Beacon for providing information service

The present invention relates to a device configuration for providing an information service to a user of a mobile device, in which a beacon is used to communicate with the mobile device.

In recent years, the number of subscribers to mobile telephone networks around the world has increased significantly, and technological advances and enhanced functionality have made mobile telephones a credible personal device. As a result, personal and local services are evolving into an increasingly important mobile information society. Such "Context-Aware" (CA) mobile phones communicate with low-power short-range beacons to provide information specific to locations such as shopping centers. Such information includes local maps, information on nearby stores and restaurants, and so on. The user's CA terminal may be provided with a function of notifying the user only when a data item of particular interest is received by selecting the received information based on the user's initial setting stored in advance. it can.

A suitable communication technology for this type of service is Bluetooth & # 8482 ;. Bluetooth is a short-range communication system based on the global standard for radio frequency (RF), operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band, and can operate in the United States, most European countries, and Japan without a license. By using Bluetooth, the user's terminal can quickly acquire the information transmitted via the beacon. Details about Bluetooth can be found at the URL "http://www.bluetooth.com/" on the Internet.

The representative information requested is highly location-dependent, and there are many scenarios in which the requirements of many requesters are likely to be the same or similar. For example, a restaurant may want to inform all passers-by of its daily menu. This gives rise to a proposal to add a broadcast mode to Bluetooth so that a beacon at a particular location can communicate with a large number of mobile devices that can be within the range of the beacon. Broadcast mode solves some of the limitations of the current definition of Bluetooth 1.1, allowing for faster connections, a large number of parallel users, and lower power consumption on mobile devices, mobile devices in the first phase of connection. Anonymity is maintained. This creates a number of new and interesting business opportunities.

<u style="single">International Publication No. 99/07125 pamphlet discloses a device configuration in which short-range transmitters broadcast Internet URLs on known frequencies. Mobile information terminals, such as those installed in automobiles, receive this URL and store it in a queue. Terminal users can search for URLs and access Web (WWW) documents addressed by the URLs. A data entry mechanism is provided for updating URLs broadcast by short-range transmitters. This mechanism can connect to a WWW server, so programs on the WWW server can update the broadcast URL.</u>

<u style="single">Finnish Patent Application Publication No. 991978 discloses a device configuration having a bending machine that sells electronic data such as music and ringtones for mobile phones. The bending machine supplies data to the purchaser's mobile terminal via wireless transmission. The data to be sold is wirelessly transmitted from the data server to the bending machine and stored in the local memory in the bending machine.</u>

The types of applications that are possible in this way are clearly attractive, but it is not clear how the evolution from today's networks to advanced solutions using beacons will occur. The overall system design of the network currently expected is actually a dual network structure. In parallel with wireless networks (eg GSM networks), there are typically beacon deployments that are interconnected to back-end services over fixed IP networks.

Not only does this second fixed network have the classic "chicken and egg" problem, but the mobile industry involved has to start a large investment plan with an unproven revenue model. , Not very good. More advanced operators can make large investments with a small amount of money because the government bears the cost of infrastructure required for current and future networks from the perspective of investing in the third generation frequency band. It is in.

The dual network scheme makes a lot of sense at first glance. Beacons are located in fixed locations, so permanent fixed-line IP network connections are low cost and ensure wide transmission bandwidth to mobile devices within the effective range of the beacon. Preliminary consideration was made to identify the infrastructure already in place, such as the use of networks connecting money registration machines or credit card terminals. This provides access to most payment locations, which may be available as a launch application for new services.

Most of the complexity in this scheme lies in the complexity of the organization. Since there is no single business organization (or individual) that provides all the necessary interconnections to all access points, many with different organizations (or individuals) can be used to equalize the benefits of the new service. You need to make a contract. Each contract requires negotiations on initial investment, installation, revenue sharing, quality of service (QoS), maintenance, and liability.

