U.S. patent application number 15/870802 was filed with the patent office on 2018-05-17 for rich media notice board.
The applicant listed for this patent is Google LLC. Invention is credited to Balaji GOPALAN, Rahul Suresh KULKARNI, Deepak Achuthan MENON, Suhas Abhimanyu PHAND, Mandayam Thondanur RAGHUNATH, Anshu SURANA.
Application Number | 20180137436 15/870802 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 44225438 |
Filed Date | 2018-05-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20180137436 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
RAGHUNATH; Mandayam Thondanur ;
et al. |
May 17, 2018 |
RICH MEDIA NOTICE BOARD
Abstract
A rich media notice board enables users to communicate with
others in their own and related communities who use the rich media
notice board or other rich media notice boards, such as those in
related communities, as well as with others who use conventional
interfaces via the Internet. The users of the rich media notice
board can post notices including text, images, audio, and video to
the rich media notice board. The notices may also include usage
metaphors that may allow users to relate to the notices. A user
interface of the rich media notice board may employ the usage
metaphors to provide an interface that may be used by users who may
not read or write with sufficient proficiency to otherwise use a
computer. The users may access the rich media notice boards from
computers, mobile phones, and kiosk systems.
Inventors: |
RAGHUNATH; Mandayam Thondanur;
(Bangalore, IN) ; MENON; Deepak Achuthan;
(Chennai, IN) ; KULKARNI; Rahul Suresh;
(Maharashtra, IN) ; GOPALAN; Balaji; (Chennai,
IN) ; SURANA; Anshu; (Bangalore, IN) ; PHAND;
Suhas Abhimanyu; (Bangalore, IN) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Google LLC |
Mountain View |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
44225438 |
Appl. No.: |
15/870802 |
Filed: |
January 12, 2018 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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12960207 |
Dec 3, 2010 |
9870539 |
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15870802 |
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PCT/US2009/046577 |
Jun 8, 2009 |
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12960207 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0481 20130101;
G06F 3/16 20130101; G06F 16/954 20190101; G06Q 10/00 20130101; G06F
3/0482 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 10/00 20060101
G06Q010/00; G06F 3/0481 20060101 G06F003/0481; G06F 17/30 20060101
G06F017/30; G06F 3/16 20060101 G06F003/16; G06F 3/0482 20060101
G06F003/0482 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jun 6, 2008 |
IN |
1386/CHE/2008 |
Claims
1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a computing device using a
first display interface, first user content for an electronic
message board using a network; automatically comparing, by the
computing device, at least a portion of the first user content to a
predetermined set of usage metaphors, each of the set of usage
metaphors associated with an icon, to identify a list of usage
metaphors corresponding to the received first user content;
providing for selection, via the first display interface, a list of
images corresponding to the list of usage metaphors; receiving, via
the electronic message board, a selected metaphor corresponding to
an image selected from the provided list of images; forwarding
first user content to an electronic address in a predetermined
association with the selected metaphor; receiving updated user
content, from an account associated with the electronic address;
associating the updated user content with the first user content;
and providing for display, using the first display interface via
the electronic message board, the updated user content with a
display of the first user content.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: automatically
searching, by the computing device, for second user content,
related to the first user content, based on the selected metaphor,
the second user content in a predetermined association with the
selected metaphor; and updating the first user content to include
the second user content before the updated user content is provided
for display with a display of the first user content.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second user content comprises
an audio attachment, and wherein the updated user content is
provided for display with a graphic selection control for a user to
select to play the audio attachment.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying, on a
display device, a map; displaying, on the display device, one or
more markers indicating a location of one or more communities;
receiving an indication that an activated marker of the one or more
markers was activated, wherein the updated user content is provided
with a display of the first user content in response to receiving
the indication that the activated marker of the one or more markers
was activated.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, when the
first user content is received, audio content to be associated with
the first user content; identifying a user or a user community
associated with the first user content based on an analysis of the
audio content; storing an association between the first user
content and the identified user or user community so that the first
user content may be identified via an online search based on the
identified user or user community.
6. The method of claim 4, further comprising: generating an
advertisement based on the first user content and the identified
user or user community; and providing the advertisement for display
at the first display interface based on other content being
provided to the identified user or user community at the first
display interface.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user content comprises
audio content, the method further comprising: recognizing speech in
the audio content and identifying the list of usage metaphors based
on extracted information from the recognized speech.
