Patent Publication Number: US-2009234723-A1

Title: Publicly generated advertisement system and method

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present disclosure relates to advertisement systems, and, in particular, to a system and method for displaying and exchanging an advertisement over an electronic advertisement system. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Bulletin board advertisements take on many forms, such as posters, business cards, fliers, etc. Typically, bulletin boards are utilized in public spaces (e.g., malls, libraries, university common areas, etc.) to facilitate the exchange of advertisements, information, public announcements, event announcements, help-wanted advertisements, lost item/pet posters, etc., between the posting party (the “advertiser”) and an interested party (the “consumer”). Consumers interested in a particular item posted on the bulletin board must have a pen and paper handy to write down information related to that item (e.g., contact information, item description, important dates, etc.) or, alternatively, must remove the item in which they are interested from the bulletin board to take with them. 
     Further, conventional bulletin boards often suffer from overcrowding of postings. Typically, bulletin boards are governed by the public for the public. That is, advertisers may post items on a bulletin board at no charge and for no enforceable time limit or expiration. As such, bulletin boards often become messy and overcrowded with duplicate items, items posted over other items, and items that have become obsolete. Further, conventional bulletin boards create no revenue for the owner of the space in which the bulletin board is located. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present disclosure relates to electronic advertisement systems, and, in particular, to a system and method for displaying and exchanging publicly generated advertisements over an electronic advertisement system. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, an electronic advertisement system for displaying and exchanging advertisements includes an input interface operably coupled to a processing module. The input interface is configured to communicate at least one advertisement to the processing module. The processing module includes a processor configured to process the at least one advertisement communicated from the input interface and a memory operably coupled to the processor. The memory is configured to store the at least one processed advertisement therein. The system further includes at least one display device operably coupled to the processing module. The at least one display device is configured to receive the at least one processed advertisement from the processor and display a representation of the at least one advertisement thereon. The system further includes an output interface operably coupled to the processing module. The output interface is configured to retrieve the at least one processed advertisement stored in the memory and output a representation of the at least one advertisement based on the at least one retrieved processed advertisement. 
     According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, an electronic advertisement system for displaying and exchanging advertisements includes an input interface operably coupled to a processing module. The input interface is configured to selectively receive at least one advertisement and to communicate data corresponding to the at least one advertisement to the processing module. The processing module is configured to process the data corresponding to the at least one advertisement communicated from the input interface and store the data corresponding to the at least one advertisement therein. The system further includes at least one display device operably coupled to the processing module. The at least one display device is configured to receive the processed data corresponding to the at least one advertisement from the processing module and display a representation of the at least one advertisement based on the processed data corresponding to the at least one advertisement received from the processing module. The system further includes an output interface operably coupled to the processing module. The output interface is configured to selectively retrieve the processed data corresponding to the at least one advertisement stored in the processing module and output a representation of the at least one advertisement based on the processed data corresponding to the at least one advertisement retrieved from the processing module. 
     The present disclosure also provides for a method for exchanging an advertisement over an electronic advertising system. The method includes the initial step of selecting at least one input parameter related to the input of at least one advertisement via an input interface. The method also includes the step of inputting the at least one advertisement into the system via the input interface based on the at least one input parameter, wherein the input interface is configured to communicate the at least one advertisement to a processing module. The method also includes the step of processing the at least one advertisement via the processing module. The processing module is configured to communicate the at least one processed advertisement to at least one display device and store the at least one processed advertisement for subsequent retrieval. The method also includes the step of representing the at least one advertisement via the least one display device based on the at least one processed advertisement received from the processing module. The method also includes the step of selecting at least one advertisement represented on the display device. The method also includes the step of selecting at least one output parameter related to the output of the at least one advertisement via an output interface, wherein the output interface retrieves the at least one selected advertisement from the processing module. The method also includes the step of generating a representation of the at least one selected advertisement via the output interface based on the at least one selected output parameter. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       These and other advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the various embodiments of the present disclosure with reference to the drawings wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a publicly generated electronic advertisement system in accordance with the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a front view of the system of  FIG. 1  implemented according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a publicly generated electronic advertisement system in accordance with one embodiment the present disclosure; and 
         FIG. 4  is a flow chart diagram illustrating a method for using the publicly generated electronic advertisement systems of  FIGS. 1 and 3 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Embodiments of the presently disclosed advertisement system will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings in which like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding elements in each of the several views. 
