Advertiser pays information and messaging system and apparatus
Contents
1. 78 DISPLAY 60 79 ENABLER DISABLER 64 TRANSMITTER 62 66 72 RECEIVER AUDIBLE ALERT 68 DECODER TEN CONTROLLER 74 SWITCH TACTILE ALERT 46 SWITCHES DEBIT CREDIT EUG METER 76 70 32 FIG 3 5 870 030 Sheet 4 of 12 Feb 9 1999 U S Patent r DI TWLSAYD Eric H3onasNvu l OL 320129 NOUS OL YOLVTTIOSO SSHO LIMS OL AYOWSW 3009 HOLMS YSMOd OL YSLLIN SNVH L OL AV IdSIQ oL X N OHOIN _ 5 870 030 Sheet 5 of 12 Feb 9 1999 U S Patent S OIA 02 VHd lV 9NOT1 058 4 405 ADVSSAW SADVSSAW 3 9 39IAH3S 015 SALOND 5 Sc H3HIV3M 9 9 593909 39lAH3S OdNI 021 TAVHGHLIIA 09 3OIAH3S LNNODOV STVNDIS AV 1dSIG 3OIAH3S 5NIOVd 110389 sav SADVSSAW 9 5 9 5 5 0086 95 7310H SJ YSSIN H3SILH3AGV 0015 084 102 IVNOSH3d SNISO S H3SILH3AGV i 39IAH3S NOILVINHOJNI H3Ovd 1 OLL 901 FOL 5 870 030 Sheet 6 of 12 Feb 9 1999 U S Patent 02 9NO1 9 DIA d 01 VHd1V LHOHS e uasn IUE M I YSSIN S35SVSS3N 92. 201 JOIAYAS OdNI 01 SALOND 2 18 H3H1V3A COSNNVHO fu3aioua viva g OlddvH L 3OIAH3S Sav IMVHGHLIM H344 n8 39IAH3S 8Z Oct S39VSS3N d3slLLH3AQV 1N 099v STVN9 IS AV IdSIQ 3OIAH3S DNIDWd 001 0065 9 rick 0015 088 viva S H3SILH3AGqV JSN SNOILS3nO SH3MSNV S3OIAt13S 3 SAV 011 3SN 150 3 sav e 13NNVHO OJNI jSH3A3H JOSS NOILVWHO NI OEL YADVd AYM 701 5 870 030 Sheet 7 of 12 Feb 9 1999 U S Patent H39vd AVM 2 9 Ho s SNO1 DIA 05 1HOHS H3OVd AVM L 832018 NOdnOO 1995 OIH3AnN_ 1 S35VSS3N 9 3OIAH3S 01 S3lOnO 40015 201 O3NI H3HLV3M a 945 Jiddvul SIN OOSId d3dana 3OIAH3S OJNI STVNDIS 39IAH3S SNISVd AV 1dSIG 0015 94 9 5 SAA 0068 95 Sc 0015 096 109 NdO SNLSO QV3H uadana S H3SlLH3AQV SNOdnoo aaivinWwnoov JO NOILVINEVL 48 3009 LNNOOSIA ipsi z m 30 V 1dSIG HO 3
3. 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 nization in a Radio Communication System issued Jan 27 1998 to Ayerst et al U S Pat No 5 521 926 entitled Method and Apparatus for Improved Message Reception at a Fixed System Receiver issued May 28 1996 to Ayerst et al U S Pat No 5 638 369 entitled Method and Apparatus for Inbound Channel Selection in a Communication Sys tem issued Jun 10 1997 to Ayerst et al and U S Pat No 5 737 691 entitled A System and Method for Allocating Frequency Channels in a Two way Messaging Network issued Apr 7 1998 to Wang et al which are hereby incorporated by reference herein It should be appreciated that other communication protocols are also contemplated A paging system in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises a fixed portion and a portable portion The fixed portion comprises a wireless messaging infrastructure or infrastructure 33 that provides interfacing between a pager and typically the PSTN 24 for communication of information with the pager The operation of such an is well known to those skilled in the art Preferably the infrastructure includes one of a Motorola MPS2000 paging terminal and a Motorola M15 paging terminal for use with the Flex one way protocol A more detailed description of the hardware of the infrastructure is described in the MPS2000 Product Description the MPS2000 Manual Set the M15 Series System Overview and th
4. a telephone push button keypad The user identifies the ad using the unique identification number of the ad that appears on the display of the pager In the case of a two way 5 870 030 9 pager 32 the pager automatically transmits the answers and the unique identification number of the ad to the system controller In either case the system controller determines whether the answers are correct and if so the system controller transmits a credit signal to the pager in order to credit the paging service account 118 The pager has soft ware elements 120 for processing of credit signals Software elements stored within ROM 90 cause the microcomputer 80 to automatically increment a paging service account 118 after decoding of the credit signal without further action by the user 71 The correct answers are relayed to the advertiser by the service provider along with the date and time of answering and possibly other demographic information use ful to the advertiser It is precisely because the answers to the questions in ads provide useful information to the advertiser and possibly also to the paging service provider that the pager user is granted additional credits Even if the answers do not provide useful information per se the answers do assure an advertiser that its ad was read A pager 31 32 in accordance with the invention allows a user to receive information services and personal messages in return for reading ads on the pager Each
5. and to the display The microcomputer calculates a number of credit units to be added to the memory after displaying the second information type enables display of the first infor mation type in response to the memory having at least a pre determined number of credit units inhibits display of the first information type in response to the memory having less than the predetermined number of credit units and calculates a number of credit units to be subtracted from the memory after display of the first information type While a detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention has been given it should be appreciated that many variations can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims For example the invention is not limited to wireless communication but is also applicable to any wireline com munication system such as with the internet or to fund the information superhighway We claim 1 A selective call apparatus comprising a receiver for receiving messages including personal messages and advertisements a message memory for storing received messages a display for displaying the messages such that the advertisements are not displayed at a time advertise ments are received by the receiver a credit memory for storing credit units a manual user input device for selectively separately displaying on the display at a display time chosen by the user eac
6. delete etc Specifically by the use of appropriate functions pro vided by the switches 76 the stored message is recovered from memory 88 and processed by the decoder controller 66 for displaying by a display 78 which enables the user to view the message 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 The decoder controller 66 of FIG 3 can be constructed utilizing a microcomputer 80 as shown in FIG 4 The microcomputer 80 preferably includes a display driver 82 The microcomputer 80 includes an oscillator 84 that gener ates the timing signals utilized in the operation of the microcomputer 80 A crystal or crystal oscillator not shown is coupled to the inputs of the oscillator 84 to provide a reference signal for establishing the microcom puter timing A timer counter 86 couples to the oscillator 84 and provides programmable timing functions that are uti lized in controlling the operation of the receiver A RAM random access memory 88 is utilized to store variables derived during processing as well as to provide storage of message information that are received during operation as a selective call receiver A software element stores the sub routines that control the operation of the receiver as is well known to those skilled in the art The software element resides in memory preferably read only memory ROM 90 It will be appreciated that in many microcomputer implementations the programmable ROM PRO
