Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110029398 | Geo name service for validated locations and occupants and URLs - We define a Geo Name Service (GNS) that maps from a location query to a geographic region that contains the location and, in turn, to verified owners and occupants of that region, where these entities could be persons or organisations. The GNS then returns URLs of websites or data feeds (Web Services), email addresses, Instant Messaging addresses, phone numbers and other data associated with the entities. The GNS can associate locations with the Internet and Web in a reliable manner, and it enables value added computing and electronic commerce. The GNS can disambiguate references to individuals in web pages, using “person URLs” and “person files”. A person URL is a URL at the GNS that represents a given location and a person living or working at that location. A person file has one or more maps from a text string that represents a person's name in a page at some URL to a person URL that refers to a specific person at a specific location. | 02-03-2011 |
20110130114 | Safety device for enhanced pedestrian protection - A safety device (SD) with wireless ability, and fixed and mobile, multispectral sensors in an urban region is used for improved protection of a pedestrian, who contacts it via a cellphone. SD tracks and records her and her interactions with others, who might also be tracked if the interactions are suspicious. SD offers her access to a Safety Kiosk (SK) as a shelter against a possible hostile person, where the SK is a multipurposed structure with some other primary use, like an Automated Teller Machine enclosure. SD can archive messages and calendar data associated with the pedestrian and germane to upcoming meetings with others. | 06-02-2011 |
20130026217 | USING DYNAMIC BARCODES TO SEND DATA TO A CELLPHONE - An electronic screen capable of showing dynamic images is used to display a set of barcodes, where the barcodes are ‘played’ at the same location on the screen. The screen might also show other material. The data encoded in the barcodes is decoded by a user with a cellphone and camera, that can decode each barcode and combine the data from all the barcodes. This can be extended with the screen also showing static barcodes that encode URLs, where the URLs go back to a web server that also controls the screen. A user with a cellphone and camera scans one of these static barcodes and uses a browser to go to the decoded URL. The web server uses this visit to change what is being shown in the dynamic barcodes, or to change the conditions under which the latter are displayed. | 01-31-2013 |
20130086465 | Barcode and cellphone for privacy and anonymity - A user with a mobile device (e.g. cellphone) can transfer sensitive data to her device from another computer, where the latter might be a computer in a bank, or associated with a bank, like an Automated Teller Machine. The external computer has a screen that shows data, encoded in a barcode. The user's device has a camera that can take an image of the barcode and decode it. If there is too much data to be encoded in a single barcode, they could be encoded in several barcodes, which are then played on a computer screen and imaged by the user's device. The user avoids directly accessing the transmitting device on the Internet, for improved anonymity and privacy. The data that is transferred might be keys to a symmetric cryptosystem, or a one time pad, to encrypt a future interaction between the user and the other entity. | 04-04-2013 |
20130313313 | Mobile device audio from an external video display using a barcode - An electronic screen shows video that has a barcode wrapping an URL. A user images the barcode with a mobile device and decodes it into a web page with an audio feed corresponding to the video. Or the barcode wraps a phone number which the user's device contacts to get an audio feed. The web page lets the user pick between several audio feeds, where the feeds might be in different languages. Several users get audio feeds for the same screen. An electronic screen controlled by a user with a mobile device shows a barcode. Another user with a mobile device images the barcode and causes the screen to be 2 split screens, where the original user has one and the new user has the other. Each split screen can offer via barcode a separate audio track that can be heard by a user with a cellphone. | 11-28-2013 |
20130325524 | Dynamic group purchases using barcodes - A movie theatre shows a barcode on an electronic screen separate from the projection screen, on a side wall of the movie room. The barcode lets a patron buy tickets to movies shown in trailers on the projection screen. The patron uses a mobile device, like a cellphone, to image the barcode and decode an URL to a web page. The electronic screen also shows a table of ticket purchases, with thresholds allowing for discounted prices. The purchases are mostly from patrons in the theatre, but could also include from patrons at other theatres seeing the same trailers. This allows dynamic group purchasing of tickets in an interactive feedback loop. | 12-05-2013 |
20140349746 | BARCODE-BASED METHODS TO ENHANCE MOBILE MULTIPLAYER GAMES - How do 2 people near each other and who have cellphones play a multiplayer Internet game? The first person visits it on her phone. She gets a barcode of an URL with an id of her Internet address. The second person images it with his phone and connects to the server. The server sends pages to both phones, to let them play the game. A barcode can add more people to the game. A player hands her character to a nearby person with a mobile device. Or to add watchers to follow the Point Of View of a player. A barcode can transfer assets between players, in a game that encourages physical proximity and enhanced social interaction. Another method of linking the players is where the phone emits a sound that maps to an URL. The other phone records and decodes the URL. It queries the server with the URL, to log the second person into the game. | 11-27-2014 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130157760 | Colour barcodes and cellphone - A two dimensional barcode with default background and foreground colours uses other foreground colours, to make separate means of encoding data, used by decoding hardware and software, or by an observer's perception. The new colours show text or graphics. A barcode on a dynamic display shows a progress indicator for an operation started by a user who imaged the barcode with her phone. Or it shows the number of votes for users who picked it with their phones. The barcode could show scrolling text. A barcode on a computer screen simulates a pushbutton; pressed when the user takes a photo of it with a cellphone. Suppose a barcode has a symbol drawn on its foreground rectangles, and the barcode encodes a URL. The URL is crafted to maximise the number of foreground rectangles that the symbol intersects, helping a human interpolate the symbol from fragments. | 06-20-2013 |
20140100899 | DYNAMIC GROUP PURCHASES USING BARCODES - A movie theatre shows a barcode on an electronic screen separate from the projection screen, on a side wall of the movie room. The barcode lets a patron buy tickets to movies shown in trailers on the projection screen. The patron uses a mobile device, like a cellphone, to image the barcode and decode an URL to a web page. The electronic screen also shows a table of ticket purchases, with thresholds allowing for discounted prices. The purchases are mostly from patrons in the theatre, but could also include from patrons at other theatres seeing the same trailers. This allows dynamic group purchasing of tickets in an interactive feedback loop. | 04-10-2014 |
20140115102 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CHANGING AN ELECTRONIC DISPLAY THAT CONTAINS A BARCODE - A cellphone with a camera takes a photo of a barcode in a screen that can show different images. The barcode is decoded into a URL, and the cellphone uses wireless Internet access to visit the website of the URL. The website then makes a different image that also has a barcode of a URL, and sends it to the screen for display. This can increase the interactivity of the screen and its value to advertisers. Several users with cellphones might simultaneously interact with the screen in this manner. | 04-24-2014 |