8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having
computer-readable program code embodied therein for displaying
content in an electronic message board, the non-transitory
computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable code that,
when executed by a computing device, causes the computing device to
perform operations comprising: receiving, by the computing device
using a first display interface, first user content for an
electronic message board using a network; automatically comparing
at least a portion of the first user content to a predetermined set
of usage metaphors, each of the set of usage metaphors associated
with an icon, to identify a list of usage metaphors corresponding
to the received first user content; providing for selection, via
the first display interface, a list of images corresponding to the
list of usage metaphors; receiving, via the electronic message
board, a selected metaphor corresponding to an image selected from
the provided list of images; forwarding first user content to an
electronic address in a predetermined association with the selected
metaphor; receiving updated user content, from an account
associated with the electronic address; associating the updated
user content with the first user content; and providing for
display, using the first display interface via the electronic
message board, the updated user content with a display of the first
user content.
9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the operations further comprise: automatically searching, by the
computing device, for second user content, related to the first
user content, based on the selected metaphor, the second user
content in a predetermined association with the selected metaphor;
and updating the first user content to include the second user
content before the updated user content is provided for display
with a display of the first user content.
10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein
the second user content comprises an audio attachment, and wherein
the updated user content is provided for display with a graphic
selection control for a user to select to play the audio
attachment.
11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the operations further comprise: displaying, on a display device, a
map; displaying, on the display device, one or more markers
indicating a location of one or more communities; receiving an
indication that an activated marker of the one or more markers was
activated, wherein the updated user content is provided with a
display of the first user content in response to receiving the
indication that the activated marker of the one or more markers was
activated.
12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the operations further comprise: receiving, when the first user
content is received, audio content to be associated with the first
user content; identifying a user or a user community associated
with the first user content based on an analysis of the audio
content; storing an association between the first user content and
the identified user or user community so that the first user
content may be identified via an online search based on the
identified user or user community.
13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12,
wherein the operations further comprise: generating an
advertisement based on the first user content and the identified
user or user community; and providing the advertisement for display
at the first display interface based on other content being
provided to the user or user community at the first display
interface.
14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the first user content comprises audio content, wherein the
operations further comprise: recognizing speech in the audio
content and identifying the list of usage metaphors based on
extracted information from the recognized speech.
15. A system, comprising: a display device; a non-transitory data
storage unit storing data associated with an electronic message
board; and a computing device in communication with the display
device and the data storage unit, the computing device being
configured to: receive, by a computing device using a first display
interface, first user content for an electronic message board using
a network; automatically compare, by the computing device, at least
a portion of the first user content to a predetermined set of usage
metaphors, each of the set of usage metaphors associated with an
icon, to identify a list of usage metaphors corresponding to the
received first user content; provide for selection, via the first
display interface, a list of images corresponding to the list of
usage metaphors; receive, via the electronic message board, a
selected metaphor corresponding to an image selected from the
provided list of images; facilitate forwarding first user content
to an electronic address in a predetermined association with the
selected metaphor; receive updated user content, from an account
associated with the electronic address; associate the updated user
content with the first user content; and provide for display, using
the first display interface via the electronic message board, the
updated user content with a display of the first user content.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the computing device is further
configured to: automatically search, by the computing device, for
second user content, related to the first user content, based on
the selected metaphor, the second user content in a predetermined
association with the selected metaphor; and update the first user
content to include the second user content before the updated user
content is provided for display with a display of the first user
content.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the second user content
comprises an audio attachment, and wherein the updated user content
is provided for display with a graphic selection control for a user
to select to play the audio attachment.
18. The system of claim 15, wherein the computing device is further
configured to: receive, when the first user content is received,
audio content to be associated with the first user content;
identify a user or a user community associated with the first user
content based on an analysis of the audio content; store an
association between the first user content and the identified user
or user community so that the first user content may be identified
via an online search based on the identified user or user
community.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the computing device is further
configured to: generate an advertisement based on the first user
content and the identified user or user community; and provide the
advertisement for display at the first display interface based on
other content being provided to the user or user community at the
first display interface.