     Throughout this description, the term “advertisement” is defined as any information and/or data that may be input into, displayed on, and output from the system of the present disclosure; the term “advertiser” is defined as a party utilizing the system of the present disclosure to input an advertisement into the system for display thereon; and the term “consumer” is defined as a party utilizing the system of the present disclosure to output a selected advertisement displayed on the system. 
     Reference is first made to  FIG. 1 , which shows a functional block diagram of a publicly generated electronic advertisement system  100  to facilitate the exchange of advertisements between an advertiser and a consumer in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     Generally, system  100  includes an I/O component  110  in operative communication with a display device  150 . In  FIG. 1 , I/O component  100  is shown separate from the display device  150 . This configuration is illustrative only in that the I/O component may be integrally formed with the display device  150  or otherwise operably coupled thereto (e.g., in a kiosk-type configuration) or, alternatively, may be arranged such that the I/O component  110  communicates with the display device  150  via hardwiring or wirelessly over a proximity based communication linkup (e.g., Bluetooth). The I/O component  100  includes an input interface  120 , a processing module  130 , and an output interface  140 . In use, the input interface  120  is configured to receive an advertisement (not explicitly shown) from an advertiser through a variety of methods (discussed below). The input interface  120  communicates the advertisement to the processing module  130 . In embodiments, the advertisement may be converted into a digital image file (e.g., JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, etc.) by the input interface  120  depending on the method used to input the advertisement, as will be discussed in further detail below. 
     The processing module  130  is configured to process and store the advertisement received from the input interface  120 . Once processed and stored, the processing module communicates the processed advertisement to the display device  150 . Based on the processed advertisement received from the processing module  130 , the display device  150  graphically represents the advertisement. Advertisements input and processed by the system  100  for graphical representation through the display device  150 , may include, but are not limited to, business cards, commercial advertisements, classified advertisements, fliers, event announcements, public announcements, help-wanted advertisements, etc. It should be appreciated that advertising may be manually entered through the input interface (e.g., via a keyboard or a touch-screen). In the case of commercial advertising, a fee may be charged to increase revenue for the owner and/or administrator of the system  100 . 
     Operation of the I/O component  110  is controlled by the processing module  130 . The processing module  130  includes a processing unit or CPU  132  and a memory  134 . The memory  134  is generic and may comprise RAM, ROM, CD-ROM, or other storage such as hard disk, magnetic tape, and the like. Other devices for accepting, capturing and storing data are well known and the above list should not be construed as exhaustive. 
     The memory  134  may contain stored advertisement data, system software, layout templates, and/or a system handling process. The system software (not explicitly shown) is run by the CPU  132  and may reside in ROM, RAM, or other units of storage. The system software may be pre-loaded with suitable software having content filtering functionality, as is known in the art, to prevent obscene or adult-oriented materials from being graphically represented on the display device  150 . In embodiments, advertisements may be stored in the memory  134  prior to being displayed on the display device  150  until viewed and approved by a system administrator. For example, the memory  134  may store advertisements in a queue based on the date of input. In this way, a system administrator may view advertisements on a first-come-first-serve basis and approve or reject advertisements accordingly. It will also be appreciated that the memory  134  may be a shared or distributed resource among many processors (not explicitly shown) in a networked configuration. 
