FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to portable electronic devices and in particular to systems and methods for displaying advertisements on portable electronic devices and will be described with reference to this application. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to this particular field of use.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In this specification unless the contrary is expressly stated, where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge; or known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which this specification is concerned.

Portable electronic devices have increased in popularity and many people now carry at least one portable electronic device with them throughout the day. The device may take the form of a portable computer, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant, personal music player or the like. User difficulties in accessing and

transporting multiple devices has led to the introduction of newer smart devices that can run multiple applications on a single device thereby avoiding the need for a user to carry multiple devices around with them. Instead the user simply activates the desired application (app) function on the smart device and can switch to another application as required. Many devices also provide the user with the ability to download and install new applications onto the smart device.

In light of the above, there is great demand for new applications, however, there is reluctance from some users to pay for each application they wish to use. In lieu of payment, or in some instances even in conjunction with payment, users are happy to receive advertising while using applications.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Smart phone devices have become very popular in recent years. With this popularity, the industry for developing software applications (known as "apps") for smart phone devices has grown. This industry has also extended to tablet computers, on which apps can also be run. There are many developers that develop apps to suit an extremely wide range of differing interests amongst smart phone device and tablet users. These include, for example, apps for games or other forms of entertainment, apps for business purposes, apps for education and information sharing, and so on. Such apps have been identified as an effective medium for advertising. Indeed, it is very common for the goods or services of one provider to be advertised on the apps developed by another party. Such adverts typically appear in visual form on the screens of smart phone devices, while users are interacting with the devices.

It will be appreciated that, in order for an advert of a particular provider to be presented during the use or running of an app on a smart phone device, the app must be suitably configured to cause that advert to appear. Usually, an intermediate party is involved in taking the steps necessary for the provider's advert to be included in the developer's app. There are numerous competing businesses that act as such intermediaries, often referred to as advertising (or ad) networks. Typically, such businesses will have information about providers wishing to advertise on apps developed by developers, and also information relating to such developers. As a result, such advertising networks are often well-placed to introduce providers that wish to advertise, to app developers wishing to incorporate the adverts of providers within their apps.

Part of the service typically provided by advertising networks includes the developing and providing of software which is suitable to be installed in the apps of developers, in order to incorporate the adverts of providers.

Such software may be of a largely standardised nature, and may require relatively little input by the providers, or by the ad network itself, in order to incorporate the provider's adverts, and relatively little adaptation by the app developers (of that software or their apps).

Typically, the apps together with the incorporated software are configured to be presented on the smart phone devices or tablet computers, and for users to interact with the adverts, for example by actuating hyperlinks incorporated in the adverts when they are presented, or by entering information into onscreen forms presented by the adverts, and so on.

Typically, the relationship between the providers, ad networks, and app developers is such that, when some predetermined form of interaction occurs between a user of a smartphone device or tablet computer and an advert (for example when the user actuates a hyperlink), a record will be retained of the event, and will trigger a remuneration payment for the ad network and to the developer, which will be paid by the advertising provider. Indeed, this is typically the primary source of revenue for many developers. For this reason, many apps are made available for download by smart phone device or tablet computer users for free, or for a nominal fee.

There are various different forms of adverts that may be used in such apps. However, the approach to making the adverts as effective as possible in relation to their ability to draw smart phone or tablet computer users to engage with the adverts, and to purchase the goods or services to which the adverts relate, has been somewhat hit and miss. As a result, there is potential for improvement in the effectiveness of adverts, based on the manner in which they are used. The preferred embodiment of the present invention overcomes or ameliorates at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, or at least provides a useful alternative.

The preferred embodiment of the invention provides a system and method for providing an advertisement to a user wherein sensor inputs from the portable electronic device are used to: trigger an advertisement; and/or provide an advertisement to the user; and/or allow the user to accept an advertisement.

Term offer management client is used herein to broadly describe the system and/or software that resides on the portable electronic device and which can: trigger an advertisement; and/or provide an advertisement to the user; and/or allow the user to accept an advertisement. This term should be interpreted broadly and is not limited to or constrained by this particular definition as it can be embodied in different forms according to the specific embodiment of the invention implemented.

The term offer management services is used herein to broadly describe a system and/or software that resides in a location remote to the portable electronic device but in communication therewith to receive and provide information to and from the offer management client. This term should be interpreted broadly and is not limited to or constrained by this particular definition as it can be embodied in different forms according to the specific embodiment of the invention implemented.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a portable electronic device including: a memory for storing an application, the application including an offer management client for triggering an offer to be provided to a user; a display for displaying at least a portion of the application; a user interface for allowing the user to actuate the application; a sensor in communication with the application for providing the application with sensor information; and a network interface for connecting the device to a network and for allowing the application to access an offer management server connected to the network, the offer management server storing information relating to at least one offer, the offer being selectively triggered by the offer management client based at least upon the sensor information and offered to the user.

