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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic information distribution
networks. More particularly, this invention relates to the monitoring of a
consumption device, the management of a personal profile database and the
changing of the residence of a profile server.
(2) Prior Art
Computer technology is continuously advancing, providing newer computer
systems with continuously improved performance. One result of this
improved performance is an increased use of computer systems by
individuals in a wide variety of business, academic and personal
applications. In some instances, these computer systems are linked
together by a network or modems so that the systems can communicate with
each other via electronic mail.
The current wide-ranging use of computer systems provides a relatively
large potential market to providers of electronic content or information.
These providers may include, for example, advertisers and other
information publishers such as newspaper and magazine publishers.
Presently, however, there are no systems which allow electronic
information to be customized to the particular characteristics of each
individual end user of an electronic information distribution network.
Thus, to increase the appeal and effectiveness of electronic information,
it would be beneficial to provide a system which customizes the electronic
information to the individual end users which will consume the
information. By customizing the advertisements to the individual end
users, the electronic information will be more appealing to the intended
consumers.
In addition, there are presently no systems for generating and transmitting
electronic advertisements to end users operating a computer via an
end-to-end electronic information distribution network. It would therefore
be beneficial to provide a system which would allow an advertiser to
generate and transmit electronic advertisements to end users.
Additionally, electronic information providers frequently desire large
amounts of information about their markets and potential markets. This
information includes, for example, the demographic characteristics of the
consumers in a particular market. By obtaining as much information as
possible about their potential markets, electronic information providers
can direct their electronic information to the markets they believe the
information will appeal to most. Individual consumers, however, are
frequently concerned with maintaining their privacy. These consumers often
do not wish to make certain information, such as their income, publicly
available. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a system which
furnishes the electronic information providers with a substantial amount
of information about their markets and potential markets, while at the
same time maintains individual consumer privacy.
Furthermore, it would be beneficial to provide a system which customizes
electronic information to individual end users without specific direction
from the users. That is, a system which monitors the actions taken by an
individual user in consuming electronic information and customizes
subsequent units of electronic information for that individual user based
on these previous actions.
Additionally, it would be desirable for these beneficial features to be
implemented by an affordable solution. Such solution may be centered on a
smart card which is a less costly alternative as compared to other
potential implementations such ones made through PCMCI based
multi-megabyte flash memory card which are more expensive.
The present invention provides for these and other advantageous results.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method and an apparatus for storing and updating electronic information
in a personal profile server for an individual user, and dynamically
changing the residence of the electronic information. The electonic
information is being transmitted between a computer and a network system.
The computer interfaces with a removable non-volatile storage device
containing minimum user information on the individual user. The connection
is secured between the computer and the network using the minimum user
information. Additional user information is transmitted from the personal
profile server of the network to the computer. Further, the personal
profile server is updated with updates to the additional user information
generated on the computer during use.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not limitation
in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references
indicate similar elements and in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic of a network of one embodiment of the present
invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic of a client system in one embodiment of the present
invention;
FIGS. 3a and 3b are schematic of a metering server in one embodiment of the
present invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic of a clearinghouse server in one embodiment of the
present invention;
FIG. 5 is a schematic of a yellow page server in one embodiment of the
present invention;
FIGS. 6a and 6b are flow diagrams that show a unit of information consumed
by an end user according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIGS. 7a and 7b are flow diagrams that show an electronic advertisement
consumed by an end user according to one embodiment of the present
invention; and
FIG. 8 is a flow diagram that shows an electronic advertisement being
provided to a consumer who purchases the advertised product.
FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating the general steps followed in an
embodiment of the present invention using a smart card.
FIG. 10 illustrates the general steps followed by the present invention in
allowing a user to change the residence of their personal profile server.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the following detailed description numerous specific details are set
forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present
invention. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that
the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In
other instances well known methods, procedures, components, and circuits
have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the present
invention.
FIG. 1 shows a network system 10 of one embodiment of the present
invention. The network 10 includes a plurality of client systems 12
coupled to a metering server 14 within a local area network (LAN) 16.
Alternatively, a single client system 12 may be coupled to a metering
server 14. Each client system 12 may be a personal computer that is
operated by an end user which may be coupled to a smart card 11.