     The CPU  132  is configured to process advertisements communicated from the input interface  120 . Once processed, the CPU  132  stores the processed advertisement in the memory  134  and, subsequently, communicates the processed advertisement to the display device  150  for graphical representation. The system  100  may attach a so-called “time stamp” to each processed advertisement that corresponds to the date the advertisement was received by the system  100 . Once the advertisement is communicated to the display device  150 , the placement, representation, and/or orientation of the advertisement as graphically represented on the display device may depend on system monitored parameters such as preferences of the advertiser specified at the time of input, the category of information input (e.g., advertisement, public announcement, etc.), the category of advertisement, the amount of consideration paid by the advertiser, the attached time stamp of an advertisement, etc. For example, particular advertisements may be scheduled to be displayed at specific times based on any one or more of the above listed parameters. Further, advertisements may be displayed on the display device along with the corresponding time stamp. In embodiments, the system  100  may organize advertisements based on time stamps such that recent advertisements are displayed prior to and/or more prominently than older advertisements or vice-versa. 
     For purposes of illustration, input interface  120  is shown to include a scanning device  122  incorporating image capture technology, a keyboard  124 , and a network  126 . The input interface  120  may include any one of the above listed options or any combination thereof. It should be appreciated that input interface  120  encompasses any suitable user input device as would be within the purview of one skilled in the art. The input interface  120  may include a USB port (not explicitly shown) to which a device having so-called “plug-n-play” functionality (e.g., a flash drive, a digital picture frame, etc.) may be connected to transfer data to the I/O component  110 . In this manner, users may transfer advertisements from plug-n-play devices to the system  100  for processing and subsequent display on the display device  150 . Advertisements may also be output to plug-n-play devices, as will be discussed below. 
     In embodiments, the input interface  120  may include a card reader (not explicitly shown) in operative communication with the processing module  130  and configured to capture data from an encoded identification card (e.g., a magnetic swipe card, a smart card, a bar code, a proximity card, etc.). In this scenario, advertisers and/or consumers may utilize any suitable identification card (e.g., biometric ID cards, employee ID cards, student ID cards, government ID cards, etc.) to enter information into the system  100 . A suitable identification card may include encoded information, such as a unique access-control pass number, biometric information related to the cardholder, personal contact information, electronic cash or credit for usage fees, loyalty and/or frequent usage information, etc., which the system  100  utilizes to facilitate so-called “smart system” functionality. More specifically, the data captured by the card reader is communicated to the processing module  150  for processing. The processed data may be stored in one or more databases in memory  134  to catalogue key information related to advertisers and/or consumers. Once the system  100  has captured the key information from the identification card of a particular advertiser and/or consumer, the system  100  may thereafter recognize that advertiser and/or consumer during a subsequent use based on a comparison between data stored on the system  100  and data captured from the identification card during the subsequent use. In this way, the system  100  may learn information about particular advertisers and/or consumers to facilitate a customizable experience with respect to use of the system  100 . For example, once the system  100  has recognized a particular advertiser and/or consumer during a subsequent use, the system  100  may initially display advertisements from a particular category on the display device  150  based on the historical uses of the system  100  by that particular advertiser and/or consumer. For advertisers recognized by the system  100 , advertisements previously posted by that particular advertiser may be retrieved and presented on the display device  150  to the advertiser. The system  100  may then query the advertiser as to whether or not the system  100  should continue to display a particular advertisement and, if so, for how long should the system  100  continue to display the advertisement. 
     In certain embodiments, the input interface may include a suitable payment device (e.g., a magnetic card reader) to allow advertisers to make a payment via debit card and/or credit card prior to inputting an advertisement. In this scenario, the system owner or administrator may charge the advertiser a fee for use of the system. For example, the advertiser may be made to pay more or less depending on the length of time the advertiser desires to advertise (e.g., the expiration date), the size of the advertisement and/or the surface area occupied by the advertisement, or other parameters dictated by the system owner or administrator. 
