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Description  |
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SPECIFICATION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to home communication systems, and, in
particular, to methods and systems for directly generating selected
printed information, including redeemable coupons, at consumers' premises.
2. Background of the Invention
It is a common practice for consumer product manufacturers and advertisers
to issue or publish printed coupons which can be clipped and taken to a
redemption center, such as a retail store, at which they are redeemed for
some value or as a discount toward the purchase of the designated product.
One widely used source of coupons is the free standing insert found in
many Sunday newspapers. Others include newspapers and flyers, either
picked up by or delivered to consumers, and coupons made available in
stores themselves. While these types of coupon distributions have proven
to be effective, they present a number of disadvantages to the user, as
well as to the manufacturers and the advertisers.
The difficulties and inconveniences associated with the use of published
coupons to be clipped by a user to both consumer and advertiser are
evident. A consumer must acquire the publication, which the advertiser has
the burden of distributing to both an interested and disinterested public.
An interested consumer must then search through a host of such
publications and cut out such coupons as he finds interesting, itself a
burdensome and time-consuming task.
Furthermore, redemption of coupons at a supermarket, for example, provides
little marketing information to the manufacturer or advertiser other than
that the product was bought by a group of anonymous consumers and that
these consumers scanned the publication, be it a newspaper or a
distributed flyer. The rate of redemption of coupons is substantially low
compared to the number distributed and the rudimentary geographic
information gleaned from the redemption counts in the distribution areas
is of limited guidance in planning future marketing programs.
Systems have been devised for enabling the printing of coupons at
supermarket checkout counters to target a consumer's specific shopping
preferences. Thus, for example, a consumer's purchase of a particular type
of dry breakfast cereal, as detected by the checkout scanner, would
trigger a coupon printing apparatus to print a coupon for a discount on a
competitor's dry cereal product, or perhaps a different cereal product of
the same manufacturer. Since the coupon is issued at checkout, the
consumer is required to make a return trip to the supermarket to redeem
it. Moreover, such systems do not provide the manufacturer or advertiser
with information concerning the consumer himself.
In efforts to remedy the shortcomings of such coupon distribution schemes,
techniques have been devised for employing interactive television systems
to enable a consumer to view information about products for which coupons
are available, select those that are of interest and have coupons printed
in the home. U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,181, granted Feb. 15, 1994, discloses one
such system using coupon-related data encoded on a television broadcast
signal. A viewer is informed that such information is being broadcast by a
logo or emblem presented in a corner of the television screen. If the
viewer is interested in seeing the related product information, he
actuates a decoder unit at the television set to cause the information to
be displayed, whereupon the viewer can decide whether or not the offered
coupon is desired. If so, further actuation of the decoder unit by the
viewer stores the coupon data which can later be printed out by the
viewer. Other systems of this same general type are shown, for example, in
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,128,752, granted Jul.7, 1992, and 5,249,044, granted Sep.
28, 1993.
As noted above, these prior art systems are interactive, that is, they
require direct viewer input in response to displayed product information,
to actuate the subscriber's unit to print a coupon. Such systems
necessarily require relatively complex units to enable the interactive
operation and, in some embodiments, modification of the subscriber'
television sets or the cable television reception and decoding equipment.
The interactive technique characterizing these systems necessitates that
the subscriber view information describing the available coupons and make
selections of the desired coupons, thereby requiring a conscious
allocation of time and effort.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus
for enabling the printing of redeemable coupons or other informational
matter in a consumer's home, without interactive participation by the
consumer.
Another object of the invention is to provide such methods and apparatus
wherein the consumer receives coupons or other printed matter only for
categories of products or types of information preselected by the consumer
and in which the consumer need not be present to obtain the coupons or
printed matter.
A still further object of the invention is to provide such a system in
which coupon or other information is incorporated in radio or television
broadcasts and subscribers are provided with simple, inexpensive receiving
units which detect the coupon or other information and provide the
preselected coupons or other printed matter.
These objects are attained according to the invention by incorporating
coupon data or other information in radio or television broadcast signals
which are received by decoder-printer units at the subscribers' homes. The
decoder unit is programmed with data identifying the consumer's
preselected product or information categories of interest. The broadcast
station or stations transmit, along with their regular program material,
either or both product manufacturers' coupon information, including
product category identifying data, and information, including information
category identifying data, in various categories, such as weather,
financial market data, etc. that subscribers may wish to receive in
printed form. All the coupon or other information is received at each
subscriber's decoder printer unit, but only when a received product or
information category identifier matches the pre-programmed product or
information category identifying data previously stored in the
subscriber's unit, will the printer be activated to provide a suitable
printout.