7. flow diagram illustrating operation of the selective call transceiver according to FIG 1 when a user selects either a personal message service or an information service feature collectively message info service on the 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 pager step 250 At step 252 the user is given the choice of which services are available on the pager At step 254 the user selects one of the services If at step 256 the user is viewing previously received and paid for personal messages or information the personal messages and or information is displayed in a conventional manner step 264 If however the personal message or information is being viewed for the first time e g is new message then microcomputer of the pager programmed to operate in accordance with the inven tion checks step 258 whether there is enough money or credit in the paging service account 118 If there is not enough money or credit then a message to that effect is written step 260 on the display 78 If there is enough money or credit then the paging service account is debited an amount equal to the value of the information or personal message step 262 Each occurrence of the user viewing information from an information service is recognized by the microcomputer and the occurrence is loaded into the reply buffer 130 for subsequent transmission by the two way pager Data composed of number nature and tim
8. occurrence of the caution message the user reads more ads or answers more questions that appear in the ads or does both In the event there are no more ads to be read or questions to be answered or in the event the user is willing to pay for paging services the user tenders a fee to the service provider through any convenient financial transfer means and the service provider wirelessly transmits a credit signal to the pager in order to update the paging service account 118 FIG 6 is a simplified pictorial representation of software elements 110 112 114 118 120 and 130 and the display 78 within a selective call transceiver 32 or two way pager and of interactions among such software elements and with other elements external to the pager The operation of the two way pager is similar to the operation of a one way paging except that the two way pager also has a reply buffer 130 which is a data structure in RAM 88 Preferably the user answers a question by depressing buttons on the pager and in the case of a two way pager wirelessly transmitting an answer The unique identification number of the ad is automatically 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 wirelessly transmitted by the pager with the answer When the user views an ad or answers questions within an ad software elements in ROM 90 cause the microcomputer 80 to automatically load acknowledge back or reverse channel reply messages into th
9. public as Part No 6880491G01 Part No 6880491G04 and Part No 6880491G07 respectively from Motorola Paging Products Group Fort Worth Tex and which are hereby incorporated by reference herein It will be appreciated that other similar hardware can be utilized for the system controller and base stations Each of the at least one base station transmits or receives radio signals to or from the portable portion via antennas The radio signals comprise selective call addresses and message transactions between the base stations and the pagers The message transactions include both personal messages and information services data The system con troller preferably is coupled by conventional telephone links to PSTN for receiving selective call messages i e messages intended for one or more pagers The selective call messages comprise voice and data received from the PSTN using for 5 870 030 5 example a conventional telephonic type device or a computer type device coupled to the PSTN in a manner well known in the art The portable portion comprises a plurality of paging receivers 31 see FIG 5 and transceivers such as pager 32 Each paging transceiver includes a transmitter and a receiver The operation of a paging transceiver is well known in the art and is described more fully in U S Pat No 5 124 697 entitled Acknowledge Back Pager issued Jun 23 1992 to Moore U S Pat No 5 153 582 entitled Method and Apparatus for A
10. which routes and processes messages is coupled to the telephone interface 42 the subscriber data base 40 and the outbound message memory 38 The telephone interface 42 handles the PSTN 24 physical connection connecting and disconnecting telephone calls at the telephone links 50 and routing the audio signals between the telephone links 50 and the mes sage handler 36 The subscriber data base 40 stores information for each subscriber including a correlation between a selective call address assigned to each selective call transceiver 32 and the telephone number used within the PSTN 24 to route mes sages and telephone calls to each transceiver 32 as well as other subscriber determined preferences The outbound mes sage memory 38 is for storing a queue of messages that are queued for delivery to at least one of the plurality of transceivers 32 wherein each message of the queue of messages is associated with a selective call address also stored in the outbound message memory 38 of one of the plurality of transceivers 32 for which each message is intended The message handler 36 schedules outbound mes sages and the selective call addresses associated therewith within a transmission cycle The message handler 36 also determines response schedules for response messages that minimize contention of messages at the transmitter and receivers and includes response timing information in out bound messages so that transceivers 32 will respond accor
11. within a previous message or acknowl edgment transmitted to the system controller 26 by the transceiver As will be described in more detail below a scheduled reverse channel is a portion of the total time available in a single radio channel frequency that is time shared for both forward and reverse channels Alternatively the scheduled reverse channel is some portion of the time available or all the time available in a second radio carrier frequency that is different from the forward channel radio frequency 5 870 030 3 Referring now to FIG 2 the system controller 26 com prises a cell site controller 34 a message handler 36 an outbound message memory 38 a subscriber data base 40 a telephone interface 42 a channel assignment element 44 an address field element 46 an information field element 48 a data frame element 51 and a control frame element 52 The cell site controller 34 is coupled to the radio frequency transmitter 28 and receivers 30 FIG 1 by links 54 The cell site controller 34 couples outbound messages including selective call addresses to the transmitter and receivers and controls the transmitter and receivers to transmit protocol cycles that include the outbound messages The cell site controller 34 also processes inbound messages from the transceivers 32 The inbound messages are received by the transmitter and the plurality of receivers and are coupled to the cell site controller 34 The message handler 36
