DE102011087914A1 - Method for linking data of physical objects to data objects of a social network - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for linking data (114) of one or more physical objects (100, 117-119) with data objects of a social network (110) comprising the steps of: - providing (301) a server application program (111); - providing (302) one or more base stations (102-106); - generating (303) a first message (860) by a portable communication device (101) which includes at least one user ID (505) of a user (113) of the portable communication device; - sending (304) the first message; - receiving (305) the first message at least by that one of the base stations closest to the communication device at the time of generation of the first message; - sending (306) a second message (861) from said base station to the server application program, the second message including a user ID and an object ID; - receiving (307) the second message by the server application program; - identifying (308) the data stored associated with the received object ID; - mapping (309) the identified data to a user profile of the social network; and - transmitting (310) the identified data to the social network.

Description

The invention relates to a method for linking data of physical objects with data objects of one or more social networks, a corresponding portable communication device, a computer program product and a computer system.

To an increasing extent, there is a need for physical objects of reality, eg. As machines, goods, goods, parts of buildings or entire buildings with data and data objects of "virtual worlds", d. h., computer-implemented models of real-world clippings. For example, mailings are now being captured in computer-implemented logistics systems and may be tracked online by the sender and / or consignee of the shipment.

Conventional advertising, such as print, radio or TV advertising, although reaches a large number of interested parties, but is not targeted. This results in high costs for the advertisers (wastage). Targeted advertising is therefore becoming increasingly important. The Internet and social networks in particular now offer the opportunity to select and address customer groups in a targeted manner. Examples are Google AdWords or Facebook Ads. But one of the most effective ways to promote your product is still word-of-mouth. Direct recommendations from friends, acquaintances, but also strangers influence buying decisions far more than conventional advertising in the real world or on the Internet. Today, social networks offer the opportunity to digitally reproduce this word-of-mouth propaganda. This makes it all the more crucial for companies to engage in social networks in the future. The linking of physical objects of the "real" world with data objects of the "virtual" world is nowadays difficult and poses hurdles in the applicability for the user. To link physical objects are manual inputs, constantly recurring logins in systems or social networks etc. necessary. The currently used human-machine interfaces, such as notebooks or smartphones, are annoying and time consuming in many real-life situations. In certain situations, only insufficiently stable or even no access to this "virtual" world is available. For example, in many buildings, such as in shopping malls, outlet centers, skyscrapers, large exhibition halls or buildings with thick walls and especially within larger steel structures often no Internet reception is possible. The reason for this are building materials used (for example, steel ceilings, concrete walls, plasterboard, etc.) that strongly attenuate electromagnetic radiation. Even densely built-up areas, forest areas, etc. can strongly influence the reception. This is all the more disadvantageous as an increasing number of applications are no longer available locally but only over the Internet.

In many situations it is therefore not practical to collect data about physical objects using the technical means available so far and to share them with friends on the said social network. For example, a visitor to a trade show or exhibition might try to take a photo of an interesting exhibit object with their smartphone, manually log in to one or more social networks, and upload the photo to the social network together with a short text For example, to have his friends comment and rate. In practice, however, this entails drawbacks, especially in terms of usability: this method requires several manual steps that distract the visitor from the actual purpose of his visit (viewing of the exhibits, discussion with stand personnel, etc.). For the provider of a product is disturbing that the description is not accurate enough or incorrect (inaccurate description, wrong product name, Vote decrypter, etc.). Pictures taken by a visitor can be of poor quality. In addition, the mobile connections are often very bad, especially in exhibition halls and similar large buildings, so that the uploading of larger files is often not possible or only after several attempts. Finally, the sheer mass of visitors often leads to Internet connection nodes (mobile phones, WLAN access points, etc.) being overloaded and only slower or no access to the Internet being possible any more. This reduces the interest of visitors to communicate about products online or the opportunity is taken. US 2009/10106085 A1 describes a shopping system in which the user of a shopping cart selects products with the aid of an RFID scanner, whereby the system can exchange data with a social network. US 2011/0125688 A1 suggests, in addition to using RFID tags, the use of GPS to send attributes of physical entities from one or more sensors to one or more receivers. A disadvantage of an RFID technology-based installation is that the energy technology used has limited reach. For this reason, the user must first bring transmitters and receivers in close proximity to one another, which significantly reduces the intuitiveness and user-friendliness of such systems. Nor can the range of RFID systems be increased simply because the antenna structures required for this purpose (dimensions eg 2 m × 1 m) are in too complex in many cases and too much space is needed to make this a viable option. Furthermore, (passive) RFID tags can not independently transmit data without an existing field, with the result that a permanent field must be set up, which is undesirable in many cases (interferences with other radio systems, energy consumption, fear of radiation, etc.). ).

The disadvantage with GPS technology is that within buildings, the reception of GPS signals for determining the location of objects and users is often very limited or does not work at all.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved method, communication device, computer program product, and computer system for linking data from physical objects to data objects of one or more social networks.

The object underlying the invention is achieved in each case with the features of the independent claims. Preferred embodiments are given in the dependent claims.

A "user" refers to a user of a communication device who is also assigned a user profile on one or more social networks.

In the following, a "communication device" refers to a portable data processing device which has at least one interface for transmitting data. According to some embodiments, the communication device may also receive data via this or another interface. In particular, it is a portable communication device, that is, a data processing device, which is small, light and handy enough to be carried by a user. In particular, it may be devices that are small and light enough to serve as a key fob, chain tag or ID card (electronic document), for example, or to be carried in your pocket or purse, for example.

In the following, a "communication channel" is understood to be a transmission path for messages (information) which connects a transmitter and a receiver with one another, in which case it is not necessary in every embodiment for the data to also be addressed to the respective receiver. Thus, a radio signal of a transmitter can be received by one or more receivers as long as the signal strength is sufficiently high. The number of receivers that can still receive the signal in this case corresponds to the number of radio communication channels according to the invention. However, the construction of a communication channel between sender and receiver may, according to some embodiments, also include a one-way or mutual authentication of sender and receiver.

A "base station" is understood to mean a data processing device which has at least one interface for a first communication channel in order to exchange data with a local server and which furthermore has a further interface for data exchange with one or more communication devices via a respective second communication channel. A base station may, in particular, be a device which is permanently installed at a specific position inside or outside a building, at least for a limited period of hours, days or weeks. A base station may also be mobile by being fixedly coupled to a mobile object.

The term "active transmission" is understood in the following to be a transmission of data by a transmitter to a receiver, the energy required for data transmission originating from a source of energy associated with the transmitter and preferably located at or within the receiver Transmitter is located. The reading of data stored on a data source by a reading device, which for reading energy from its own energy source, or the excitation of an antenna of the data source by said reader so do not fall under the concept of "active transmission" of data, the data source In this case, it does not represent a sender that transmits its data "actively".

A "storage medium" in the following means any type of non-volatile storage media, in particular electromagnetic or optical storage media. It can be a single hardware component, but also multiple memory components that are logically linked to a memory.

A "social network" is understood below to mean a computer-implemented service, which is typically hosted by web applications or portals. This service manages a count whose nodes typically represent people or groups of people, and whose edges represent relationships between different people (or groups of people, companies, products, brands, or others). These relationships can be particularly social relationships such as friendships, professional relationships, common Represent interests or similar. Individual persons or groups of people have the possibility to store data in this social network linked to their respective node, to display this data to other users or at least to their own friends and thereby to share information in particular with persons and groups of persons to which a social relationship exists. In particular, social networks can provide an application interface (API) via which users or other programs can log in via a network, upload data and view the data of friendly users and if necessary also rate and / or comment.

An API is therefore an interface in the social network, which allows a bidirectional exchange of data.

In the following, a "server" or "server computer system" refers to one or more interconnected data processing devices which can process data and computer-implemented instructions and exchange data with one or more of the base stations. In particular, this is a computer system which provides the base stations with an interface for communication and which provides services and / or applications that can be called or interrogated by several other devices, for example the base stations, so that the server computer system is different Provides one or more "services" to systems. By "first server" or "focal server" is meant a server which is typically, but not necessarily, in greater proximity to the base stations than the server hosting the social network. Typically, this or these local servers are operated by the publishers of the communication device and / or the base stations and / or by the entity which, for example, uses the communication device and the base stations in the course of an exhibition. The addressed services can be provided directly on the first server (s). In another embodiment, said server is a remote server, i. H. to a computer system, which is not in close proximity to the base stations and with the individual base stations via a network connection, eg. As the Internet or an intranet connected. The remote server can be z. B. can be a cloud-based server system.

An "object" refers to a physical object of the real world, such as machinery, goods, goods, parts of buildings, entire buildings, etc.

"Object Data" or "Data" refers to objects (for example, text, images, video, Internet links, etc.) through objects. In the following, various aspects of the invention, in particular a method which is carried out by the communication device (s) in cooperation with the base station (s) under a server, as well as corresponding computer program products and hardware components (one or more communication devices, one or more servers with server Application program) or process components that are executed on the individual hardware components described. Unless expressly stated otherwise, features described below for a hardware, firmware, and / or software component, such as the communication device, correspond to analogous steps in the method. Accordingly, features of method steps are to be understood such that the hardware, firmware and / or software executing the respective step also has corresponding components which enable the execution of said method steps.