Preprogramming of a subscriber's unit is effected at the couponing
service's central station, based on information received from the
subscriber at the time of subscription. A completed questionnaire
specifying the subscriber's product and/or information category
preferences and relevant personal data is submitted to the couponing
service with the subscription request. Upon acceptance, the subscriber is
supplied with a decoder-printer unit which may be pre-programmed and which
may be readily connected to the subscriber's antenna or cable input,
without interfering with normal radio or television reception. Programming
of a subscriber's unit may be changed from the central station.
The coupon printed by the subscriber's unit includes product identifying
information, in both human and machine readable form, e.g., bar code, and
a unique identifying code assigned to the subscriber. The latter
facilitates tracking of subscriber usage. Other messages, e.g., product
tips, recipes, etc., may also be imprinted on the coupons for the
convenience of the subscriber. For information subscribers, the printout
can be in the form of text, charts, maps, etc.
Operation of the decoder-printing unit requires no subscriber intervention,
other than connecting the unit to receive the broadcast signal and
replenishing printer paper.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a better understanding of the invention, reference will be made, by way
of example, to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the overall system according to the present
invention;
FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a modification of the overall system of FIG.
1;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the decoder-printer unit; and
FIG. 3 is a sample coupon generated by the decoder-printer unit.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The present invention will be described below with reference to television
broadcast signals, however, it should be understood that the principles of
the invention are applicable to radio broadcast signals, satellite
broadcast and closed circuit systems, as well. Moreover, the ensuing
description will be directed to the invention's application to redeemable
coupons, but it will be understood that the same principles and operation
apply to the provision of information printouts.
The overall system according to the invention is illustrated in FIG. 1. A
television broadcast station 50 serving a reception area transmits its
program material, via antenna or cable, to its audience. Embedded in the
broadcast television signal so as not to be normally visible on the
viewer's screen, are data signals representing redeemable coupons and
related information that product advertisers wish to distribute to
interested members of the audience through the home couponing service.
Included in these data signals is coupon category information which
describes the redeemable coupons to enable the subscriber's
decoder-printing units 100 to select individual coupons from a series of
broadcast coupons. The data signals also include data management
information used to reprogram decoder-printing units, individually or in
groups, from the central station of the service. One known technique to
effect such transmission is to insert the signals into television picture
lines at the top or bottom of the raster which are not visually reproduced
on the television screen.
Subscribers to the home couponing service will have been provided with
decoder-printing units 100, pre-programmed with the particular product
categories in which the subscriber is interested. Category information is
stored in memory 110 in the unit 100. Decoder 120 extracts from television
broadcast signals all product category and coupon data being transmitted
and presents them to a comparator 130, where the product category data are
compared with the pre-selected category data stored in memory 110. If the
decoded product category data corresponds to a category in memory 110, the
coupon printer 140 is actuated to print a coupon 150 in accordance with
the decoded coupon data.
When applied to cable systems, the decoder unit memory may also be
pre-programmed with cable channel information and the unit 100 provided
with an infra-red transmitter 101 for communication with the subscriber's
cable box 60, as shown in FIG. 1A. Channel selection information is
transmitted from the broadcast station 50 in the usual manner, decoded and
compared with the stored cable channel information to generate the local
cable channel selection signals. These are then transmitted by the
infrared transmitter 101 to the cable box to tune the latter to the proper
channel for the ensuing coupon or information signal broadcast.
At the time of or subsequent to subscribing to the couponing service, a
subscriber may submit to the central station of the service, a completed
questionnaire identifying product categories in which he or she is
interested, along with demographic information. This may also be done by
telephone. The subscriber is then provided with the unit 100, which may be
pre-programmed with the selected product categories in its memory, or may
be programmed or updated through the television broadcast, and
instructions for connecting the unit to the television signal input.
Suitable connections are provided on the unit so that it will not affect
normal usage of the subscriber's television set. Coupons offered in the
selected categories will then be printed by the unit without any further
attention of the subscriber (except to periodically replenish the paper
supply). The subscriber's television receiver need not be on for the unit
to print the selected coupons and the subscriber is not required to watch
television broadcasts to make coupon selections.