20. The system of claim 15, wherein the first user content
comprises audio content, wherein the computing device is further
configured to: recognize speech in the audio content and
identifying the list of usage metaphors based on extracted
information from the recognized speech.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims the benefit of priority under
35 U.S.C. .sctn. 120 as a continuation of U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 12/960,207 entitled "Establishing Communication in a Rich
Media Notice Board," and filed on Dec. 3, 2010, which claims the
benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 120 as a continuation of
International Patent Application Serial No. PCT/US2009/046577
entitled "Rich Media Notice Board," and filed on Jun. 8, 2009,
which claims the benefit of priority of Indian Application No.
1386/CHE/2008 entitled "Rich Media Notice Board," and filed on Jun.
6, 2008, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by
reference in their entirety for all purposes.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The invention relates in general to the field of Internet
communications with groups having particularized communications
needs and, in particular, to groups reachable at respective
physical locations.
BACKGROUND
[0003] A large class of users may not read or write with sufficient
proficiency to use computers, which may thus prevent such users
from benefiting from the Internet revolution. This barrier may also
cause technology to intimidate some of these users, which in turn
may prevent such users from even attempting to reap the advantages
of computers and the Internet. In addition, users that confront
these challenges to Internet communication may often reside in
rural villages or other communities that have little or no
connectivity to networks that in past years have penetrated the
literate world.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] A rich media notice board may comprise a publicly accessible
repository of notices. Notices to the rich media notice board may
comprise text, images, audio and/or video. The rich media notice
board may be associated with a target community at a particular
geographic location, such as, for example, a village or rural
community. These are referred to below as "geographical
communities", tied to a single specific site for the electronic
notice board. They may also include other communities, such as
urban neighborhoods or scholastic communities. The term "geographic
community" does not encompass networks of individuals who happen to
associate themselves with a city or other location but who view
content in connection with such network from wherever they happen
to be rather than a single central site physically tied to the
geographic community. Members of the geographic community may post
a notice on the rich media notice board, and the members may access
notices posted there. Users of the kiosk systems and/or electronic
notice boards according to aspects of the present invention need
not have their own accounts.
[0005] Accessing notices on the rich media notice board may
comprise "playing" said notices on a computer or other processor.
The term "playing" encompasses not only the playing of an audio
file, but also display of text, images and other rich media. The
computer may comprise, for example, a personal computer, an
electronic kiosk system or a cell phone or other handheld device. A
kiosk system, as discussed in connection with embodiments of the
present invention, refers generally to a publicly accessible device
having one or more associated displays for information and
services. Playing said notices on a computer may comprise
displaying the images, text or video of the notices and/or
generating sound corresponding to the audio associated with the
notice.
[0006] Notices placed on the rich media notice board may include
usage metaphors that may allow users to relate to the notices. The
user interface to the rich media notice board may employ such usage
metaphors to provide an interface that may be used by users who may
not read or write with sufficient proficiency to otherwise use
computers.
[0007] The rich media notice board may interact with one or more
social networking sites. Interacting with one or more social
networking sites may allow users of the rich media notice board to
post notices to or play notices posted by members of the one or
more social networking sites.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] Subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly
pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion
of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features,
and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following
detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying
drawings in which:
[0009] FIG. 1 illustrates infrastructure that may comprise a
network containing a rich media notice board and computers
operatively connected to the rich media notice board through the
network, in an embodiment of an aspect of the present
invention.
[0010] FIG. 2 illustrates, in an embodiment of an aspect of the
present invention, a browser window displaying a map view with
icons representing rich media notice boards corresponding to
different communities.
[0011] FIG. 3 illustrates, in an embodiment of an aspect of the
present invention, a browser window displaying a message list view
of messages posted on a rich media notice board.
[0012] FIG. 4 illustrates a browser window displaying a single
message on a rich media notice board, in an embodiment of an aspect
of the present invention.
[0013] FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a rich media notice
board kiosk system serving a geographic community in accordance
with an embodiment of the invention, which may also communicate
content arranged for and distributed to the community, the kiosk
system transmitting audible content among the communicated content
to members of the community via one or more audio dissemination
systems.
[0014] The detailed description explains the preferred embodiments
of the invention, together with advantages and features, by way of
example with reference to the drawings.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS
[0015] A rich media notice board may comprise a publicly-accessible
repository of notices. Notices to the rich media notice board may
comprise text, images, audio and/or video. The rich media notice
board may be associated with a community. Such communities may
comprise any group of people living in a particular local area such
as, for example, a village, a small town, or an urban neighborhood.