• – Bereitstellung eines Server-Applikationsprogrammes auf einem ersten Server, wobei das Server-Applikationsprogramm über eine API mit dem Sozialen Netzwerk interoperabel ist;
• – Bereitstellung einer oder mehrerer Basisstationen, die mit dem ersten Server über erste Kommunikationskanäle verbunden sind, wobei jeder Basisstation ein oder mehrere Objekt-IDs zugeordnet sind; jede der Objekt-IDs fungiert dabei als ein Identifikator eines der physischen Objekte;
• • wobei jedes der physischen Objekte genau einer der Basisstationen dadurch zugeordnet ist, dass diese Basisstation die dem physischen Objekt nächstgelegene Basisstation darstellt, wobei jeder der Basisstationen eines oder mehrere der physischen Objekte zugeordnet sind für welche die besagte Basisstation die nächstgelegene Basisstation darstellt;
• • wobei Daten jedes der physischen Objekte mit genau einer der Objekt-IDs verknüpft auf einem Speichermedium gespeichert sind,
• – Erzeugung einer ersten Nachricht durch ein portables Kommunikationsgerät welches zumindest eine Nutzer-ID eines Nutzers des portablen Kommunikationsgeräts beinhaltet, wobei die erste Nachricht in Reaktion auf eine Interaktion des Nutzers mit dem Kommunikationsgerät erzeugt wird;
• – Senden der ersten Nachricht von dem portablen Kommunikationsgerät über einen zweiten Kommunikationskanal, wobei die erste Nachricht zumindest die Nutzer-ID des Nutzers enthält;
• – Empfang der ersten Nachricht zumindest durch diejenige der Basisstationen, die zum Zeitpunkt der Erzeugung der ersten Nachricht dem Kommunikationsgerät am nächsten gelegen ist;
• – Senden einer zweiten Nachricht von der besagten Basisstation an das Server-Applikationsprogramm über einen der ersten Kommunikationskanäle, wobei die zweite Nachricht zumindest die Nutzer-ID und eine der Objekt-IDs welche der besagten Basisstation zugeordnet ist, enthält;
• – Empfang der zweiten Nachricht durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm;
• – Identifizieren, durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm, der Daten, die mit der empfangenen Objekt-ID verknüpft gespeichert sind;
• – Zuordnung der identifizierten Daten zu einem Nutzerprofil des Sozialen Netzwerks mittels der empfangenen Nutzer-ID; und
• – Übertragung der identifizierten Daten an das Soziale Netzwerk zur Prozessieren der Daten, wobei die Übertragung der Daten so erfolgt, dass das Soziale Netzwerk die übertragenen Daten dem identifizierten Nutzerprofil zuordnen kann.

In one aspect, the invention relates to a method for linking data from one or more physical objects to data objects of a social network. Each of the physical objects has exactly one object ID assigned to it. The procedure includes the steps:

• - Providing a server application program on a first server, the server application program being interoperable via an API with the social network;
• - providing one or more base stations connected to the first server via first communication channels, each base station being associated with one or more object IDs; each of the object IDs acts as an identifier of one of the physical objects;
• Wherein each of the physical objects is assigned to exactly one of the base stations by that base station being the base station closest to the physical object, each of the base stations being associated with one or more of the physical objects for which said base station represents the nearest base station;
• Wherein data of each of the physical objects associated with exactly one of the object IDs is stored on a storage medium,
• Generating a first message by a portable communication device including at least one user ID of a user of the portable communication device, wherein the first message is generated in response to an interaction of the user with the communication device;
• Sending the first message from the portable communication device via a second one Communication channel, wherein the first message contains at least the user ID of the user;
• - receiving the first message at least by that of the base stations closest to the communication device at the time of generation of the first message;
• Sending a second message from said base station to the server application program via one of the first communication channels, the second message including at least the user ID and one of the object IDs associated with said base station;
• - Receipt of the second message by the server application program;
• - identifying, by the server application program, the data stored associated with the received object ID;
• Assignment of the identified data to a user profile of the social network by means of the received user ID; and
• Transferring the identified data to the social network for processing the data, the transfer of the data being such that the social network can associate the transferred data with the identified user profile.

According to embodiments, each of the base stations is assigned one or more of the object IDs, where the associated object IDs are the object IDs of those physical objects for which the base station represents the nearest base station. The assignment can z. Example, take place in that the base station assigned object IDs are stored in a memory of the base station. When sending the second message, the base station integrates one of the stored object IDs into the second message.

In one aspect, the feature allows the communication device to send the first message rather than passively holding read data. Thus, the user of the communication device can act considerably more freely. In order to intentionally transfer object data of a specific physical object to the user's account in the social network, it is not necessary to establish physical contact or near field contact between the RFID chip and the reader, as required in the RFID-based state of the art. Rather, the user of the communication device, which is able to actively send the message, within a predefined area (in the simplest case of an omnidirectional antenna in the free field of a ball) of the base station, which is limited only by the transmission strength of the communication device , By interacting with the communication device within the reception area of a base station, a first message is recognized by at least the nearest base station, thereby establishing a connection between the user of the communication device identified by the user ID and the physical object (and its object ID stored in the storage medium associated with the object data of the physical object) for which the message receiving base station represents the nearest base station. In a further advantageous aspect, the method, which does not preclude, but no longer requires, direct physical interaction of the communication device or user with the physical object or a receiving box, allows the issuers of an exhibition, shopping mail, outlet centers, etc. to issue them to reorganize physical objects more easily and to renounce these z. B. to provide RFID labels. Analogous advantages result in other usage scenarios of embodiments of the invention, so that the user of the communication device is less restricted in his movement and persons who display the physical objects or arrange for other purposes, have a greater freedom, since these persons the Users of the communication device do not have to stop this to bring in direct contact with a (eg RFID) "communication box". Furthermore, "communication boxes" can be obscured by crowds and thus unreachable.

In some embodiments, one or more of the base stations may also be configured as a mobile base station. Preferably, the mobile base station and the physical objects associated with that base station are located on a common movable subset, such as a vehicle or fair car.

According to further embodiments, the identified data are sent by the application program to at least one other social network in which the user has a user profile assigned to him, so that the data is also processed in this further social network. The application program can receive and analyze the results of several social networks to generate a feedback message into which the rating information of all social networks from which a processing result was received is input. This is advantageous, as it allows the evaluation information to be based on a broader information base and therefore more accurate.

According to embodiments, the server on which the server application program runs is a remote server, ie, a server to which the base stations are connected via a network, e.g. As the Internet or an intranet as a basis for the first communication channels, exchange data. The remote server is typically not in close proximity to the base stations. In some embodiments, the social network and the server application program run on the same server computer and / or interoperable with each other.

In one embodiment, each of the base stations includes a memory in which exactly one base station ID and / or one or more object IDs are stored.

According to embodiments, the linked storage of one of the object IDs and the data associated with a particular physical object occurs in a manner related to the spatial arrangement of the objects relative to the individual base stations as follows: the individual base stations are configured and / or the physical objects are arranged in space relative to the base stations in such a way that the base station closest to the physical object automatically generates a second message with the object ID of that physical object as soon as the base station receives a first message within the reception area or a spatially resolvable one Part of this reception area was sent from the base station receives. This object ID is stored in a memory associated with the data of the physical object located in said reception area or subarea.

According to some embodiments, each base station is spatially associated with exactly one physical object in a manner such that this base station represents the nearest base station only for that one physical object. The physical objects are thus arranged so that the assignment of the physical object and the nearest base station is based on a 1: 1 relationship. The object ID of this physical object is therefore also characteristic for its respectively nearest base station and the entire environment of the base station, from which the base station can still receive messages. According to these embodiments, this object ID may be used as the base station ID, i. h., be used as a unique identifier of the base station, and vice versa.

In another embodiment, each of the base stations is capable of associating first messages received from different portions of the environment (ie, for example, from a particular angular range within the 360 ° total ambient angle) to those different portions of the environment. This can be realized, for example, technologically by time-of-flight, fingerprinting or multi-antenna runtime measurement methods. For example, a signal comes from a communication device near the object 117 was sent, first at time t0 at antenna 801.1 and only then at the other antennas. At the times t1, t2 and t3, the signal arrives at the other antennas. Now the base station - or, after transmitting the data to the server application program, also this - can calculate where the signal must come from.

In these embodiments, the base station is allocated as many object IDs as the base station can differentiate portions of its environment in locating a sender of a received first message. An object ID is thus characteristic of a particular subregion of the environment of a base station, which can still be resolved by the base station. In each of these subareas exactly one physical object can be placed, which is uniquely identified by the respective object ID. The physical objects are thus arranged such that the assignment of physical object and spatially resolvable subregion of the environment of the nearest base station is based on a 1: 1 relationship. In this case, each of these physical objects still has exactly one nearest base station, but at least some of the base stations may be associated with multiple physical objects.

In another embodiment, the receive areas (for the first message) overlap two or more of the base stations. The unambiguous assignment of one or more physical objects to exactly one of the base stations in this case takes place in that the physical object of one of these base stations is spatially closest and the signal strength on receiving the first message for the nearest base station is higher than the signal strength at Reception of this first message by other, further away from the communication device or object receiving devices. Likewise, this method applies to base stations that can resolve multiple subranges.

