Abstract:
The present invention relates to interactive advertising which permits a vendor to be provided with feedback from interested consumers. A publically accessible data transfer system is also disclosed which permits members of the public equipped with personal digital assistants (PDA) ( 45 ) to receive and transmit data via a transponder ( 9 ) located on outdoor advertising signs ( 1 ) or similar locations. The transponder ( 9 ) includes a cache memory ( 54 ) and is able to communicate with a server ( 42 ) to upload and download data. A system of product data dissemination and a commercial premises data transfer system are also disclosed.

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates generally to advertising and the transfer of data utilizing “advertisements” including a transponder.  
         BACKGROUND ART  
         [0002]    Products, in particular, and to a lesser extent services, are commonly displayed by advertisers who are essentially vendors of the products or services. Typically such advertisements include outdoor advertisements such as posters, billboards, neon lights, etc as well as other forms of advertisements such as appear in print media, etc. Outdoor advertising is normally located in prominent positions in the community such as in airport terminals, at bus shelters, or the sides of road and on buildings. Especially in the case of large display advertisements, the advertiser commonly spends a great deal of money both on producing the advertisement and on renting the advertising space of the display. Despite such large expenditure, the advertiser often has little, if any, feedback as to how many customers like the advertisement, find the product appealing, would like to buy the product etc. except as a result of ad hoc word of mouth communications from customers. Thus, display advertisements have hitherto been a means of present passive media and inviting the customer to remember a brand, phone number or website addess in the hope that the customer will purchase or contact the advertiser of the product or service at a later stage.  
           [0003]    The present invention seeks to provide a means by which an interested prospective customer, intending purchaser, etc can contact the advertiser or vendor. From this initial aim, a system for data transfer in a publicly assessable manner has evolved as will be explained hereafter.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0004]    In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a publicly accessible data transfer system to permit data from a plurality of sources and destinations to be transferred therebetween, said system comprising:  
           [0005]    (i) a plurality of transponders each including a transponder transceiver and a cache memory,  
           [0006]    (ii) a server having a memory, communicator means to communicate with said transponders, and means to cycle though each of said transponders in sequence to down load first information from each transponder cache memory to said server memory and up load second information from said server memory to said cache memory, and  
           [0007]    (iii) a plurality of portable devices each including a device transceiver able to communicate with said transponder receivers and data generation means to generate device data to be transmitted by said device transceiver,  
           [0008]    wherein device data from any predetermined one of said devices can be transmitted via any predetermined one of said transponders to said server, second information from said server can be transmitted via said one transponder to said one device, and device data from said one device can be transmitted via said one transponder to another said device or can be transmitted via said one transponder to said server and via another said transponder to said device.  
           [0009]    In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention there is disclosed an interactive advertisement including a transponder having a transponder transceiver and a cache memory, said transponder transceiver being configured to communicate with any one of a plurality of portable device transceivers, and being operatively associated with an icon displayed in said advertisement.  
           [0010]    In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a system of product data dissemination, said system comprising a plurality of advertisements each of which includes a transponder having a cache memory and a transponder transceiver configured to communicate with any one of a plurality of portable device transceivers, said cache memory including stored product data relating to a product displayed by said advertisement, and said stored product data being transmitted from said cache memory via said transponder transceiver to said portable device following receipt of a signal by said transponder transceiver from said portable device transceiver.  
           [0011]    In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a commercial premises data transfer system to permit sales data to be transferred, said system comprising:  
           [0012]    (i) at least one transponder having a transponder receiver and a cache memory,  
           [0013]    (ii) a server having a memory and being connected with said transponder to communicate data in either direction between said server memory and said cache memory, and  
           [0014]    (iii) at least one portable device including a device transceiver able to communicate with said transponder receiver and data generation means to generate device data to be transmitted by said device transceiver,  
           [0015]    wherein said data transmitted from said device to said server memory comprises sales orders and said data transmitted from said server memory to said device comprises product availability data. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0016]    [0016]FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a first embodiment of the present invention showing an interactive display and two forms of message transmitter,  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a display system incorporating a multiplicity of the interactive displays of FIG. 1,  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of a display system incorporating a multiplicity of the interactive displays of FIG. 1,  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of a vendor&#39;s premises incorporating a single interactive display,  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of the circuit components incorporated in the server and interactive displays of FIG. 4,  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view of a location having a number of interactive displays and a number of customers, and  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram similar to FIG. 5 but for the arrangement of FIG. 6. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0023]    According to a first embodiment of the present invention there is disclosed, as shown in FIG. 1, an interactive display  1  including a billboard  2  and message transceiver  3 . The billboard  2  has a peripheral frame  6  and carries an advertisement  5  which in this case is for a laptop computer  8 .  