Preferably the offer management client downloads the information relating to the at least one offer from the offer management server upon the offer being triggered.

Preferably the information relating to the at least one offer is downloaded by the offer management client upon occurrence of predetermined sensor information. Preferably the sensor includes one or more of the following: GPS; gyroscope; camera; accelerometer; thermometer; luxmeter; proximity sensor; microphone or magnetometer.

Preferably the offer is triggered by one or more of the following means; the power of the portable electronic device being turned on or off; the camera detecting a predetermined scenario; the GPS location information; device movement; camera detecting a

predetermined gesture (such as waving a hand)or other facial or gesture recognition, proximity; device state (such as in call; teleconference; video call) or the like.

Preferably the offer is provided to the user by at least one or more of the following means: displayed in a graphical form on the display; through a audio recording played on a speaker in the portable electronic device; by electronic message such as SMS, MMS, email, imessage; video call; phone call; vibration alert (such as to alert the user to the presence of an offer); notification; video; or the like.

Preferably the offer is accepted by the user by one or more of the following means:

actuating the user interface; verbal acceptance detected by a microphone connected to the portable electronic device; rotating the phone thereby actuating the gyroscope;

camera gesture; movement of phone such as shaking; or the like.

Preferably the portable electronic device includes device state information stored on the memory. Preferably the device state information records information including; device powered on; device powered off; phone call in progress; and the like.

Preferably the network interface is a wireless network. More preferably the network interface is a mobile phone wireless network.

Preferably the network is connected to the Internet.

Preferably the offer management server is connected to the Internet and communicates with the device through the Internet and the mobile phone network.

Preferably the provision or display of an offer on the display can be varied according to one or more sensor inputs from the device.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a method of providing an offer to a user including the steps of: providing a portable electronic device having a memory for storing an application, the application including an offer management client for triggering an offer to be provided to a user; providing a display for displaying at least a portion of the application; providing a user interface for allowing the user to actuate the application; providing a sensor in communication with the application for providing the application with sensor information; and providing a network interface for connecting the device to a network and for allowing the application to access an offer management server connected to the network, the offer management server storing information relating to at least one offer, the offer being selectively triggered by the offer management client based at least upon the sensor information and offered to the user.

According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a portable electronic device including: a memory for storing an application, the application including an offer management client for triggering an offer to be provided to a user; a display for displaying at least a portion of the application; a user interface for allowing the user to actuate the application; a sensor in communication with the application for providing the application with sensor information; and a network interface for connecting the device to a network and for allowing the application to access an offer management server connected to the network, the offer management server storing information relating to at least one offer, the offer being selectively triggered by the offer management client according to at least one predetermined criterion wherein upon triggering the offer is provided to the user, the manner in which the offer is provided being dependent at least upon the sensor information.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a portable electronic device including: a memory for storing an application, the application including an offer management client for triggering an offer to be provided to a user; a display for displaying at least a portion of the application; a user interface for allowing the user to actuate the application; a sensor in communication with the application for providing the application with sensor information; and a network interface for connecting the device to a network and for allowing the application to access an offer management server connected to the network, the offer management server storing information relating to at least one offer, the offer being selectively triggered and offered to the user by the offer management client according to at least one predetermined criterion wherein the acceptance of the offer is dependent at least upon the sensor information.

According to a fifth aspect of the invention there is provided a portable electronic device including: a memory for storing an application, the application including an offer management client for triggering an offer to be provided to a user; a display for displaying at least a portion of the application; a user interface for allowing the user to actuate the application; a sensor in communication with the application for providing the application with sensor information; and a network interface for connecting the device to a network and for allowing the application to access an offer management server connected to the network, the offer management server storing information relating to at least one offer, the offer being selectively triggered and offered for acceptance to the user by the offer management client according to at least one predetermined criterion wherein at least one of the triggering; offering; or acceptance of the offer is dependent at least upon the sensor information.

Throughout the specification and claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", and other variations such as "comprises" and

"comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or step or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or step or group of integers of steps.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a flow diagram of according to the invention shown;

Figure 2 is conceptual diagram of a system according to the invention.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION The preferred embodiment of the invention provides a portable electronic device in the form of an Apple Iphone™. It would be understood though that the invention can be implemented on any suitable device such as an Apple Ipad™, Blackberry™ device, Samsung™ device, Android™ device and any other suitable smart phone, tablet or device.