Some of those embodiments in which the base stations can differentiate several location areas and thus multiple physical objects, an object ID from the base station ID and an ID of the resolved space segment of this base station is composed.

The linkage between object IDs and data of physical objects stored on the storage medium corresponds to the spatial assignment of the said physical objects to the base stations or of the base station to spatially resolvable partial areas of their respective surroundings.

The data may be any kind of descriptive information or additional information about the physical object and / or its creator, owner or other object-related organization, brand (eg, image, phrase, word or image) Sound brand, etc.) or person act. The object data may be in the form of text files, video files, image files, sound files, binaries, XML files or other files or data structures in free or proprietary formats. In particular, this can also be a composition of data of different format. The association between object ID and object data may, for example, be based on the allocation of data using primary or secondary keys of a relational database, assignment by storage within a directory within a predefined directory tree, or the like.

The first and second messages may also be messages in various open or proprietary formats, in particular XML files, binaries or the like.

According to embodiments in which each base station is more specifically assigned an object ID, the object ID may be a base station ID of the base station.

Depending on the embodiment, the first communication channels are based on one of the following technologies: WLAN, LAN, or fiber optic technology. By means of these technologies, a secure communication channel with high bandwidth can be provided even with a high number of users. The first communication channels are according to embodiments part of a local computer network infrastructure. Depending on the embodiment, the data transmission z. B. based on copper or glass fiber technology.

According to further embodiments, the base stations are each able to "learn" the prevailing field strengths in their environment. The field strengths can z. B. by metal-containing objects, wall projections or different exhibition objects in different sub-areas of the environment of the base stations may be different. In a "learning step" communication devices or other transmitters are introduced with a known transmission strength at a known distance to the base station and brought to the emission of a signal. The measured field strength information of this signal is compared with the known signal strength of the transmitter, so that the actually prevailing in a subdomain field strength or an attenuation factor is determined. This determined information is taken into account by the base stations in determining whether the signal strength of a received first message is still above a predefined threshold (technological term "fingerprinting"). According to embodiments, the base station transmits, as part of the second message, a value which indicates how high the signal strength of the first Nachacht was when received by the base station, this value being corrected by the said fingerprinting technique for the ambient attenuation of the signal of the first one To calculate the message. According to other embodiments, this correction is performed by the server application program which has access to the attenuation factors of all base stations in order to determine the base station closest to the first message by comparing the signal strengths of different base stations and thereby the relevant object ID or second message, in which it is contained to determine.

According to embodiments, the second communication channel is a wireless communication channel. The portable communication device has a power source for actively transmitting the first message using this power source to at least the nearest base station.

According to embodiments, the portable communication device is a portable data processing device which contains one or more electronic components, such as microcontrollers, radio modules, sensors (light sensor, acceleration sensor, etc.), actuators (LED, vibration motor, etc.), etc., and at least one energy source , According to embodiments, the energy source is a built-in battery, a rechargeable battery, or a mechanism capable of transmitting energy, for example, by light (eg, solar cell), by moving the communication device, through interaction with the communication device (eg pressure and piezoelectric effect), by thermal differences between the communication device and its environment (eg Seebeck effect) or by induction (eg inductive charge) to record and store for the purpose of generating first messages and provision of energy for, for example, message reception, data processing tasks and for controlling actuators. These features may be advantageous in that this internal power supply allows for a large transmission range for transmitting the first message through the communication device and thereby leaves the user with great freedom of movement, since he can initiate the dispatch of the first message in a larger radius of the nearest base station.

The social network data objects that are automatically linked to the transmitted data can be any data contained in that network. Especially it may be the user profile of the user who initiated the transmission of this data, so that the data is stored there after being transferred to the social network. Additionally or alternatively, the data objects of the social network can also be other user profiles, since the evaluation of the data transmitted to the network by other users of the network likewise results in a linkage.

According to embodiments, the second communication channel is based on a wireless data transmission technology, wherein the communication device acts as a transmitter and provides the energy for the communication via the second communication channel.

• – WLAN;
• – Bluetooth^®;
• – Bluetooth^® Low Energy;
• – ANT^TM; oder
• – ANT+^TM

According to embodiments, the second communication channel is based on an electromagnetic field, in particular in the infrared range or in the radio frequency range, or on the transmission of sound waves, wherein in the case of the use of an electromagnetic field one of the following data transmission standards is used:

• - WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS;
• - Bluetooth ^® ;
• - Bluetooth ^® low energy;
• - ANT ^TM ; or
• - ANT + ^TM

The ANT ^TM message or ANT + ^TM message is a message based on a wireless personal area network protocol "ANT ^TM " or "ANT + ^TM ", respectively.

Depending on the embodiment, the portable communication device, which sets up the electromagnetic field for transmitting the first message via the second communication channel, may be inductively or non-inductively coupled to the nearest base station.

According to embodiments, individual technologies may be combined. According to embodiments, only parts of the individual technologies can be used in combination with a proprietary supplement. According to a further embodiment, the second message is sent from the base station via a gateway to the application program. A gateway is a data processing device, eg. A computer acting as an interface between one or more of the base stations and the server on which the application program is running. In this case, both the data transmission channel between one of the base stations and the gateway and between the gateway and the server are components of the first communication channel. Depending on the embodiment, these two components on the same communication technology, z. Cable-based LAN, or a mix of the technologies listed for the first communication channel.

According to embodiments in which the transmission of the first message takes place via a radio channel, the portable communication device is in particular a radio that receives energy from an internal energy source to generate a radio signal that is strong enough to receive at least from the nearest base station with sufficient signal strength can become. The first message is preferably a radio signal in one of the following frequency ranges: 10-20 MHz, in particular 13.56 MHz; 165-175 MHz, in particular 169 MHz; 430-440 MHz, in particular 433 MHz; 865-875 MHz, in particular 868 MHz; 910-920 MHz, in particular 915 MHz; 2.3-2.5 GHz, in particular 2.4 GHz. It is advantageous that these frequency ranges are license-free usable in individual countries or sometimes even worldwide (in particular 2.4 GHz). Furthermore, especially all areas in the non-2.4 GHz range are much less overloaded by ubiquitous radio technologies such as WLAN or Bluetooth, so that a communication can be made with much higher probability and easier. In addition, radio waves penetrate in the sub-GHz range of simple walls and have the same energy a longer range than radio waves above 1 GHz.

According to embodiments of the invention, the communication device is configured to send the first message in one of a plurality of adjustable signal strengths. The communication device further comprises means for selecting and adjusting one of these signal strengths for sending the first message. Accordingly, the method further comprises the step of receiving an actuating signal by the communication device and adjusting the signal strength of the communication device in response to the actuating signal, wherein the first message is sent according to the set signal strength via the second communication channel. According to embodiments, the control signal is sent by the server application program centrally via the base stations to all communication devices. This can bring with it the advantage that the operator of an exhibition can adapt the transmitter signal strength of the communication devices to the spatial conditions of the respective exhibition. Thus, the spatial distances of the base stations at a motor show should be interpreted differently than in an exhibition of smaller jewelry items. A signal setting mechanism with a central signal transmitter enables an efficient and rapid adjustment of the transmission strength of a multiplicity of communication devices to the spatial requirements of the respective one Intended use. According to other embodiments, the signal strength of the communication device may alternatively and / or additionally also be effected by a direct manipulation of the communication device, for example by means of a switch.

• – Empfang eines Ergebnisses einer Prozessierung der übertragenen Daten von dem Soziale Netzwerk durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm, wobei das Ergebnis dem mit den gesendeten Daten verknüpften physischen Objekt und dem Nutzer zugeordnet ist;
• – Analyse des Ergebnisses durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm;
• – In Abhängigkeit vom Ergebnis der Analyse, senden einer Feedbacknachricht von dem Server-Applikationsprogramm zu einer der Basisstationen über einen der ersten Kommunikationskanäle;
• – Empfang der Feedback-Nachricht durch die besagte Basisstation und Senden einer dritten Nachricht, die die Feedback-Nachricht oder die Daten der Feedback-Nachricht beinhaltet, zu dem Kommunikationsgerät;
• – Ausgabe eines Feedback-Signals durch das Kommunikationsgerät an den Nutzer.

According to embodiments, the second message further includes a base station ID of the base station sending the second message. The method further comprises the steps:

• Receiving, by the server application program, a result of processing the transmitted data from the social network, the result being associated with the physical object associated with the transmitted data and the user;
• - analysis of the result by the server application program;
• Depending on the result of the analysis, sending a feedback message from the server application program to one of the base stations via one of the first communication channels;
• Receiving the feedback message by said base station and sending a third message including the feedback message or the data of the feedback message to the communication device;
• - Output of a feedback signal by the communication device to the user.