         [0024]    As seen in FIG. 1, the message transceiver  3  includes a transponder logo  9  in the form of a BLUEFISH (trade mark) the eye of the fish logo  9  being an infra-red receiver and transmitter  10 .  
         [0025]    In accordance with this embodiment, a customer having a portable transmitter  13  sends a message to the transceiver  3 . Although the portable transmitter  13  is able to take on a variety of forms, two preferred embodiments are shown in FIG. 1. The first preferred embodiment of the transmitter  13  is a mobile phone  14  which includes an infra-red transceiver  15 . Such mobile phones are commonly known, include buttons  17  and are therefore able to be readily adapted to be used with the interactive display  1 .  
         [0026]    The second preferred embodiment of the transmitter  13  also shown in FIG. 1, is a single purpose held-held unit, such as a key ring  16  which includes an infra-red transceiver  15  (or just a transmitter) and one or more buttons  17 .  
         [0027]    In use, a customer reads the advertisement  5  on the billboard  2  and, if the customer is interested in the product, the customer points the infra-red transceiver  15  of their transmitter  13  towards the transceiver  3  on the interactive display  1  and presses one or more buttons  17 . In the preferred embodiment the display information includes an indication of the buttons  17  which the customer should press, depending upon the type of message they want send. For example, if the customer wants the advertiser to send them by mail or e-mail a brochure, order form etc. about the product or service advertised, they should press “#1”. If the customer wants the advertiser to contact the customer by telephone, the customer should press “#2”. If the customer wants to purchase the product or service from the advertiser, the customer should press “#3”. If the customer wanted information transmitted back to their transmitter  13 , the customer should press “#4”. Numerous other combinations of buttons and/or messages are also envisaged.  
         [0028]    In this way, a previously passive media of an advertisement on a billboard, or an equivalent display is able to become an interactive display, not only allowing a customer to order products, or gain further information, but also providing the advertiser or information provider with feedback as to how successful the advertisement was.  
         [0029]    In an advanced embodiment of the present invention, the display  1  is an LCD, television or plasma screen which responds to the first message sent by the transmitters  13 , thereby enabling a customer to then select an option from an hierarchical menu of choices. For example, where the advertiser has a number of models of lap-tops for sale in response to the customer&#39;s first message, the advertisements changes to the menu of choices. The customer then sends a second message to select a particular model by pressing an appropriate button  17  (or combination of buttons). The advertisement  5  therefore responds to, and interacts with the customer. Additional options are possible by means of detailed instructions printed on the advertisement  5 . The LCD, LED or plasma versions permit much more complicated levels of menus and options thereby decreasing the number of buttons  17  in a sequence which the customer is required to press.  
         [0030]    The message sent by the customer to the transceiver  3  preferably includes a variety of information, including (but not limited to) the customer&#39;s name, address, phone number, email address, age, identification number, (e.g. social security number), credit card information etc. Such information can be pre-stored within the mobile phone  14 , for example.  
         [0031]    Once the interactive display  1  has received a message from the customer, a message confirmation device, such as a light  19 , is preferably activated, so that the customer knows that the message has been received. Alternatively, the message confirmation can be achieved by sending a confirmation message to the mobile phone  14  which the customer reads on the screen  31  of the mobile phone  14 . In alternative embodiments, the confirmation message includes additional product information, such as product prices, lead times, etc.  
         [0032]    Once the initial message has been received by the transceiver  10 , it is able to be dealt with by the transceiver  10  in a variety of ways. One preferred embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 2. In this preferred embodiment, a multiciplicity of interactive displays, which each include a message transceiver  3 , all transmit customer requests to a base station  21 . Each customer request transmitted preferably includes at least customer information, customer request information and display identification information. When the base station  21  receives a customer request, it interacts with a database  25  in order to associate one of a number of advertisers or information providers  26  with each particular interactive display  1 . The base station  21  then on-sends the customer request to the particular information provider  26 . The request on-sent preferably includes at least- customer information. The customer provider  26  then responds to the customer request in an appropriate way, such as by sending the customer brochures, contacting the customer by telephone or e-mail, or processing the customer&#39;s purchase request, and delivering the product-service to the customer.  
