Adaptive location branding
A method and system for providing location-specific information to users, wherein this information is directly maintained and supplied by the provider of the service. This information is supplied by means of an application running on a personal communication device, where the application provided by a third-party servicer and the third party servicer makes various program options/APIs of the application available to and selectable by its customers. An organization does not have to develop its own applications to provide a unique user experience tied to the organization, and users do not have to download an application for each organization they visit. The method includes capturing or retrieving a digital image using a portable communications device; analyzing the digital image to determine a subject of the digital image; detecting a location associated with the digital image; and displaying information related to the subject and the location associated with the digital image.
1. A method for changing the appearance and/or functionality of a location-aware application on a portable communication device based on a detected location, the method comprising the steps of:
detecting the location of the portable communications device based on location information received from a location-defining device or a digital image;
interrogating a web-based service of a third party service provider for information pertaining to an organization to be provided to the user, the information corresponding to the organization at detected location and from a database of the third party service provider and populated by the organization;
receiving the information from the web-based service to be provided to the user;
modifying one or more graphical user interface elements of the location-aware application of the portable communication device using the information received from the third party web-based service such that a graphical user interface of the location-aware application displays an appearance showing affiliation with the organization at the detected location instead of an affiliation with the third party service provider;
displaying the information to be provided to the user on the display screen of the portable communication device such that the information includes branding information associated with the organization,
in which detecting the location of the portable communications device based on location information received from a location-defining device or a digital image comprises:
capturing or retrieving a digital image of a subject using a portable communications device;
analyzing the digital image to determine a subject of the digital image; and
detecting a location associated with the digital image; and
displaying the information to be provided to the user comprises:
displaying information related to the subject of the digital image and the location associated with the digital image.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information to be provided to the user comprises location-specific notifications; and wherein the information displayed to the user comprises the location-specific notifications.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the location-specific notifications comprise information about upcoming events scheduled for the detected location.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information to be provided to the user comprises scheduling options; and wherein the information displayed to the user comprises the scheduling options.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the scheduling options comprise class assignments for the detected location.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein if there is a change in the detected location from the location-defining device, then the steps of interrogating, receiving and displaying are repeated.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein after a pre-determined period of time has elapsed, then the steps of interrogating, receiving and displaying are repeated.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location-specific branding information comprises changes to characteristics of the screen display on the portable communication device.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location information is received from a digital image and the location information comprises metadata associated with the digital image.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the metadata associated with the digital image includes GPS coordinates.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location information is received from a digital image and the location information is determined using computer-based image recognition of the digital image.
12. The method of claim 1 in which determining the location information from a digital image comprises capturing the digital image by a camera on the portable communications device.
13. A portable communications device comprising:
a computer processor coupled to a bus;
a receiver coupled to the bus, the receiver adapted for receiving location information from a location-defining device;
a display screen coupled to the bus, the display screen adapted for displaying the information to the user of the portable communication device; and
a non-transitory, computer-readable medium coupled to the bus, the computer-readable medium encoded with computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the device to perform the method of claim 1 .
14. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium encoded with computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer processor of a portable communications device, cause the portable communications device to perform the method of claim 1 .