     The scanning device  122  may utilize image capture technology to scan advertisements for processing by the CPU  132 . The scanning device  122  may be, for example, a scanner, a xerographic copy device, or integral with a print network configuration (e.g., the scanner component of a xerographic digital copier). It will be appreciated that the scanning device  122  may convert the scanned advertisement into a digital image file (e.g., JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, etc.) and that the system software is suitably adapted to interpret the digital image file for processing by the CPU  132 . In use, an advertiser uses the scanning device  122  to scan an advertisement. The digital image file is communicated to the processing module  130  and processed by the CPU  132 , stored on the memory  134 , and subsequently communicated to the display device  150  for graphical representation. In certain embodiments, the scanning device  122  and the keyboard  124  may be utilized in conjunction such that the advertiser utilizes the keyboard  124  to input parameters required by the system  100  prior to scanning an advertisement. For example, the system  100  may require the advertiser&#39;s contact information and location, the category of advertisement (e.g., commercial, announcement, help-wanted), the sub-category within the category of advertisement (e.g., particular industry of a commercial advertisement), the expiration of the advertisement (e.g., the desired duration of time for the advertisement to be displayed), the dimensions of the advertisement (e.g., height and width), the orientation of the advertisement (e.g., portrait or landscape), particular display devices on which to post the advertisement (discussed below), etc. Further, it may be useful to store and catalogue records related to advertiser profiles and/or preferences to streamline the system process for subsequent uses by a particular advertiser and/or consumer. 
     The keyboard  124  may also be utilized to interface with a plurality of layout templates (not explicitly shown) that define presentation characteristics for advertisement content to be presented on the display device  150 . More specifically, specific layout templates may be defined for a variety of advertisement categories (e.g., business card, commercial advertisement, announcement, etc.) and pre-loaded into the memory  134 . In use, the advertiser utilizes the input interface  120  to specify the category of advertisement to be posted (e.g., via the keyboard  124 ). The CPU  132  retrieves the proper layout template from the memory  134  and lays out the current advertisement content on the display device  150  using the selected layout template. Once laid out on the display device  150 , manipulation and/or editing of the advertisement may be achieved through use of the input interface  120 . 
     The network  126  may be any suitable network within the purview of one skilled in the art, such as a wired network, the Internet, a LAN, a WAN, etc. An advertiser may use any known computing device (e.g., a computer, hand-held computing device, cell phone, etc.) to remotely communicate with the input interface  120  via the network  126 . In this manner, an advertiser may use the network  126  to communicate with the input interface  120  (e.g., via email, FTP, DTP, client/server, etc.) to remotely input an advertisement via the input interface  120  for processing by the processing module  130 . Further, the system  100  may be adapted to interact with handheld devices (not explicitly shown) over a proximity based communication linkup (e.g. Bluetooth type communication). In embodiments, an advertiser may interact with the input interface  120  via the network  126  to post advertisements utilizing the layout templates. For example, an advertiser may scan advertisements utilizing a remote scanning device (not explicitly shown) to convert the advertisements to a digital image file. Once converted, the digital image file may be communicated over the network  126  (e.g., via email) to the processing module  130 . Once received by the processing module  130 , the advertisement is processed in the same way as discussed above. 
     In embodiments, the input interface  120  may be represented as a graphical menu interface on the display device  150  (e.g., a touch-screen) to allow the advertiser to interactively select the method of input (e.g., scanning device, keyboard, network, etc.) prior to inputting the advertisement. In other embodiments, the input interface  120  may include a graphical menu interface (not explicitly shown) in operative communication therewith, such as a touch-screen. In either configuration, supplemental information such as instructions specified for a particular method of input may be provided to the advertiser via the graphical menu interface to ensure proper operation of the input interface  120 . The display device  150  may be any known electronically driven dynamic display which facilitates the display of multimedia advertising content. That is, the display device  150  can be any commercially available high contrast flat panel display, high contrast plasma display, and the like. Alternatively, the display device  150  may be electric paper (“e-paper”). 
