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AN OVERBROAD PATENT ON managing consumer profiles based on detailed visit records of consumers. - This application from Rapidblue Solutions / Shoppertrak seeks to patent the idea of...Receiving location information and a unique identifier of a consumer, retrieving consumer profile associated with the unique identifier, and updating a consumer profile based on information related to their location! 10 minutes of your time can help narrow US patent applications before they become patents. Follow @askpatents on twitter to help.

QUESTION - Have you seen anything that was published before 4/28/2011 that discusses:

  • Updating consumer profiles based on consumer's visit record info.

If so, please submit evidence of prior art as an answer to this question. We welcome multiple answers from the same individual.

EXTRA CREDIT - A visit record information includes a location visited by a consumer, date and time of visit, and length of time spent at the location.

TITLE: Updating consumer profile based on location information received from the consumer's mobile device.

Summary: [Translated from Legalese into English] Receive visit record information (such as location, date and time of visit, and time spent at the location) and unique identifier of a consumer from the consumer's mobile device, retrieve consumer profile associated with the unique identifier from a server, and update the retrieved consumer profile based on the visit record information.

Claim 1 requires each and every step below:

A system for profiling a consumer, comprising:

  1. An agent with a memory in communication with a processor, the memory including program instructions for execution by the processor to:

  2. Receive a visit record information element comprising information about a location visited by the consumer and a unique consumer identifier;

  3. Retrieve location information element associated with the location;

  4. Retrieve a consumer profile element associated with the unique consumer identifier;

  5. Generate an updated consumer profile information element based at least in part on one or more of the consumer profile information element, the detailed visit record information element, and the location characterization information element; and

  6. Store the updated consumer profile information element in the server.

In English this means:

A system for:

  1. Receiving visit record information and unique identifier of a consumer from the consumer's mobile device;

  2. Retrieving consumer profile associated with the unique identifier from a server;

  3. Updating the retrieved consumer profile based on the received visit record information; and

  4. Storing the updated consumer profile.

Good prior art would be evidence of a system that did each and every one of these steps prior to 4/28/2011

You're probably aware of ten pieces of art that meet this criteria already... separately, the applicant is claiming A tracking device (e.g. using bluetooth) that receives location information and unique identifier of a consumer from the consumer's mobile device .

"Location based consumer profiling" from the Applicant

What is good prior art? Please see our FAQ.

Want to help? Please vote or comment on submissions below. We welcome you to post your own request for prior art on other questionable US Patent Applications.

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2 Answers 2

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Publication number US20110025816 A1

This application has a profile stored on the user's phone, I believe, rather than with the store. I do not think it is dead-on.

Publication date Feb 3, 2011

Filing date Jul 31, 2009

Priority date Jul 31, 2009

Prior Art under 102(e) as of the filing and priority date

MICROSOFT

FIG. 5 provides exemplification of a methodology 500 that facilitates and/or effectuates advertising as a real-time call in accordance with an aspect of the claimed subject matter. Methodology 500 can commence at 502 where a point of sale or retail establishment component (e.g., retail establishment component 104) can detect whether or not a mobile device is within its proximity. At 504 the point of sale or retail establishment component can ascertain whether or not the detected mobile is receptive to the download or dissemination of advertising content. At 506 where it is determined that the detected mobile device within the vicinity of the retail establishment or point of sale

. . .

Retail establishment component 104 can further include filter component 304 that can utilize information obtained during data interchange with mobile device 102 wherein such information can include user preferences that can have been solicited from the user or deduced or inferred from previous interactions between the user and the retail establishment (e.g., the user can be a regular customer of the retail establishment in that he/she carries a store credit card or rewards card) from which retail . . .

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In 2010 an iPhone app launched that I think might be prior art.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/02/future-checkin/

Future Checkin is an app that allows you to check-in to your favorite Foursquare venues automatically when you're near them. You don't have to do a thing besides simply have your phone on you and this app will check you in while running in the background with iOS 4.

Here's how it works: you sign in to the app with your Foursquare account, and it shows you a list of Foursquare venues nearby. Or you can search for your favorite venues. From this list, you choose the ones to mark as “Favorites.” You can also scan your recent check-in history and select venues from here to add to your Favorites. This Favorites list is key - these are the venues you will be automatically checked-in to when you get close enough to them (within 300 meters).

Item-by-item:

Receiving visit record information and unique identifier of a consumer from the consumer's mobile device;

The app sends the checkin along with user id and credentials to the server

Retrieving consumer profile associated with the unique identifier from a server

The app retrieves the user details from the server (probably including checkin history).

Updating the retrieved consumer profile based on the received visit record information; and Storing the updated consumer profile.

The app auto-posts the checkin to the server and I think also stores checkin history on the device.

This app is no longer offered in the app store but there are numerous date-stamped reviews and even videos of it online: https://www.google.com/?q=future+checkin

I feel like foursquqre itself might qualify as prior art but since that didn't come up yet I assume it doesn't...

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