12. 3 It is contemplated that all ads will have a value assigned to reading the ad but in additional some ads will have questions posed to the user 71 The correct answers are also transmitted with the ad but hidden from the user For those ads that have questions propounded to the user 71 an additional preselected value is assigned to the successful answering by the user of the questions It is contemplated that the ad will inform the user in some quantitative measure of the benefit of answering the questions contained within the ad and the additional benefit of conveying the actual answers to the system controller 26 The benefits of answer ing the questions contained within the ad accrue to the user in two steps First the microcomputer 80 is programmed to grade or score the answers and to automatically add credit to the paging service account 118 The user answers the questions using conventional user input means on the pager such as push buttons and the microcomputer 80 determines through software elements stored in ROM 90 whether the answers are correct If the answers are indeed correct microcomputer 80 causes the paging service account to increase If the answers are incorrect the paging service account is not increased and the user merely receives credit for reading the ad Second in the case of a one way pager 31 the user telephones the system controller 26 using a telephone number stated in the ad and responds to prompts using
13. 409 921 Nodnoo NOdnoo 3 3909 Ori m rh U S Patent Feb 9 1999 Sheet 8 of 12 5 870 030 U S Patent Feb 9 1999 Sheet 9 of 12 5 870 030 200 ADVERTISEMENT SURVEY MENU 216 202 DEPOSIT INTO ACCOUNT DISPLAY QUESTIONS AMOUNT ADVERTISEMENT SURVEY SELECTION RECORD ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS IN REPLY BUFFER 204 ADVERTISEMENT 218 SURVEY SELECTED RECURRING ADVERTISEMENT OR SURVEY DISPLAY AD SURVEY YES 206 YES RECORD IN REPLY BUFFER 220 INHIBIT ACCESS TO 208 AD SURVEY FOR T TIME FIRST TIME AD SURVEY READ NO 222 DELETE AD SURVEY AD DISPLAYED FOR A PRE SELECTED PERIOD DEPOSIT INTO ACCOUNT READ AMOUNT ENABLE COUPON NO 214 QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY NO END FIG 9 U S Patent Feb 9 1999 Sheet 10 of 12 5 870 030 ADVERTISEMENT 230 SURVEY REPLY MENU 232 REPLY TO ADVERTISEMENT SURVEY YES 234 COMMUNICATE ON REVERSE CHANNEL OR DISPLAY NUMERIC SEQUENCE IF MANUAL DTMF 236 NO CONFIRMATION PAGE RECEIVED YES 238 DEPOSIT INTO ACCOUNT EQUAL TO REPLY AMOUNT amp DELETE FROM REPLY BUFFER FIG 10 U S Patent Feb 9 1999 Sheet 11 of 12 5 870 030 250 MESSAGE INFO SERVICE 252 DISPLAY MESSAGE INFO SERVIC
14. 5 375 Motorola Inc The Wireless Concert Overview and Net 58 Field of Search 340 825 44 825 47 work Design 1996 Feb 340 825 35 825 31 825 34 379 57 58 Motorola Inc M15 System Overview Int ernal Sales 91 114 123 235 375 380 382 382 5 Tool Dec 1995 56 References Cited Primary Examiner Michael Horabik Assistant Examiner Yonel Beaulieu U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 57 ABSTRACT 34 915 4 1995 Nichtberger et al 364 401 4 412 217 10 1983 Willard et al 340 825 44 system and apparatus for permitting a user of a selective 4 682 148 7 1987 Ichikawa et al 5 MEC call receiver 31 to receive a certain number of personal du as pr abus 3aosos44 messages and information service updates without paying a 851 eLuca et al sf 1 4 870403 9 1989 Mori et al 7 340 825 44 fee for such services in return for reading advertisements 4 875 038 10 1989 Siwiak et al 235 380 wirelessly transmitted to the selective call receiver The user 4 882 675 11 1989 Nichtberger et al s 364 401 is allowed to read the advertisements at any time prior to 4 952 929 8 1990 DeLuca et al 340 825 44 receiving the personal messages and information service 4 973 952 11 1990 Malec et al 340 825 35 updates The certain number is proportional to the number of 5 049 874 9 1991 Ishida et al 340 825 44 advertisements read The cert
15. E SELECTION 254 MESSAGE INFO SERVICE SELECTED YES 256 NO MESSAGE OR INFO SERVICE INFORMATION YES 258 ENOUGH NO 260 DISPLAY INSUFFICIENT FUNDS PLEASE READ ADVERTISEMENT OR SURVEY 262 DEBIT FROM ACCOUNT EQUAL TO VALUE OF INFO SERVICE OR MESSAGE 264 DISPLAY MESSAGE OR INFORMATION END FIG 11 U S Patent Feb 9 1999 Sheet 12 of 12 5 870 030 265 COUPON MENU 266 DELETE COUPON IF EXPIRED 267 DISPLAY COUPON SELECTION LIST COUPON SELECTED 274 ERASE COUPON FROM DISPLAY AND WIPE COUPON FROM MEMORY YES 269 WRITE COUPON ON PAGER DISPLAY INCLUDING COUPON BAR CODE UNIFORM PRODUCT CODE OR DISCOUNT NUMBER COUPON INDICATES SOURCE FROM PAGING SYSTEM NO 272 HAS 5 MINUTES YES CAN ELAPSED SINCE COUPON BE USED COUPON WAS DISPLAYED SELECTED YES FIG I2 5 870 030 1 ADVERTISER PAYS INFORMATION AND MESSAGING SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates in general to wireless communica tions and in particular to a system and apparatus for receiv ing advertisements through a selective call receiver BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is well known that paging system infrastructure opera tors derive revenue for selectively transmitting messages to persons carrying selective call receivers or selective call transceivers hereinafter collectively referred to as pag
16. M memory area can be provided by an EEPROM electrically erasable programmable read only memory The oscillator 84 timer counter 86 RAM 88 and ROM 90 couple through an address data control bus or bus 92 to a microprocessor 94 preferably a Motorola M68HC11PH8 that performs the instructions and controls the operations of the microcom puter 80 A person skilled in the art of programming modi fies the software using a Motorola HC11 Reference Manual published 1991 by Motorola Inc and using a Motorola MC68HC11PH8 Technical Data published 1995 Motorola Inc Part No M68HC11RM AD and Part No MC68HC11PH8 D respectively which are available for sale to the public from Motorola Literature Distribution Phoenix Ariz The demodulated data generated by the receiver is coupled into the microcomputer 80 through an input output port or I O port 96 The demodulated data is processed by the microprocessor 94 and when the received address is the same as the address stored in the code plug memory 70 which couples into the microcomputer 80 through an I O port 96 the message if any is received and stored in RAM 88 Recovery of the stored message and selection of the predetermined destination address is provided by the switches that are coupled to the I O port 96 The microcom puter then recovers the stored message and directs the information over the bus 92 to the display driver 82 that processes the information and formats the informat