<patcit num="1"><text>International Publication No. 99/07125 Pamphlet Finnish Patent Application Publication No. 991978</text></patcit>

<p> An object of the present invention is<u style="single">Using a beacon</u>It is to reduce the organizational complexity that exists in the deployment of equipment configurations to provide information services.</p><p> This object, according to the present invention, is<u style="single">1.</u>Achieved at Beacon. If the entire operation is entrusted to a single organization (or individual), much of the deployment complexity is eliminated. By placing some of the functions of the back-end service provider within the beacon, the beacon can interact spontaneously with the user. Voluntary beasons can provide their own services and do not require a fixed connection to the back-end service to provide the services. This simplifies the deployment of the beacon by sending the beacon to a store or other location for installation and plugging the beacon into the power output. This method is acceptable, short-lived, and can be much better than the actual installation of networked devices required for other schemes.</p><p> Traffic between the beacon and mobile devices within its scope often repeats the same information, and such repetitive traffic is handled by local processors and storage within the beacon itself. Can be done. Beacons can be plug-and-play only by supplying power, which is very convenient in non-permanent situations (eg popular music festivals, weekly markets).</p><p> It is an important innovation and advantage that the cellular network of the terminal and the cellular network of the beacon are the same, or at least operated by the same operator. In this case, the mobile device owner has only one relationship, that is, the relationship with the cellular operator, and all traffic involved in the communication of the mobile device owner is the infrastructure provided by that operator. Flow through. Therefore, improved functionality and usefulness of the system results in increased traffic and revenue for operators providing mobile devices and beacons.</p><p> Mobile networks are becoming packet-switched, always-on networks using technologies such as GPRS or UMTS. Therefore, a wireless long-distance communication link with the server can be established through such a mobile network, which allows data to be exchanged with the server without the need to connect a beacon to some kind of fixed line IP network. Become.</p><p> During actual operation, traffic flows from the beacon to the back-end service only when information needs to be updated or when user-specific transactions need to be performed. When the network is busy, transactions can be recorded in the beacon and transferred during non-peak hours. If the information in the beacon is updated by a single cellular message during busy hours, that information can be passed on to many mobile devices without further use of the busy cellular channel.</p><p> Preloading of data into beacon storage can be done through the GPRS network during non-peak hours or as a low priority background network task. This solves the installation and initialization problem.</p><p><u style="single">In one example</u>The processor is configured to record statistical data about the information service and periodically report the recorded information to the server. Data related to a particular transaction performed by a mobile device, or statistical data such as statistical information about changing traffic densities in the area where the beacon is located, determines whether the service was successful. Very useful for. Also, the user profile of the user of the service can be easily created from the information, which is commercially attractive.</p><p> Usage statistics and diagnostic information can be processed through long-range communication links, preferably GPRS or UMTS cellular networks. Information used for billing purposes can also be transmitted from the beacon to the infrastructure through the cellular network.</p><p> Desirably, the statistical data at least identifies the frequently requested data associated with the information service, and the processor preliminarily retrieves the frequently requested data from the server. It is configured. Spontaneous beacons can be thought of as a cache of data traffic on the most user side of the network, thus pre-extracting data and frequently required popular (including those not limited to a particular region). By storing the content, the load on the frequency band required by the cellular operator can be reduced.</p><p><u style="single">In a further embodiment, the long-range communication means is configured to transfer information about the state of the short-range communication link with the server. In this way, the user browses the information made available by the beacon using the short-range communication link, and after the direct communication link between the server and the beacon is established, with the server. You can smoothly move to more complex interactive applications. The server can use this status information to seamlessly take over the service.</u></p><p> In a further embodiment, the processor is configured to retransmit information received through the long-range communication link to the mobile device through the short-range communication link. It may be necessary to provide the same information to multiple mobile devices, for example at airports or train stations, where all passengers have departure (departure) times and boarding gates (home), especially when there is a delay. When you want to know. This usually requires a separate communication link between the transmitter and each mobile device. However, using the beacons according to the invention, it is possible to broadcast information to each device.</p><p> The information is sent once to the beacon and then once to multiple mobile devices in a broadcast or multicast fashion. Transmission to mobile devices can also be done individually. Since this transmission is a short-range transmission, it does not require the capacity of the cellular network to notify the user. Transmission to the beacon over the cellular network is only required once (and in some cases on a regular basis) to update the information provided.</p><p> A further object of the present invention is to provide a device configuration for providing an information service that can be deployed at a lower degree of complexity than a conventional device configuration.</p><p><u style="single">This object is achieved in the equipment configuration according to claim 6, according to the present invention. The ability to load data received from a server over a long-distance communication link into storage</u>The advantage is that an organization (or individual) wishing to provide information services must contact the server operator to install data such as photos and menus on the beacon. The business operator can charge a fee for this. Therefore, this equipment configuration makes it technically possible to implement a new business model.</p><p> In one embodiment, personal data about a user of the information service is stored in the server, and the server responds to receiving the user's identifier from the beacon through the long-range communication link. , At least a portion of the personal data about the user is configured to supply the owner of the place where the information service is provided.</p><p><u style="single">Desirably, the beacon is configured to record statistical data about the information service and periodically report the recorded information to the server. The statistical data has the identifier of the mobile device, and the server is transferred to the beacon to make a personalized call to the user, the user of the user of the mobile device. The habit profile can be configured to be maintained at least based on the identifier.</u></p><p><u style="single"> Since this device configuration operates entirely using a single cellular network, it is customary to associate the mobile device owner with the mobile device identifier to identify the location of each individual user whose name is identified. And, it is possible to easily recognize that a user whose name is not identified repeatedly visits a specific place for the purpose of soliciting on an individual basis.</u></p><p><u style="single"> In a further embodiment, after the short-range communication link is established, a direct long-range communication link is established between the server and the mobile device, and the direct long-range communication link is established. After that, the provision of the service is taken over by the server from the beacon. In this way, a short-distance only transaction (eg, providing menu browsing) is first performed, which triggers a long-distance transmission. As a result, the revenue of the mobile telephone network operator that performs this long-distance transmission is generated. The operator may pay a fee to the organization (or individual) that operates the beacon.</u></p><p> The above and other aspects of the invention will be articulated below with reference to the examples shown in the drawings.</p><p> Throughout all drawings, the same reference numbers indicate similar or corresponding feature elements. Some of the features shown in the drawings are typically implemented in software and thus represent software entities (such as software modules or objects).</p>