         [0033]    The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2 is designed especially for. use with billboards  2  which are situated in public areas, such as displays in airports, bus shelters, on the sides of buildings etc. An alternative embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 3 is appropriate for use in a single vendor situation such as a supermarket or department store. In such an embodiment, the customer views the advertisement(s)  5  on a multiplicity of interactive displays and, if the customer would like to purchase any particular product, the customer uses the transmitter  13  to send a message to the transceiver  10  on the display  1  (see FIG. 1). Each of the multiplicity of transceivers  3 , once they receive a message from a customer sends the customer request to a vendor  29 . The vendor  29  then processes the customer order in a variety of ways. In one embodiment, the vendor produces a list of products ordered by a customer and has the products packaged together and delivered to the customer. Alternatively, the products could be packaged and held for the customer to pick up either as they are leaving the store, or shortly thereafter. In one preferred embodiment, the customer&#39;s order is processed each time they send a message, and the total charged to an appropriate payment means, such as a credit card, so that the customer need only sign off on the purchase(s) as they leave the department store or supermarket. In a further embodiment, the customer&#39;s credit card information is securely stored in the database  25  in an appropriate manner. In an alternative embodiment, for example in a women&#39;s fashion store, the customer request is simply used to add the customer&#39;s details to the catalogue mailing list.  
         [0034]    Turning now to FIG. 4, schematically illustrated wherein is the premises of “JOE&#39;S DINER” where an interactive display  1  is positioned at a prominent location within the premises. The display  1  is connected by wiring  41  to a server  42  which is in turn connected to a visual display unit (VDU)  43  and a printer  44 .  
         [0035]    A waitress whose job it is to take orders within the premises is provided with a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)  45  such as that sold under the Registered Trade Mark PALM PILOT and preferable the AVANTGO model thereof. The waitress can take an order from a customer, enter the order into the PDA  45  and then point the infra red communication port (not illustrated) of the PDA at the BLUEFISH logo  9 . Pressing one of the buttons  47  on the PDA 45  up-loads the data entered into the PDA  45  to the transceiver  3  of the interactive display  10 .  
         [0036]    The transceiver  3  then transmits the order to the server  42  which in turn causes the order to be displayed on the VDU  43  located in the kitchen. In this way the customer&#39;s order is transferred to the kitchen without the waitress having to walk to the kitchen or call out to the kitchen.  
         [0037]    Further, information can be transmitted in the reverse direction as illustrated in FIG. 4. Thus, if a menu item is exhausted, a signal can be sent from the server  42  via the transceiver  10  to the PDA  45 . Thus the waitress can advise the next customer who proposes to order that menu item that it is unavailable.  
         [0038]    When a customer requests the invoice at the conclusion of the meal, the waitress inputs the request into the PDA  45  and again points the PDA  45  at the BLUEFISH logo  9  and presses button  47  on the PDA  45 . This results in a print request being sent from the PDA  45  via the transceiver  3  to the server  42  which, in turn, instructs the printer  44  to print the invoice. Thus the printed invoice is immediately ready for the customer at the printer which is preferably located adjacent the exit and cash register.  
         [0039]    Alternatively, the waitress can input the customer&#39;s credit card details into the PDA  45 . This then enables a credit card chit to be printed by the printer  44  or an electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS) transaction to be conducted via the server  42 .  
         [0040]    [0040]FIG. 5 shows in block diagram form the contents of the display  1  and server  42 . The server  42  has memory  50  which is connected with a central processor unit (CPU)  51 . The CPU is also connected with a modem  52  which communicates with the display  1  via wiring  41 .  
         [0041]    In the display  1  is located an equivalent modem  53  which is connected to both a cache memory  54  and the transceiver  3  (which are also inter-connected). A display CPU  55  is also connected to both the cache memory  54  and transceiver  3 .  
         [0042]    The memory  50  is able to be loaded with data such as the available menu items and their code numbers via a DATA IN line  56  which connects the modem  52  to a keyboard (not illustrated), for example. This data can then be conveyed to the cache memory  54  and transmitted to the PDA  45  via the transceiver  3 .  
         [0043]    The same basic form of server  42  and interactive display  1  is also able to be used in the situation illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7. Here there are a number of interactive displays illustrated in the form of a billboard interactive display  1 A which is stationary, and vehicle side interactive display  1 B which is mobile. Other forms of display include a shop window display, a kiosk display, etc which are not illustrated. The billboard displays are connected to the server  42  as before but via a spread spectrum radio frequency communications link  61 . Other forms of communication include but are not limited to infra-red, microwave, ultrasonic, RF, sonar or laser signals. One or more remote personal computers (PC)  64  can be connected via the internet  63  to the server  42  in known fashion.  