Communities may also comprise any group of people with common
interests and/or common characteristics such as, for example, level
of education and/or socioeconomic status. Anyone may post a notice
on the rich media notice board, and anyone may access notices
posted there.
[0016] Referring to FIG. 1, accessing notices on the rich media
notice board may comprise playing said notices on a computer. The
computer may comprise, for example, a personal computer 10, an
electronic kiosk system 20 a cell phone 30, or other mobile device.
Playing said notices on a computer may comprise displaying the
images, text or video of the notices and/or generating sound
corresponding to the audio associated with the notice.
[0017] The rich media notice board may be accessed by one or more
computers which may be connected to the notice board via one or
more network connections 40. A web browser resident on the one or
more computers may use, for example, a URL to operatively connect
the one or more computers to one or more rich media notice boards
that may correspond to one or more communities. Upon the connection
of a computer to a rich media notice board, the computer may start
playing said notices. The computer may be connected to a loud
speaker which may be used to play any audio portion of the notices,
which may allow members of the community to passively consume the
audio portion of the notices. This passive consumption of the audio
portion may, in turn, prompt one or more members of the community
to use a computer to observe visual aspects of the notices.
[0018] Notices placed on the rich media notice board may include
usage metaphors that may allow users to relate to the notices. The
user interface to the rich media notice board may employ such usage
metaphors to provide an interface that may be used by users who may
not read or write with sufficient proficiency to otherwise use
computers. In the alternative, the user interface may also comprise
conventional interfaces requiring literate users who are reasonably
comfortable with computers.
[0019] A member of a community may post a notice on a notice board
for that community or on the notice board for some other community
by, for example, recording an audio clip using a microphone
attached to the computer, attaching images captured by a web camera
attached to the computer and/or adding text or numbers using a
keyboard attached to the computer or a virtual keypad provided by
the notice board. In addition, the member of the community posting
the notice may tag the notice by choosing one or more icons from a
pre-defined set. The icons may correspond to various nouns, such as
doctor and vegetable, and various verbs, such as buy and celebrate.
The icons may also correspond to usage metaphors. Other examples of
icons include, for example, a blackboard corresponding to
education, an emblem representing a government (e.g., Ashoka
Emblem), a patient corresponding to healthcare, a marriage
corresponding to matrimony, money corresponding to a business or
buying and selling, a sweeper corresponding to cleanliness, and a
tailor corresponding to cottage industries. The icons may also
include a picture of the member posting the notice which is
particularly useful if more than one member accesses the notice
board from the same notice board account or computer. Such icons
may serve as subject headers for the notice and may also classify
the notice. For example, if a notice comprises a question about a
particular plant disease, the member of the community may tag the
posting with icons corresponding to plant and health. An automated
system may use these tags to, for example, sort, filter and/or
route the notices. The automated system may use the tags to route
the notices to, for example, experts who may then access and
respond to these notices, where the responses may contain answers
to any questions posed as part of the original notice. The
automated system may not route incorrectly tagged notices to the
intended destination, and such notices may not receive responses.
Over time, this lack of response may help community members posting
notices learn the appropriate way to tag their notices so that the
automated system routes the notices in a manner such that the
notices may generate an appropriate set of responses.
[0020] The rich media notice board may perform automated speech
recognition of audio portions of posted notices to extract
information regarding the notices that the notice board may not
have access to, for example, icons used to tag the notices. The
automated speech recognition function may recognize speech in more
than one language or dialect used by the community corresponding to
the notice board. For example, where the community corresponding to
the notice board comprises a rural village, the automated speech
recognition function may recognize speech in the one or more
official or national languages and/or dialects used in the village,
the region and/or the country in which the village is located.
[0021] The rich media notice board may store posted notices based
on a usage metaphor to which the received notice corresponds. When
a notice is received, the rich media notice board may analyze the
content of the received notice to associate the content with one or
more of an available set of usage metaphors. In this analysis, the
rich media notice board may compare the content of the posted
notice to an available list of usage metaphors to determine to
which, if any, usage metaphors the content relates. This list of
usage metaphors can include the icons used to tag notices discussed
above. If the content relates to one or more usage metaphors, the
posted notice may be associated with that usage metaphor(s). For
example, the rich media notice board may recognize speech in an
audio posting and analyze this speech to determine that it relates
to a health issue. The rich media notice board may then associate
the notice to a healthcare usage metaphor. Additionally, a user may
select a usage metaphor to associate with a notice when the user is
creating the notice.