FIG. 1 graphically illustrates a device configuration 100 having a plurality of beacons 120, 121, 122 arranged in a series of locations. Each of the beacons 120, 121, 122 wirelessly broadcasts one or more short-range signals using a short-range wireless communication protocol. In one desirable embodiment, the technology for wireless broadcasting is Bluetooth, because Bluetooth is expected to be a factor used in many mobile devices. In another embodiment, the technique for wireless broadcasting may be IEEE 802.11 or 802.11b wireless LAN. The mobile device 130 is a mobile phone in one preferred embodiment and is capable of receiving short-range radio communications from the beacons 120, 121, 122 and thus receives a broadcast signal 125 and eg a message on the display screen. This broadcast signal can be processed by displaying it in the broadcast signal 125 or by searching for the information unit whose identifier is supplied in the broadcast signal 125.

Beacons 120, 121, 122 further include a wireless transmission module for wirelessly exchanging data with the server 101. The server 101 can connect to a network 110 such as the Internet, a telephone network, or a cable network. Base stations 111 and 112 are also connected to this network 110. The beacon 120 transmits the radio transmission 126 to the base station 112, which transmits the radio transmission 126 to the server 101 via the network 110. Similarly, the server 101 transmits to the base station 112, which wirelessly transmits to the beacon 120. Techniques suitable for wireless transmission are, for example, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). Of course, a solution that uses different technologies, that is, a solution in which one base station uses one technology and another base station uses another technology, is also feasible.

Beacon 120 can utilize existing mobile communication infrastructure such as GRPS or UMTS networks for its wireless transmission 126, eliminating the need to connect Beacon 120 to a land-based network and providing a permanent network connection to Beacon 120. You don't even have to establish it. This greatly reduces the complexity of the device configuration 100 and simplifies it. By using wireless transmission 126, Beacon 120 can communicate with Server 101 when needed. In addition, mobile communication infrastructures that incorporate base stations 111, 112 are generally already built and used for mobile phones. Therefore, the device configuration 100 can be easily constructed by installing the beacons 120, 121, 122 at the target positions, and at this time establishing an individual network connecting the beacons 120, 121, 122 to the network 110 or the server 101. No need.