17. US005870030A United States Patent Patent Number 5 870 030 DeLuca et al 4 Date of Patent Feb 9 1999 54 ADVERTISER PAYS INFORMATION AND 5 376 931 12 1994 Marrs MESSAGING SYSTEM AND APPARATUS 5 380 991 1 1995 Valencia et al 5 420 606 5 1995 Begum et al 75 Inventors Michael J DeLuca Joan S DeLuca 5 467 269 11 1995 Flaten both of Boca Raton Douglas R Kraul OTHER PUBLICATIONS Parkland all of Fla Motorola Inc Motorola Product Family 255 Service 73 Assignee Motorola Inc Schaumburg Manual 1995 Aug 22 Motorola Inc Motorola Product Family 255 Controller Notice This patent issued on a continued pros Supplement 1995 Jul 31 ecution application filed under 37 CFR Motorola Inc Introduction to The Wireless Concert 1 53 d and is subject to the twenty year 1995 Aug patent term provisions of 35 U S C Motorola Inc Motorola HC11 Reference Manual 1991 154 2 No Month Motorola Inc Motorola MC68HC11PH8 Technical 21 Appl No 627 642 Data 1995 No Month 22 Filed Apr 4 1996 Motorola Inc Motorola MPS2000 Product Description 1996 Feb 51 Casu G06K 5 00 Motorola Inc The Wireless Message Gateway Product 52 U S GL 340 825 44 340 825 47 Specification 1996 Feb 340 825 34 340 825 35 377 56 1 23
18. ain number can be increased by 5 124 697 6 1992 Moore 340 825 44 the user responding to questions within advertisements 5 138 650 8 1992 Stahl et al sso net 379 61 using reverse channel messaging capabilities of a selective 5 153 582 10 1992 Davis 340 825 44 call transceiver 32 or by using a conventional telephone 5 168 493 12 1992 Nelson et al 370 84 22 5 185 695 2 1993 Pruchnicki 364 401 5 192 854 3 1993 Counts 235 375 5 359 182 10 1994 Schilling 340 825 44 8 Claims 12 Drawing Sheets 78 DISPLAY DECODER CONTROLLER 32 5 870 030 Sheet 1 of 12 Feb 9 1999 U S Patent tr I Y E gt TEX X X lt 5 2 lis IM 4 z gt V lt li X B tr 9 I s c u m N ZI tn o I B a LU gt gt O ZO u do 202 u lt cq FIG I U S Patent Feb 9 1999 Sheet 2 of 12 5 870 030 34 42 50 CELL SITE CONTROLLER MESSAGE TELEPHONE HANDLER INTERFACE 38 SUBSCRIBER OUTBOUND DATA BASE MESSAGE MEMORY 44 CHANNEL EB INFORMATION ASSIGNMENT EB FIELD ELEMENT ELEMENT ELEMENT 51 DATA FRAME CONTROL ELEMENT FRAME ELEMENT FIG 2 U S Patent Feb 9 1999 Sheet 3 of 12 5 870 030
19. are elements 142 residing in ROM 90 cause the microcomputer to write the coupon bar code on the display upon the user inputting an appropriate command via con ventional pager user input means such as push buttons on the pager Typically the user would input the appropriate com mand immediately before needing to present the coupon such as when the user is in a supermarket checkout line The user or the checkout clerk then swipes the pager across the laser scanner the laser scanner reads the coupon and the coupon transaction is completed FIG 8 shows a bar code written on a display 78 of the pager Alternatively instead of a coupon style bar code written on the display a multichar 5 870 030 11 acter alphanumeric code is written on the display for visual observation and manual recordation by a sales clerk FIG 9 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the selective call transceiver according to FIG 1 for establishing the paging account service system in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention When the user selects an advertisement survey menu step 200 from among available menus appearing on the display of the pager an advertisement or survey name from among a list of advertisements and surveys appears on the display step 202 The advertisement survey hereinafter ad is selected with conventional user input means on the pager The user either chooses to view the ad named or scrolls through step 204 a lis
20. atible with land line message switches The system controller 26 also includes an encoder and a decoder and functions to encode and decode paging messages to and from selective call transceivers or transceivers 32 The system controller 26 the at least one radio frequency trans mitter 28 and the plurality of fixed radio frequency receivers comprise an infrastructure 33 that is preferably fixed The system controller 26 queues data and stored messages for transmission to the selective call transceivers 32 A subscriber data base 40 see FIG 2 in the system controller 26 stores information relevant to each subscriber s transceiver including a correlation between the unique address assigned to each transceiver and the telephone number used within the PSTN 24 to route messages to each transceiver 32 as well as other subscriber determined pref erences The system controller 26 schedules transmissions of mes sages and acknowledgments from the selective call trans ceivers 32 These transmissions include demand type trans missions from the transceivers such as acknowledgments to messages that have been transmitted by the system control ler 26 and responses to messages such as status inquiries transmitted from the system controller 26 The scheduled transmissions can also include non demand transmissions from the transceivers such as messages being held by the transceivers about which the transceivers have informed the system controller 26
21. ciated that there has been described an advertiser pays information and messaging system for presenting messages on a selective call transceiver 32 Personal messages received on the selective call transceiver from an infrastructure are messages of a first information type and advertisements and opinion polls or surveys are messages of a second information type The system in accordance with the invention includes the transmitter 64 at the selective call transceiver for transmitting an answer signal in response to manual inputs to the selective call transceiver by the user 71 in response to the content of messages of the second information type the receiver 30 at the infrastructure for receiving the answer signal a control ler 26 at the infrastructure for determining credit information in response to the answer signal a transmitter 28 at the infrastructure for transmitting a credit signal having the credit information and a microcomputer 80 at the selective call transceiver 32 for selectively inhibiting and enabling presentation of messages of the first information type in response to the credit information Further selective call apparatus has been described that includes a receiver 62 for receiving messages including a first information type and a 5 870 030 13 second information type a display 78 for displaying the messages a memory or debit credit meter 77 for storing credit units and a microcomputer 80 coupled to the receiver