     Platforms utilized to present information via the display device  150  may include any suitable multimedia platform including digital text, full motion video, audio and high resolution graphics. The multimedia platform utilized may depend on a number of system monitored parameters such as the type of display device utilized (e.g., electronic billboard, LCD, e-paper, etc.) and/or by parameters input by the advertiser at the time of posting the advertisement. In embodiments, the display device  150  may be connected to the I/O component  110  through an onboard video card (not explicitly shown) suitable to facilitate the presentation of the multimedia platforms described herein for use with embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     In embodiments, the display device  150  may be adapted to graphically represent advertisements in a single-page arrangement or a multi-page arrangement. In either arrangement, one or more advertisements may be represented on a given page and the system may include functionality which provides searching, zooming, scrolling, etc. For example, the advertiser and/or consumer may scroll left, scroll right, scroll up, scroll down, zoom in, and/or zoom out on the screen. Additionally, the advertiser and/or consumer could invoke page forward, page backward and go to page options using buttons or other user interface elements (not explicitly shown). To facilitate efficient searching, the system  100  may employ an interactive (e.g., touch-screen) table of contents and/or table of categories graphically represented on the display device  150  and/or a table of categories to enable quick searching based on one or more search parameters (e.g., date posted, type of advertisement, category of advertisement, industry of advertisement, etc.). In embodiments wherein the system  100  is utilized in a work-place, educational, and/or multi-residence setting, a reference directory may be graphically represented on the display device  150  to allow users to locate a particular employee, student, resident, etc. Further, the reference directory may be interactive in nature (e.g., touch-screen) to allow a user to make selections from the reference directory and obtain additional information related to parties listed in the directory (e.g., contact information). 
     The output interface  140  is configured to output advertisements graphically represented on the display  150 . In the illustrated embodiment, the output interface  140  is in bidirectional communication with the processing module  130  and includes a printing system  142  and a communication interface  144  (e.g., a network interface). 
     In embodiments, the output interface  140  may be represented as a graphical menu interface on the display device  150  (e.g., a touch-screen) to allow the consumer to interactively select the desired advertisement and the method by which the selected advertisement will be output (e.g., printing system, communication interface, etc.). In other embodiments, the output interface  140  may include a graphical menu interface (not explicitly shown), such as a touch-screen, in operative communication with the output interface  140 . In either configuration, supplemental information such as instructions specified for a particular method of output may be provided to the consumer via the graphical menu interface to ensure proper operation of the output interface  140 . Further, the display device  150  and/or the output interface  140  may include searching functionality (e.g., via the graphical menu interface) to allow a consumer to search for a particular advertisement. For example, the consumer may search advertisements by category, location (if applicable), industry, posting date, expiration date, etc. 
     Printing system  142  may be, for example, one or more xerographic printing devices configured to retrieve printing instructions from the system software corresponding to the advertisement selected by the consumer and, subsequently, print the selected advertisement onto a substrate  160  (e.g., printing paper, photo paper, etc.) for retrieval by the consumer. In use, if the printing method is selected by the consumer, the printing system  142  retrieves the selected advertisement from the memory  134  via the CPU  132  and prints the advertisement onto the substrate  160 . In this manner, the target user may retrieve an advertisement in a so-called “hard-copy” format from the output interface  140 . This benefits the consumer in that the consumer does not require a pen and paper to write down the information from the advertisement in which they are interested. In embodiments, the output interface  140  may include a USB port (not explicitly shown) to which a device having plug-n-play functionality (e.g., a flash drive, a digital picture frame, etc.) may be connected. In this manner, selected advertisements may be output to the plug-n-play device. 
