38th week of 2014 patent applcation highlights part 198 |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20140279005 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING AN OFFER BASED ON AN ACCOUNT BALANCE AND LOCATION OF A CONSUMER - Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for presenting an offer to a consumer based on account balance information and consumer location information. In some embodiments, a method is provided that includes: (a) receive geographic location information associated with the mobile computing device of the consumer; (b) receive information associated with the credit account of the consumer, wherein the consumer is a holder of the credit account; (c) determine whether the balance value of the credit account has an existing balance value greater than zero; and (d) present, via the mobile computing device of the consumer, the offer to the consumer based at least in part on determining that the geographic location of the mobile device of the consumer is proximate to or coincident with a location of the merchant and determining that the existing balance value of the credit account associated with the merchant is greater than zero. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279006 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING AN OFFER BASED ON AN ACCOUNT BALANCE AND LOCATION OF A CONSUMER - Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for determining an offer based on a balance value of a credit account a location of a consumer having the credit account. In some embodiments, a method is provided that includes: (a) receive geographic location information associated with a mobile computing device of the consumer; (b) receive information associated with the credit account of the consumer, wherein the consumer is a holder of the credit account; (c) determine a balance value of the credit account of the consumer; and (d) determine an offer to present to the consumer based at least partially on the balance value of the credit account and a determined location of the consumer. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279007 | METHOD FOR PERSONALIZED CONTEXT-AWARE, AND PRIVACY PRESERVING REAL-TIME BROKERAGE FOR ADVERTISING - A real-time and privacy-preserving method for delivering personalized information to a user within a specific geographical location is provided. The method comprises the steps of: storing information specific to a user in a database maintained by a centralized brokerage service; transmitting a user initiated request to the centralized brokerage service to provide a listing of products and services offered by retailers or third parties located in the approximate current geographical vicinity of the user; utilizing the stored information of the user to generate a personalized listing of products and services offered within the approximate current geographical vicinity of the user; and sending the generated personalized listing to the user. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279008 | PROVIDING AN OFFER BASED ON ENROLLING A DEBIT ACCOUNT INTO A MERCHANT-SPECIFIC ACCOUNT - Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for providing an offer to a user based on linking a financial account to a merchant-specific account. In some embodiments, a method is provided that includes: (a) determining whether a user is a holder of an existing merchant-specific account; (b) prompting the user to link a debit account to the existing merchant-specific account based at least partially on determining that the user is the holder of the existing merchant-specific account; (c) receiving debit account information for linking the existing merchant-specific account to the debit account of the user; and (d) providing the offer to the user based on successfully linking the debit account to the merchant-specific account. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279009 | SELF-SERVICE INTERCEPT ON OR OFF PREMISE - Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems, methods and computer program products for transmitting an offer to a user associated with an account. An exemplary apparatus is configured to: determine, based on geolocation information associated with a mobile device associated with the user, whether the mobile device is within a predetermined distance of a reference location; in response to determining the mobile device is within the predetermined distance of the reference location, transmit an offer to the mobile device, wherein the offer is associated with a product or a service, and wherein the offer has been previously communicated to the user; and provide an option for the user to accept the offer via the mobile device. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279010 | USING A FEDERATED NETWORK OF RETAILERS TO PROVIDE MESSAGES TO NETWORK CUSTOMERS ASSOCIATED WITH CATEGORIES OF MERCHANTS - Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems, methods and computer program products for communicating messages to one or more customers associated with a federated network of retailers. Embodiments determine that one or more customers associated with the federated network of retailers are in proximity to a retailer physical location associated with a retailer that is a member of the federated network of retailers; create one or more messages based on the determination that the one or more customers are in proximity to the retailer physical location; and initiate communication of the one or more messages to the one or more customers. In some embodiments, determining comprises recognizing a mobile device is associated with a customer of at least one retailer that is a member of the federated network of retailers. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279011 | GENERATING PROMOTIONS FOR A SERVICE USING A MAP INTERFACE - A method for generating promotions for a service is provided. One or more processors provide, on a display of a computing device, a user interface to enable a promoter to create a promotion for a service. The user interface provides a plurality of parameters for the promotion. The promoter is enabled to configure at least one of the plurality of parameters for the promotion. A map interface is provided, on the display, to enable the promoter to identify a geographic region in which the promotion can be used by one or more customers. The promoter can identify the geographic region by creating a boundary using three or more location points selected on the map interface. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279012 | TARGETED ADVERTISEMENTS FOR TRAVEL REGION DEMOGRAPHICS - For an advertisement opportunity near a travel region, advertisements may be selected that are targeted to individuals who are likely to view the advertisement. However, travel patterns among individuals sharing particular traits may exist that facilitate targeted advertising, but may be non-intuitive and therefore difficult to predict, and other techniques, such as population surveys, may be costly and inaccurate. Presented herein are techniques for automatically evaluating travel patterns by tracking the routes of particular individuals, and inferring demographics for such individuals based on the locations of their routes (e.g., an individual whose route frequently includes a residence may be presumed to share the population demographics of the residential neighborhood). Extrapolating such individual demographics may enable inference of shared demographics at particular advertisement opportunities (e.g., among travelers who frequently travel on a particular road at a particular time of day) and the selection of advertisements more closely targeting such individuals. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279013 | ONLINE AND OFFLINE ECOMMERCE CONNECTIONS - Product information from local searches can be furnished based on user actions with respect to an eCommerce system. Information about user actions with respect to a product on the eCommerce system can be retrieved from the eCommerce system. A user intent to purchase the product may be determined based on the information about user actions. The product may then be matched to a product on a local search service. A local search on the matched product may then be performed on the local service, to locate one or more stores local to a user's current location that have the matched product in stock. The results from the local search may be displayed to a user. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279014 | PUSH NOTIFICATIONS FOR LOCATION-BASED CONTENT DELIVERY - Certain embodiments herein may be directed to push notifications for location-based content delivery. Many merchants use coupon printers to print post-purchase coupons. The systems and methods described herein are directed to generating incentives, such as coupons or loyalty points which may be based at least in part on purchases, the current location of the user in proximity to items or stores, and associating the incentives to a user profile associated with the user. The incentives may then later be retrieved by a point of sale (POS) system of a merchant and then applied to any future purchase transactions the customer may desire. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279015 | SHELF-LEVEL MARKETING AND POINT OF SALES ENRICHMENT - A user's mobile device is located to within a few feet of a specific location in a store or other business. From the user's profile, it is determined whether the user may be interested in a particular product sold in the store. A message is sent to the user's mobile device to lead the user to a position directly in front of the product on the shelf. The message may also include a coupon or other promotional material. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279016 | BEHAVIORAL TRACKING SYSTEM AND METHOD IN SUPPORT OF HIGH-ENGAGEMENT COMMUNICATIONS - Systems and methods provide targeted communications for each of a plurality of respective recipients. A database includes user information, customer information, template information, content feed information and advertising information. A template instruction is processed to select a template for generating the targeted communication, which is customized with at least some of the content feed. The targeted communication is scheduled for delivery, and at least some advertising information is selected to be included, as a function of geo-location information associated with at least one of the plurality of recipients. At least some advertising information is processed to format the advertising information with the targeted communication based at least on at least one instruction received from the registered user. The targeted communication is generated and transmitted to each of the plurality of recipients. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279017 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTION OF TARGETED ADVERTISING BETWEEN MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICES - Disclosed are a method and system for distribution of targeted advertising between mobile communication devices. An endorsement program is set up based on a profile of an advertiser having at least one advertising media. A qualified subscriber is identified for the advertiser based on a profile of a subscriber. One or more advertisers and endorsement programs for the qualified subscriber are selected. In addition, when a communication transmission is received from a source communication device, at least one advertising media is associated with the communication transmission and the communication transmission is transmitted from a source communication device to a destination communication device. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279018 | Exclusive Delivery Of Content Within Geographic Areas - Application developers can request to have their applications registered for use with a content delivery platform. The operator of the content delivery platform establishes perimeters defining geographic areas, and maintains records reserving particular areas for delivery of content associated with particular sponsors. Registered applications running on mobile devices can request content from the content delivery platform. Based at least in part on the request, the content delivery platform can identify a target location, which may be the location of the mobile device, or some other location indicated in the request. A mobile device can be provided content based on the relationship of the target location to the geographic areas, so that a registered application running on a mobile device with a target location contained within a geographic area assigned to a particular sponsor will receive content related to that sponsor. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279019 | ELECTRONIC GLOVEBOX FOR A VEHICLE - A method and a system for providing access to a cloud computer from a vehicle. The method carried out by the system includes providing at least one client (e.g., an e-glovebox device). The method also includes configuring a cloud server to allow access to one or more clients and accessing the cloud server using the e-glovebox. The access may include uploading one or more data members to the cloud server. The access may also include downloading one or more data members from the cloud server. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279020 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SEARCHING VEHICLE LISTINGS - The present disclosure relates to computer-implemented systems and methods for searching vehicle listings. An example method may include receiving one or more financial parameters. The method may also include generating one or more proposed transactions that may be defined, at least in part, by the one or more financial parameters. Additionally, the method may include determining, based at least in part on the one or more proposed transactions, for one or more advertised offers associated with one or more vehicles. The method may also include transmitting at least one advertised offer of the one or more advertised offers. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279021 | Ad Manager for a Vehicle Multimedia System - A vehicle computer system comprising a receiver configured to wirelessly receive an advertisement, the advertisement including two or more ad components for output to a user, the receiver further configured to communicate the advertisement to a processor. The processor is configured to receive contextual data representative of a vehicle's environment from one or more data sources, output the advertisement and a first set of ad components to the user based on the contextual data, the first set of ad components including a request to interact with the user, receive an input from a user corresponding to the first set of ad components, and output a second set of ad components based on the input received from the user. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279022 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING CONTENT UNITS DURING APPLICATION USE - A method for producing approved content units for an application. The method can include receiving a new content unit from a content provider, approving the new content unit and forming a list of approved content units, wherein the list of approved content units includes at least the new content unit, and wherein each approved content unit for the application can be integrated within the application during real-time use. In addition, the method can include receiving a request from a client library of the application for the list of approved content units for placement within the application during real-time use, and transmitting to the client library a list of approved content units and, for each of the approved content units, associated data for placement within the application. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279023 | METHOD FOR DATA COMMUNICATION IN A MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM - Method for data communication in a mobile telephone system with a mobile telephone ( | 2014-09-18 |
20140279024 | SYSTEM FOR AND METHOD FOR A CONSUMER EXPERIENCE PLATFORM - Exemplary embodiments provide a campaign tool that enables content providers to bid for the opportunity to transmit their content mobile devices associated with consumers though a cloud based computing environment. The campaign tool is hosted by another entity. The content may be any of a variety of different contents types and may be tailored to be relevant to the consumer. The campaign tool may have a bidding system that implements one or more algorithms to manage the bidding process. The content is pushed to the mobile device following an affirmative action, such as an NFC tap, by the consumer. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279025 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DISPLAY OF MOBILE ADVERTISING CONTENT - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques that enable users to create mobile advertisements having any of several formats. In one format, one or more animated elements may be displayed as an ad transitions from one display state to another. In another format, one or more elements of the mobile advertisement may react to input by a viewer of the mobile advertisement. In yet another format, a viewer may cause a banner ad to expand by “sliding” an element in a given direction, and/or in accordance with a specified pattern. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279026 | ENERGY-EFFICIENT MOBILE ADVERTISING - Various technologies described herein pertain to prefetching advertisements for mobile advertising. A prediction model for estimating a number of advertisements that a mobile client is likely to request during an upcoming prediction time period can be employed. An estimated total amount of time of likely interaction with application(s) executed by the mobile client can be predicted; based upon such prediction, a number of advertisement slots likely to be available and a probability of each of the advertisement slots being available can be computed. Moreover, an ad server can allocate advertisements in a pending advertisement queue and/or disparate advertisements collected from an ad exchange to the mobile client based upon the number of advertisement slots likely to be available, the probability of each of the advertisements slots being available, and aggregated probabilities of the pending advertisements in the pending advertisement queue being displayed prior to corresponding deadlines for expiration. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279027 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING ADVERTISING SERVICES BASED ON DEVICE PROFILES - Methods and systems are described for providing advertising services based on device profiles. In one embodiment, a system generates a device profile for a device based on at least two parameters of a plurality of parameters including location of the device, a social profile for a user of the device, and applications installed on the device. The system determines a likelihood that the user will install an uninstalled application among a set of uninstalled applications and then selects an uninstalled application having a highest likelihood of being installed on the device. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279028 | Mobile Display Device with Flip-Screen Functionality - A method includes displaying a front slate advertisement on a screen of a mobile display device. If a flip-screen command is detected, an animation is displayed on the screen which “flips” the front slate advertisement to the back slate advertisement. Optionally, a flip-screen command detected while in the back slate advertisement will cause an animation to be displayed on the screen which “flips” the back slate advertisement back to the front slate advertisement. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279029 | MOBILE DEVICE USER INTERFACE WITH DYNAMIC ADVERTISING CONTROL INTERFACE AREA - A software development kit for providing advertising in a mobile device user interface is provided. The software development kit includes computer executable program instructions for generating a wrapper view object that wraps an advertising corner control view object. The kit allows an application developer to create an application interface and wrap it in the wrapper view object. When the resulting computer executable instructions are executed, a user interface is displayed with an advertising corner control interface area and an application interface area. The user can select the advertising corner control interface area using a first selection technique to display an advertising interface area and remove the advertising control interface area and the application interface area. The user can select the advertising corner control interface area using a second technique to remove the application corner control interface area while continuing to display the application interface area. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279030 | Email-Based Promotion for User Adoption - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving, by the one or more processors, user input, the user input indicating an assignment of a particular task by a first user to a second user, the first user being a user of a product that provides the particular task; determining, by the one or more processors, that the second user is a non-user of the product and, in response: appending product promotion data to an electronic document, the product promotion data providing a summary of task-based action data that is associated with the second user; and transmitting the electronic document to the second user. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279031 | MOBILE IN-STORE LOYALTY ADVERTISING AND MARKETING SYSTEM AND METHOD - Systems, methods, and media for providing an electronic messaging system in a retail environment are provided. An electronic message board is created in association with a retailer. The electronic message board is accessible in the retail environment and includes a host advertisement. The host advertisement is determined in association with the retailer from a host advertisement database that includes advertisements of indirect advertisers obtained by the host server. The retailer is provided with retailer access controls which enable the retailer to access and control a content of the electronic message board. The retailer access controls further enable the retailer to provide advertiser access controls to a direct advertiser obtained by the retailer. The advertiser access controls enable the direct advertiser to also access and control the content of the electronic message board, and are different than the retailer access controls. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279032 | MOBILE CREATIVE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - A user interface for generating an ad creative for displaying a video advertisement on a mobile includes a control section and a preview section. The operator enters control parameters in the control section and previews the look-and-feel of a video advertisement as it will be played back on a target mobile platform, based on the control parameters. Control parameters include one or more of URLs for video, a web site visited after completion of the video and a web site visited when a user requests additional information. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279033 | REAL-TIME INTERACTIVE DIGITAL ADVERTISING SYSTEM AND METHOD OVER MOBILE WEB MESSAGING SERVICE - An interactive digital advertising system and method may include an advertising component for generating qualified leads in response to a lead request using interactive advertising units. The advertising system may provide “real-time” matching of leads, which may be validated based on a criteria defined by the lead requestor, to the services or products offered by the lead requestor. The interactive advertising units may communicate with leads over mobile messaging services, such as short message service (SMS), instant messaging (IM) service, or the like. The advertising component may generate a unique identification code for each lead request, which responders may use to initiate an interactive screening session with the advertising unit. The advertising component may track the unique identification code, responder's caller ID, and the state of the screening session to maintain the proper sequence of interactions. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279034 | PRODUCTS, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS FOR CREATING AND INTERACTING WITH A MOBILE COMMUNITY - The present disclosure is directed to methods and systems for users to engage with a mobile community. The system includes a mobile device configured to send and receive communication, and a mobile community provider that is communicatively coupled to the mobile device via a network, wherein the mobile community provider includes a user activity analyzer engine and a relationship analyzer engine. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279035 | Systems and Methods for Cross-Channel Sales - This disclosure relates to methods and systems for selling products across sales channels. In one aspect the disclosure relates to receiving information regarding an item that is offered for sale by a first sales channel, receiving information regarding an item that is offered for sale by at least one second sales channel, storing the information received from the first sales channel and the at least one second sales channel, populating a product data record with the information received from the first sales channel and the at least one second sales channel, and offering, in a single transaction, items for sale from the first sales channel and the at least one second channel. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279036 | AD TARGETING SYSTEM - An ad targeting system may provide for determining a prime target based on one or more prime target parameters. The one or more prime target parameters may include criteria for determining a prime target. The criteria for determining a prime target may include one or more of a minimum amount of interactions or associations with individuals and organizations, a minimum amount of notoriety, or a minimum amount of conversions. The system may also provide for deriving a graph data structure based on the prime target and one or more social graph generation parameters. The one or more social graph generation parameters may include criteria for determining targets to link to the prime target. The criteria for determining targets to link to the prime target may include a minimum amount of interactions or associations with prime target. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279037 | Systems and Methods for Creating Product Advertising Campaigns - Systems and methods for creating product advertising campaigns in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. In one embodiment, a product target generation server system includes a processor, product data including a plurality of attribute-value pairs describing a set of products, semantic models including data describing relationships between product targets, concepts described using categories and attribute-value pairs, and target grouping data constituting a set of groupings of product targets, global performance data including performance data, wherein the processor is configured to identify at least one category in a portion of the product data, determine a product advertising structure based on the product data and the identified at least one category, match a portion of the groupings of product data with the product targets within the global performance data, identify performance data, and generate at least one product target using the identified performance data and the product data. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279038 | MULTI-PLATFORM MARKETING, PUBLISHING, DATA COLLECTION, AND ANALYSIS - A social and mobile business tool is provided for managing multi-platform marketing, publishing, and analysis. The marketing and publishing software program provides an intuitive campaign management system and graphical user interface with in-depth, real-time analytics for conducting social, mobile, and digital targeted campaigns. The social and mobile business software program improves how social, mobile and digital campaigns work, by syncing the multi-platform based campaigns together. Simultaneous and full synchronization means a campaign can be launched at the same time across mobile, social and Web platforms, and are fully synchronized so changes to a campaign are reflected across the other platforms immediately. The pairing of simultaneous synchronization with mobile integration and detailed interest and attribute data about what's important to a brand or agency's customers and prospects equates to more intelligent marketing with the ability to react and adjust a campaign thereby leading to stronger sales, and more satisfied, loyal buyers. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279039 | METHOD FOR SELECTIVELY ADVERTISING ITEMS IN AN IMAGE - One variation of a method for selectively advertising items in an image includes: loading an image to a social feed; receiving a first tag and a second tag including identification of a first item and a second item visible in the image, respectively; based on the first tag and the second tag, correlating the first item with a first product and the second item with the second product; based on the first product and the second product, sourcing a first link to a first electronic storefront and a second link to a second electronic storefront that facilitate purchase of the first product and the second product, respectively; and selectively displaying a first visual cue of the first link and a second visual cue of the second link to a first user and to a second user, respectively, according to demographics of the first user and the second user. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279040 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING AND TARGETING MARKETING MATERIALS TO GROUPS ON THE BASIS OF GROUP COMPOSITION - A method of marketing by delivering advertisements and promotional offers to groups comprises preparing promotional offers to be redeemed by groups meeting predetermined conditions related to number of group members, group members' ages and gender, location and anticipated time for promotional offer to be redeemed, and delivering such offers to groups meeting such conditions. Delivery of promotional offers is done via any combination of the internet, a proprietary group server, an advertising exchange, merchants' and publisher's web sites, and cellular communications networks. Redemption of offers is reported to participating entities so that an accounting for revenues may be completed. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279041 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PAYMENT ACCOUNT FEE PREVENTION - Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for payment account fee prevention. A system monitors purchases made by a payment account, the account having a penalty fee that is applied due to purchase inactivity during a period of time and withdraws an amount of money from the payment account prior to the end of the period of time when the system indicates purchase inactivity to avoid the penalty fee application. The amount of money is calculated as a percentage of the penalty fee, such that a user is charged a lesser fee by the system than an entity collecting the penalty fee for account inactivity. In one embodiment, the system presents an interactive notice with an optional product advertisement, as a reminder to the user via a device, enabling a payment to an entity prior to the end of the period of time. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279042 | Social Media Purchase Offers - Methods, systems and computer-readable storage mediums encoded with computer programs executed by one or more processors for providing social media purchase offers are disclosed. An offer strategy construct including: a markup tag associated with a social media platform (SMP), a purchase offer, and criteria for providing the purchase offer in response to a post to the SMP is received. The SMP is monitored for posts corresponding to the markup tag. User info is extracted from the SMP upon a detection that a particular post corresponds to the markup tag. It is determined whether the user info satisfies the criteria. The purchase offer is provided to the user associated with the post as determined from the user info upon a determination that the user info satisfies the criteria. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279043 | PAGE PERSONALIZATION BASED ON ARTICLE DISPLAY TIME - A method for page personalization is provided, including the following method operations: identifying a user operating a client; receiving a request for page data from the client; determining a user profile associated with the user; for each of a plurality of articles, predicting a display time of the article when presented to the user, based on the user profile and features of the article; determining selected articles from the plurality of articles based on the predicted display times; assembling the page data, the page data defining a page when rendered by the client, the rendered page defining references to the selected articles; sending the page data to the client; wherein the method is executed by a processor | 2014-09-18 |
20140279044 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OMNI-CHANNEL IDENTITY MATCHING - In various example embodiments, a system and method for omni-channel identity matching is provided. In example embodiments, identifiers from online and offline communication channels are obtained. A user that corresponds to at least one of the identifiers is identified. An identity profile is created for the user that contains the at least one of the identifiers corresponding to the user. The identity profile is maintained in an identity profile store. A communication, such as an ad request, containing an identifier is received. The identity profile that matches the identifier received in the communication is determined. In some embodiments, an advertisement may be determined to be returned to the user based on the identity of the user. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279045 | CROSS-DOMAIN ID SYNCHRONIZATION IN ONLINE ADVERTISEMENT - Disclosed is a computer-implemented method for audience ID synchronization in a data management platform. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a first redirect traffic from a first domain during a first browser session, in response to a web browser loading an embedded web object on a web page of the first domain; identifying a consumer user by searching through a cookie cache of the web browser to determine whether an unity identifier has been assigned in the cookie cache by the data management platform; in response to determining no unity identifier has been assigned to the consumer user, generating a cookie containing a new unity identifier and dropping the cookie in the cookie cache of the web browser; and synchronizing identifiers for the consumer user with a partner platform by updating a matching table of the identifiers with either the identified unity identifier or the new unity identifier. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279046 | ADVERTISEMENT PROVIDING APPARATUS AND ADVERTISEMENT PROVIDING METHOD - An advertisement providing apparatus includes a first advertisement providing unit, a friend list acquisition unit, a score calculation unit, and a second advertisement providing unit. The first advertisement providing unit is configured to provide a first advertisement to a user group including one or a plurality of users. The friend list acquisition unit is configured to acquire a friend list of a user who clicked on the first advertisement among the users included in the user group. The score calculation unit is configured to calculate, for each friend user included in the friend list, a score in which a click tendency of the friend user is reflected. The second advertisement providing unit is configured to provide a second advertisement that is the same as the first advertisement, to a friend user having a score that satisfies a certain condition. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279047 | ENHANCING TARGETED ADVERTISING IN A HOME NETWORK GATEWAY DEVICE - Advanced set top devices are beginning to merge with home network gateway devices and will soon become the major single entry point into the home. A growing trend and implementation of home gateways is to provide a centralized data entrance point to end user home. Behavioral information may be compiled from each individual device in the home network, and the home network gateway device determines advertisements to insert specifically to each device based on the entirety of the behavioral information compiled from within the home network. The advertisements provided to individual users within the home network may be determined by the home network gateway device, transparent to entities outside the home network. For example, a headend that delivers content to a home network may not know how many devices are connected to a home network gateway device, the type of devices connected, or which devices are receiving content. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279048 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING RELEVANT PATHWAYS THROUGH LINKED INFORMATION - Systems and methods for predicting and monetizing information pathways. An indication is received that a user has visited a webpage and, based on information associated with the visit, a predictive model is used to predict a plurality of webpages that are likely to be visited by the user. The user is then provided with a subset of the predicted webpages as a traversable pathway of webpages. Information relating to the user's traversal of the pathway can be collected and used to facilitate the provision of an advertisement to the user. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279049 | SOCIAL PRODUCT REVEAL - A system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program and a computer-implemented method for providing a social product reveal. Consistent with some embodiments, the method may include presenting content to a first user with a reference to an interaction with the content by a second user. The reference to the interaction conceals the identity of the second user from the first user. The method may further include receiving a request from the first user to reveal the identity of the second user. In response to receiving the request to reveal, a communication is sent to the second user requesting the reveal of his or her identity. Upon receiving a confirmation to reveal from the second user, the identity of the second user is revealed to the first user. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279050 | DYNAMIC CHATBOT - Disclosed is a novel system and process for presenting a customized chatbot. The transaction in one example is a sales transactions. Information is retrieved that is associated with the user or customer. The information includes demographic information of the user or behavioral information of the first party, or a combination of both. A chatbot is presented on the system of the user as of a messaging window of a web page document of an entity selling a good or a service. The messaging window is customized to the end user based on the demographic information of the first party, or the behavioral information of the first party or a combination of both. The messaging window is customized to include one or more of an initial greeting, an appearance of the messaging window, and a picture of an agent. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279051 | Real-Time Advertising System - Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for identifying and assigning advertisements to impression slots based on each advertisement's impression set. An advertisement has one or more attributes, or impressions, that characterize it, which are collectively known as an impression set. Media content providers may take into account an advertisement's impression set when linking advertisements to impression slots. By iterating through a direct access table that contains impression slots and pointers, an advertisement inventory server can link, re-link, and award impression slots to the advertisement that has the highest value. The resulting direct access table shows the value-optimized impression slot assignments as well as the unsold inventory of impression slots in real-time. Furthermore, if a query is submitted, the advertisement inventory server can include the query results in the direct access table. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279052 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ONLINE AUCTION OF DIVERSE ELECTRONIC ADVERTISEMENTS - Systems and methods are disclosed for executing an online auction of diverse online advertisements. One method includes receiving inventory information for serving ads on a publisher web page, the inventory information including at least a first ad configuration different from a second ad configuration, each of the first and second ad configurations defining one or both of an ad size and an ad attribute; receiving or generating a plurality of ad bids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and to serve ads in the second ad configuration; and awarding impressions to one or both of the bids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and the second ad configuration, in a proportion based at least in part on a revenue amount associated with the bids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and bids to serve ads in the second ad configuration. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279053 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR APPLYING SPATIALLY INDEXED DATA TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING BIDS - A method for modifying bids on keywords used in targeted advertising including generating by one or more computers a data map made up of data representing spatially sorted information related to attributes of a plurality of users of electronic devices each located at a respective location within a space and used to access electronic media, receiving from a user computer a bid amount on an opportunity to display an advertisement through the electronic media, and automatically adjusting by the one or more computers the bid amount for each location so that display of the advertisement through the electronic media is spatially optimized based on the spatially sorted information provided by the data map. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279054 | AUCTIONING IN-MAP AD PLACEMENT - A system and machine-implemented method is provided for multi-party auctioning of map content, the method including identifying a first region on a map, determining one or more special bids for one or more map features associated with a location within the first region, determining one or more bids for one or more contents to be placed on the first region, the one or more contents comprising one or more of one or more advertisements or one or more map features, selecting a set of content to be displayed on the first region of the map based at least in part on the one or more special bids and one or more bids, the set of content including one or more of one or more advertisements or one or more map features and rendering the first region of the map including the set of content. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279055 | RULE-BASED BIDDING PLATFORM - A computing system is configured to accept bid rules from merchants for the placement of ads for a plurality of products. The bid rules comprise a bid amount, a rule definition and a priority. The bid amount may be an absolute bid or it may be relative to base advertising rate. The rule definition comprises criteria for describing products to determine when the bid rule is applied to a product for sale. The priority indicates whether the bid rule applies to a particular product when the rule definition of more than one bid rule could be applied to a product. The computing system is also configured to generate a list of product offers based at least in part on the bids. The system may also generate reports for merchants. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279056 | INTELLIGENT PLATFORM FOR REAL-TIME BIDDING - An intelligent platform for real-time bidding (RTB) includes a bidder that allows for the association of additional private or proprietary information with each bid it receives, and allows advertisers to filter impressions based on a rich set of attributes. The bidder can be used to bid across many ad exchanges using the same augmented bidding criteria. The system can have crawlers that include virtual web browser rendering for analysis to allow the system to determine location on a page, a size of the video, how it is played, and information about content in the video. The crawlers can include a browser-specific rendering crawler, which can determine browser-specific behavior. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279057 | METHOD OF AUTOMATICALLY VISUALIZING CONTENT AND MESSAGING OF DOCUMENTS IN A MARKETING CAMPAIGN DESIGN ENVIRONMENT - A method of automatically visualizing the content and messaging of documents in a marketing campaign design environment are provided. The exemplary method includes receiving an identification of a specified Touchpoint of the plurality of Touchpoints in a campaign; instantiating the specified Touchpoint and its elements into a knowledge model; executing semantic inferencing engine to determine inferences based on the plurality of Touchpoints instantiated into the knowledge model; transforming inferences into implicit requirements about the contents for each of the Touchpoints; displaying a representation of the specified Touchpoint; and including within the representation of the specified Touchpoint the Touchpoint contents as described by the explicit and implicit requirements. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279058 | CAPACITY CALCULATOR - Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods and computer readable media for calculating the capacity of a provider by calculating, using biographical data representing the provider, a first total units of service that are available to be offered to consumers during a first time period; calculating a second total units of service potentially available from the provider for a proposed second time period using a projection based in part on a model of consumer demand for the units of service; determining a third total units of service that are unavailable during the second time period based on at least one known or projected unavailability; and calculating a capacity based on the third total units of service and the second total units of service, the capacity being a capacity for a proposed promotion representing a maximum total of instruments to be offered in the proposed promotion by the provider. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279059 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ENHANCED CLIENT COMMUNICATION - The most preferred embodiments of the present invention comprise a system and a method for managing and implementing customer/client retention-related communication activities with a high degree of flexibility and customization, making the present invention particularly well-suited for use in disparate business environments, as well as government and non-profit environments. Deployed over the Internet, the present invention provides a mechanism for multi-tiered organizations to control and manage the types of communications used by company personnel for customer contact, including marketing and similar campaigns for cross-selling, as well as customer loyalty and retention purposes. The most preferred embodiments of the present invention are designed to automate communications and interactions between various industry organizations/sales agents and their customers and/or prospects, including in-process contacts with customers and partners, while also offering data analytics, flexible reporting, custom marketing campaigns/activities, relationship building tools, communication effectiveness reporting and enhanced levels of management control and oversight. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279060 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR A MULTI-CHANNEL, MULTI-TOUCH MARKETING SERVICE - The field of the invention relates to systems and methods for operation of an electronic marketing program service, and more particularly to systems and methods that provide an online user interface, a marketing language, and a marketing engine for multi-channel, multi-touch marketing campaigns. In an embodiment, the system includes an electronic marketing server system coupled to a public network and accessible to one or more users. The marketing server system includes a database that stores contact data associated with a plurality of marketing contacts, and marketing campaign data. The system is configured to provide a common user interface for designing and creating a multi-channel, multi-touch marketing campaign, and providing a Marketing Application Markup Language to a marketing engine for execution. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279061 | Social Media Branding - Methods, systems and computer-readable storage mediums encoded with computer programs executed by one or more processors for providing social media branding are disclosed. A brand strategy construct including a markup tag, a destination platform, a media-type, and a media filter associated with the media-type is received. Posts to a social media platform (SMP) are monitored for media of the media-type associated with the markup tag. Media is extracted from the SMP upon a detection of media of the media-type associated with the markup tag in a post to the SMP. The media filter is applied to the extracted media to generate branded media. The branded media is provided to the destination platform. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279062 | CONSULTANT TOOL FOR DIRECT SELLING - A software application running on a mobile electronic computing device includes receiving and storing contact information for a plurality of business contacts. Editable call scripts and editable email templates are displayed. One or more edited or new call scripts or one or more edited or new email templates are sent to a third party. Communications are initiated to one or more of the business contacts using one or more editable, edited or new call scripts or one or more editable, edited or new email templates. A record of the communications is sent to a server computer. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279063 | METHOD & APPARATUS HAVING VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT FOR DISPLAY & SELECTION OF MARKETING MATERIALS TO CREATE CUSTOMIZED MARKETING KIT & ASSIST PLACEMENT OF MARKETING MATERIALS - A consumer experience modeling system and method includes input of an analysis of a consumer experience into a brand analysis. Consumer analysis includes data from one or more consumer experiences with a consumer environment. Brand analysis includes the input of data from the consumer analysis, and a system and method of modeling the consumer environment. The consumer experience modeling system and method allows an operator to interact with a virtual consumer environment, the key zones of the environment, and the markers therein. The operator can modify the existing markers in the virtual consumer environment, and can create and place new markers therein. The markers can be selected, edited, manufactured, and distributed to an operator's retail consumer environment. Upon receipt of the markers, an operator can access the system to properly implement the markers in the consumer environment. The system interfaces with complimentary marker ordering, printing, and product development software. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279064 | PROGRAMMING AN ADVERTISING ENGINE - An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for programming an advertising configuration engine. In one embodiment, a method includes creating an advertising campaign for a client, the campaign advertising with one or more media services, the campaign based on a set of configuration parameters received from the client, updating client metadata with one or more social networks, and one or more directories, and promoting the client by allocating media resources to one or more of the media services. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279065 | Generating Ad Copy - In one embodiment, a method includes accessing an information graph that contains nodes and edges connecting the nodes. The nodes in the graph represent concepts related to at least one vertical. The method further includes associating a first node in the graph with a second node in the graph based on a relationship between the meaning of the concept represented by the first node and the meaning of the concept represented by the second node. A portion of the graph corresponds to an advertiser's product catalog. The method may further include accessing an ad library that contains elements for an advertisement. The method may further include selecting at least one of the elements based on the portion of the graph corresponding to the portion of the product catalog of the advertiser. The method may further include generating an advertisement for display based on the selected elements. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279066 | SOCIAL DATING - Systems and methods for social dating are provided. In particular, some embodiments provide recommendations for connections (i.e., candidate users) based on a user's social graph. These recommendations can identify potential single individuals that may be good matches for dating or can identify individuals with other commonalities or shared experiences to create dialog. For example, the recommendations for a user can include single individuals that are friends of a friend. The user can be presented with information about the recommendation and then ask for an introduction from the user's friend. As another example, the recommendations can be based on subject matter selected by the user (e.g., twins, cancer, phone type, etc.) with or without any friendship connections. The user may also be able to filter or further refine the searches based on other criteria such as interests, location, age, and/or other constraints. Rewards can be provided in some cases to encourage participation. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279067 | PROTECTED DATA SHARING BETWEEN ADVERTISERS AND PUBLISHERS - Methods, computer systems, and computer-storage media are provided for facilitating the exchange of meaningful information between an advertiser and an advertisement publisher in a protected manner using common identifiers (IDs). A third-party agency service receives user advertiser IDs from the advertiser and user publisher IDs from the advertisement publisher and, for each user, maps a user's advertiser ID to its corresponding publisher ID. The third-party agency service assigns a common ID to each mapped pair and communicates the common IDs to the advertiser and the advertisement publisher. Using the common IDs, the advertiser is able to directly request online behavior data for different consumer buying segments from the advertisement publisher. In turn, the advertisement publisher utilizes the common IDs to directly communicate the request results back to the advertiser. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279068 | METHODS FOR LINKING IMAGES IN SOCIAL FEEDS TO BRANDED CONTENT - One variation of a method for linking images in social feeds to branded content includes: loading an image to a social networking system; receiving, from a first user, a tag including identification of an item visible in a particular region of the image; associating the tag with the particular region of the image; based on the tag, correlating the item with a particular brand; posting the image to a social feed of the particular brand within the social networking system; and in response to interaction with the image, in the social feed, by a second user, directing the second user to brand content specified by the particular brand. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279069 | DETERMINING EFFECTIVENESS OF PROMOTING STORIES WITHIN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social networking system provides stories about objects in the social networking system to a viewing user. To increase the likelihood that a story will also be provided to other users, the social networking system allows the viewing user to promote the story. When a user promotes a story, the social networking system may monitor the effectiveness of the promotion. For example, the social networking system generates a ghost story corresponding to a promoted story and not associated with promotion information. When a promoted story is selected to be provided to a user, the social networking system determines whether the ghost story would have been selected to be provided to the user. If the ghost story would have been selected, the social networking system determines the promotion did not affect selection of the promoted story. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279070 | ONLINE ADVERTISEMENT REAL-TIME UPDATE - Briefly, embodiments disclosed herein may relate to online advertising and may relate, more particularly, pushing advertising content to user computing devices, for example. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279071 | ONLINE ADVERTISING DASHBOARD - Briefly, embodiments disclosed herein may relate to online advertising and may relate, more particularly, pushing advertising content to user computing devices, for example. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279072 | COLLAGE-BASED, INTEGRATED ADVERTISING SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF ADVERTISING - Collage-based, integrated advertising systems and methods of advertising are disclosed. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279073 | SUBSCRIPTION CONFIGURATION MODULE AND METHOD - The various embodiments disclosed herein provide a subscription configuration module that may provide content directly to a retailer's website in order to calculate current pricing based upon subscription pricing and subsidies currently being offered by one or more mobile communications network providers. The content provided to the retailer's website matches the look and feel of the rest of the website, such that the user of the website normally is unaware that the content has been provided from another source. The subscription configuration module is always updated with the current business rules and pricing in effect for any particular provider, so that the retailer is always assured of receiving the pricing and subsidies then currently in effect, and the retailer is thus relieved of the need to continuously keep this portion of their e-commerce website up-to-date. In many embodiments, the subscription configuration module is provided by a distributor apart from the retailer and provider. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279074 | DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL ADVERTISING - A data management apparatus for digital advertising includes a data integration processor for collecting and storing data from providers, resolving heterogeneity of the data at schema and data levels, and performing validity checks of the data; an analytics processor for receiving validated data from the data integration processor and providing to users custom, nesting-aware, SQL-like query language and a library of data mining methods, machine learning models, and analytical user profiles (AUP); and an activation processor for encapsulating complex computations performed in real-time, segment evaluation, and online user classification using runtime user profiles (RUP). | 2014-09-18 |