22. cknowledging and Answering a Paging Signal issued Oct 6 1992 to Davis and U S Pat No 4 875 038 entitled Frequency Division Multiplexed Acknowledge Back Paging System issued Oct 17 1989 to Siwiak et al which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and which are hereby incorporated by reference herein The paging transceiver or pager 32 is preferably a Motorola Tango pager and has a microcom puter 180 modified to perform the operations described and shown in this specification The Motorola Tango pager is compatible with the ReFlex protocol The Tango pager is described more fully in the Motorola Product Family 255 Service Manual published 1995 by Motorola Inc and in the Motorola Product Family 255 Series Controller Supplement published 1995 by Motorola Inc which are available for sale to the public from Motorola Paging Products Group Boynton Beach Fla as part No 6881024B80 and part No 68881104B36 respectively and which are hereby incorpo rated by reference herein FIG 3 is an electrical block diagram of a selective call transceiver 32 in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention The selective call transceiver 32 comprises an antenna 60 for intercepting transmitted radio frequency RF signals The antenna is coupled to an input of a receiver 62 and an output of a reverse channel trans mitter 64 The RF signals are preferably selective call paging message signals that p
23. d ing to the response schedule The message handler 36 identifies an inbound message as being a response message associated with one of the transceivers in the subscriber data base 40 and identifies the response message as being associated with one of the outbound messages in the out bound message memory 38 The message handler 36 then further processes the outbound and response messages according to their content The cell site controller 34 the message handler 36 the outbound message memory 38 the subscriber data base 40 and the telephone interface 42 are conventional elements of the system controller 26 The invention preferably operates with a one way paging communication protocol such as the Motorola Flex sys tem described in U S Pat No 5 168 493 entitled Time Division Multiplexed Selective Call System issued Dec 1 1992 to Nelson et al assigned to the assignee of the present invention and which is hereby incorporated by reference herein Alternatively the invention preferably operates with the Motorola ReFleX two way wireless paging protocol described in detail in the following U S patents assigned to the assignee of the present invention U S Pat No 5 475 863 entitled Method and Apparatus for Identifying a Trans mitter in a Radio Communication System issued Dec 12 1995 to Simpson et al U S Pat No 5 712 624 entitled Method and Apparatus for Optimizing Receiver Synchro 10 15 20 25 30
24. d the display 78 within a one way pager 31 or a two way pager 32 and of interactions among such software elements and with other elements external to the pager 31 32 In the case of a one way pager the reverse channel shown in FIG 7 is absent or is via wireline The advertiser supplies the paging service provider with an ad containing questions and coupon generating information It is well known that paper coupons presently have a uniform product code or bar code 145 printed on them and that such bar codes are read by a bar code reader 144 such as a laser scanner typically found at supermarkets A pager in accor dance with the invention is capable of writing a coupon style bar code on the display 78 of the pager The bar code written on the pager corresponds to an ad read by the user on the pager The bar code is identical to the bar code on paper coupons Alternatively the bar code is slightly different in order to indicate that the bar code was generated by a pager however the bar code on the pager functions identically to a bar code on a paper coupon that is a discount is granted to the presentor of the coupon Software elements residing in ROM 90 cause the microcomputer to tabulate accumu lated coupons within the coupon buffer 140 after an ad is read or alternatively after the questions are answered cor rectly The coupon buffer is a data structure within RAM 88 and is preferably a relatively non volatile memory Coupon output softw
25. e M15 Series Manual Set available for sale to the public as Part No 6880451F17 Part No 6880450F50 0 Part No 6880451F35 and Part No 6880450F60 0 respectively from Motorola Paging Products Group Fort Worth Tex Alternatively the infrastructure 33 is a two way paging infrastructure modified to perform operations in accordance with the invention The two way paging infrastructure has a fixed portion including at least one base station for com municating with the portable portion utilizing the ReFlex protocol and coupled by communication links to a system controller that controls the at least one base station The hardware of the system controller preferably includes a Wireless Messaging Gateway WMG Administrator M paging terminal a RF Conductor message distributor and a RF Usher multiplexer manufactured by Motorola Inc The system controller has software elements and pref erably runs under a UNIX operating system The hardware of the base station preferably includes a Nucleus amp Orches tra 7 transmitter and a RF Audience receiver manufac tured by Motorola Inc A more detailed description of the hardware of the system controller and of the base station is described in Introduction to the Wireless Concert in The Wireless Concert Overview and Network Design and in The Wireless Message Gateway Product Specification published by Motorola Inc which is avail able for sale to the
26. e of these occurrences allow the service provider and the information service the option to modify the content and nature such as frequency of updates useful to an individual user of the information conveyed to the user This enables successful development of the wireless information service industry FIG 12 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the selective call transceiver according to FIG 1 showing the operation of the pager when the coupon menu is selected step 265 Upon the coupon menu being selected the micro computer 80 programmed in accordance with the invention will check expiration dates of all coupons stored in the coupon buffer 140 and delete all expired coupons step 266 and will display the names and discount amount of the unexpired coupons in the coupon buffer step 267 The user scrolls through the names of the coupons and selects a coupon at step 268 At step 269 the coupon is written on the display 78 see FIG 8 At step 270 the time that the coupon has been displayed is measured It is contemplated that the coupon will be displayed for a preselected limited period of time to avoid repetitive use of a coupon intended to be used only once At step 272 it is determined whether the coupon can be used more than once If the coupon can not be used more than one time then at step 274 the coupon is erased from the display and the coupon is wiped from the coupon selection list stored in RAM 88 Thus it will be appre