         [0044]    Preferably the RF communication  61  between the server  42  and any transponders  9  with which it so cornmunicates, takes place in the unlicensed 900 MHz band and at a speed of 19.6 Kb/s. A typical range is approximately 1 mile and line of sight communication. Each server  4  is able to service 200-500 of the transponders  9  and sequentially polls same in order to provide transmission management. The link between each transponder  9  and the PDA&#39;s  45  is preferably by means of infra-red (IR) transmission at a rate of from 115 Kb/s up to 4 Mb/s. As the cache memory is preferably 8 MB, the exchange of data between PDA  45  and transponder  9 , typically takes less than 5 seconds. The range of communication between the transponder  9  and PDA  45  is typically 1 meter (3 feet).  
         [0045]    The arrangement illustrated in FIG. 6 constitutes a self contained communications system which is analogous to, but different from, known mobile phone systems.  
         [0046]    As schematically indicated in FIG. 6, any of a number of PDA&#39;s  45 A,  45 B,  45 C etc. can communicate with any of the interactive displays  1 A,  1 B etc. Preferably eight channels are available for communications between the PDA&#39;s  45  (which can, for example, be BLUEFISH enabled) and the displays  1  and each cache memory  54  of each display holds 8 Mbits. Further, each 10 minutes or so the server  42  cycles amongst the displays to either up load or down load information to or from the cache memories  54  as required.  
         [0047]    Thus the organisation providing the network capability and server  42  can offer channels of data to subscribers. Thus a subscriber with a PDA 45 A, for example, can download for display on the screen of the PDA 45 A data such as news summaries, stock exchange prices, weather forecasts, sports results, etc. Alternatively, and/or additionally a traveling salesman having a PDA 45 C, for example and waiting for a bus whilst sitting in a kiosk having display  1  can download from his PDA 45 C sales orders received previously and entered into the PDA by the salesman. Such sales orders can be transmitted to the display  1  together with the universal resource location (URL) of the remote PC 64  which collects such orders and sends the goods for despatch.  
         [0048]    Similarly, such a traveling salesman is able to have transferred to him messages such as emails sent by third parties via the intemet to his remote PC 64 . Also two individuals having PDA&#39;s  45 A and  45 B, for example, are able to communicate with each other via the BLUEFISH logo  9  of display  1 A, for example and exchange diary information with a view to ensuring that appointment clashes are avoided.  
         [0049]    As indicated in FIG. 6, BRAND Y coffee can include in its advertising a particular alphanumeric code, in the example of FIG. 6 the code is AX 1234 . This code can be used in radio, TV and print advertising in addition to the advertisement  5 . The interested customer is then able to enter the code AX 1234  into his PDA  45 . Then either at the same time, or at a later date, the PDA  45  is used to send the code to any BLUEFISH logo  9  and its associated transceiver. This results in sales data pertaining to the advertisement or product displayed on the display  1 A being down loaded to the PDA  45 A. This data is then able to be read either immediately or at a later time by the interested customer and can be regularly updated by the advertiser.  
         [0050]    Standard PDA&#39;s come equipped with a “business card” function in the form of a button, which when pushed transmits a set of identifying data including the name, address, contact details, etc of the PDA user to other PDA users. A BLUEFISH enabled user has a slight modification to their “business card” function. Preferably this data is transferred as conventional ASCII characters and the modification is that the last two characters transferred are two carriage return characters. These two carriage returns enable the transponder  9  to recognise if the user is already a customer of the BLUEFISH data transfer system.  
         [0051]    If the two carriage returns are present, their presence is effectively ignored by the cache memory  54 . However, if the two carriage returns are not present, then transponder  9  is triggered into sending BLUEFISH enabling software to the PDA  45  at an initial transmission between the transponder  9  and the PDA  45 .  
         [0052]    The traditional way for such software to be loaded into a PDA is for the user to contact www.bluefishwirewless.com via a PC. enroll and then download the enabling software. At the same time personal credit card information can also be registered. If then the PDA and PC of the user are inter connected, the enabling software can be transferred from the PC to the PDA which is then ready for use.  
         [0053]    In the above described data transfer via transponder  9 , the PDA is preferably a PALMPILOT with AVANTGO software loaded therein and the business card “beaming” function thereof is modified by the enabling software to generate the above described dual carriage return. This then ensures that irrespective of how the user “enrolled”, once enrolled the transponder  9  will recognise the user.  