20140279075 | INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING - A method for providing and displaying advertising content. The method can include: receiving an initial content request identifying a platform of a client computing device; providing initial advertising content for the client computing device in response to the initial content request; receiving a user engagement request generated based on a user input associated with the initial advertising content; rendering secondary advertising content for the platform of the client computing device; and providing the rendered secondary advertising content for display in a thin client application executing on the client computing device. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279076 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LAYERING CONTENT - Systems and methods are provided that facilitate the layering of content for display. The content may be included in a first layer and a second layer having user interface and other functionalities may be overlaid on the first layer to change the look and feel of the content without actually changing the content. The systems and methods further permit the first and second layer to communicate such that events and functions may be communicated from one layer to the other. As a result a developer may be able to add user interface elements into a second layer that can call functions from the first layer and control the content in the first layer. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279077 | SYSTEMS, METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ONLINE MANAGEMENT OF A SALES AND REFERRAL CAMPAIGN - Information relating to a campaign is received from a user device, via a network, wherein the information comprises first data identifying a plurality of leads and second data defining at least one action to be performed with respect to each respective lead. Performance of the at least one action with respect to the plurality of leads is monitored. A measure of performance of the at least one action with respect to the at least one lead is determined. The user device is caused to display the measure of performance, | 2014-09-18 |
20140279078 | Enriching An Advertiser's Product-Related Information - In one embodiment, a method includes accessing information about an advertiser's product catalog. The method may further include accessing an information graph that contains nodes and edges connecting the nodes. The nodes in the graph represent concepts related to at least one vertical. The method further includes associating a first node in the graph with a second node in the graph based on a relationship between the meaning of the concept represented by the first node and the meaning of the concept represented by the second node. A portion of the graph corresponds to the advertiser's product catalog. The method may further include enriching information associated with the portion of the product catalog with information related to the concepts and relationships represented by the portion of the graph corresponding to the portion of the product catalog of the advertiser. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279079 | METHOD AND USER INTERFACE FOR CLASSIFYING MEDIA ASSETS - The present disclosure is directed towards grouping together media assets that are stored in different locations. Media assets are identified as having common classification by using the metadata associated with such media assets ( | 2014-09-18 |
20140279080 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR WIDEBAND AUDIO COMMUNICATION WITH A QUICK SERVICE RESTAURANT DRIVE-THROUGH INTERCOM - This disclosure relates to a quick service restaurant intercom communication system. The system is configured such that communication between a customer and a staff member is accomplished in wideband audio. Intercom communication systems that utilize narrow band audio for communication between drive-through customers and staff members may be considered “good enough”. However, the low fidelity sound produced by narrow band audio systems often results in misunderstandings between customers and staff members, a high amount of background noise during communication, and/or other negative effects. Wideband audio may facilitate clearer communication between customers and staff members. Wideband audio communication may be costlier and/or more complicated to implement, but may result in increased staff efficiency and/or increased customer satisfaction. In some implementations, the system may include an audio order placement sub-system, a base station, an order entry device, a mounting mechanism, and/or other components. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279081 | MOBILE DEVICES, METHODS AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS FOR ENSURING THAT A PICKUP ORDER IS FRESHLY PREPARED WHEN A CONSUMER ARRIVES TO PICK IT UP - A C-A MD uses contextual awareness to sense its surroundings and determine spatial relationships between the C-A MD and each of a plurality of retail food establishments. Based on these determinations, the C-A MD determines which of the establishments the user is most likely to arrive at to pick up an order. Based on this determination, the C-A MD places a pickup order with the particular establishment and/or sends a notification to the particular establishment that the user will likely ultimately arrive at the particular establishment to pick up the order. Based on the order or the notification received by the establishment, a preparer at the establishment can perform tasks associated with the order to ensure that the order is freshly prepared when the consumer arrives to pick up the order. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279082 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING FOOD ORDERS - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques which aid in correctly capturing what a restaurant customer intends to order, and may enhance the customer's satisfaction with the ordering and dining process overall. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279083 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING A FOOD ORDER - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques which aid in correctly capturing what a restaurant customer intends to order, and may enhance the customer's satisfaction with the ordering and dining process overall. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279084 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING INFORMATION RELATING TO FOOD ORDERS - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques which aid in correctly capturing what a restaurant customer intends to order, and may enhance the customer's satisfaction with the ordering and dining process overall. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279085 | MENU SHARING SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TELEDINING - A teledining system is configured to display shared menu information between geographically remote teledining session participants. The teledining system is configured to enable viewing of participant bills by any one or more of the session participants, and payment of bills by a session participant for a geographically remote participant(s). | 2014-09-18 |
20140279086 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PRESENTING INFORMATION RELATING TO FOOD ORDERS - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques which aid in correctly capturing what a restaurant customer intends to order, and may enhance the customer's satisfaction with the ordering and dining process overall. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279087 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FACILITATION OF A FOOD ORDER - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques which aid in correctly capturing what a restaurant customer intends to order, and may enhance the customer's satisfaction with the ordering and dining process overall. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279088 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR THE DISPLAY OF INFORMATION RELATING TO FOOD ORDERS - Some embodiments of the invention provide techniques may enhance a customer's experience with a restaurant. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279089 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING FOOD ITEMS - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques which aid in correctly capturing what a restaurant customer intends to order, and may enhance the customer's satisfaction with the ordering and dining process overall. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279090 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PRESENTATION OF INFORMATION RELATING TO FOOD ORDERS - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques which aid in correctly capturing what a restaurant customer intends to order, and may enhance the customer's satisfaction with the ordering and dining process overall. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279091 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING ORDERS OF FOOD ITEMS - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques which aid in correctly capturing what a restaurant customer intends to order, and may enhance the customer's satisfaction with the ordering and dining process overall. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279092 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FACILITATION OF ORDERS OF FOOD ITEMS - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques which aid in correctly capturing what a restaurant customer intends to order, and may enhance the customer's satisfaction with the ordering and dining process overall. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279093 | INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND REAL TIME SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS HOSPITALITY SOFTWARE APPLICATION BASED SYSTEM WITH SPECIALIZED ORDERING FUNCTIONALITY AS PART OF A SYNCHRONIZED ECOSYSTEM OF MULTIPLE TYPES OF COMPUTING DEVICES WITH VARYING NON PC-STANDARD DISPLAY SIZES OPERATING IN EQUILIBRIUM VIA THE INTERNET AND WITH A MASTER DATABASE STORED IN A CENTRAL LOCATION - An information management and synchronous communications system and method facilitates database equilibrium and synchronization with wired, wireless and Web-based systems, user-friendly and efficient generation of computerized menus and reservations with handwritten/voice modifications for restaurants and other applications that utilize equipment with nonstandard graphical formats, display sizes and/or applications for use in remote data entry, information management and communication with host computer, digital input device or remote pager via standard hardwired connection, the internet, a wireless link, printer or the like. Various operations employing automated telephone calls and/or messaging may, for instance, be performed. For example, desired reservation and/or appointment information may be automatically converted and conveyed to one or more entities via automated telephone call and/or messaging. As another example, information regarding reservation acceptability may be received and automatically converted via automated telephone call and/or messaging. Telephones may, for instance, be the only equipment required by the entities. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279094 | MOBILE DEVICE PAYMENTS - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for conducting cardless payment transactions. One of the methods includes receiving from a merchant computer an indication of a payment transaction by a user associated with a mobile phone number. A text message is provided to a device associated with the mobile phone number requesting approval for the payment transaction, wherein the message includes an approval code. A message is received from the device associated with the mobile phone number. If the text message from the device associated with the mobile phone number includes the provided approval code, account information associated with the mobile phone number is obtained, authorization for the payment transaction is obtained using the account information, and notification of authorization of the payment transaction is provided to a merchant conducting the payment transaction. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279095 | SOCIAL COMMERCE SYSTEM - A system and method for selecting a product by facilitating the interaction between a customer and an agent at a point of sale. The system and method allows for the modification of an in store database and facilitates identification of desired in store products and assets and allows for comparisons between pre-identified customer products and assets with products and assets in the store database. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279096 | GEOTAGGED IMAGE FOR CHECKING VALIDITY OF PURCHASE TRANSACTION - A service provider receives, from a merchant device, a geotagged image of a payment instrument, such as a credit card, provided to the merchant by a buyer for payment. It first determines the validity of the payment instrument using the captured image and then assesses the validity of the claimed purchase transaction by comparing the GPS data in the geotagged image, representing the geotagging location, with a separately transmitted GPS data, representing the location of transmitting the geotagged image. For further assessment, it may further compare the time of geotagging the image with the time of transmitting the image. The service provider then determines on the overall validity of the claimed purchase transaction based on the determination on the validity of the payment instrument and the assessment results, and if it determines the purchase transaction is valid, processes requested payment to the merchant's account. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279097 | Purchasing Method with Funding Source Selection - A process includes receiving a message containing an a priori funding source selection for a payment service used to conduct a purchase transaction that is sent via SMS from a purchaser. The process also includes receiving a request to transfer funds to the merchant on behalf of the purchaser that is sent from a device associated with a merchant. The process also includes completing the purchase transaction. The funds transferred to the merchant on behalf of the purchaser are taken from a funding source selected by the a priori funding source selection. The a priori funding source selection is stored so as to apply to all future transactions conducted by the purchaser using the payment service until the server device receives a second a priori funding source selection from the purchaser. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279098 | Bill Splitting and Payment System and Method - The present subject matter discloses systems and methods in which a mobile application integrates with a restaurant's point of sale (POS) system such that, by providing a table identifier, users may split and pay an itemized bill, without the need of servers or restaurant staff. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279099 | SYSTEM, PAYMENT AGENT AND COMPUTER READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM FOR FACILITATING CONTACTLESS MOBILE PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS - A system for facilitating contactless mobile payment transactions comprises a payment network, an issuer switch operably coupled to the payment network, and a payment agent operably coupled to the issuer switch. In use, the issuer switch receives, via the payment network, a point of sale transaction request, the issuer switch sends a primary transaction request to the payment agent, the payment agent sends a virtual transaction request in accordance with the primary transaction request, the payment agent receives a virtual transaction reply, the payment agent sends a primary transaction reply to the issuer switch in accordance with the virtual transaction reply, and the issuer switch sends, via the payment network, a point of sale transaction reply in accordance with the primary transaction reply. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279100 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROCESSING CARD TRANSACTIONS - A card transaction platform, comprising a card reader configured to read a card for use in a transaction; and a card processing application in communication with the reader, the card processing application configured to: receive a service or product selection associated with a price, display the selected service or product description and price, receive a confirmation of the selected service and price, receive an image associated with the transaction, generate a receipt with a transaction summary and that include the image, and transmit the receipt to an address associated with the transaction. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279101 | DISTANCE FACTOR BASED MOBILE DEVICE SELECTION - Providing a request is disclosed. A first distance indication indicating a physical distance between the first mobile device and a reference location is received from a first mobile device. It is determined that the first distance indication meets a threshold criteria relative to a second distance indication of a second mobile device. A request for payment is provided to the first mobile device based at least in on part on the determination that the first distance indication meets the threshold criteria. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279102 | FRAUD DETECTION - A system and method of fraud detection is disclosed including identification of a group of employees and bills associated with each employee of the group. For each bill, at least two conditions of the following conditions are determined: whether a complimentary condition has been met, whether a transfer condition has been met, whether a void and promotion condition has been met, whether a gratuity inflation condition has been met, whether a point of sale authorization condition has been met, whether an automatic gratuity condition has been met, and whether a bill reuse condition has been met. A score corresponding to each of the determined conditions is calculated and a total score for each employee is established based on the score for the determined conditions for each of the bills. Each employee of the group is rated based on the employee's total score. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279103 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENABLING FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS - A financial transaction system includes a governing host having a database for registering parties wishing to perform a financial transaction and processing the financial transaction. A discrete point-of-sale (POS) terminal interfaces with one party wishing to initiate a financial transaction with another party. The discrete POS terminal has a local transaction process for initial validating and enforcing of business rules governing the transaction with the one party and generating a transaction key confirming that the transaction is authorised on validating the transaction with the governing host. A facilitator device reads the transaction key on being supplied with same by the one party and communicates with the governing host to complete the transaction using a facilitator POS terminal. The discrete POS terminal is located separately and can be accessed and operated independently by the one party offline of any point-of-sale activity involving the facilitator POS terminal and the facilitator device. | 2014-09-18 |
20140279104 | OBFUSCATING A TRANSACTION IN A DISPERSED STORAGE SYSTEM - A method begins by a processing module receiving a data segment for dispersed storage. The method continues with the processing module encoding the data segment in accordance with an error coding dispersed storage function to produce a plurality of error coded data slices. The method continues with the processing module generating a slice name for an error coded data slice of the plurality of error coded data slices, wherein the slice name includes a dispersed storage routing information section and a data identification section. The method continues with the processing module performing a securing function on at least the data identification section to produce a secure data identification section. The method continues with the processing module replacing, within the slice name, the data identification section with the secure data identification section to produce a secure slice name. | 2014-09-18 |