The mobile device 130 is configured for wireless mobile communication. For example, a user of mobile device 130 can wirelessly make a mobile phone call. The mobile device 130 is then connected to the base station 112, the communication link 127 is established and processed normally. In this embodiment, the mobile device 130 uses the same mobile communication infrastructure as the Beacon 120, but of course this is not required.

The device configuration 100 shows the embodiment of the infrastructure for use in a desired place such as a department store, a shopping mall, a theme park, an airport, or a stadium. Beacons 120, 121, and 122 communicate wirelessly, so installation at the desired location can be done by simply plugging in the power cord and turning on the beacon. Device configuration 100 can be used to provide location-specific information such as local maps, information about nearby stores and restaurants, in which case the mobile device 130 is preferably from beacons 120, 121, 122 of the information key. Download information in format.

An information key is a small data object that indicates where to get the entire information, in the form of a number of predetermined fields, one of which can contain a short descriptive text presented to the user. Another field can be a pointer, some form of address (eg URL), or a phone number. Other supplementary fields can control how data is presented to the user and how addresses are used. In general, a beacon periodically broadcasts a large number of these keys, each of which is typically associated with a different service.

Beacons 120, 121, 122 can provide information and services to anyone within that range. This range is limited by the technology used, so it is possible to provide region-specific information and services. For example, a Bluetooth beacon can be transmitted over a range of up to 10 m, which is sufficient for stores that want radio waves to reach outside passers-by, for example.

FIG. 2 shows the Beacon 120 in more detail graphically. Beacon 120 has an antenna coupled to a short-range transmitter / receiver 221 for transmitting and receiving data. The short-range communication module 222 uses short-range communication technology such as Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, or 802.11b wireless LAN to broadcast and communicate information to nearby devices via the short-range transmitter / receiver 221 and antenna 220. .. Radio transmission module 223 uses communication technology such as GPRS or UMTS to communicate with base stations 111, 112 and beacon 120 via a second antenna 227 coupled to cellular transmitter / receiver 226. In the case of a multi-mode design, it is expected that a combination transmitter / receiver that can be switched to operate as either a short-range radio or a cellular radio can be built in, depending on the functions required at that time.

Beacon 120 is further provided with a local processor 224 and local storage 225 (eg, hard disk or solid-state storage). Beacon 120 can spontaneously interact with any device capable of receiving broadcast transmission 125 using local processor 224 and local storage device 225, thus voluntarily providing information services.

As an explanatory example, consider a situation in which a beacon 120 is installed in a restaurant and the owner of the restaurant uses the beacon to lure people passing in front of the restaurant into the store. The local storage 225 in the Beacon is loaded once with the restaurant logo, interior photos, music that conveys the atmosphere of the store, standard menus, "Today's Special" loaded daily, and seat availability. Information or wait time is updated every few minutes. From this moment, Beacon 120 can spontaneously interact with people passing in front of the restaurant.

The short-range communication module 222 broadcasts the data retrieved from the local storage device 225 via the short-range transmitter / receiver 221. The mobile device 130 receives the broadcast transmission 125 and presents the user with photos, music, menus, and seat availability information. This information may be provided in stages, i.e. the first information may be broadcast and further details such as photos, menus, vacant seats, etc. may be provided to the user upon request. When users are interested in the restaurant and want to make a reservation, they can have their mobile device call the restaurant. The telephone number is, of course, included in the broadcast transmission 125.

At the end of the day, Beacon 120 reports statistical data on the exchanged communications 125, in particular the request for more information that Beacon responded to. A business operator with a device configuration of 100 can charge a restaurant according to the advertisement information provided.

As a further explanatory embodiment, consider a situation in which a Beacon 120 is installed at an airport and an airline uses it to provide passengers with up-to-date information on flight changes and boarding arrangements. The local storage 225 in the beacon is updated using the cellular transmitter / receiver 226 in the event of a gate change, boarding start, or other situation. On the other hand, Beacon 120 can voluntarily interact with passengers and staff at the airport and repeatedly broadcast the departure and arrival status of the flight. The short-range communication module 222 broadcasts the data retrieved from the local storage device 225 as a broadcast transmission 125 via the short-range transmitter / receiver 221. The mobile device 130 receives the broadcast transmission 125 and presents the flight status to the user. By using additional software within the mobile device 130, users can be notified when material changes occur.