A device according to the preferred embodiment of the invention is a portable electronic device having memory for storing a software application or App. The application includes an offer management client for triggering an offer to be provided to a user. The device includes a display for displaying at least a portion of the application and a user interface for allowing the user to actuate the application. The device has at least one sensor in communication with the application for providing the application with sensor information. The sensor is typically a function or feature of the device such as a camera;GPS; gyroscope; accelerometer; thermometer; luxmeter; proximity sensor;

microphone or magnetometer and any other feature or function that is build into a smart device to provide the user with features that enhance the usability of the device.

The portable electronic device includes a network interface for connecting the device to a network, in the preferred embodiment a mobile phone network connected to the Internet, and for allowing the application to access an offer management server connected to the network, the offer management server storing information relating to at least one offer, the offer being selectively triggered and offered for acceptance to the user by the offer management client according to at least one predetermined criterion wherein at least one of the triggering; offering; or acceptance of the offer is dependent at least upon the sensor information. It would be understood that the device could be connected to networks other than a mobile phone network, however, this is the preferred network type.

In some embodiments the offer is triggered by one or more of the following means; the power of the portable electronic device being turned on or off; the camera detection a predetermine scenario; the GPS location information; or the like.

The offer management client downloads the information relating to the at least one offer from the offer management server upon the offer being triggered. In one preferred form the offer is triggered upon the offer management client receiving certain sensor information that indicates the device is in a particular state or that the user is performing a certain function.

Some non limiting examples could be that the offer management client determines that the user has activated their phone when arriving at a particular location, such as a store, using the device state and GPS information providing by the device. Upon receiving this information the offer management client an appropriate offer is triggered. The offer could relate to a promotion a particular store is running or a related product and could be tailored specifically to the user in the event that specific user information is stored by either the offer management server or a third party database such as the mobile telephone network provider's database. In another embodiment the offer management client could trigger an offer for printing or framing services after detecting that the user has taken a photograph using the camera provided by the device. In some embodiments the offer could be triggered upon analysing the photograph that has been taken and an offer specific to the contents of the photograph could be triggered. For example if the photograph is of a smiling individual (or user) who has discoloured teeth, the offer management client after analysing the contents of the photograph and determining that the user has discoloured teeth which could trigger an offer for teeth whitening.

It would be understood that the offer management server stores offers from a wide range of advertisers and that in this example the teeth whitening services offered by a dentist or other professional is triggered. In the preferred embodiment advertisers pay to have their offer included in the offer management server. Payment could be in the form of an agreed fee or could be on a pay per click / pay per offer served basis. In other embodiments the camera can be used to detect gestures or facial expressions.

In the preferred embodiment the offer management client updates information on the offers available to provide the user from the offer management server at regular predetermined intervals or upon receiving a notification from the offer management server that the offers have been updated. Initially only limited information is downloaded and stored on the device's memory until the offer is actually triggered and accepted by the user. At that point additional information can be downloaded from the offer management server and provided to the user. In this preferred embodiment the offer management client stores information about each offer and when to trigger each offer based upon predetermined criteria relating to the sensor inputs. Once an offer is triggered and / or accepted by the user additional information can be downloaded.

Once an offer is triggered, the offer is provided to the user after which the user chooses to either ignore (i.e. reject) or accept the offer.

Acceptance of the offer can be provided in any of a number of manners. This could be given by the user actuating the user interface by clicking on a banner, button or the like. In some embodiments the acceptance can be given by actuating a sensor on the device, for example shaking or rotating their device to actuate the gyroscope and/or GPS. In some embodiments the microphone of the device can be used and the user simply states "accept" or "yes", this is detected by the microphone and the offer accepted. In these instances the information from each particular sensor (GPS, camera, gyroscope, microphone and the like) would be provided to the offer management client to determine whether the user has accepted and consented to receiving the offer.

Upon the user consenting to accept the offer, any required offer information can be downloaded from the offer management server and then provided to the user. The additional information can be in any supported form such as displayed in a graphical form on the display; through an audio recording played on a speaker in the portable electronic device; by electronic message such as SMS, MMS, email, imessage; or the like. It would be understood that the additional information can be provided in any number or formats and the particular format may be tailored to the particular phone or device that the user is using. For example, a user with an Apple iPhone would receive an offer tailored for display (graphical, video, voice, message) that is adapted for IOS (the Apple operating system). A user with an Android phone would have its offer adapted for the Android operating system and the like. It would be understood that the manner of delivery of the offer is not limited and can take any supported form.