[0022] After a received notice is associated with a usage metaphor,
the rich media notice board can search for stored content that
relates to the received notice using the usage metaphor. The stored
content can be stored on any type of data storage unit or other
suitable media that would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in
the art. If such content exists in the stored content, the rich
media message board can play or display this stored content along
with the received notice.
[0023] Each notice board may comprise an email address and a list
of contacts. Each posting on the notice board may comprise an email
message. Each email message posting may attach the text, images,
audio and/or video comprising the posting. The notice board
interface may comprise an email client. The design of the email
client may allow access to people with low levels of literacy. For
example, as discussed above, icon tags may serve as message subject
fields. The notice boards may be publicly accessible and users of
the notice board may or may not have accounts on the notice board
with secret passwords. Each user may have an email account and the
email account may include a contact list. The contact list may
include other users and one or more notice boards. The notice board
may filter messages with particular message subjects, which may
comprise icon tags. The notice board may also use information
extracted from the audio content of posted notices by automated
speech recognition to filter messages. The notice board may forward
the filtered messages to appropriate experts as a regular email.
Such experts may use a traditional email client program to open and
view/listen to the message. Such experts may respond by replying,
and the reply may include an audio attachment. The reply may then
post to the same notice board and may be played by the computer
when the notice board is accessed. Message replies may be clustered
with the original message into a message thread. Users can open the
thread to display the responses to the original message.
[0024] Many email systems such as, for example, Gmail.TM. allow
users to upload pictures of themselves as small image thumbnails.
When one user receives a message from another, the sender's image
thumbnail is displayed by the email client. Gmail.TM. also allows a
user to select specific images that will override a sender's image
thumbnail and display the image selected by the user to correspond
to the sender when the user receives an email from the sender.
Similarly, the rich media notice board may use images to identify
users rather than or in addition to names written in text form. The
notice board may also identify users by short audio clips which may
comprise the user saying his or her own name. When a message is
played on a particular notice board, the audio clip may be played
as a part of the message. This may allow the identification of the
user corresponding to a posting on the notice board by consumers of
the posting who, for example, may not be able to see the screen of
the computer, such as when consumers are physically distanced from
the notice board or when the posting is played over a loudspeaker.
Like email systems such as Gmail.TM. that allow a user to override
a sender's image, the rich media notice board may allow a user to
override the images and/or audio clips chosen by senders. This may
allow users of the notice board to, for example, specify an image
and/or audio clip for a sender where the sender has not specified
his or her own image and/or audio clip. The rich media notice board
may also use numbers, such as a mobile phone number, to identify
the user that posted a message. If the user posts a message to the
rich media notice board using a mobile phone, the rich media notice
board can automatically add the mobile phone number to the
posting.
[0025] The computer may represent notice boards that correspond to
different communities by, for example, overlaying iconic
representations for each community on a map, where each iconic
representation may be located on the map at the coordinate location
of the community in question. FIG. 2. shows one potential map view
with icons representing notice boards corresponding to different
communities. The icon for each community may comprise a picture of
a landmark familiar to the residents of community and/or nearby,
related or similar communities. The icon may also include a
descriptive audio clip. This map overlay may allow users to see
that notice boards exist for other communities they may be familiar
with. The map overlay may also allow users to navigate to notice
boards that correspond to other communities using a two-dimensional
pan and zoom capability, select an icon that corresponds to a
specific community to access the notice board for that community,
and play the notices on that notice board.
[0026] FIG. 3. shows one potential message list view of messages
posted on a notice board. The left column shows the pictures of the
people who have posted messages on the notice board. In the case of
an otherwise anonymous user posting a message from, for example, a
community kiosk system, the image corresponding to the community
may appear. If the user wishes to identify himself/herself, the
user may specify an image captured using web camera associated
with, for example, a community kiosk system, which would appear in
the message list. The user's name may also appear in the message
list. If provided by the user, a subject line may also appear in
the message list. If the posting contains text, a snippet of that
text may also appear in the message list. Icons used to tag the
message may also appear in the message list. If the sender provided
an audio clip, a play button may appear in the message list.