The local storage device 225 in Beacon 120 is preferably loaded by transmission from Server 101 to Beacon 120 via Base Station 112. This means that the restaurant owner (organization (or individual)) in the above explanatory embodiment needs to contact the operator of server 101 in order to install data such as photos and menus on Beacon 120. Has the advantage of being. The business operator can charge a fee for this. For this purpose, the terminal 230 can be provided with a server 101 for communication. Instead, the terminal 230 can be provided with a wireless upload module (eg, GPRS transmitter) that can directly upload data to the beacon 120. The cellular transmitter / receiver 226 receives data wirelessly transmitted from the server 101 or the terminal 230 via the base station 112, sends this data to the wireless transmission module 223, and the wireless transmission module 223 transmits this data. Decrypt and store in local storage 225.

The provider of service, the owner of Beacon 120, is assigned a service slot in the form of additional data given to inquiry facilitation signals transmitted by Beacon 120 by using Terminal 230. You can create or edit the contents of. The service provider may rent a beacon, or one of the service slots within the beacon, from the infrastructure provider. To this end, in one desirable embodiment, the server 101 provides a simple HTML template or WAP card for the user to enter through the terminal 230.

For example, when a template is entered with a description of the service and other information about the data sent over the broadcast of the beacon, the template is preferably a secure link, such as S-HTTP (Secure HTTP) or SSL ( Returned to server 101 via Secure Sockets Layer). SSL establishes a secure link between the client and server, through which any amount of data can be securely transmitted. S-HTTP is designed to send individual messages securely. Server 101 then creates an appropriate additional data package to attach to the query signal of Beacon 120, based on the information presented by the template. The device configuration 100 may further include an application server that assists processing when performing various functions, as will be easily understood by those skilled in the art.

Since Beacon 120 is within range of Base Station 112, additional data packages are transmitted to Base Station 112 over network 110. Base station 112 wirelessly transmits this additional data package to beacon 120. The radio transmission module 223 uses the antenna 227 and the cellular transmitter / receiver 226 to receive this data package and update the data in the local storage device 225. Data stored in local storage 225 should be updated during non-peak hours to minimize load and / or transmission costs for the wireless communication channel between base station 112 and beacon 120. ..

The local processor 224 voluntarily performs interactive services with the mobile device 130. In this explanatory embodiment, the short-range communication module 222 broadcasts an overall overview list of menus offered at the restaurant. Users of mobile device 130 can specify their preferences for items in this list (eg pizza or pasta). The short-range communication module 222 receives this designation and sends it to the local processor 224. Processor 224 selects a list of dishes that matches the specified taste, and this list is sent to mobile device 130. In this way, the user can interactively browse (brows) the menu.

More complex services can also be handled by a central server such as Server 101. The mobile device 130 then establishes a wireless connection to the server 101. The user of the mobile device 130 can use this connection to make, for example, a restaurant reservation, in which case the user's personal data needs to be provided to the restaurant owner. This personal data can be stored in the server 101 and can be supplied at the request of the user. In this way, a short-distance only transaction (eg, providing menu browsing) is first performed, which triggers a long-distance transmission. As a result, the revenue of the mobile telephone network operator that performs this long-distance transmission is generated. The operator may pay a fee to the organization (or individual) that operates Beacon 120.

The local processor 224 can also collect data related to transactions performed by the mobile device, which is periodically transmitted by the radio transmission module 223 to the server 101 or a third party. In this way, the organization (or individual) that installed Beacon 120 can be billed according to the actual use of Beacon 120. Furthermore, by associating this data with data related to the call made by the mobile device 130, which of the calls made by the mobile device 130 was the result of short-range communication between the mobile device 130 and the beacon 120. Can be recognized.

By using the short-range communication link 125 between the mobile device 130 and the beacon 120 while the long-range communication link 127 between the mobile device 130 and the server 101 is established, to the user of the mobile device 130. The delay in establishing the long-distance communication link 127 can be hidden.<u style="single">After the long-distance communication link 127 was established</u>The user browses the information made available by Beacon 120 using the short-range communication link 125 and then.<u style="single">、</u>Smoothly navigates to more complex interactive applications with Server 101. For this purpose, in some cases, the beacon 120 needs to transfer information about the state of the short-range communication link 125 to the server 101.