Alternatively, each client system 12 may be any other type of consumer
consumption device, such as a television set, a cable settop converter, a
game machine, etc. The server 14 is typically a dedicated computer that
provides an interconnect contact node which allows the client systems 12
to communicate with the server 14 and other client systems 12. The server
14 may contain resident modem sharing software that allows the server 14
and client systems 12 to communicate with a device external to the local
network 16. The server 14 is also capable of maintaining resident
databases. Both the server 14 and the client systems 12 contain the
necessary interface hardware and software required to transfer information
between the components of the system 10.
The metering server 14 is coupled to a publisher unit 18 through a
plurality of clearinghouse servers 20. By way of example, the publisher 18
may be connected to the server 14 as part of an overall wide area network
(WAN) that allows the server 14 and publisher unit 18 to transfer
information. The system 10 may also have a yellow page server 22 coupled
to the publisher unit 18 and the metering servers 14. The publisher unit
and servers of the WAN system contain the interface hardware and software
necessary to transfer electronic information between the components of the
system. As shown in FIG. 1, the system 10 may have multiple client systems
12 coupled to a single metering server 14 and multiple servers 14 coupled
to a single clearinghouse server 20, a regional content database server 21
and a single yellow page server 22. There may be multiple clearinghouse
and yellow page servers located at regional centers throughout the
country/world. In addition, depending on the size of a community, there
may also be multiple yellow page servers for each local community.
Although the computer 18 is referred to as a publishing unit, it is to be
understood that the computer can also be a node for an advertiser 18 and
that the use of the terms publisher and advertiser may be synonymous.
Each client system 12 is provided with an interface, such as a graphic user
interface (GUI), that allows the end user to participate in the system 10.
The GUI contains fields that receive or correspond to inputs entered by
the end user. The fields may include the user's name and possibly a
password. The GUI may also have hidden fields relating to "consumer
variables." Consumer variables refer to demographic, psychographic and
other profile information. Demographic information refers to the vital
statistics of individuals, such as age, sex, income and marital status.
Psychographic information refers to the lifestyle and behavioral
characteristics of individuals, such as likes and dislikes, color
preferences and personality traits that show consumer behavioral
characteristics. Thus, the consumer variables refer to information such as
marital status, color preferences, favorite sizes and shapes, preferred
learning modes, employer, job title, mailing address, phone number,
personal and business areas of interest, the willingness to participate in
a survey, along with various lifestyle information. This information will
be referred to as user profile data, and is stored on a consumer-owned
portable profile device such as a Flash memory-based PCMCIA pluggable
card. The end user initially enters the requested data and the
non-identifying information is copied to the metering server 14. That is,
the information associated with the end user is compiled and copied to the
metering server 14 without any indication of the identity of the user (for
example, the name and phone number are not included in the computation).
The GUI also allows the user to receive inquiries, request information and
consume information by viewing, storing, printing, etc. The client system
may also be provided with tools to create content, advertisements, etc. in
the same manner as a publisher/advertiser.
All of the fields in the GUI relating to consumer variables are hidden from
the consumer. The display of the GUI is based upon these fields, but the
GUI does not display them to the user except when the user brings up a
"profile editor", as discussed in more detail below. Thus, the monitoring
of consumer actions and inaction based on these consumer variables and the
updating of user profile data is transparent to the consumer. In addition,
modifications made to the electronic information to customize it to a
particular consumer are also transparent to the consumer.
The publisher/advertiser 18 is provided with software tools to create
electronic information which includes content and advertisements that can
be transmitted over the system. The electronic information may allow an
end user to access a content database, or the information may be all or a
portion of a content database. By way of example, the content database may
be the text and video of an electronic newspaper. The content database may
reside within the publisher unit or be located at a remote location such
as the metering server or a regional server that services a plurality of
metering servers. The software tools may include a hypertext oriented mark
up language that routes distributed end users to the content databases.
In one embodiment, the software tools provided to the publisher/advertiser
18 include software tools for embedding consumer variables within the
electronic information. The embedded consumer variables enable a client
activity monitor and a consumption device to monitor consumer interaction
with the electronic information based on the consumer's interaction with
the unit of information currently being consumed. This interaction
includes both inputs by the consumer and actions which the consumer could
have taken but chose not to. In one implementation, the
publisher/advertiser 18 is provided with a GUI which allows the
publisher/advertiser 18 to select certain consumer variables from a set of
consumer variables and associate the selected variables with specific
objects or fields within the electronic information. For example, the
electronic information may include several option fields from which end
users may select. The publisher/advertiser 18 may associate a color
preference variable with these option fields, thereby indicating to the
client systems 12 to track the color of the option field selected by the
end user.