On the one hand, these embodiments can bring about the advantage that the data integration is not only unidirectional (uploading data from physical objects into the social network) but bidirectional (additionally linking the physical objects with commenting and / or evaluation information from the social network) he follows. In the following, evaluation information refers to all functions which are available to other users in the social network, to provide the data transmitted to the social network with additional information and / or to link to data objects of the social network (eg , comment, share, follow, +1, etc.). The application or announcement of products by end users through their publication in their network profiles is considered by many manufacturers as one of the most attractive advertising opportunities of the future. The evaluations and comments that are summarized by the social environment of the user, which is simplified in the following as "circle of friends", provide important feedback information for the manufacturer in order to estimate the market success of a product as early as possible. In this respect, an automatic linking of processing results of the social network, in which also reviews of the circle of friends of the user of the communication device are incorporated, potentially for both the manufacturer of the product and for exhibition operators of great advantage. Embodiments of the invention enable a fully automatic integration of these data with the physical objects and thereby a better linkage of information available in the social networks with the real physical objects or products. In a further aspect, such a feedback channel allows the development of a variety of accessory applications, which are generally useful both to the user of the communication device (such as the visitor to an exhibition stand) and to the provider of the communication infrastructure (in particular the base stations and the local server) So the trade fair manager and / or the exhibitors) can provide an added benefit.

According to embodiments, the third message is transmitted to the communication device via one of the above-mentioned second communication channels, wherein the second communication channel can be in particular the radio channel. In this case, the transmitting base station operates as a radio transmitter and the communication device as a radio receiver of the third message. Both the communication device and the base station are thus transceivers, according to preferred embodiments radio transceiver, according to other embodiments but also Bluetooth ^® transceiver, ANT ^TM transceiver or the like, which can both send and receive messages, the communication device as the transmitter first message and acts as a receiver of the third message and the base station concerned receives the first message or sends the second and possibly also the third message.

According to embodiments, the communication device resends the first message if a receipt confirmation signal is not received from at least one base station after a preset minimum period of time. The first message is sent again at regular intervals until at least one of the base stations receives a receive acknowledgment signal.

The result of processing the data by the social network may in particular include qualitative and / or quantitative feedback information from social network users associated with the profile of the user of the communication device via an edge of the social network graph. Thus, according to one embodiment, the social network "Facebook" used and the transmission of the data from the server application program to the social network are configured as a call to a "like" functionality provided by the social network API (SN-API). The transmitted data, z. For example, a picture of an exhibited car will appear on the whiteboard of the Facebook profile the user as a provided by the user with a "like" tag image and can be commented by his friends and / or additionally provided with a "Like" tag. The comments and / or the number of "like" tags noted by the friends linked via said edges represent a processing result of the transmitted image generated by the social network and which can be queried via the API from the server application program.

According to embodiments of the invention, the server application program sends a feedback message only if the number of "like" tags of friends for the identified and transmitted to the social network data exceeds a minimum number in a predefined time interval, for example, ten "Like" Tags within two hours. According to embodiments, the feedback message contains data of the processing result, for example the number of "like" tags. The feedback message may also include, according to some embodiments, further data stored associated with the weighted physical object or its associated object ID. Thus, in one embodiment, the feedback message includes an audio file or path to such an audio file that contains a sound mark of the manufacturer of the weighted physical object or other audio file, video file and / or image file required by the manufacturer of the physical object and / or or characteristic of the physical object itself.

According to embodiments, the communication device has means for outputting the feedback signal to the user. These means may, for example, be configured in the form of one or more LED elements which emit a flashing signal upon receipt of a feedback signal. According to embodiments, the number of flashing events is identical to the number of like tags issued by the user's friends for the data transmitted to the social network of an object for which the user initiated the generation of the first message.

According to embodiments, the feedback signal is audible and includes, for example, a beep, a buzzer, and / or the output of a sound sequence specified in an audio file sent as part of the feedback message from the server application program to the base station and from the latter has been forwarded to the communication device in the form of the third message. According to embodiments, the communication device further includes a display which can display the processing result or parts thereof or parts of the data transmitted with the feedback message. The display can be designed, in particular, as an LCD screen, as an OLED screen or as an electronic paper or the like based on electrophoresis or bistable elements.

According to further embodiments, the reception of the third message by the communication device causes the reading of data from an internal memory of the communication device depending on the content of the received third message. Thus, the communication devices of some embodiments include multiple audio files, e.g. From different manufacturers, and the third message specifies which of them is played back via a speaker of the communication device.

The display or other reproduction of data of the physical object, in particular of data characteristic for this object or its manufacturer, may be advantageous since the user selects several different physical objects from several different manufacturers through interaction with the communication device and transmits their data to the social network may have. It may not be enough for all objects enough "Like" tags assigned by friends. Due to the fact that the feedback message additionally contains data of the objects that are sufficiently often provided with the "Like" tag, it is immediately clear to the user for which of the physical objects selected by him the feedback message was sent. According to further embodiments, the server application generates a feedback message only for those physical objects for which a processing result has been obtained from the social network which fulfills filter conditions of the server application program.

In other embodiments, the feedback signal is mechanical in nature. In particular, the feedback signal can be embodied as vibration of the communication device, which the user who holds the portable communication device in the hand, for example, can haptically detect.

According to embodiments of the invention, the feedback signal identifies that physical object whose data has been processed by the social network to output a result.

According to embodiments of the invention, the results of the processing include annotation and / or rating information regarding the transmitted data, which is provided by the owners of other social network user profiles, also referred to herein as "friends". The further user profiles are linked to the identified user profile by an edge of a network graph of the social network. The Valuation information is qualitative and / or quantitative in nature.

According to embodiments, each of the base stations is configured to send the third message in one of a plurality of different adjustable signal strengths. The base stations each include means for selecting and / or adjusting one of a plurality of adjustable signal strengths. Accordingly, according to embodiments, the method further includes the step of: receiving an actuating signal by each of the base stations and adjusting the signal strength of each of the base stations in response to the actuating signal, the third message being transmitted in accordance with the adjusted signal strength over the second communications channel.

According to embodiments, the set signal strength of the communication device for sending the first message is designed so that it can be received by a base station at a distance of up to 2 m from the communication device with a sufficiently large signal strength. According to these and / or further embodiments, the signal strength set at each of the base stations for sending the third message is arranged so that the third message can be received by a communication device at a distance of up to 2 m from the transmitting base station with a sufficiently large signal strength.

A range of up to 2 m of the signal originating from the communication device for the first message has proven to be favorable for many exhibition scenarios. The range should be set so that if possible only the nearest base station receives the first message. Accordingly, the base stations must have a sufficiently large distance from each other, wherein the distance should be matched to the objects to be exhibited.

According to further embodiments, the reception of the first message is selectively effected only by the nearest base station. The selectivity is effected by the transmission strength of the communication device and the spatial arrangement of the base stations are coordinated so that selectively only the communication unit nearest the base station can receive the first message with a predefined minimum strength. This can be made possible in particular by a sufficiently large distance of the base stations from one another, preferably in combination with adjustment of the signal strengths of the base stations and / or the communication devices.

According to further embodiments, each of the base stations receiving a first message determines the signal strength of the second communication channel over which the first message was received. This signal strength is transmitted to the server application program along with the second message. The server application program compares the signal strengths of all incoming second messages within a certain period of time that contain the same user ID. This period is chosen so short, typically within a few seconds or fractions of a second, that the user of the communication device during this period, no significant change in location may have completed. By comparing the signal strength indications (relating to the signal strength of the first message as received by one of the base stations) received in all the second messages in this period, the server application program can determine that the same first message from the user is from a first base station a high signal strength (e.g., 90%) was received, but a second base station received the same first message but with a lower signal strength (e.g., 30%). In this case, the server application program compares the signal strengths specified in the received messages and, when identifying the data associated with the object IDs contained in the second messages, only considers the second message from the base station that has a higher signal strength indication contains. These features may be advantageous because even in the case where several base stations are so close to each other that the first message is received not only from the base station closest to the communication device, but also with a correspondingly weaker signal strength from another base station, however, the server application program is able to identify, by comparing said signal strengths, the base station that represents the nearest base station to the communication device at the time of transmission of the first message.

In other embodiments, the server application program has access to a geographic map that specifies the physical two-dimensional or three-dimensional space in which the base stations and the corresponding physical objects are located. The data of the physical objects are in each case assigned to subregions of this map via their object IDs and / or via the base station IDs of the base stations closest to the objects. According to these embodiments, the server application program receives a plurality of second messages as a result of the transmission of a first message, each of the second messages being transmitted by one of the base stations still close enough the communication device are placed so that they are able to receive the first message. By applying a triangulation method taking into account different signal strengths of the two respective base stations incoming first message, the server application program determines the exact position of the communication device and thus the user in the space represented by the geographical map. Depending on the design, the determination is accurate to the nearest centimeter. In these embodiments, therefore, the base station IDs of the transmitting base stations are used together with the signal strength indications to determine the position of the user or his communication device and thus also the physical object selected by the user action which is closest to the calculated position of the user. These embodiments therefore allow a particularly high resolution of the whereabouts of the user. On the other hand, the advantages of the purely object-ID-based determination of the user's 'selected' physical object are that an electronic geographic map is not required and that the calculation is done without triangulation, making it faster and easier.

In another embodiment, the social network is hosted on a second server or a server cloud. The second server or the server cloud is connected to the first server via a network, in particular the Internet. In particular, the social network may be Facebook, Google+, StudiVZ, Twitter, Foursquare, V-Contacts, QZone, Qype Orkut, or, Xing, LinkedIn, or others.

According to some embodiments, the data transmitted to the social network is processed by the social network itself and is available via its API for the server application program via a push and / or pull method.

According to embodiments, the social network includes a so-called "social network application" ("SN application" or "SN application program"), wherein the server application program can exchange data using the API of the social network and in particular receive the processing result.

