Information acquisition decision making by devices in a wireless network
View Patent ↗A mobile telephone ( 10 ), an advertiser, broadcasts an advertisement over a wireless short range piconet link to another mobile telephone ( 12 ), a consumer. The advertisement is broadcast with a predetermined set of classification tags and the consumer phone ( 12 ) has a filter set to accept only certain advertisements. When an advertisement of interest is received by the consumer phone ( 12 ) it assesses whether to obtain further details via the piconet link and the advertiser phone ( 10 ) provides then automatically via the piconet link. When the consumer wishes to reply to the advertisement they contact the advertiser phone ( 10 ), or an advertiser device, via a long range cellular link ( 16 ).
1. A method of advertising to a consumer device comprising:
broadcasting a short range piconet advertisement;
making an assessment as to whether a response or reply to the advertisement is required and, if so, replying to the advertisement via telecommunications;
sending a first part of the advertisement via the short range telecommunications; and
sending a second, longer or larger, part of the advertisement via short range telecommunications, the second part of the advertisement being transmitted after the consumer device has screened the first part of the advertisement and has requested the second part of the advertisement.
2. A method according to claim 1 comprising requesting further or fuller details of the advertisement via long range wireless telecommunication.
3. A method according to claim 1 comprising replying to the advertisement via short range piconet wireless telecommunications.
4. A method according to claim 1 comprising broadcasting a short form advertisement and requesting further or fuller details of the advertisement.
5. A method according to claim 4 , in which the request for further or fuller details is made via short range telecommunications and, upon failing to make contact with an advertising device, trying to make contact with the advertising device via long range telecommunications.
6. A method according to claim 1 in which the advertisement is broadcast by a hand-portable mobile wireless telecommunications device.
7. A method according to claim 1 in which the advertisement is assessed using a consumer hand-portable mobile wireless telecommunications device.
8. A method according to claim 1 in which receipt of the short form advertisement prompts the consumer device to request more information via the short range telecommunications automatically if the short form advertisement triggers a trigger to do so.
9. A method according to claim 1 comprising:
using short range telecommunications to communicate:
(a) a short-form advertisement to the consumer device,
(b) a request for a fuller advertisement from the consumer device to an advertiser device, and short range telecommunications to communicate fuller details from the advertiser device to the consumer device, all taking place within the order of a second or a few seconds; and
using long range telecommunications to carry a reply to the advertisement to an advertisement reply device which is a device different from that from which the advertisement was broadcast.
10. A method according to claim 1 comprising storing the telecommunications address with which the consumer device is to communicate the reply to the advertisement in the consumer device far display, for automatic dial or for semi-automatic dialing, or both.
11. A method according to claim 1 in which the advertisement is received by a portable telephone, personal digital assistant or other hand-held portable electronic device, and in which the assessment as to whether a replay to the advertisement is required is at least in part made by the portable consumer device.
12. A method according to claim 11 in which the advertisement received by the mobile device is screened against an advertisement profile filter by the device before being presented to the user of the device, and is only presented to the user if the advertisement passes the screening operation.
13. A method according to claim 1 comprising:
broadcasting a short range advertisement from an advertiser telecommunications device;
receiving the broadcast advertisement on the consumer telecommunications device; and
replying to the advertisement via a broker device interposed in the telecommunications link between the advertiser device and the consumer device.
14. A method according to claim 13 in which the broker device modifies at least one of (a) the message sent by the consumer device to the advertiser device, and (b) modifies any follow-up message sent to the consumer device by the advertiser device, or a proxy or master advertising device.
15. A method according to claim 13 , in which the advertiser device does not include its own telecommunications address in its broadcast advertisement, but does include the telecommunications address of the broker device.
16. A method according to claim 1 in which the advertisement includes one or more advertisement classification codes which are compared with allowable advertisement codes in an advertisement screening operation by the consumer device.
17. A method according to claim 16 in which the consumer device stores or brings to the attention of a user only those advertisements which are passed by the screening operation that it performs on the broadcast advertisements that it receives.
18. A method according to claim 1 in which the consumer device is used to reply to an advertisement via long range telecommunications.
19. A method according to claim 1 in which the second part of the advertisement is broadcast by the same advertiser device that broadcast the first part.
20. A method according to claim 1 in which the advertisement is broadcast from a hand-held portable, pocketable wireless advertiser device.
21. A method according to claim 1 comprising using portable electronic devices for both the advertiser device and the consumer device, both devices having piconet short range and long range telecommunication capabilities.
22. The network of claim 1 wherein the telecommunications device comprises a mobile telephone.
23. A method of advertising to a consumer device comprising:
broadcasting a short range piconet advertisement;
making an assessment as to whether a response or reply to the advertisement is required and, if so, replying to the advertisement via telecommunications; and
broadcasting a short form advertisement and requesting further or fuller details of the advertisement, the request for further or fuller details being made via short range telecommunications and, upon failing to make contact with an advertising device, trying to make contact with the advertising device via long range telecommunications.