The publisher/advertiser 18 is also provided with software tools to create
electronic information in a wide variety of consumption formats that can
be transmitted over the system. These consumption formats include formats
such as audio, video, graphics, animation, text, etc. For example, an
advertiser 18 may create an advertisement for a camera which describes the
camera in both audio and video format. Both of these consumption formats
are transferred to yellow page servers 14, and subsequently to the client
systems 12. The end user is then able to consume the advertisement in
whichever format he or she prefers, or alternatively in both formats.
In one embodiment, each piece of electronic information received by client
system 12 includes a header block which includes the consumer variables
and their related objects or fields for that piece of electronic
information. For example, the header block of the given piece of
electronic information may include a quality parameter and a cost
parameter indicating the minimum quality the electronic information must
be delivered at the designated cost. Such information may be input by the
publisher/advertiser 18 at the authoring site of the electronic
information. The header block of a given piece of electronic information
may also include an indicator that a color preference variable is
associated with certain option fields. In addition, default colors for
particular fields or objects, or a default consumption format, such as
audio or video, for the electronic information may also be included in the
header block.
As shown in FIG. 2, each client system 12 includes a session manager 29, a
client interface 23, a client activity monitor 24, a content adapter 25, a
statistic compilation process 26, and a personal profile database 27. The
client interface 23 provides individual users with access to the system
10. Interface 23 may be any of a wide variety of user interaction devices.
For example, the client interface 23 may be the display device and input
device of a personal computer based on an Intel.RTM. microprocessor
architecture. Alternatively, the client interface 23 may be a display and
input device coupled to, or part of, any of a wide variety of consumer
consumption devices, such as a television set or a game machine. In one
embodiment, the client interface 23 is a physical device which is separate
from the remainder of client system 12. For example, client interface 23
may be a personal computer system, while the remaining components of
client system 12 are contained in a separate box or similar physical
device coupled to the personal computer system. Interface 23 supports any
one or more of a wide variety of conventional input methods, including
alphanumeric keyboard inputs, voice inputs, cursor control inputs (such as
a mouse or trackball), touch screen inputs, etc.
Session manager 29 transfers data and control information to and from the
components of client system 12, and acts as an interface between client
system 12 and metering server 14. Electronic information which is
transferred to client system 12 is received by session manager 29 and
forwarded to client interface 23. In one embodiment, the electronic
information is forwarded to client interface 23 via content adapter 25.
Content adapter 25 may then modify the electronic information, based on
the end user's data stored in personal profile database 27. Session
manager 29 also instructs statistic compilation process 26 to compile the
aggregate data stored in personal profile database 27 when the information
is requested by metering server 14.
The client activity monitor 24 tracks the consumer variables corresponding
to the preferences of the end user(s) of client system 12. When an end
user consumes electronic information, and also possibly interacts with
that electronic information, client activity monitor 24 associates the
electronic information with the appropriate consumer variables and stores
this data in the personal profile database 27. For example, the client
activity monitor 24 tracks the color of fields or objects that are
selected most frequently and least frequently by the end user. Similarly,
the consumption format chosen most frequently and least frequently by the
end user, such as audio or video, is also tracked and stored in personal
profile database 27. In one embodiment, the consumer variables and
corresponding fields or objects are indicated in a header block received
with the electronic information.
The personal profile database 27 maintains the user profile data for the
end user(s) of client system 12. For example, age, gender, income, marital
status, color preferences, etc. are stored in personal profile database 27
for each individual end user of client system 12. In addition, personal
profile database 27 may also include additional information such as credit
card numbers, social security numbers, mailing addresses, preferred
shipping methods, etc. for each individual end user to facilitate ordering
items displayed in advertisements.
Personal profile database 27 is updated with consumer variable information
based on the activity monitored by client activity monitor 24. In one
embodiment, this information can also be directly modified by the end
user. For example, client interface 23 may include the ability to access
the user profile data for a particular end user which is stored in
personal profile database 27, such as through a GUI profile editor. The
end user is then able to alter this data, which is then returned to
metering server 14 (via statistic compilation process 26 discussed below),
and used by content adapter 25 discussed below.
In one embodiment, the information in personal profile database 27 is
protected from access by anyone other than the individual who is
associated with the information. For example, the information may be
protected on a computer by encrypting the profile when it is not in use.
Alternatively, the information may be stored on a removable nonvolatile
storage device, such as a PCMCIA Flash memory card. Thus, an individual
may remove the Flash-based profile card from a computer and thereby remove
the risk of exposure of private information to other individuals operating
in the network system 10. In addition, since the profile is removable,
individual end users can move a profile from computer to computer, such as
between office and home.
In yet another embodiment, a portion of the user and profile information
may be stored on a removable non-volatile storage device, such as a smart
card. Although the smart card has limited storage space, it is a much more
inexpensive alternative as compared to a PCMCIA flash memory card. Minimum
user information such as user name, address, telephone number and user
password may be stored in the smart card. Other user profile information
may be retrieved from a user profile server upon access by a user via the
smart card. The accessed user profile information may then be transmitted
back to the computer in an encrypted form and stored the PC's volatile
memory. Any user profile information which has been changed by the user
may be transmitted back to the network system 10 and the personal profile
may then be updated with the new information.
Another field which may be stored within the removable smart card is an
update interval field. This is a user configurable field. The user
personal profile is continuously kept up to date at each interval
indicated by the update interval field. When the user is ready to close
the connection, a final transmission is made to the user profile server in
the network system 10 with the updated information.
All of the information stored on the removable personal profile storage
device is also encrypted. To access the consumer profile, the consumer
inserts the card into the client system 12, which prompts the consumer for
a personal identification number (PIN) or password. Upon receiving the
correct PIN, the client system 12 decrypts the profile information in the
storage device and stores the decrypted profile information in the client
system's volatile memory. The consumer is then able to utilize the profile
(transparently). The profile in volatile memory is re-encrypted
periodically and stored back to the storage device. When the consumer
finishes using the client system 12, the final profile revision is
encrypted and stored in the storage device. The card is then ejected from
the client system 12 and pocketed by the consumer, and the un-encrypted
profile information in the volatile memory is overwritten and wiped.
The content adapter 25 customizes electronic content to the individual end
user based on the user profile data contained in personal profile database
27. Electronic content received by system 12 from metering server 14 may
include fields which can be customized. Which fields can be customized may
be indicated in a header block received with the electronic content. For
example, a unit of electronic information may be received with a
particular field having the default color of green. If personal profile
database 27 contains sufficient data regarding color preferences for the
individual end user, then content adapter 25 changes the color of that
particular field from green to whatever color preference is contained in
personal profile database 27 for that individual end user. Similarly, the
default consumption format may be video, but if personal profile database
27 indicates that the end user prefers audio format, then content adapter
25 delivers the audio format version of the electronic information to the
client interface 23 rather than the video version.
Data is collected for personal profile database 27 by direct input from the
end user and also by client activity monitor 24 monitoring the end user's
activity. When the end user consumes a piece of electronic information,
each variable (or a portion of each variable) within the header block for
that piece of electronic information is added to the database for this end
user. For example, if this piece of electronic information is made
available to the end user for consumption in both audio and video format,
and the end user selects the audio format, then this choice of format
selection is stored in personal profile database 27 for this end user.
When sufficient data has been collected for a particular consumer variable,
then content adapter 25 uses that data to customize received electronic
content to the end user. The amount of data which is sufficient is
dependent on the particular consumer variable. For example, once personal
profile database 27 has collected ten consumption format selections from
this end user and all ten have been for video format, content adapter 25
may determine that this is sufficient data to customize incoming
electronic information. However, content adapter 25 may determine that
sufficient data has not been collected to customize colors if this end
user has selected ten different fields, six of which were purple and four
of which were green.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the end user is able to
override any compiled user profile data. For example, even though the end
user may select a field with the color purple most frequently, the end
user is able to modify the user profile data to indicate that green is the
preferred color. In one implementation, the statistic compilation process
26 uses this input by the end user for its data compilation.
Alternatively, the statistic compilation process 26 may use the data
collected by client activity monitor 24 for its data compilation, or the
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