According to further embodiments, the data transmitted to the social network is processed by an SN application, wherein the processing result via the API of the social network is made available to the server application program by means of a push and / or pull method. This SN application program can, for. B. also be hosted on the computer, which already provides the social network, or on another computer, which is connected to the host computer of the social network via a network, so that the SN application is functionally an integral part of the social network , In particular, the SN application can be a so-called "Facebook" application, which can be accessed by means of the "Facebook API" and / or the "OpenGraph API". These embodiments may be advantageous in allowing you to implement your own processing algorithms. The communication and / or evaluation information of friends provided via the social network is thereby centrally evaluated and made available according to the requirements of the user of the communication device or according to the requirements of the operators of the base stations and the local server. This is advantageous because these specific arithmetic operations for the calculation of the processing result are provided by a central SN application. As a result, for example, different organizers of very different z. As fairs, each relying on their own instances of the same communication infrastructure, access to a central SN application logic. It is therefore not necessary for each provider of a corresponding fair to develop its own calculation method for providing a processing result to the respective server application program.

• – Senden von PING-Signalen nach vordefinierten Zeitintervallen vorn Kommunikationsgerät an die nächstgelegene Basisstation, wobei das PING-Signal zumindest die Nutzer-ID des Nutzers beinhaltet;
• – Weiterleiten der PING-Signale jeweils zusammen mit einer Objekt-ID jeweils durch eine der Basisstationen an das Server-Applikationsprogramm, wobei die Objekt-ID der weitergeleiteten PING Nachricht durch die weiterleitende Basisstation in das weitergeleitete PING-Signal eingefügt wird, wobei das PING-Signal von dem Kommunikationsgerät, der Basisstation und/oder dem Server-Applikationsprogramm beim Senden und/oder Empfangen des PING-Signals mit einer Zeitinformation versehen wird;
• – Analyse der zusammen mit der Nutzer-ID empfangenen PING-Signale, der Zeitinformation und der Objekt-ID zur Erstellung eines Bewegungsprofils des Nutzers, welchem die Nutzer-ID zugeordnet ist, durch das Server-ApplikationsprogrammSenden von PING-Signalen nach vordefinierten Zeitintervallen vom Kommunikationsgerät an die nächstgelegene Basisstation, wobei das PING-Signal zumindest die Nutzer-ID des Nutzers beinhaltet;

According to another embodiment, the method further includes the following steps:

• Sending PING signals at predefined time intervals from the communication device to the nearest base station, the PING signal including at least the user ID of the user;
• - forwarding the PING signals together with an object ID in each case by one of the base stations to the server application program, wherein the object ID of the forwarded PING message is inserted by the forwarding base station in the forwarded PING signal, wherein the PING Signal from the communication device, the base station and / or the server application program when sending and / or receiving the PING signal is provided with a time information;
• Analysis of the PING signals received together with the user ID, the time information and the object ID for creating a movement profile of the user to which the user ID is assigned, by the server application program sending PING signals according to predefined ones Time intervals from the communication device to the nearest base station, wherein the PING signal includes at least the user ID of the user;

According to embodiments, the object ID inserted by the base station is an ID (base station ID) characteristic of the base station. According to embodiments in which the base station can resolve a plurality of reception areas, the inserted object ID is the object ID of that object which has been positioned in the corresponding reception area. The base station can in this case z. For example, access an internal memory with object IDs and select the appropriate object ID depending on the receive area in which the first message was received.

According to embodiments, the PING signal from the communication device in an adjustable, fixed time interval of z. B. 5 s sent to at least the nearest base station. Thus, while the generation and transmission of the first message is through a - usually deliberate - interaction of the user with his communication device, the PING signal is preferably a signal which is independent of the interaction with the user at fixed time intervals is sent from the communication device. If the user moves through the room in this case, in each case other base stations, which represent the nearest base station for the communication device, receive the PING signal. The server application is thus able to create a movement profile of the user from the time information, the base station IDs and the user ID from the forwarded PING signals.

According to further embodiments, the motion profile data is transmitted from the server application program to the social network, wherein the transmission is of the kind that the social network can associate the motion profile with the user profile associated with the user ID on a storage medium accessible to the server application program is stored linked.

• – Auswertung der Nutzer-Aktion-ID durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm;
• – in Abhängigkeit von der Nutzer-Aktion-ID, Identifizieren einer Hardwarefunktionalität sowie einer Adresse über welche die Hardware, die die identifizierte Hardwarefunktionalität bereitstellt, adressiert werden kann;
• – Senden eines Auslösebefehls von dem Server-Applikationsprogramm an die identifizierte Adresse der Hardware zur Auslösung der Hardwarefunktionalität.

According to further embodiments, the first and / or second message further includes a user action ID. The method further includes the following steps:

• Evaluation of the user action ID by the server application program;
• Depending on the user action ID, identifying a hardware functionality and an address via which the hardware providing the identified hardware functionality can be addressed;
• Sending a trigger command from the server application program to the identified hardware address for triggering the hardware functionality.

These embodiments may be advantageous because the user can use the communication device not only to select physical objects whose data and possibly also their own rating he wants to tell his friends. The user may additionally use the communication device to trigger various actions by other devices that are beneficial in the particular scenario of the invention. For example, many visitors to trade fairs have the desire to send friends a picture of themselves and the object of the exhibition. However, this is costly because about the smartphone camera of the user must be adapted to the lighting conditions of the exhibition booth. In addition, many people would like to avoid entrusting their camera phone to strangers to take a picture. By contrast, according to embodiments of the invention, it is possible for the user to send a first message to the nearest base station through a corresponding interaction with the communication device, wherein the first message contains information that the user desires a photograph of himself and the exhibit object.

By means of the method features described above, the sent trigger command can be sent directly to a specific suitable hardware, in the case for example a fixed camera, which automatically triggers a corresponding photo, which for example printed immediately, later printed with more photos and picked up at once can be sent as a postcard, sent as an e-mail and / or transmitted automatically as additional data of the selected object to the social network, where this can also be evaluated. By said features, the addressed hardware, z. As the camera, generate additional data that can be sent as data automatically to the server application program and from this for evaluation and / or comment to the social network.

It is thus possible, for example, to make the user aware that by interacting with the communication device within a certain spatial area, a photograph of him and the object of the exhibition is made automatically by setting up a corresponding information sign.

• – einen „Like”-Nutzer-Aktion-ID, wobei eine erste oder zweite Nachricht mit einer solchen Nutzer-Aktion-ID spezifiziert, dass das durch die Objekt-ID identifizierte physische Objekt durch die Interaktion des Nutzers, die den Versand der ersten Nachricht bewirkte, ausgewählt wurde um die Daten dieses ausgewählten physischen Objektes auf einer (virtuellen) Pinnwand o. ä. des Nutzerprofils des Nutzers innerhalb des Sozialen Netzwerk zu veröffentlichen und durch dessen Freunde bewerten zu lassen. Nach bevorzugten Ausführungsformen bewirkt eine Nachricht mit einer „Like”-Nutzer-Aktion-ID, dass die an das Soziale Netzwerk übertragenen Daten als von dem Inhaber des Nutzerprofils mit einem „Like”-Tag versehene Daten angezeigt werden, welche dessen Freunde ebenfalls mit einem „Like”-Tag versehen können.
• – eine „Flyer”-Nutzer-Aktion-ID, wobei eine erste oder zweite Nachricht mit einer solchen ID spezifiziert, dass dem Nutzer Zusatzinformationen zu den physischen Objekten zugeschickt werden sollen, welche der Nutzer durch Interaktion mit dem Kommunikationsgerät in räumlicher Nähe zu den besagten physischen Objekten ausgewählt hat. Je nach Ausführungsform können diese Zusatzinformationen beispielsweise in Form von papierbasierten Postsendungen an die Postanschrift des Nutzers gesendet werden, per E-Mail an dessen E-Mailadresse gesendet werden oder mittels eines Download-Links innerhalb des Sozialen Netzwerkes dem Nutzer zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Dies kann z. B. vorteilhaft sein, weil im Falle des E-Mailversands Papier gespart wird und weil der Nutzer nicht während des Besuches der Ausstellung eine Flyersammlung mit sich herumtragen muss. Nach Ausführungsformen werden die Daten der ausgewählten physischen Objekte während der gesamten Zeitraum in welchem der Nutzer sich bei dem Server-Applikationsprogramm eingeloggt hat, gesammelt.
• – eine „Zahlungsanweisung”-Nutzer-Aktion-ID, wobei eine erste oder zweite Nachricht mit einer ID dieses Typs spezifiziert, dass für das durch die Interaktion des Nutzers mit dem Kommunikationsgerät ausgewählte physische Objekt eine Zahlungstransaktion erfolgen soll. Dies kann vorteilhaft sein, weil der Nutzer z. B. kleinere Einkäufe während des Messebesuches, z. B. an einem Kaffeestand, bargeldlos bewirken kann.
• – eine „Spiele”-Nutzer-Aktion-ID, wobei eine erste oder zweite Nachricht mit einer ID dieses Typs spezifiziert, dass Teile des Inhalts der ersten Nachricht als Input für eine durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm bereitgestellte Spiel-Applikation verwendet werden. Dies kann vorteilhaft sein, da die Produktbindung zwischen Produkthersteller und Kunde verstärkt werden kann, wenn der Kunde die Möglichkeit erhält, beispielsweise mit einem Ausstellungsobjekt dadurch spielerisch zu interagieren, dass er einen Schalter des Kommunikationsgerätes auf „Spielemodus” stellt und nun beispielsweise mehrere Stempelbewegungen auf dem Objekt ausführt, wobei je nach Beschaffenheit des Spiels verschiedene Feedback-Nachrichten oder andere Nachrichten von der Spiele-Applikation zurückgesendet werden. Nach einer Ausführungsform beinhaltet das Kommunikationsgerät einen Bewegungssensor und/oder einen Beschleunigungssensor welcher in der Lage ist, Ortsveränderungen des Kommunikationsgeräts aufzuzeichnen und einen Bewegungspfad zu errechnen oder die Ortsinformationen über die nächstgelegene Basisstation an das Server-Applikationsprogramm zu übermitteln wo der Bewegungspfad errechnet wird. Gemäß einer Ausführungsform vergleicht die Spiele-Applikation den Bewegungspfad mit einem Logo oder einer anderen vordefinierten Struktur, wobei die vordefinierte Struktur insbesondere von dem Betreiber eines Messestandes, dem die besagte Basisstation zugeordnet ist, stammen kann. Der Nutzer kann dadurch Prämien erwerben oder Spielepunkte sammeln, dass er das Kommunikationsgerät in der Luft derartig bewegt, dass der dadurch aufgezeichnete Bewegungspfad dem Logo bzw. der vordefinierten Struktur gleicht.