27. e reply buffer 130 for automatic transmission transparent to the user The reply message contains answers to the questions It is also contemplated that opinion surveys will be sent to the pager in a manner substantially similar to the manner that ads are sent to the pager Such surveys will have questions for the user to answer and the answers to the surveys are loaded into the reply message buffer Similarly but at the option of the information service entity reverse channel reply messages are loaded into the reply buffer when the user reads infor mation service updates Such reverse channel transmissions are made virtually immediately or alternatively if the adver tiser or information service wishes made later during off peak hours Such reverse channel transmissions are wire lessly received by the system controller 26 Upon receiving the reverse channel reply messages from the pager the paging service provider is capable of immediately relaying this information to the information service entity and to and the advertiser as info use data and ads read data respectively preferably by wireline This provides the advertiser or opinion surveyor with immediate and accurate feedback of the mental impressions of the target user in exchange for financing the user s access to individual paging messages FIG 7 is a simplified pictorial representation of bar code generating software elements 110 112 114 118 120 140 and 142 an
28. ers Usually such messages are personal messages transmitted to one pager although at times such messages are group messages transmitted to more than one pager A user of the pager pays a fee to the paging infrastructure operator for such service either on a per message basis or on a flat rate for a predetermined time period It is also well known that the paging infrastructure operator or another entity provides information services such as stock prices weather reports traffic reports sports scores etc to users of pagers for a fee Such services are customized to the needs and desires of each pager user however the information received through such services does not comprise personal messages The fee for such information services usually depends upon the oftenness and quantity of information transmitted Such fee typically is paid directly or indirectly to the other entity that provides the information Collectively the transmission of personal messages and the transmission of information services comprise paging services In any event the user of the pager pays for the paging services received on the pager Attempts have been made to provide paging services without the user of the pager paying any money for the services One known method has been to transmit an adver tisement with every personal message such that the pager displays the advertisement before the pager displays the personal message With such known method an advertiser
29. h of the advertisements stored in the message memory and a microcomputer coupled to the receiver and to the display for calculating only after the occurrence of the display time and in response to displaying on the display one 10 15 20 25 30 35 14 of the advertisements stored in the message memory a number of credit units to be added to the credit memory for enabling display of at least one personal message in response to the credit memory having at least a pre determined number of credit units for inhibiting display of personal messages in response to the credit memory having less than the pre determined number of credit units and for calculating a number of credit units to be subtracted from the credit memory after display of a personal message 2 The selective call apparatus of claim 1 which the advertisements are displayable for a duration selectable by the user through the manual input device 3 The selective call apparatus of claim 2 in which the microcomputer calculates the number of credit units further only after displaying the advertisement on the display for a duration equal to or greater than a pre determined credit duration 4 The selective call apparatus of claim 3 which the pre determined credit duration is proportional to a length of the advertisement 5 The selective call apparatus of claim 3 which the pre determined credit duration is proportional to a complex ity of the advertiseme
30. information service subscribed to by the user has a preselected cost assigned to it For example a user subscribes to a stock quotation service and the price of each stock subscribed to is continually updated at a preselected cost such as ten cents per update It is also contemplated that each pager is capable of receiving personal messages which is the traditional use of a pager Each personal message received by the pager has a preselected cost assigned to it A numeric message has a lower cost than an alphanumeric message and longer alpha numeric messages have a higher cost than shorter alphanu meric messages Software elements stored within ROM 90 cause the microcomputer 80 to automatically decrement the paging service account 118 after decoding an information service update or a personal message without further action by the user 71 It is contemplated that a pager in accordance with the invention will not allow a user to view any information service update or any personal messages when the paging service account 118 has a value of zero However information service updates and personal messages will nevertheless be received and decoded by the pager and stored in the respective buffers 112 114 for later presenta tion when the paging service account is large enough to allow such presentation Preferably a caution message is displayed on the display 78 when the paging service account approaches a preselected value greater than zero Upon
31. ion for presentation by a display The display is preferably an LCD liquid crystal display because the LCD is advantageously light absorptive and is readable by conventional bar code scanners At the time a selective call receiver address is received the alert signal is generated which can be routed through the bus 92 to an alert generator 98 that generates the alert signal which is coupled to the audible alerting device 72 Alternatively when the vibrator alert is selected as described above the microcomputer generates an alert enable signal which is coupled through bus 92 to the I O port 96 to enable generation of a vibratory or silent alert A battery saver operation is controlled by the microcomputer 80 with battery saving signals that are directed over the bus 92 to the I O port 96 which couples to the power switch 68 Power is periodically supplied to the receiver 62 to enable decoding of the received selective call receiver address signals and any message information that is directed to the receiver FIG 3 shows a debit credit meter 77 which is a hardware memory element coupled to the decoder controller 66 for 5 870 030 7 establishing a paging service accounting system It is con templated that the debit credit meter 77 is a non volatile memory that will retain the information stored within it during battery changes The debit credit meter 77 when fully replenished e g when the debit credit meter is indi cating the total