In some cases, it may be necessary to provide the same information to multiple mobile devices, for example at airports or train stations, where all passengers have departure (departure) times and boarding gates (home), especially when there is a delay. ) Is when you want to know. This usually requires a separate communication link between the transmitter and each mobile device. However, the Beacon 120 can be used to broadcast information to each device. This information is transmitted once to Beacon 120 and then once to multiple mobile devices in a broadcast or multicast fashion. Transmission to mobile devices can also be done individually. Since this transmission is a short-range transmission, it does not require the capacity of the cellular network to notify the user. Transmission to the beacon over the cellular network is only required once on a regular basis to update the information provided.

Beacon 120 can also report to Server 101 the changing traffic density and the type of Bluetooth device that interacted with Beacon 120, and this indicator of local communication status is a commercially useful statistic for that location. It can be information. Beacon 120 can also report the exact identifier BT_ADDR of the Bluetooth device recognized during the day in batch data mode. It should be noted that any mobile device that responds to a Bluetooth v1.1 inquiry scan also reveals a broad category of mobile devices (such as the phone) and its functional capabilities, which is also useful. It can be statistical information.

By associating a device ID with the owner of a mobile device, the habit of visiting an individual user with an identified name and the repeated visits of an unidentified user to a specific location can be personalized. Can be easily recognized for the purpose of soliciting. This information, like any other profile data that characterizes a user, is of commercial value. For example, "device ID and habit profile about places to visit" data can be created centrally and sent back to the beacon at night, so that when the user appears near the beacon the next day, such Individually customized calls can be made to users.

FIG. 3 illustrates the mobile device 130 in more detail graphically. The mobile device 130 has an antenna 316 coupled to a transmitter / receiver 318 for receiving and transmitting messages. A message is transmitted as a result of the user typing into the phone, either by voice input via a microphone and A / D converter, or by other data input via a keypad or other input means. These inputs are processed into a message data format by the signal / data processing stage 326, converted into a transmission format by the encoder 328, and then supplied to the transmitter / receiver 318. The mobile device 130 may have separate antennas and transmitter / receiver modules for receiving data broadcast by the beacon 120 and for transmitting and receiving data over wireless communication links in the mobile telephone network.

The message received via the antenna 316 and the transmitter / receiver 318 is transmitted to the decoding / filtering / signal processing stage 330. If the data conveyed by the message is to be displayed on the telephone display screen 334, this data is transmitted to the display driver 336 after optional buffering, which driver forms the display image. As will be appreciated, the display 334 may be a relatively simple low resolution device, and the conversion of received data to display data can be performed as part of the function of the processing stage, a dedicated display. No driver stage required. In the case of conventional voice messages, voice data is output to earphones or speakers after filtering and processing via D / A converters and amplifiers.

If the message conveys data from one or the other of the beacons 120, 121, 122, the mobile device 130 sorts the received information according to the pre-stored user preference. Informs the user only when a comparison of the stored preference data with the target specification in the message indicates that a data item of particular interest has been received (ie, the information is kept in the buffer). It is desirable to have the ability to only and / or (presented on screen 334).

The user can browse the received data and make selections or specify preferences in the data using a keypad or other input means. This selection or designation is then sent back to Beacon 120, which in response can transmit more detailed data regarding the selection or designation. In some cases, the mobile device 130 needs to establish another connection with the beacon 120 to distinguish between data already transmitted via broadcast and more detailed data. Such a connection can be quickly established using a protocol such as Bluetooth.

Communication between the mobile device 130 and the beacon 120 can take two stages: "push" and "pull". In "push" mode, the information is broadcast by Beacon 120 in the form of a short message with an information key. This key can take many forms, depending on its intended use, but generally includes a brief description of the information being sent and a pointer to all the information (eg, a URL that identifies the provider of the service).

The keys are "unknowingly", that is, received by the mobile device 130 without direct user intervention, and automatically sorted according to the user's preference set in advance by the comparison function built into the processing stage 330. Will be done. It would be convenient if the processing stage 330 could operate to apply the comparator function to a plurality of simultaneous or duplicate copies, such as to process a relatively large number of received keys in parallel. In this case, for example, some data is discarded, some data is retained for further consideration, and the user is immediately notified when other data is present. As an example, a store passes in front of a store with special offer details, assuming that users who are interested in their store and are filtering for that category will be notified by the terminal. You can choose to push to the terminal you want to.