According to embodiments, the first and / or second message includes a user action ID, which causes the execution of an action typical of the respective user action ID:

• A "like" user action ID, wherein a first or second message with such a user action ID specifies that the physical object identified by the object ID is determined by the interaction of the user that sent the first message has been selected to publish the data of that selected physical object on a (virtual) pin board or the like of the user profile of the user within the social network and have it evaluated by his friends. According to preferred embodiments, a message with a like user action ID causes the data transmitted to the social network to be displayed as data provided by the owner of the user profile with a "like" tag, which also includes its friends with a "like" tag "Like" tag can provide.
• A "flyer" user action ID, wherein a first or second message with such an ID specifies that the user is to be provided with additional information about the physical objects that the user interacts with the communication device in spatial proximity to said ones selected physical objects. Depending on the embodiment, this additional information can be sent, for example in the form of paper-based mail to the mailing address of the user to be sent by e-mail to the e-mail address or made available to the user by means of a download links within the social network. This can be z. B. be advantageous because in the case of e-mailing paper is saved and because the user does not have to carry a flyer collection with him during the visit of the exhibition. According to embodiments, the data of the selected physical objects are collected during the entire period in which the user has logged in to the server application program.
• A "payment instruction" user action ID, wherein a first or second message with an ID of this type specifies that a payment transaction is to be made for the physical object selected by the interaction of the user with the communication device. This can be advantageous because the user z. B. smaller purchases during the trade fair visit, z. B. on a coffee, cashless effect.
• A "game" user action ID, wherein a first or second message having an ID of this type specifies that portions of the contents of the first message are used as input to a game application provided by the server application program. This can be advantageous because the product link between product manufacturer and customer can be enhanced if the customer gets the opportunity to playfully interact with, for example, an exhibition object by setting a switch of the communication device to "game mode" and now, for example, multiple stamp movements on the game Execute object, depending on the nature of the game various feedback messages or other messages are returned from the game application. According to one embodiment, the communication device includes a motion sensor and / or an acceleration sensor which is able to record changes in the location of the communication device and to calculate a motion path or to transmit the location information about the nearest base station to the server application program where the motion path is calculated. According to one embodiment, the games application compares the movement path with a logo or other predefined structure, wherein the predefined structure may originate in particular from the operator of a trade fair stand to which the said base station is assigned. The user can thereby earn premiums or collect game points that he moves the communication device in the air so that the recorded motion path is similar to the logo or the predefined structure.

According to embodiments, the user action ID thereby becomes part of the first message (and thus automatically also part of the second message) that the user actuates a switching device of the communication device, wherein the switching device selects one of a plurality of user action IDs that in a Interaction of the user with the communication device, eg. B. a stamp movement is sent as part of the first message. This switching device may be, for example, mechanical nature or be implemented as a touchscreen unit of the communication device. According to another embodiment, one of the base stations is arranged to automatically add, upon receipt of a first message from the communication device, a particular user action ID of the second message generated in response to receipt of the first message from said base station. For example, one of the base stations may be located within a box that includes an opening large enough to receive a user's hand with the communication device and allow the user to interact with the communication device within that box such that the first Message is triggered. The walls of the box preferably form a Faraday cage with an opening so as to ensure that the first message can be received selectively only from the base station within that box. Within or near this box is preferably a A note to the user that a specific hardware functionality, such as a snapshot, will be triggered when the first message is sent through interaction with the communication device within that box. The location of this box ensures that the user must be in a position that is optically detected by said camera. After interaction of the user with the communication device within the box, a first message is sent to the base station within the box. This particular base station, in response to receiving the first message, sends a second message including the user's user ID, the base station ID of said base station and a user action ID to the server application program, the user action ID enables the server application program to identify said camera as the hardware that provides a particular hardware functionality, in this case the taking of a photograph. The server application program sends a corresponding trigger command directly or via a gateway to the camera.

According to some embodiments, the trigger command is sent to the identified hardware via the base station from which the server application program received the second message with the corresponding user action ID. According to other embodiments, the server application program sends the trigger command directly or mediates via one or more other computers to the identified hardware.

In one embodiment, the hardware functionality is thus the taking of an image and / or a video with a camera. In other embodiments, the hardware functionality is a printing operation of a printer. This is advantageous because, for example, data of the physical object closest to the base station sending the second message can be automatically printed out. These data may be, for example, product brochures, price lists, company information or the like. According to a further embodiment, the hardware functionality is the recording of sound signals by a microphone. Embodiments of the invention may also include multiple of these hardware functionalities in any combination.

According to embodiments of the invention, the identified hardware address is a base station ID of the base station from which the second message was sent, the identified hardware address being used by the server application to communicate with the hardware and send the trigger command.

Server application program

• – Bereitstellung eines Server-Applikationsprogrammes auf einem ersten Server, wobei das Server-Applikationsprogramm über eine API mit dem Sozialen Netzwerk interoperabel ist, wobei der erste Server mit mehreren Basisstationen über erste Kommunikationskanäle verbunden ist, wobei das Server-Applikationsprogramm Zugriff auf ein Speichermedium hat, in welchem Objekt-IDs gespeichert sind, und in welchem Daten jedes der physischen Objekte mit genau einer der Objekt-IDs verknüpft gespeichert sind,
• – Empfang einer Nachricht von einer der Basisstationen durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm, wobei die empfangene Nachricht mindestens eine der Objekt-IDs und eine Nutzer-ID enthält, wobei die empfangene Objekt-ID einer der Basisstationen zugeordnet ist, die zum Zeitpunkt des Nachrichtenempfangs einem Kommunikationsgerät eines Nutzers, welchem die Nutzer-ID zugeordnet ist, am nächsten gelegen ist;
• – Identifizieren, durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm, der Daten, die mit der empfangenen Objekt-ID verknüpft gespeichert sind;
• – Zuordnung der identifizierten Daten zu einem Nutzerprofil des Sozialen Netzwerks mittels der empfangenen Nutzer-ID; und
• – Übertragung der identifizierten Daten an das Soziale Netzwerk zur Prozessieren der Daten, wobei die Übertragung der Daten so erfolgt, dass das Soziale Netzwerk die übertragenen Daten dem identifizierten Nutzerprofil zuordnen kann.

In the following section, some steps of the method according to the invention, which are carried out by the server application, are described in more detail. In a further aspect, the invention relates to a method for linking data from one or more physical objects to data objects of a social network, comprising the steps of:

• Providing a server application program on a first server, the server application program being interoperable via an API with the social network, the first server being connected to a plurality of base stations via first communication channels, the server application program having access to a storage medium, in which object IDs are stored, and in which data each of the physical objects associated with exactly one of the object IDs are stored,
• - Receiving a message from one of the base stations by the server application program, wherein the received message includes at least one of the object IDs and a user ID, wherein the received object ID is associated with one of the base stations, at the time of receiving a message communication device nearest to a user associated with the user ID;
• - identifying, by the server application program, the data stored associated with the received object ID;
• Assignment of the identified data to a user profile of the social network by means of the received user ID; and
• Transferring the identified data to the social network for processing the data, the transfer of the data being such that the social network can associate the transferred data with the identified user profile.