32. ne or more persons 106 place without paying any fee personal messages intended for the user 71 by telephoning the service provider Collectively the information supplied by the infor mation provider and the personal messages are a first information type The advertisements are a second informa tion type The service provider wirelessly transmits ads information and messages as the case may be to the one way pager 31 via RF signals The pager 31 intercepts RF signals through antenna 60 After receiving an RF signal and decoding an ad the ad is stored in an advertiser s buffer 110 which is a data structure within RAM 88 After receiving an 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 RF signal and decoding an update from an information service the update is stored in an information service buffer 112 which is a data structure within RAM 88 After receiv ing an RF signal and decoding a personal message the message is stored in a message buffer 114 which is a data structure within RAM 88 Each ad transmitted to the pager has a preselected value assigned to it Preferably the system controller transmits a plurality of ads to a multiplicity of pagers during off peak hours Each of the plurality of ads is stored in the advertis er s buffer 110 along with the value assigned to the ad Preferably the value is expressed in units of money but alternatively the value is expressed in terms of a number of pe
33. nt 6 The selective call apparatus of claim 3 which each of the advertisements has a unique identification number asso ciated with the advertisement 7 The selective call apparatus of claim 6 which the pre determined credit duration for each advertisement is determined by the unique identification number associated with each advertisement 8 The selective call apparatus of claim 1 in which the microcomputer calculates the number of credit units to be subtracted from the credit memory only after a first display of a personal message k
34. number of available credit units indicates the available number of credit units for enabling the user of the selective call transceiver 32 to access the received message information including personal messages and infor mation services data that is stored in memory 88 The decoder controller 66 calculates the number of credit units or debit units from a parameter of the stored message preferably from the number of characters of the stored message to be presented or displayed Those skilled in the arts will appreciate that the parameter of the stored message may comprise other variables such as a time associated with the displaying or presenting of the message A charge in debit units is preferably assigned to each character of the message and the decoder controller 66 counts accumulates the number of characters of the message to determine the total number of debit units This charge debit units is preferably calculated at the time the personal message not an advertisement is stored in memory The decoder controller 66 then debits subtracts the total num ber of message debit units from the number of indicated or available credit units of the debit credit meter 77 Upon debiting the number of debit units of the stored message from the indicated number of credit units of the debit credit meter 77 the decoder controller 66 enables access to the stored message when there is a sufficient number of avail able credits units in
35. ormation con veyed in the ad With an ad designed to be read more than once access to the ad is inhibited at the advertiser s option for a preselected interval of time T step 220 Alternatively an ad is deleted after one viewing step 222 FIG 10 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the selective call transceiver according to FIG 1 showing the operation of the reverse channel transmitter 64 of the two way pager 32 when the advertiser survey reply menu is being used step 230 At step 232 if no reply is made to a survey or if no questions are answered from an ad then no transmission is made However if a survey is replied to or if questions from an ad are answered then at step 234 a transmission is made on the reverse channel of a signal containing the reply to the survey or answers to the questions as the case may be At step 236 the receiver 62 of the two way pager 32 may receive a confirmation signal from the system controller 26 and from the confirmation signal it is determined whether the reverse channel message was received by the system controller If the reverse channel message was successfully received by the system controller the paging service account 118 is increased and the reply message is deleted from the reply buffer 130 If the reverse channel message was not successfully received then the pager programmed in accordance with the invention will re transmit the reverse channel message again FIG 11 is a
36. pays for the paging services Disadvantageously with this prior art method users of pagers must view every advertisement including those advertisements that the users do not consider applicable to their interests Further known methods fail to provide to the user an option to bypass advertisements and instead pay for paging services Finally with known methods it is impracticable to transmit an advertisement with every update such as a stock price update transmitted as part of an information service Therefore what is needed is an improved method and apparatus for providing free paging services to pager users through the use of advertisements in a way that encourages the user to ponder the content of advertisements transmitted to the user s pager BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention FIG 2 is an electrical block diagram of the system controller used in the communication system of FIG 1 FIG 3 is an electrical block diagram of the selective call transceiver shown in FIG 1 FIG 4 is an electrical block diagram of a microcomputer used in the selective call transceiver of FIG 3 FIG 5 is a simplified diagrammatic representation of interactions among elements of the selective call transceiver of FIG 1 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 FIG 6 is a simplified diagramma