     The communication interface  144  may be any suitable network device configured to transmit data over a network to a remote computing device  180  (e.g., a computer, hand-held computing device, cell phone, etc.). In other words, a computer, switch, router, gateway, network bridge, proxy device or other network device that is programmed or otherwise configured to operate as explained herein is considered an embodiment of this disclosure. In the illustrated embodiment, advertisements presented on the display device  150  may be transmitted from the communication interface  144  to a remote computing device  180  (e.g., a computer, hand-held computing device, cell phone, etc.) via e-mail over a network (e.g., Internet  170 ) or via text message over a wireless network. In use, a consumer interacts with the output interface  140  (e.g., utilizing the card reader to capture data from an identification card) to specify an email address (or multiple email addresses) to which the consumer desires the selected advertisement(s) to be transmitted. If the e-mail method of output is selected by the consumer, the communication interface  144  retrieves the selected advertisement from the memory  134  via the CPU  132  and transmits an e-mail containing the advertisement (e.g., as an attached file) to the consumer-selected email address over a network (e.g., the Internet  170 ) to the remote computing device  180 . It should be appreciated that the communication interface  144  is configured to transmit advertisements to a single email address or multiple email addresses. Advertisements output through the communication interface  144  may be, for example, a replicated image of the advertisement (e.g., a digital image file) or text in the body of the email and/or attached as a text file containing particular information corresponding to the advertisement (e.g., contact information). In other embodiments, advertisements may be printed directly to a print image file, such as a TIFF, PostScript, RIP, PDF or PCL file and subsequently attached to the email. 
     In embodiments, coupons and/or information related to a selected advertisement may also be output through the communication interface  144 . For example, the system  100  may automatically email coupons to a consumer based on a currently selected advertisement and/or periodically email coupons to a consumer based on advertisements previously selected by that consumer as recognized by the system  100  based on prior uses. Further, communication interface  144  and network  126  may be configured to operate via a common network device utilizing an incoming server (e.g., network  126 ) and an outgoing server (e.g., communication interface  144 ). 
     More specifically, a consumer may select advertisements presented on the display device  150  by interacting with the output interface  140 . For example, the output interface  140  may be represented as a graphical menu interface on the display device  150  (e.g., a touch-screen) to allow the consumer to select particular advertisements, select the method of outputting the selected advertisements (e.g., printing, email, etc.), and/or enter an email address to which the selected advertisements are to be transmitted. Additionally or alternatively, the output interface  140  may include a graphical menu interface (not explicitly shown) in operative communication therewith, such as a touch-screen. In either configuration, supplemental information such as instructions specified for a particular method of output may be provided to the consumer via the graphical menu interface to ensure the advertisement is properly output from the output interface  140 . Once an advertisement is selected by the consumer, the output interface  140  retrieves the selected information from the memory  134  via the CPU  132  and outputs the information according to the method specified by the consumer via the output interface  140 . 
     With reference to  FIG. 2 , an embodiment of the system  100  of  FIG. 1  is shown to illustrate a user interacting with the I/O component  100 . The illustrated embodiment of the system  100  depicts the display device  150  mounted to a wall surface and operably coupled to the I/O component  100 . For purposes of illustration, the I/O component  100  is shown to include the scanning device  122 , keyboard  124 , and printing system  142 . The user of the system  100  is depicted interacting with the scanning device  122  to input an advertisement to the system  100  in the manner discussed above with reference to  FIG. 1 . In other embodiments, the I/O component  110  may be configured to communicate with the display device  150  remotely. For example, the I/O component  110  may be separated into individual components (e.g., the scanning device  122 , keyboard  124 , and printing system  142 ) and/or may be mounted to a wall surface in the proximity of the display device or positioned on the surface of a table-like structure or wall unit in the proximity of the display device. 
       FIG. 3  shows a detailed block diagram of a publicly generated electronic advertisement system  200  according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The system  200  operates similarly to the system  100  shown in  FIG. 1  and is only described to the extent necessary to illustrate the differences with respect to the first embodiment. System  200  includes an I/O component  210  having an input interface  220 , a processing module  230 , and an output interface  240 . The I/O component  210  is in bidirectional communication with a display device system  250  having a plurality of display devices  250 ′- 250   n . 
     Operation of the I/O component  210  is controlled by the processing module  230 . The processing module  230  includes a processing unit or CPU  232  in bidirectional communication with a memory  234 . The processing module  230  is configured to process advertisements received from the input interface  220  and subsequently communicate the advertisements to any one or more display devices  250 ′- 250   n . The memory  234  is configured to store advertisements processed by the CPU  232  for subsequent retrieval. 
     In use of the embodiment illustrated in  FIG. 2 , an advertiser may operate the input interface  220  to input an advertisement via a scanning device  222 , a keyboard  224 , remotely over a network  226 , or any combination thereof. With the multiple display device configuration of the illustrated embodiment, the input interface  220  provides the advertiser with the option to select one or more display devices  250 ′- 250   n  on which to post the advertisement (discussed below). This option is in addition to the options made available to the advertiser by the system  100  embodied in  FIG. 1 . 
     In the illustrated embodiment, the display devices  250 ′- 250   n  are shown in operative communication with a single I/O component  210 . This configuration is illustrative only and each of the display devices  250 ′- 250   n  may include a dedicated I/O component. Each dedicated I/O component may be in operative communication with the dedicated I/O component of any one or more of the other display devices  250 ′- 250   n , e.g., in a networked configuration. In this manner, a single I/O component may be utilized to input or output an advertisement from any one or more display devices or, alternatively, an I/O component dedicated to any one display devices may be utilized to input or output an advertisement presented on any one or more display devices. 
     The output interface  240  is in bidirectional communication with the CPU  232  and includes a printing system  242  and a communication interface  244 . The printing system  242  is configured to print consumer-selected advertisements to a substrate  260 . The communication interface  244  is configured to transmit consumer selected advertisements from the communication interface  244  to a remote computing device  280  (e.g., a computer, hand-held computing device, cell phone, etc.) via e-mail over a network (e.g., Internet  170 ). The output interface  240  is configured to output advertisements selected by the consumer presented on any one or more of the display devices  250 ′- 250   n . 
     The configuration of system  200  may be advantageous, for example, in a university scenario wherein an advertiser posts an advertisement to any one or more selected display devices  250   n . Users viewing the display devices  250   n  (e.g., students) may select content in which they are interested (e.g., via touch-screen, by swiping an identification card encoded with contact information, etc.) and a follow-up email or text message containing the content or information related thereto may be sent to the student for subsequent retrieval from a computer in their dorm room. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates a method for utilizing the systems of the presently disclosed embodiments of  FIGS. 1 and 2 . In step  310 , the advertiser selects input parameters such as the category of advertisement to be input, the method of inputting the advertisement into the input interface  120 ,  220  (e.g., scanning device, keyboard), the advertisers contact information and location, the expiration of the advertisement, and the particular display devices on which the advertisement is to be displayed. In step  320 , the advertiser inputs the advertisement into the input interface  120 ,  220  in accordance with the method of input selected in step  310 . In step  330 , the advertisement input in step  320  is communicated to the processing module  130 ,  230  and processed by the CPU  132 ,  232 . Once processed, the advertisement or, data corresponding thereto, is stored into the memory  134 ,  234  for subsequent retrieval. In step  340 , the CPU  132 ,  232  communicates the processed advertisement to the display device(s)  150 ,  250   n  for graphical representation of the advertisement. Advertisements graphically represented on the display device(s)  150 ,  250   n , may be searched by a consumer 
     In step  350 , a consumer selects an advertisement graphically represented on one or more display devices  150 ,  250   n  (via steps  310 - 340 ) for subsequent output via the output interface  140 ,  240 . In step  360 , the consumer selects the desired method of outputting the advertisement selected in step  350  via the output interface  140 ,  240 . In step  370 , the advertisement selected in step  350  is output in accordance with the method of output selected in step  360 . 
     The described embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to be illustrative rather than restrictive, and are not intended to represent every embodiment of the present disclosure. Various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure as set forth in the following claims both literally and in equivalents recognized in law.