In some embodiments the offer can be a voucher to be used at a store or to purchase a service. In some embodiments the offer is information about a product and/or service that is being sold and the acceptance of the offer provides the user with further information on the offer and/or allows the vendor to collect user information for provision of the offer. The offer could be located at a website, included in a video, displayed on the display of the device, provided in an audio format and played by the device's speaker, delivered by an operating by calling the user's phone, and the like. It would be understood that the offer can be provided in any suitable format and it is not limited to the specific offer types mentioned herein.

It would be understood that many devices include device state information such as device powered on; device powered off; phone call in progress; and the like. These functions can also be monitored and used in the triggering and/or display and/or acceptance of an offer.

It would be understood that embodiments of the invention can be configured in a variety of different manners. It is preferred that the portable electronic device be connected a mobile phone network and this network is connected to the Internet. In some

embodiments the device could be connected directly to the Internet (through WIFI or the like). In the preferred embodiment the offer management server is connected to the Internet and communicates with the device through the Internet and the mobile phone network.

Referring to Figure 1 there is shown a flow diagram 101 that shows a three step process according to the invention. At 102 the offer management client awaits the triggering of a predetermined sensor reading to trigger the offer. Once triggered the offer is displayed to the user at 103. The manner in which the offer is displayed or provided to the user is also dependent upon the sensor information. If the user chooses to accept the offer, the process proceeds to 104. The user can accept the offer by actuating the user interface or by actuation any of a predetermined sensor. Once the offer has been accepted and provided to the user, the process returns to 102 where the offer management client awaits the next trigger.

Figure 2 shows the preferred system 201 according to the invention. Iphone 202is connected to mobile telephone network 204 through to the Internet cloud 203. Iphone 202 includes an app 205 stored in its memory which includes the offer management client 206. Offer management client monitors the status and sensors included in the Iphone to determine when to trigger an offer. The offer management client 206 is in

communication with a offer management server 207 which is also connected to the Internet 203. The offer management server includes details of all the offers 208 which can be provide to all users of the system including the user of Iphone 202 Server 207 is managed by an administrator 209 who maintains and updated the offers 208 through web browser 210. In some embodiments the server 207 can be duplicated for redundancy or a separate server can be used for different geographical locations. This is illustrated by redundant server 211. Vendors 212 wishing to use the system to provide offers to users of the system can do so by browsing to management website 214 on browser 213. The management website allows the vendors to provide details of the offers and to attend to any payment required to the provider of the system. Offers may need to be reviewed by the administrator 209 prior to being uploaded the offer management server 207 but this can be tailored according to the particular business rules desired.

In the preferred embodiment, the system also includes a publisher who develops the application and who incorporates the offer management client into his or her application and also has access to a management website via a browser to obtain statistics and revenue earned. As would be understood, system 201 is provided as an example only and modification can be made thereto without going outside of the scope of the invention.

In use, the user of Iphone 202 downloads an application (App) from the Apple App Store. The software install in the memory of the Iphone 202. The App includes the offer management client which is activated when the user actuates the application downloaded. It would be understood that the offer management client can be installed in any number of applications and there could in fact be multiple version of the client installed on the same Iphone. During development, software developers wishing to receive revenue from their Apps code the offer management client also called the software development kit (SDK) into their App so that they can generate revenue when an offer is provided to the user. In this manner the software developer can offer the Application to the user for free while at the same time being paid when users receive offers.

Once actuated, the offer management client monitors the state and sensors of the Iphone waiting for an offer to be triggered according to predetermined conditions. Once an offer is triggered, the offer is displayed and the user can consent to receiving the offer. If the user does not consent then the client awaits the next trigger. If the user does accept then the full offer details of the offer are downloaded from the offer management server and provided to the user according to the preferred manner. At the conclusion of the offer the user can be returned to the application.

Any commercial processor may be used to implement the embodiments of the invention either as a single processor, serial or parallel set of processors in the system. Examples of commercial processors include, but are not limited to Merced™, Pentium™, Pentium II™, Xeon™, Celeron™, Pentium Pro™, Efficeon™, Athlon, AMD, Intel Centrino™, Intel Core Duo™, Intel Core 2 Duo™, Intel Centrino™, Intel Xeon™ and the like.

Display screens may be segment display screen, analogue display screens, digital display screens, CRTs, LED screens, Plasma screens, liquid crystal diode screens, and the like.

Although the invention has been described with reference to specific examples, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms.