U.S. patent application number 13/098984 was filed with the patent office on 2011-11-03 for system and method for online marketing, scheduling and booking of services.
Invention is credited to Dana Reichman.
Application Number | 20110270643 13/098984 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 44859010 |
Filed Date | 2011-11-03 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110270643 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Reichman; Dana |
November 3, 2011 |
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ONLINE MARKETING, SCHEDULING AND BOOKING OF
SERVICES
Abstract
Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for
online marketing, scheduling and booking of services. In one
example embodiment, the system for scheduling and booking of
service appointments includes an inventory database containing
schedule of booked and available service appointments associated
with a plurality of service providers. The system further includes
a calendar-based service provider interface for creating a schedule
of services provided by the service provider and storing the
schedule in the inventory database. The system further includes a
calendar-based service user interface for displaying schedules of
available service appointments and booking one or more service
appointments.
Inventors: |
Reichman; Dana; (Brooklyn,
NY) |
Family ID: |
44859010 |
Appl. No.: |
13/098984 |
Filed: |
May 2, 2011 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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61330356 |
May 2, 2010 |
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61405817 |
Oct 22, 2010 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/7.19 ;
705/14.25 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 10/06314 20130101;
G06Q 30/02 20130101; G06Q 30/0224 20130101; G06Q 10/1095 20130101;
G06Q 10/109 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/7.19 ;
705/14.25 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 10/00 20060101
G06Q010/00; G06Q 30/00 20060101 G06Q030/00 |
Claims
1. A method for scheduling services, the method comprising:
providing to a service provider a calendar-based service provider
interface for creating a schedule of services provided by the
service provider; receiving from the service provider through the
interface a schedule of available services, which includes name of
service, date and time when the service is provided, name of
practitioner, price of the service and a discount offer; and
storing the received schedule of services in an inventory
database.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: retrieving from the
inventory database information about appointments booked by a
service user with the service provider; and displaying the
appointments information in the corresponding time slots in the
calendar-based service provider interface.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: retrieving from a
third-party appointment booking system of the service provider
information about appointments booked by a service user; and
displaying the retrieved appointments information in the
corresponding time slots in the calendar-based service provider
interface.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: generating a targeted
discount offer for a service user based on the user's history of
using the service; and electronically sending the targeted discount
offer to the service user.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the discount offer is associated
with one or more of a service, a practitioner, a date or a
time.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the discount offer includes a
gradually increasing or decreasing rate of discount over a period
of time.
7. A method for booking services, the method comprising: receiving
from a service user a search criteria indicating one or more of a
type of service, a date of service and a price of service searched
by the service user; searching schedules of available services in
an inventory database; displaying in a calendar-based service user
interface a schedule of available service appointments and
associated discount offers that match the search criteria; and
booking with a service provider a service appointment for the
service user.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein booking a service appointment
comprises: storing information about booked appointments in the
inventory database; and sending a notification about the booked
appointment to the service provider.
9. The method of claim 7 further comprising: retrieving from the
inventory database information about appointments booked by a
service user with the service provider; and displaying the
appointments information in the corresponding time slots in the
calendar-based service user interface.
10. The method of claim 7, wherein a discount offer is associated
with one or more of a service, a practitioner, a date or a
time.
11. The method of claim 7, wherein a discount offer includes a
gradually increasing or decreasing rate of discount over a period
of time.
12. A system for scheduling and booking of service appointments
comprising: an inventory database containing schedule of booked and
available service appointments associated with a plurality of
service providers; a calendar-based service provider interface for
creating a schedule of services provided by the service provider
and storing the schedule in the inventory database; and a
calendar-based service user interface for displaying schedules of
available service appointments and booking one or more service
appointments.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein the schedule of available
service appointments includes name of service, date and time when
the service is provided, name of practitioner, price of service and
a discount offer.
14. The system of claim 12, wherein the calendar-based service
provider interface is further for retrieving from the inventory
database information about appointments booked by a service user;
and displaying the appointments information in the corresponding
time slots in the calendar-based service provider interface.
15. The system of claim 12, wherein the calendar-based service
provider interface is further for retrieving from a third-party
appointment booking system of the service provider information
about appointments booked by a service user; and displaying the
retrieved appointments information in the corresponding time slots
in the calendar-based service provider interface.
16. The system of claim 12, wherein the calendar-based service
provider interface is further for generating a targeted discount
offer for a service user based on the user's history of using the
service; and electronically sending the targeted discount offer to
the service user.
17. The system of claim 13, wherein the discount offer is
associated with one or more of a service, a practitioner, a date or
a time.
18. The system of claim 13, wherein the discount offer includes a
gradually increasing or decreasing rate of discount over a period
of time.
19. A computer program product embedded in a non-transitory
computer-readable storage medium, the computer program product
comprising program instructions for implementing a calendar-based
service provider interface being configured to: retrieve from a
inventory database information about appointments booked by a
service user with a service provider; display the appointments
information in the corresponding time slots in the calendar-based
service provider interface; receive from the service provider a
schedule of available services, which includes name of service,
date and time when the service is provided, name of practitioner,
price of the service and a discount offer; and store the received
schedule of services in the inventory database.
20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the
calendar-based service provider interface being further configured
to: retrieve, from a third-party appointment booking system of the
service provider information about appointments booked by a service
user; and display the retrieved appointments information in the
corresponding time slots in the calendar-based service provider
interface.
21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the
calendar-based service provider interface being further configured
to: generate a targeted discount offer for a service user based on
the user's history of using the service; and electronically send
the targeted discount offer to the service user.
22. A computer program product embedded in a non-transitory
computer-readable storage medium, the computer program product
comprising program instructions for implementing a calendar-based
service user interface being configured to: receive from a service
user a search criteria indicating one or more of a type of service,
a date of service, and a price of service searched by the service
user; search schedules of available services in an inventory
database; display in the calendar-based service user interface a
schedule of available service appointments and associated discount
offers that match the search criteria; and book with a service
provider a service appointment for the service user.
23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein
calendar-based service user interface being further configured to:
store information about booked appointments in the inventory
database; and send a notification about the booked appointment to
the service provider.
24. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein
calendar-based service user interface being further configured to:
retrieve from the inventory database information about appointments
booked by a service user with the service provider; and display the
appointments information in the corresponding time slots in the
calendar-based service user interface.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C.
119(e) to Provisional Applications No. 61/330,356 filed on May 2,
2010 and No. 61/405,817 filed on Oct. 22, 2010, both of which are
incorporated by reference herein.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] This present disclosure relates generally to the field of
electronic commerce and, more specifically, to systems, methods and
computer program products for online marketing, scheduling and
booking of services using a calendar-based application.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Online calendar applications have traditionally been used to
store events, appointments and schedule information, which can be
accessed by users from anywhere using computers, smart phones or
other networked communication devices. Some calendar applications
allow users to share their calendars with friends and relatives who
also utilize these applications. Some applications provide event
reminders via email or have text messages sent to a user's mobile
phone. Other applications provide some customization options, such
as customizable background images, calendar views and event
reminder options. However, these online calendar applications have
very limited business utility. For example, online calendar
applications have not been used for marketing, scheduling and
booking of services.
SUMMARY
[0004] Disclosed is a business-oriented calendar-based service
marketing, scheduling and booking system and methods for use
thereof. The system provides customizable calendars that service
providers can use to create schedules of available services, which
are fed into a user-accessible online marketplace. System users can
search services advertised in the online marketplace and schedule
and book appointments with service providers through the online
booking system.
[0005] In one example embodiment, the system provides advanced
discount offers functionality that allows service providers to
create real-time discount offers for the advertised services. In
one example embodiment, the discount offers can be created by
service type, practitioner, date, time or other criteria. In
another example embodiment, the system also allows service
providers to granularly discount a single service or a group of
services. The system also provides several different hierarchical
views for creating discount offers, e.g., by practitioner and by
service. In another embodiment, discount schedules can be created
for a single day or repeat daily or weekly.
[0006] The above simplified summary of example embodiments of the
invention serves to provide a basic understanding of such
embodiments. This summary is not an extensive overview of all
contemplated aspects of the invention, and is intended to neither
identify key or critical elements of all embodiments nor delineate
the scope of any or all embodiments. Its sole purpose is to present
some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a
prelude to the more detailed description that follows. To the
accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or more
embodiments comprise the features hereinafter fully described and
particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description
and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative
features of the one or more embodiments. These features are
indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the
principles of various aspects of the invention may be employed, and
this description is intended to include all such aspects of the
invention and their equivalents.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0007] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and
constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more
example embodiments and, together with the detailed description
serve to explain their principles and implementations.
[0008] In the drawings:
[0009] FIG. 1 illustrates one example embodiment of an online
service booking system.
[0010] FIG. 2 illustrates one example embodiment of a service
provider interface.
[0011] FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate example embodiments of a
discounting tool.
[0012] FIG. 4 illustrates one example embodiment of a service user
interface.
[0013] FIG. 5 illustrates one example embodiment of a
calendar-based user interface.
[0014] FIG. 6 illustrates one example embodiment of a targeted
email.
[0015] FIG. 7 illustrates one example embodiment of a method of
operation of the online booking system.
[0016] FIG. 8 illustrates another example embodiment of a method of
operation of the online booking system.
[0017] FIG. 9 illustrates one example embodiment of a computer
system.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS
[0018] Example embodiments are described herein in the context of
systems, methods and computer program products for online
marketing, scheduling and booking of services using a
calendar-based application. Those of ordinary skill in the art will
realize that the following description is illustrative only and is
not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments will
readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art having the
benefit of this disclosure. Reference will now be made in detail to
implementations of the example embodiments as illustrated in the
accompanying drawings. The same reference indicators will be used
to the extent possible throughout the drawings and the following
description to refer to the same or like items.
[0019] FIG. 1 depicts one example embodiment of an online service
booking system. As shown, system 100 includes an application server
105 that hosts service booking application 110 and associated
inventory database 115 storing schedule of booked and available
service appointments associated with computers of service providers
120 and service users 125. The server 105 is accessible via a
network 115, such as the Internet, by computers of service
providers 120 and users 125. Service providers 120 may include, but
are not limited to, beauty salons, health spas, sports clubs,
barber shops and other businesses (i.e., service providers) that
provide services to clients (i.e., service users). In one example
embodiment, system 100 provides a customizable service provider
interface 130 to service providers 120 by means of which a service
provider can create a schedule of available appointments by
service, practitioner, date, time or other criteria. In another
example embodiment, system 100 provides a user interface 135 to
service users 125 for searching schedules of available service
appointments and booking one or more appointments with service
providers 120.
[0020] It should be noted that in another embodiment some of the
functionality of the booking application 110, including but not
limited to, provider and user interfaces 130 and 135, may be
implemented as applications directly on the computers of the
service providers 120 and service users 125. In this case, the
inventory database 115 may be maintained on a remote server hosted
by the booking application developer or in the cloud, such as
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. It should be also noted that in
various embodiments, computers of the service providers 120 and
service user 130 may include, but not limited to, personal
computers, laptops, netbooks, tablets, digital media players,
personal digital assistants, smart phones, or other types of
digital devices.
[0021] FIG. 2 shows an example embodiment of a calendar-based
service provider interface 130 of the application 110. Using
interface 130, service providers 120 can register/access the online
booking application 110, create profiles and accounts 210,
create/view schedules of appointments 220, enter discount
information 250 and perform other functions. The
registration/access process may involve creating user name and
password, providing contact information, providing billing
information and the like. The business profile 210 can be used to
enter information about the business in general, about available
practitioners, and about the types of available services. The
business account may be used to view all information maintained by
the booking application 110.
[0022] The service provider 120 may also use interface 130 to
enter/update/view appointment scheduling information 220. In one
example embodiment, service appointments may be made by service
users 125 through the service user interfaces 135 and displayed as
an appointment block in the appropriate year/month/date/time slot
of the calendar-based service provider interface 130. In another
example embodiment, the application 110 can interface with
third-party scheduling technologies and calendars, such as
Google.RTM. Calendar and Microsoft.RTM. Outlook.RTM., via dedicated
XML APIs to pull scheduling information from those calendars into
the service provider interface 130 and to push appointments booked
by users through the application 110.
[0023] As shown in FIG. 2, the calendar-based service provider
interface 130 shows a daily operating schedule of Henry Depaul
Beauty Salon for Jul. 5, 2010. As shown, there are five (or more)
practitioners working on that day, including Andre W, Dana R,
Harris N, Jess A and Mabel H. They are available for appointments
from 10 am to 7 pm. The interface 130 also shows that service
providers Dana R and Jess A have two scheduled appointments 230 and
240 at 4:15 PM. Dana R was booked directly through the Salon. Jess
A was booked via the booking application 110. The directly or
indirectly booked appointments 230 and 240, respectively, can be
designated, for example, using different colors. The appointment
blocks 230 and 240 can indicate the names of the users/clients that
made these appointments and other information. Since appointment
block 230 was made directly through the Salon, and not through the
booking application 110, information about this appointment could
have been entered manually by the service provider 120 or pulled
automatically by the application 110 into the service provider
interface 130 from the third-party scheduling system used by the
service provider 120. This appointment information may be shown
both in the service provider interface 130 and in the service user
interface 135, so that service users 125 know which time slots are
available for booking and which has already been booked.
[0024] In one example embodiment, the service provider 120 can
designate time blocks when one or more service providers are
unavailable for appointments using "unavailable" tool 260. In the
example in FIG. 2, all practitioners have been marked as
unavailable from 2:30 to 4 PM, as shown by the shading.
[0025] In another example embodiment, service provider interface
130 allows service providers 120 to create real-time discounts for
their services by practitioner, service, date, time or other
criteria. For example, using a discount tool 250, service provider
120 can indicate in the calendar the days and times when service
rates of one or more practitioners have been discounted. In the
example in FIG. 2, all practitioners have discounted rates on Jul.
5, 2010 from 11 AM to 2 PM, as shown by shading.
[0026] In one example embodiment, the discount tool 250 gives
service providers 120 several different options for creating
discount offers, such as by practitioner, by service, by date and
time. FIG. 3A shows one example interface of the discount tool 250
that can be used for creating different discounts offers for
different practitioner 310. As shown, the service provider 120 can
set the same discount for all or different discounts for different
practitioners. Furthermore, the discount offer may apply to all or
specific services provided by each practitioner. For example, in
case of Andrew W, a 20% discount is provided on glamour blowout
jobs, and a 40% discount is provided on all coloring and all up-do
jobs, while all services of Dana R have a 50% discount offer.
[0027] FIG. 3B shows another example interface of the discount tool
250 for creating discount offers for different services 320. As
shown, the service provider 120 can set a single discount on all
available services, or different discounts on subsets of services,
such as all blowout jobs and all glamour blowout jobs. Furthermore,
for each subcategory of service, the service provider 120 can
indicate which practitioners have additional discounts, such as
Jess A has an additional 50% discount on glamour blowout jobs,
while Andrew U has an additional 20% discount on the same
service.
[0028] In another example embodiment, the discount tool 250 also
allows service providers 120 to specify the date and time 330 when
discount offers are made available to the service users. As shown
in FIG. 3B, the discounts may be offered, for example, on the
particular days of the week, on particular dates/times or never
end.
[0029] Yet in another example embodiment, the discount tool 250
allows service providers 120 to gradually (e.g., weekly, daily or
hourly) discount a single service or a group of services. The
discount tool 250 can be configured to automatically increase or
decrease discount offered on a particular service or practitioner
by a predefined amount (e.g., 10%) in predetermined time increments
(e.g., hourly). To that end, the service provider may specify
various business decision rules (or use template business rules
provided by the booking application 110) that gradually adjust the
rate of discount based on lack or excess of bookings of a
particular service or practitioner on a particular day or time. For
example, a sale on a particular service may start at a high
discount, e.g., 80% at 9 AM, when business is generally slow. Then,
the discount tool 250 will automatically decrease the rate of
discount by, for example, 10% every hour on the hour, until the
discount reaches 0% by the end of the day. In alternative
embodiment, a service provider 120 may manually adjust the offered
discount without use of the discount tool 250. In addition, during
each discount adjustment, the system 110 may send an email
notification to the users on the system's mailing list with the
current discount offers.
[0030] Once the schedule of available appointments and associated
discounts are created by service providers 120 using interface 120,
this information is stored in the account of the service provider
120 and fed into a common online marketplace of all available
services and providers hosted by the booking application 110. This
online marketplace is accessible to service users 125 via service
user interfaces 135.
[0031] FIG. 4 shows one example embodiment of the service use
interface 135. Using this interface, service users 125 can search
the online marketplace for available appointments using service
type, date/time range, and/or price range. The booking application
110 searches its database of available services and displays a
listing of service providers and available appointments for
services matching the user-specified search criteria. For example,
in response to user search for providers of women's haircuts in New
York on April 28 through April 30, the booking application 110
displays several New York salons, which provide the requested
service on the given dates, as well as the pricing and discount
information specified by the service provider 120. The user can
view detailed information about the service provider and book an
appointment with the service provider by clicking on the specific
entries 410 in the displayed list.
[0032] FIG. 5 shows an example embodiment of a calendar-based user
interface 135 for one of the service providers listed in the search
results list in FIG. 4. The interface shows a weekly view of
available appointments for the service provider and the associated
pricing and discount information for each appointment. Monthly and
daily views of the available appointments information are also
available. In case where additional practitioner-specific discount
information has been specified by the service provider 120, this
information may also be displayed, so that the user 125 can make
appointment selection based on all available discount information.
Once the user selects one of the available appointments, the
service provider account is updated to reflect that an appointment
has been booked, as shown, for example, by block 240 in FIG. 2, and
an email message can be send to the user 125 confirming this
booking.
[0033] In one example embodiments, the booking application 110 can
dynamically create specific discount offers on services from the
services inventory based on users history of using different
services, users reviews and other criteria. For example, the
application 110 may identify what users have booked before, looked
at, indicated as being interested in, the number of times they
returned to a particular business, and other criteria to determine
what services should be advertised to the services users 125. The
application 110 can then send targeted advertisements to services
users 125 using emails, text messages (e.g., SMS), mobile
applications, as well as other communication means. FIG. 6 shows
one example of a targeted email that advertises discounted services
to a service user 125 who previously booked services at
Blondi's.
[0034] The targeted emails may be sent to the users on an interval
based on the date of their last appointment according to service
category (e.g., 3 months for a woman's haircut, 30 days for bikini
waxing, etc). The marketing copy and photos for reach advertisement
may be the same for each service category, but the individual
services/discounts are targeted to the unique user. When the user
clicks "book" button 610, the service is added to their cart and
they are shown a popup on the site asking if they'd like to book
now. When the user clicks book now, they go to the appointment time
selection page shown in FIG. 5 to select the desired appointment
date/time.
[0035] FIG. 7 illustrates one example embodiment of a method of
operation of the online booking application. At step 710, the
application provides to a service provider a calendar-based service
provider interface for creating a schedule of services provided by
the service provider. At step 720, the applications receives from
the service provider through the interface a schedule of available
services, which includes name of the service, date and time when
the service is provided, name of the practitioner, price of the
service and a discount offer. At step 730, the application stores
the received schedule of services in an inventory database. At step
740, the application retrieves from the inventory database
information about appointments booked by a service user with the
service provider. At step 750, the application displays the
appointments information in the corresponding time slots in the
calendar-based service provider interface. At step 760, the
application retrieves from a third-party appointment booking system
of the service provider information about appointments booked by a
service user. At step 770, the application displays the retrieved
appointments information in the corresponding time slots in the
calendar-based service provider interface. At step 780, the
application generates a targeted discount offer for a service user
based on the user's history of using the service. At step 790, the
application electronically sends the targeted discount offer to the
service user.
[0036] FIG. 8 illustrates another example embodiment of a method of
operation of the online booking application. At step 810, the
application receives from a service user search criteria indicating
one or more of a type of service, a date of service and a price of
service searched by the service user. At step 820, the application
searches schedules of available services in an inventory database.
At step 830, the application displays in a calendar-based service
user interface a schedule of available service appointments and
associated discount offers that match the search criteria. At step
840, the application books with a service provider a service
appointment for the service user. At step 850, the application
stores information about booked appointments in the inventory
database. At step 860, the application sends a notification about
the booked appointment to the service provider. At step 870, the
application retrieves from the inventory database information about
appointments booked by a service user with the service provider. At
step 880, the application displays the appointments information in
the corresponding time slots in the calendar-based service user
interface.
[0037] FIG. 9 depicts one example embodiment of a computer system
5, such as a personal computer or network server, suitable for
implementing the applications server 105 that hosts service booking
application 110. As shown, computer system 5 may include one or
more processors 15, memory 20, one or more hard disk drive(s) 30,
optical drive(s) 35, serial port(s) 40, graphics card 45, audio
card 50 and network card(s) 55 connected by system bus 10. System
bus 10 may be any of several types of bus structures including a
memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus and a local bus
using any of a variety of known bus architectures. Processor 15 may
include one or more Intel.RTM. Core 2 Quad 2.33 GHz processors or
other type of microprocessor.
[0038] System memory 20 may include a read-only memory (ROM) 21 and
random access memory (RAM) 23. Memory 20 may be implemented as in
DRAM (dynamic RAM), EPROM, EEPROM, Flash or other type of memory
architecture. ROM 21 stores a basic input/output system 22 (BIOS),
containing the basic routines that help to transfer information
between the components of computer system 5, such as during
start-up. RAM 23 stores operating system 24 (OS), such as
Windows.RTM. XP Professional or other type of operating system,
that is responsible for management and coordination of processes
and allocation and sharing of hardware resources in computer system
5. System memory 20 also stores applications and programs 25, such
as services 306. System memory 20 also stores various runtime data
26 used by programs 25.
[0039] Computer system 5 may further include hard disk drive(s) 30,
such as SATA magnetic hard disk drive (HDD), and optical disk
drive(s) 35 for reading from or writing to a removable optical
disk, such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media. Drives 30
and 35 and their associated computer-readable media provide
non-volatile storage of computer readable instructions, data
structures, applications and program modules/subroutines that
implement algorithms and methods disclosed herein. Although the
exemplary computer system 5 employs magnetic and optical disks, it
should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types
of computer readable media that can store data accessible by a
computer system 5, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards,
digital video disks, RAMs, ROMs, EPROMs and other types of memory
may also be used in alternative embodiments of the computer
system.
[0040] Computer system 5 further includes a plurality of serial
ports 40, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), for connecting data
input device(s) 75, such as keyboard, mouse, touch pad and other.
Serial ports 40 may be also be used to connect data output
device(s) 80, such as printer, scanner and other, as well as other
peripheral device(s) 85, such as external data storage devices and
the like. System 5 may also include graphics card 45, such as
nVidia.RTM. GeForce.RTM. GT 240M or other video card, for
interfacing with a monitor 60 or other video reproduction device.
System 5 may also include an audio card 50 for reproducing sound
via internal or external speakers 65. In addition, system 5 may
include network card(s) 55, such as Ethernet, WiFi, GSM, Bluetooth
or other wired, wireless, or cellular network interface for
connecting computer system 5 to network 70, such as the
Internet.
[0041] In various embodiments, the algorithms and methods described
herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any
combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may
be stored as one or more instructions or code on a non-transitory
computer-readable medium. Computer-readable medium includes both
computer storage and communication medium that facilitates transfer
of a computer program from one place to another. A storage medium
may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By
way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable medium
can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk
storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,
or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired
program code in the form of instructions or data structures and
that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection may be
termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if software is
transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a
coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber
line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and
microwave are included in the definition of medium.
[0042] In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features
of the embodiments are shown and described herein. It will be
appreciated that in the development of any such actual
implementation, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be
made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, and that
these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another
and from one developer to another. It will be appreciated that such
a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would
nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of
ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this
disclosure.
[0043] Furthermore, it is to be understood that the phraseology or
terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and not
of limitation, such that the terminology or phraseology of the
present specification is to be interpreted by the skilled in the
art in light of the teachings and guidance presented herein, in
combination with the knowledge of the skilled in the relevant
art(s). Moreover, it is not intended for any term in the
specification or claims to be ascribed an uncommon or special
meaning unless explicitly set forth as such.
[0044] The various embodiments disclosed herein encompass present
and future known equivalents to the known components referred to
herein by way of illustration. Moreover, while embodiments and
applications have been shown and described, it would be apparent to
those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that
many more modifications than mentioned above are possible without
departing from the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
* * * * *