The subscriber's unit 100 has its own power supply, either battery or by
connection to a standard electrical outlet.
The decoder-printer unit 100 of the invention is shown in greater detail in
FIG. 2. The received video signal is fed via line 102 to sync separator
103 to produce a horizontal pulse corresponding to the start of each video
line on conductor 104 and a vertical pulse on conductor 106 corresponding
to the start of each video field. The horizontal and vertical pulses are
supplied to microprocessor 110 which uses them to identify each video line
by number. Microprocessor 110 may be, for example, an Intel 8051 or
similar device.
The received video signal also is supplied to black level store 112 to
produce a black level signal corresponding to the black part of the video
picture. The video signal is also fed to voltage adder 114 which adds a
300mV negative offset voltage to the video signal. The resultant offset
video signal and the black level signal are then combined in voltage
comparator 116 which compares the two signals to determine the polarity of
the recovered data logic levels. The output of the comparator, therefore,
recovers serial data which has been encoded and then inserted into the
video signal at the transmitting station. This serial data is fed to
microprocessor serial input port 118.
The serial data supplied to the microprocessor contains the product
category identifying data, the coupon information, including category
information and decoder-printer management information, in the form of
data packets. The coupon information includes data packets, in compressed
or uncompressed form, of the elements of a coupon, namely the product
logo, the coupon body, and a series of barcodes used to identify the
coupon and the user. Other information, e.g., product tips, recipes, etc.,
may also be included.
The software for operating microprocessor 110 is stored in ROM 120. Upon
receipt of serial data constituting the product category identifier and
the coupon information, the microprocessor stores the data in RAM 122.
Data representing the product categories selected by the subscriber are
stored in electrically erasable ROM (EEROM) 124.
Upon detection of the product category and coupon information data from the
received signal, microprocessor 110 compares the product category data
with the subscriber's product category data stored in EEROM 124. If there
is a match, the microprocessor actuates the printer motor drive 126 and
print head 128 in accordance with the coupon information from RAM 122 to
print the coupon. This process is repeated each time a match is found
between subscriber product category data in EEROM 124 and received product
category data. If no match between a received product category data and
subscriber product category data is present, the unused coupon information
data is deleted from RAM 122.
If desired, the preselected information stored in EEROM 124 may include a
code sequence uniquely identifying the subscriber. This provides security
for the system and enables the central station to communicate with a
specific subscriber's unit, such as would be required to remotely change
the product categories stored in EEROM 124.
The printer 140 may be a conventional thermal dot-matrix printer of the
type commonly used in calculators and similar equipment, such as the
Panasonic EPT 2014 S2 LG 2 -inch 144 dot graphic printer, but any other
printer, compatible with the size requirements of the unit, may be used.
A typical coupon 150 produced in accordance with the invention is
illustrated in FIG. 3. The coupon may include product identifying
information, such as a logo, imprinted on it, along with identification of
the product manufacturer, validity period, offer terms, UPC code of the
product and other message information as shown. In addition, as an aid to
market analysis, information, preferably in the form of a bar code,
identifying the subscriber by address, family members, etc. may be
included.
In the case of an information subscription, the printout may simply be text
incorporating the desired information or may include, e.g. weather maps,
charts, etc. It will be understood that an individual subscriber may wish
to receive both redeemable coupons in selected product categories and
information printouts in selected information categories and as can be
seen, the invention is effective to provide such a mix, as desired.
Although at the time of subscription to the service, the subscriber may be
furnished with the unit 100 programmed with his preselected product or
information categories, it is expected that the subscriber's preferences
may vary over time. In such a case, existing category data in the EEROM
124 (FIG. 2) may be erased and new category data may be entered remotely
from the central facility by causing appropriate data to be transmitted
with a television broadcast. Inclusion of subscriber identification data
in the transmitted signal insures that only the unit of the subscriber
requesting the change is supplied with the category data revisions. In
addition, the subscriber may optionally be given the capability to enter
certain category data or management data himself.
The simplicity of the circuit arrangement enables its assembly in a small,
rugged package, unobtrusive in the subscriber's home and lending itself to
shipping to subscribers by mail or ordinary courier services.
It will be understood that the invention as described above may be modified
in various respects by those skilled in the art and that the invention is
to be limited only as set forth in the appended claims.
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