Although not shown, the message list may include a button that will
play all of the messages in the message list. If play all is
selected, each message may open up on the screen as shown in FIG. 4
and any associated audio may play. The sender's name may play
and/or an audio version of the icons may also play. The audio
versions of the icons may comprise, for example, audio
representations of the various nouns and verbs that may correspond
to the icons. These audio representations may reflect one or more
languages that the community may understand. For example, community
kiosk system in a rural village may play audio representations of
one or more official or national languages of the country in which
the village is located as well as any dialects corresponding to the
region in which the village is located. When played, the audio
recordings may cause an audio dissemination system to generate an
audible signal that one or more members of the community may
perceive, for example, by playing the recording over a loudspeaker
or public address system, or to generate signal that may be
translated into an audible signal, for example, a community radio
broadcast that may be received by a standard AM or FM radio. A
kiosk system may play one or more audio representations of the
icons corresponding to one or more official or national languages
and/or dialects based on, for example, the geographic location of
the village, the user posting the notice to the notice board,
and/or any information available regarding any members of the
community who may perceive the audible signal. If there is no audio
component, an indicator that the message does not include audio may
play. The message may stay on the screen for a predetermined amount
of time before advancing to the next message.
[0027] FIG. 4. shows a single particular message as it may appear
when played. The icon labels may appear on the screen along with
the sender's picture. A play button may also accompany the message
that, when activated, may play the message, any video contained in
the message, any audio versions of the icon labels, any audio
clip(s) that may identify the user who posted the message and/or
any combination thereof.
[0028] The computer may include a removable, bootable media, for
example, a bootable CD or bootable flash key, which may reduce the
complexity of using the computer, starting a web browser and
connecting to a notice board for a community that may correspond to
the computer. In this scenario, the bootable media may operatively
connect to the computer before the computer is powered on, for
example, the CD may be inserted into the CD tray or the flash key
may be plugged in prior to powering on the computer. When powered
on, the computer boots from the bootable media. The bootable media
may contain an operating system kernel, such as a Linux.RTM.
kernel, along with a set of device drivers for common hardware. The
bootable media may also contain code that probes the hardware to
identify the devices operatively connected to the computer and load
the corresponding drivers. Code on the bootable media may configure
the network and bring the machine up to a stage where the computer
has access to the network and the ability to display a browser. The
code may also look up some unique hardware identifier on the PC
(such as a machine serial number or a network MAC address) and send
this information to a network service which may identify the
computer and provide the computer with the identity of the village
notice board that it needs to connect to. The code on the media may
also start a web browser and connect it to the identified notice
board.
[0029] Note that the computer would generally not use software
installed on its fixed media when operating in this mode. Computers
having one operating system, for example Microsoft Windows.RTM.,
installed on fixed media may boot a different operating system, for
example, Linux.RTM. from removable, bootable media, and the
computer may run the operating system on the removable media
without using or in any way affecting the operating system
installed on its fixed media. The operating system running from the
removable media may use free space on the computer's fixed media
for storing swap state. Operating in this mode may increase the
computer's resistance to malicious software. For example, if any
malicious software were to infiltrate the computer while it is
running from a CD, the malicious software would have no way to make
any persistent change to the CD and would only exist in DRAM. In
this example, shutting down or restarting the machine would
eliminate such malicious software.
[0030] Referring again to FIG. 1, kiosk systems 20 may comprise one
or more computers which may connect to a local area network (LAN)
50 which may in turn connect via a broadband router to a wide area
network (WAN) 60. Kiosk systems 20 may also comprise one or more
computers connected directly to a WAN via a broadband connection.
If connected to a router, the router may include a DHCP server that
may provide network configuration parameters to the one or more
computers at the kiosk. If the kiosk system is connected to a
DHCP-capable router and the computer is booting from removable,
bootable media, the code on the bootable media may initially
configure the computer to access the network by causing it to
configure the hardware, including the network hardware, such that
it may send a DHCP request to the router, and then sending such a
DHCP request to the router.
[0031] If a kiosk system computer does not have access to a
DHCP-capable router the computer may require some networking
parameters to connect to the network. The removable, bootable media
may contain code instructing the computer to look for a special
file containing networking parameters after boot if a DHCP request
is unsuccessful. If the computer finds such a file, the computer
may read network parameters from this file to configure the
computer to access the network. If such a file is not found, the
computer may prompt a user to provide networking parameters and the
computer may use these parameters to access the network. The
computer may also store such networking parameters provided by a
user in a special file on the hard drive. This may allow the re-use
of networking parameters provided by a user for each boot operation
of the computer.