• – Registrierung des Nutzers bei dem Server-Applikationsprogramm, wobei dem Nutzer eine Nutzer-ID zugewiesen und auf dem Kommunikationsgerät des Nutzers gespeichert wird, und wobei die Zugangsdaten des Nutzers zu dessen Profil in dem Sozialen Netzwerk von der Registrierungseinheit empfangen werden; nach bevorzugten Ausführungsformen erfolgt die Registrierung dabei an einer Registrierungseinheit, also einem Datenverarbeitungsgerät welches mit dem lokalen Server über ein Netzwerk, zum Beispiel das Internet oder intranet, verbunden ist. Die Registrierungseinheit umfasst eine graphische Benutzeroberfläche die es dem Nutzer, also beispielsweise dem Besucher einer Messe, ermöglicht, sich einmalig bei dem Server-Applikationsprogramm zu registrieren und dabei auch seine Zugangsdaten für das Soziale Netzwerk einzugeben. Vorzugsweise umfasst der Prozess der Registrierung auch eine Zustimmung des Nutzers zum Austausch von Daten bzw. von Prozessierungsergebnissen zwischen der Server-Applikation und dem Sozialen Netzwerk (bzw. zwischen der Server-Applikation unter einer SN-Applikation, sofern das Soziale Netzwerk eine solche SN-Applikation beinhaltet).
• – Speicherung der Zugangsdaten verknüpft mit der Nutzer-ID des Nutzers in einem Speichermedium, welches von dem Server-Applikationsprogramm gelesen werden kann;
• – wobei die Authentifizierung des Nutzers durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm das Lesen der mit der empfangenen Nutzer-ID verknüpft gespeicherten Zugangsdaten durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm beinhaltet, wobei die Zugangsdaten mit der analysierten Nutzer-ID verknüpft gespeichert sind, wobei das Server-Applikationsprogramm die Zugangsdaten des Nutzers zur Kommunikation mit dem Sozialen Netzwerk auch nach einer log-out-Aktion des Nutzers aus dem Server-Applikationsprogramm verwendet wird.

According to embodiments of the invention, the method further comprises the following steps:

• Registration of the user with the server application program, wherein the user is assigned a user ID and stored on the communication device of the user, and wherein the user's access data to his profile in the social network are received by the registration unit; According to preferred embodiments, the registration takes place here at a registration unit, ie a data processing device which is connected to the local server via a network, for example the Internet or intranet. The registration unit comprises a graphical user interface which allows the user, for example the visitor of a trade fair, to register once with the server application program and thereby also his access data for the social network. Preferably, the process of registration also includes an agreement of the user to exchange data or processing results between the server application and the social network (or between the server application under a SN application, if the social network has such an SN). Application includes).
• Storing the access data associated with the user ID of the user in a storage medium that can be read by the server application program;
• - wherein the authentication of the user by the server application program includes reading the access data associated with the received user ID stored access data stored by the server application program, wherein the access data associated with the analyzed user ID are linked, the server application program, the access data the user is used for communication with the social network even after a log-out action of the user from the server application program.

These embodiments may be advantageous because different user accounts are used to manage the user through the server application program and to exchange data with the social network. The account of the user in the social network is therefore preferably not identical to the account which uniquely identifies the user in the server application program. This separation is advantageous because the management of the user data by the server application programs is separate from the user's affiliation to a specific social network. If the user should change their affiliation to a social network or has an account in several social networks, one of these user accounts can be selected or, in some embodiments, all accounts can be used. In addition, this can be advantageous since a deletion of the user profile data for the social network does not automatically result in the deletion of the user account data in the server application program.

According to a further embodiment, the data transmission is encrypted in both directions via each of the first communication channels between the base stations and the server application program. According to further embodiments, the data transmission is also encrypted via each of the second communication channels between the communication device and each of the base stations located sufficiently close to the communication device. The encryption technology used may in particular be methods based on asymmetrical or symmetric cryptographic key pairs. This is advantageous because it ensures that the message signal of a first or second message is not intercepted and retransmitted several times to thereby, for example, the data of the physical object, which was selected by the user through interaction with his communication device, several times in the social Network to transfer.

• – Empfang eines Ergebnisses einer Prozessierung der übertragenen Daten von dem Sozialen Netzwerk durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm, wobei das Ergebnis dem mit den gesendeten Daten verknüpften physischen Objekt und dem Nutzer zugeordnet ist; je nach Ausführungsform kann das Ergebnis auch von einer SN-Applikation, die Bestandteil des Sozialen Netzwerks ist, über die API empfangen werden.
• – Analyse des Ergebnisses durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm;
• – In Abhängigkeit vom Ergebnis der Analyse, senden einer Feedback-Nachricht von dem Server-Applikationsprogramm zu einer der Basisstationen über einen der ersten Kommunikationskanäle zur Abgabe eines Feedback-Signals durch das Kommunikationsgerät an den Nutzer. Nach einer Ausführungsform sendet das Server-Applikationsprogramm nur dann eine Feedback Nachricht, wenn das Ergebnis, das von dem Sozialen Netzwerk erhalten wurde, eine in qualitativer oder quantitativer Hinsicht hinreichend gute Bewertung des physischen Objektes, welches mit den übertragenen Daten verknüpft ist, enthält.

According to another embodiment, the method further includes the following steps:

• Receiving, by the server application program, a result of processing the transmitted data from the social network, the result being associated with the physical object associated with the transmitted data and the user; Depending on the embodiment, the result may also be received via the API by an SN application that is part of the social network.
• - analysis of the result by the server application program;
• Depending on the result of the analysis, send a feedback message from the server application program to one of the base stations via one of the first communication channels for the delivery of a feedback signal by the communication device to the user. According to one embodiment, the server application program sends a feedback message only if the result obtained from the social network contains a qualitatively or quantitatively sufficiently good score of the physical object associated with the transmitted data.

• – Empfang von PING-Signalen nach vordefinierten Zeitintervallen von ein oder mehreren der Basisstationen, wobei jedes der PING-Signale zusammen mit der Nutzer-ID des Nutzers des Kommunikationsgeräts und zusammen mit einer durch die Basisstation eingefügten Objekt-ID derjenigen Basisstation empfangen wird, welche das PING-Signal an das Server-Applikationsprogramm weitergeleitet hat, wobei die empfangene Objekt-ID durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm als Spezifikation des Aufenthaltsortes des Nutzers des Kommunikationsgerätes interpretiert wird;
• – Analyse der zusammen mit der Nutzer-ID empfangenen PING-Signale und der Objket-ID zur Erstellung eines Bewegungsprofils des Nutzers, welchem die Nutzer-ID zugeordnet ist.

In further embodiments, the method further includes the following steps:

• - receiving PING signals at predefined time intervals from one or more of the base stations, each of the PING signals being received together with the user ID of the user of the communication device and together with an object ID inserted by the base station of the base station containing the PING signal has been forwarded to the server application program, wherein the received object ID is interpreted by the server application program as a specification of the whereabouts of the user of the communication device;
• Analysis of the PING signals received together with the user ID and the object ID for creating a movement profile of the user to whom the user ID is assigned.

• – Bestimmung desjenigen empfangenen PING-Signals mit der jüngsten Zeitinformation durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm;
• – Auslesen der Objekt-ID des bestimmten PING-Signals durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm;
• – Senden der Feedback-Nachricht zu derjenigen Basisstation, von welcher das PING Signal mit der jüngsten Zeitinformation durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm empfangen wurde.

According to embodiments, each of the PING signals includes time information about the moment of receipt of the PING signal by the server application program or about the moment of transmission of the PING signal by one of the PING signals Base stations or the communication device, further comprising the steps:

• - Determining the received PING signal with the most recent time information by the server application program;
• - reading the object ID of the particular PING signal by the server application program;
• Sending the feedback message to the base station from which the PING signal with the most recent time information was received by the server application program.

According to embodiments in which the base station can spatially resolve only one surrounding area with respect to the reception of the first message, the object ID may be an identifier of the base station, called "base station ID" for short.

The server application program according to embodiments has access to a data store in which each of the object IDs is stored linked to an address of the base station which represents the nearest base station for the object associated with the object ID. By reading out the address of a base station associated with the received object ID, the server application program can identify the address of the base station from which a second message or ping signal was received and use that information to e.g. B. to send a feedback message to the base station from which the second message was received. In an analogous manner, by reading out the addresses of the base station from which a current PING signal with an object ID was obtained, the server application program can determine the base station nearest to the user and thus the position of the user.

According to other embodiments, the object IDs themselves include the address data of the base station that sent the second message with the said object ID, so that access to such a memory is not necessary.

These features may be advantageous because the PING signals contain information about the current location of a user and his communication device. It is therefore not necessary that a corresponding feedback signal is sent to all base stations for forwarding to the communication devices. The fact that the current position of the user is known by the PING signals by transmitting the object ID assigned to one of the base stations by this same base station, the feedback signal can be selectively sent only to that base station, which is currently closest to the communication device ,

According to further embodiments of the invention, the base stations are each designed both for the resolution of two or more different reception areas as well as for the selective transmission of the third message to one of these reception areas. This can be z. B. by adjusting the angle at which the third Nachacht will be shipped done. The base station is designed to send a second message with the object ID, which is assigned to this reception area of the base station, to the server application program when receiving a first message from one of its reception areas. The server application program receives these PING signals and can use these to determine the user's nearest base station and the receiving range within which the user is currently located. The server application program sends a feedback message to the base station from which the most recent PING signal was received, with the feedback aftertaste, e.g. B. identified by an object ID contained therein, one of the receiving areas of the base station. The base station receiving the feedback message then selectively sends the third message to the receiving area indicated in the feedback message, for example, by changing the emitting angle of the transmitting device.