The user, if interested, wants to get more information than is contained in the key. In this case, by using the "pull" mode, the user can establish a connection with the beacon 120 and request information from himself to be received by the mobile device 130. Therefore, this mode is typically interactive.

Beacons 120, 121, and 122 are typically independent of each other (in a shopping mall arrangement, each store prepares and maintains its own beacon and communicates with the beacon provided by adjacent stores. However, beacons 120, 121, 122 may be placed to exchange information with each other. Beacons can be interconnected using wireless links, so again, no extra infrastructure is needed. Having a spontaneous beacon that is wirelessly interconnected has a number of advantages.

The scale of the device configuration 100 can be easily expanded / reduced in terms of frequency bands. In broadcast mode, scaling is virtually unlimited. Also, the number of user interactions that can occur at the same time per beacon is limited to one, so adding a beacon in one place will increase capacity without the need for additional frequencies.

The scale of the device configuration 100 can be easily expanded / reduced from the viewpoint of server capacity. It is not necessary to update all the users who may be interested individually, just to update the corresponding set of beacons. In extreme cases, for example in a soccer stadium, when recreating a goal in slow motion, server 101 would instead send a stream individually to 30,000 mobile devices over a cellular network, for example 300 beacons in the stadium. Multicast data to a single network.

The device configuration 100 is also robust against network failures or congestion. Broadcasts and local interactions continue to work, and transactions can also be recorded on a beacon and sent back to server 101 after the problem is resolved.

The beacon 120 can also function as a relay station for cellular transmission in principle if the user stays within range or if there is a smooth handover between the interconnected beasons. Therefore, the mobile device can perform low output transmission, and the beacon functions as a relay station.

From a business perspective, the value of traffic and whether or not the user accepts the value of paying for the traffic will vary greatly depending on the stage of the dialogue. In the restaurant embodiment, the restaurant owner would appreciate the value of paying a monthly fee for the broadcast portion (logo, address data, music and photos, standard menus, specials of the day). This is a category of "low value" data, and operators do not want to use the capacity of their cellular networks for this data. Restaurant owners may also appreciate the value of paying a per-customer fee if the customer interactively checks menus and / or seat availability. The end user will appreciate the value of paying for the booking. For this reason, mobile operators are likely to allow regular cellular connections that place a heavy load on their networks. Therefore, in conclusion, the flexibility in traffic transmission can be linked to the business needs of the operator.

It should be noted that the examples described above are for the purpose of explaining the present invention rather than limiting the present invention, and those skilled in the art will not deviate from the scope of the appended claims. , Numerous alternative embodiments could be designed.

In the claims, the reference symbols in parentheses shall not be construed as a limitation of the claims. The word "have" does not preclude the existence of elements or steps other than those stated in the claims. The word "a" or "an" before an element does not preclude the existence of more than one such element.

The present invention can be carried out by hardware with several distinct elements and by a computer programmed to fit. In the device (device, beacon) claim that enumerates some means, some of these means can be embodied by the same hardware item. Although certain measures are described in different dependent claims, this does not indicate that the combination of these measures cannot be used in an advantageous manner.

<figref num="1">A first embodiment of a device configuration including a beacon and a mobile device according to the present invention is shown graphically.</figref><figref num="2">The beacon is shown graphically in more detail.</figref><figref num="3">The mobile device is shown graphically in more detail.</figref>

Code description

100 equipment configuration 101 server 110 network 111, 112 base stations 120, 121, 122 Beacon 125 broadcast signal 126 wireless transmission 127 communication link 130 mobile device 220 antenna 221 Short-range transmitter / receiver 222 Short-range communication module 223 Wireless transmission module 224 local processor 225 local storage 226 Cellular transmitter / receiver 227 Second antenna 230 terminal 316 antenna 318 Transmitter / receiver 326 Signal / data processing stage 328 encoder 330 Decoding / Filtering / Signal Processing Stage 334 display screen 336 display driver