[0032] Kiosk systems 20 may include the ability to download and
locally cache notice board messages. These kiosks may play such
cached messages from cache memory when, for example, the network
becomes unreliable or unavailable. Kiosk systems 20 may use a
browser extension, for example Google.TM. Gears, to store messages
in a local cache for access when the computer is offline and/or the
network is unreliable or unavailable. If the computer boots from
removable, bootable media, the local cache may reside in DRAM,
which is not persistent across reboots. In this scenario, the
computer may contain a second fixed-media special file to serve as
a backing store for the cache.
[0033] Kiosk systems 20 may include a web camera to allow members
to take pictures for themselves and include the pictures with
notice board messages. The kiosk systems 20 may also include a
microphone for recording audio snippets to include in notice board
messages.
[0034] FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of the rich media notice
board in which a community that the notice board corresponds to
comprises a geographic location. The broadband connection through
which the computer connects to the notice board may comprise a
cellular network. The computer may further connect to an audio
dissemination device that may communicate notices to one or more
members of the community. The audio dissemination device may
comprise, for example, a loudspeaker, a public address system
and/or a community radio transmitter.
[0035] The rich media notice board may also provide advertisements
to users of the notice board. The notice board may use available
information to target advertisements to the users of the notice
board. Available information may include, for example, information
regarding the geographic location of the notice board, the
community associated with the notice board and/or the geographic
location of the notice board, the time of day, the season of the
year, the user of the notice board to whom the advertisement will
be delivered as well as the content of the notices. The notice
board may analyze the information contained in the notices to
target advertisements to the users of the notice board. This
analysis may include analysis of usage metaphors, for example the
icon tags corresponding to specific notices, to identify
advertisements to play to the users of the notice board. This
analysis may also include analysis of speech recognized through
automated speech recognition. The notice board may compare the
analyzed information to a list of advertising topics, and determine
which advertisements to play based on the results of such a
comparison. The advertisements may comprise text, images, audio
and/or video. The advertisements may also comprise usage metaphors,
including, for example, icons from the same predetermined set used
to tag notices posted to the notice board.
[0036] The notice board may include an ad consumer interface.
Advertisers who may wish to advertise on the notice board may
provide the content for the advertisement via the ad consumer
interface. The ad consumer interface may allow the ad consumer to
specify text, images, audio and/or video that may comprise the
content of the ad. The ad consumer interface may also allow the ad
consumer to associate usage metaphors with the ad, including, for
example, icons from the same predetermined set used to tag notices
posted to the notice board. The notice board may analyze this
content to associate the content with one or more advertising
topics for comparison with notices posted to the notice board.
[0037] The ad consumer interface may also collect information that
may be used to bill for the ad. The ad consumer interface may also
provide information regarding the performance of the ad such as,
for example, what ads have been shown, how often they have been
shown, the number of times they have been selected, who has
selected those ads, how often display of the ad has led to
consummation of a transaction. The ad consumer interface may also
provide information regarding the number of people responding to an
ad, for example, the number of people who redeemed a coupon or
called a number corresponding to the ad.
[0038] The rich media notice board may interact with one or more
social networking sites. Interacting with one or more social
networking sites may allow users of the rich media notice board to
leverage social networks, for example those created by sites such
as Orkut.TM., and post notices to or play notices posted by members
of the one or more social networking sites without having an
account on the social network. Users of the notice board may
interact with users of the social networking sites through one or
more accounts that the notice board may have on the social
networking sites. Notice board accounts on social networking sites
may correspond to the community, groups of members of the community
and/or individual members of the community corresponding to the
notice board. Members of the one or more social networking sites
may interact with the community, groups or individual members of
the community corresponding to the notice board through the one or
more accounts that the notice board may have on the one or more
social networking sites. Users of the notice board may access
experts, for example in the fields of agriculture, medicine and
finance, who are members of the social network through the notice
board, which will access the social networks using the one or more
accounts associated with the notice board. This may allow users of
the notice board to leverage the benefits of a complex social
networking platform with minimal computer knowledge.
[0039] While the preferred embodiment to the invention has been
described, it will be understood that those skilled in the art,
both now and in the future, may make various improvements and
enhancements which fall within the scope of the claims which
follow. These claims should be construed to maintain the proper
protection for the invention first described.
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