively, some or all functions could be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certain of the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, a combination of the two approaches could be used. 
     Moreover, an embodiment can be implemented as a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable code stored thereon for programming a computer (e.g., comprising a processor) to perform a method as described and claimed herein. Examples of such computer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and a Flash memory. Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation. 
     The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.