37. rovide a receiver address and an associated message such as numeric or alphanumeric message The receiver 62 processes the RF signal and produces at the output a data stream representative of a demodulated address and message information The demodulated address and message information are coupled into the input of a decoder controller 66 that processes the information in a manner well known in the art A power switch 68 coupled to the decoder controller 66 is used to control the supply of power to the receiver 62 and the reverse channel transmitter 64 When an address that has been pre associated with a selective call transceiver is received by the decoder controller 66 the received address is compared with one or more addresses stored in a code plug or code memory 70 and when a match is detected an alert signal is generated to alert a user 71 that a selective call message or page has been received The alert signal is directed to an audible alerting device 72 for generating an audible alert or to a tactile alerting device 74 for generating a silent vibrating alert Switches 76 allow the user of the selective call receiver to select between an audible alert and a tactile alert in a manner well known in the art The message information that is subsequently received is stored in memory 88 see FIG 4 and can be accessed by the user 71 for display using one or more of the switches 76 that provide such additional functions as reset read and
38. rsonal messages Preferably the preselected value assigned to an ad is directly proportional to the size or length of the ad The preselected value of a particular ad is recovered by the user 71 by the user viewing and therefore presumably reading the particular ad Advantageously the user views the ads at a time convenient to the user and not necessarily when the user is receiving a personal message as is detrimentally required in some prior art systems After receiving a manual request from the user the pager presents a message such as an ad The user views the ad on a display 78 preferably a graphical display using means well known in the art All ads have a unique identification number that is displayed with the ad In order to ensure that the user actually reads rather than merely scrolls through the ad the ad is displayed for a preselected period proportional to the length and complexity of the ad before the user is credited with the value assigned to the ad Software elements stored within ROM 90 cause the microcomputer 80 to automati cally increment a paging service account 118 after the ad appears on the display for the preselected period of time without further action by the user 71 The size of such increment is equal to the value assigned to the ad The paging service account 118 is a data structure in RAM 88 and is a software oriented designation for the debit credit meter 77 which is hardware memory and is shown in FIG
39. t of ads by returning to step 202 and viewing the name of the next ad on the list Once an ad is selected it is written on the display step 206 At step 208 the displayed message is checked to determine whether it is being displayed for the first time If the ad being displayed for the first time the period of time that the ad appears on the display is measured in step 210 If the period of time that the ad appears on the display is greater than a preselected period the method proceeds to step 212 where money or a credit is deposited into the paging service account 118 in an amount assigned to the ad and the method proceeds to step 214 The method also proceeds directly to step 214 from step 208 if the ad had been read before At step 214 the user is given the oppor tunity to answer questions appearing in the ad or response to a survey using conventional user input means on the pager If the questions are answered correctly an additional amount of money or credit is deposited into the paging service account 118 If survey questions were answered at step 214 the answers are loaded into the reply buffer 130 for subsequent transmission to the system controller 26 An advertiser can allow a user to view an ad more than once step 218 but it is expected that the paging service account 118 will be credited only once However some ads are designed to be read more than once over a relatively long time period to encourage retention of the inf
40. the debit credit meter 77 e g when the debit credit meter 77 is not depleted and disables access to the stored message when the debit credit meter 77 is depleted Thus once the calculated debit units of the received message are debited from the available credit units of the debit credit meter 77 the message is now available for display to the user 71 at no extra charge irrespective of the number of times the user views the message on the display 78 That is the stored message is debited only once The debit credit meter 77 then indicates the remaining number of credit units available for subsequently received and stored messages FIG 5 is a simplified pictorial representation of software elements 110 112 114 118 and 120 and the display 78 within a selective call receiver 31 or one way pager and of interactions among such software elements and with other elements external to the pager An advertiser 100 places one or more advertisements or ads with a service provider 102 and pays to the service provider a monetary fee for such privilege Concurrently but independently an information service 104 supplies to the service provider 102 information such as traffic or weather reports or stock market prices and the service provider pays to the information provider a fee for such information Typically such information is regu larly updated at frequent intervals soon after the contents therein becomes available to the information provider O
41. tic representation of interactions among elements of the selective call transceiver of FIG 1 FIG 7 is a simplified diagrammatic representation of interactions among elements of the selective call transceiver of FIG 1 FIG 8 shows a bar code written on a display of the selective call transceiver of FIG 1 FIG 9 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the selective call transceiver according to FIG 1 FIG 10 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the selective call transceiver according to FIG 1 FIG 11 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the selective call transceiver according to FIG 1 FIG 12 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the selective call transceiver according to FIG 1 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG 1 an electrical block diagram of a wireless communication system preferably a wireless selec tive call communication system or system 20 is shown in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention The infrastructure of the system comprises a message input device such as a conventional telephone 22 connected by a conventional public switched telephone network PSTN 24 to a system controller 26 The system controller 26 oversees the operation of at least one radio frequency transmitter 28 and a plurality of fixed radio frequency receivers or receivers 30 and encodes and decodes inbound and outbound messages into formats that are comp
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