         [0054]    The preferred form of personal digital assistant (PDA)  45  includes a IR transceiver and one of its four buttons  47  is for “beaming” or operating the built-in transceiver. The user of such a PDA device only has to hold down button  47  to receive information. The information received can be any information or transaction based content which the advertiser wishes to transmit from the display  1 . Customised BLUEFISH information channels are also preferably updated during such transmissions.  
         [0055]    During such transmissions the user of the PDA  45  is also sending information as well as receiving information. The new information will include transactions recently performed, the PDA user&#39;s email outbox, and a user identification code, with, which ultimately received by the server  42  will be matched with the user information stored in memory  50  at the time the user was enrolled.  
         [0056]    As seen in FIG. 7 the server  42  of FIG. 6 is modified relative to the server  42  of FIG. 5 by the inclusion of a modem  60  to permit communication via the internet  63 . In addition, the server  42  includes a RF transceiver  57  to enable radio communication with a similar RF transceiver  58  in the display ( 1 B in FIG. 7). Thus the display  1 B of FIG. 7 is also modified relative to the display  1  of FIG. 5 in that the RF transceiver  58  replaces the modem  53  of FIG. 5. Although the transceiver  3  of FIG. 7 is indicated as an IR transceiver (to distinguish it from the RF transceiver  58 ), it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the transceiver  3  can use other modes of transmission (such as RF) instead of infra-red. However, the IR transmission is presently the most convenient.  
         [0057]    The above described arrangements are also able to be used with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) enabled mobile phones. Such phones do not have any built in intelligence (unlike a PDA) but do have an IR communications port. Since WAP enabled communication charges are presently very expensive, the above described arrangement enables the use of WAP to be avoided.  
         [0058]    In a first embodiment, the WAP enabled mobile phone is used to transmit via the BLUEFISH logo  9  and its associated transceiver  3  the identity number of the mobile phone, plus the advertisement specific code AX 1234 , for example. This information is then transmitted by any route to the telephone company together with the requested product data. Since the telephone company knows both the telephone number and the billing name and address of the mobile phone subscriber, the requested information can be sent by mail to the phone subscriber or can be sent by voice mail or text message to the mobile telephone itself.  
         [0059]    The telephone company is able to charge for this activity and include the charge in the next invoice sent to the subscriber.  
         [0060]    In an alternative arrangement, the mobile phone user can “beam” his phone onto the display  1 B of FIG. 6 for example and request the product identification code (which is not displayed on the dog food advertisement). This code, say BZ 4321 , is then transmitted by the display  1 B to the mobile phone. The code BZ 4321  can then be sent via the mobile phone network to the telephone company which then ascertains the data and sends it to the mobile phone subscriber as before.  
       Industrial Application  
       [0061]    The cost of the apparatus described herein is substantially less than known apparatus of equivalent, or near-equivalent functionality. For example, the transponder  9  and server  42  plus PDA  45  of FIG. 4 costs in the vicinity of US$ 1 , 000 . To this needs to be added software in the vicinity of approximately US$1,000. Thus, for an outlay of the order of US$2,000 the vendor is able to create a meal ordering system for which an equivalent purpose built system sold by NCR Inc. and enlisting a transponder without cache memory  54 , for example, sells for approximately US$56,000.  
         [0062]    Further, whilst in a conventional mobile phone system the telephone company must pay for the cost of all transmitters and repeaters in the system and hope to recoup this cost through subscriber access, subscriptions and usage charges, in the above described arrangements an advertiser pays subscriptions at a premium rate in order to advertise its products or services and is prepared to pay that premium rate because it receives feedback about the number of “hits” its advertisements receive and receives the added functionality of generating direct sales from their advertisement. It also obtains marketing data about the profiles of customers and prospective customers—something that a passive billboard is quite unable to provide, even if a particular new advertisement is deemed to be a success. As a consequence of this advertising revenue, a publicly available network is built at the client&#39;s expense rather than at the owner&#39;s expense. This represents a significant saving relative to a mobile telephone network, for example.  
         [0063]    In a still further embodiment, once the mobile phone user is aware of the code BZ 4321 , the mobile phone user can use the WAP internet facility to request the described information directly from the advertiser or information provider.  
         [0064]    The foregoing describes only some embodiments of the present invention and modifications, obvious to those skilled in the art, can be made thereto without departing from the present invention.  
         [0065]    The term “comprising” as used herein is used in the inclusive sense of “having” or “including” and not in the exclusive sense of “consisting only of”.