In a further aspect, the invention relates to a base station which can resolve at least two reception areas for receiving a first message or a PING signal from a communication device. The base station includes a memory in which, for each of the reception areas, an object ID of the object located in the said reception area is stored. The base station is further configured, upon receipt of a first message from one of the receiving areas, to identify the object ID associated with that receiving area and to send a second message to a server application program, the second message identifying the identified object ID and a user ID, where the user ID was received as part of the first message. The base station is further configured, upon receipt of a feedback message from the server application program identifying one of the receiving areas (eg, by transmitting an object ID as part of the feedback message), to selectively send a third message to the receiving area indicated in the feedback Message was identified.

According to further embodiments, the result or content received by the social network of the feedback message based thereon is sent to a specific base station, which may be formed as an information terminal or can be connected to an information terminal. This can be done alternatively and / or in addition to sending the feedback message for generating the third message to the communication device. The result or contents of the feedback message, for example the type and / or number of evaluations and comments of the physical object, can thereby be displayed on the terminal regardless of the current position of the user.

According to embodiments of the invention, the feedback message includes information on winnings from games in which the user has participated, possibly in comparison to the bonuses of other users, score information, and other personalized data on which locations within a room (for example, exhibition grounds) are different Stop users who are connected in the social network to the user profile of the user via at least one edge of the network graph.

According to embodiments, the information terminal is a display device or a computer with a graphic display (GUI), for example a screen, a projection screen or the like. According to embodiments, the output of the display via the GUI of the information terminal requires a log-in action of the user in the server application program. Additionally or alternatively, the display on the terminal may also include an indication of the data provided by the hardware functionality used in the invention. For example, the terminal can also display images generated by the camera's "snapshot function".

In preferred embodiments, the server application program collects results received from the social network for a plurality of different users regarding a plurality of different physical objects. The collected results are compared and evaluated, this score being used to calculate a score for each of the collected results. Those results whose score exceeds a predefined threshold, or whose scores belong, for example, to the N highest score scores over a period of time, are used to generate a feedback message to the communication device of the user who, by interacting with the communication device, sends the mail for the evaluation had induced causative first message. , N 'denotes a fixed numerical value, z. 10 or 50. According to embodiments, the server application program includes a module that allocates different premiums to the results depending on the scores of those results. According to embodiments, the server application program sends a feedback message to the information terminal, wherein the feedback message includes an indication of the premium that the user may receive as a reward for having one of the physical objects for automatically transferring their data to the information terminal Social network and that this selected object was positively received by the circle of friends of the user in a particularly high qualitative and / or quantitative measure.

According to a further embodiment, the server application program is able to carry out the following steps: determining the current position of the user's communication device and thus also the current position of the user; Determining all first social network user profiles associated with the user's social network profile across an edge of the social network count (eg, "friends list"); Comparing all particular first social network user profiles to a list of second social network user profiles, each of the second social network user profiles being associated with another user registered with the server application program. Such a list may, for example, include all registered trade fair participants; in the case of identity of one or more of the first social network user profiles with one of the second social network user profiles, determining the current location of the communication devices of the other users associated with the one or more of the second social network user profiles ; sending a Friends Location message to the base station closest to the user, the Friends Location message indicating the determined current locations and the identity of the particular other users, in addition or alternatively to sending the Friends Location message to the said one Base station sent the friends localization message to the information terminal and from this, z. B. is displayed after a log-in action of the user in the server application program. According to embodiments, the base station that has received the said friend location message forwards it to the user's communication device, whereupon the latter informs the current location and identity of the particular other users, e.g. B. on the display of the communication device displays. Alternatively or additionally, the communication device can then selectively send a signal to the user if one of the certain other users (ie one of the user's "friends" who are also at the trade fair, for example) within a predefined spatial maximum distance to the user. This signal can z. Example, an acoustic signal, an optical signal, a vibration signal or the like. These features may be advantageous because even if the communication device does not have its own display, it may still indicate to its owner the presence of its friends in close proximity. These embodiments may be advantageous because the user, e.g. As a visit to a fair, automatically receives on his communication terminal and / or on the display of the information terminal the whereabouts of his friends who have also registered at the fair as a visitor, displayed.

According to embodiments of the invention, the comparison of the first and second social network user profiles is carried out not by the server application program but by the SN application program and the results of this comparison are transmitted to the server application program.

communication device

In the following section, some steps of the method according to the invention, which are carried out by the communication device, will be described in more detail.

• – Empfang eines Stellsignals;
• – Einstellen einer Signalstärke des Kommunikationsgeräts in Abhängigkeit von dem empfangenen Stellsignal, wobei die eingestellte Signalstärke eine von mehreren einstellbaren Signalstärken des Kommunikationsgerätes ist;
• – Erzeugung einer ersten Nachricht durch das portables Kommunikationsgerät welche zumindest eine Nutzer-ID eines Nutzers des portablen Kommunikationsgeräts beinhaltet, wobei die erste Nachricht in Reaktion auf eine Interaktion des Nutzers mit dem Kommunikationsgerät erzeugt wird;
• – Senden der ersten Nachricht von dem portablen Kommunikationsgerät über einen Kommunikationskanal, der bereits zuvor als der „zweite Kommunikationskanal” eingeführt wurde, wobei die erste Nachricht zumindest die Nutzer-ID des Nutzers enthält, an zumindest eine aus einer Vielzahl von Basisstationen, wobei die erste Nachricht in der eingestellten Signalstärke versendet wird, wobei die zumindest eine Basisstation die die dem Kommunikationsgerät nächstgelegene Basisstation darstellt, wobei der Versand der ersten Nachricht erfolgt um eines der physischen Objekte, für welche die zumindest eine Basisstation die nächstgelegene Basisstation darstellt, durch den Nutzer auszuwählen und die Übertragung von Daten des ausgewählten physischen Objektes an das Soziale Netzwerk zu initiieren;
• – Abgabe eines Bestätigungssignals welches geeignet ist dem Nutzer die Versendung der ersten Nachricht anzuzeigen;
• – Empfang einer weiteren Nachricht (die zuvor schon unter dem Begriff der „dritten Nachricht” eingeführt wurde, von einer der Basisstationen durch das Kommunikationsgerät, wobei die weitere Nachricht in Antwort auf den Versand der ersten Nachricht empfangen wird;
• – Abgabe eines Feedbacksignals welches geeignet ist den Empfang der dritten Nachricht dem Nutzer anzuzeigen.

In a further aspect, the invention relates to a method for linking data from one or more physical objects to data objects of a social network, comprising the steps of:

• - Receipt of a control signal;
• - Setting a signal strength of the communication device in response to the received control signal, wherein the set signal strength is one of a plurality of adjustable signal strengths of the communication device;
• - generating a first message by the portable communication device including at least one user ID of a user of the portable communication device, wherein the first message is generated in response to an interaction of the user with the communication device;
• Sending the first message from the portable communication device over a communication channel previously introduced as the "second communication channel", the first message including at least the user ID of the user, to at least one of a plurality of base stations, the first one Message is sent in the set signal strength, wherein the at least one base station is the base station closest to the communication device, wherein the dispatch of the first message to one of the physical objects, for which the at least one base station represents the nearest base station, selected by the user and initiate the transfer of data of the selected physical object to the social network;
• - Issuing an acknowledgment signal which is suitable for the user to display the transmission of the first message;
• - Receiving another message (previously introduced by the term "third message") from one of the base stations by the communication device, the further message being received in response to the first message being sent;
• - Issuing a feedback signal which is suitable to indicate the receipt of the third message to the user.

• – Senden einer Sequenz von Testsignalen durch das Kommunikationsgerät, wobei jedes der Testsignale eine eindeutige Signal-ID beinhaltet und jeweils unterschiedliche Signalstärke aufweist;
• – Empfang ein oder mehrerer Testsignal-Feedbacknachrichten von dem Kommunikationsgerät von zumindest derjenigen Basisstation, die dem Kommunikationsgerät am nächstgelegenen ist, wobei für jedes der Testsignale, dessen Signalstärke hoch genug war um von der besagten Basisstation empfangen zu werden, eine Testsignal-Feedbacknachricht von dem Kommunikationsgerät empfangen wird wobei jede Testsignal-Feedbacknachricht die Testsignal-ID desjenigen Testsignals enthält, die den Versand der Testsignal-Feedbacknachricht jeweils auslöste;
• – Auswertung der empfangenen Testsignal-Feedbacknachrichten durch das Kommunikationsgerät zur Ermittlung der niedrigsten Sendesignalstärke, für welche eine Testsignal-Feedbacknachricht von mindestens einer Basisstation empfangen wurde; und
• – Automatische Einstellung der Sendestärke des Kommunikationsgerätes auf die ermittelte niedrigste Sendestärke.

According to embodiments, adjusting the signal strength of the communication device includes the following steps:

• Sending a sequence of test signals by the communication device, each of the test signals including a unique signal ID and having different signal strengths, respectively;
• - Receiving one or more test signal feedback messages from the communication device of at least that base station closest to the communication device, wherein for each of the test signals whose signal strength was high enough to be received by said base station, a test signal feedback message from the communication device each test signal feedback message containing the test signal ID of the test signal that triggered the dispatch of the test signal feedback message respectively;
• - Evaluating the received test signal feedback messages by the communication device to determine the lowest transmit signal strength for which a test signal feedback message has been received from at least one base station; and
• - Automatic adjustment of the transmission strength of the communication device to the determined lowest transmission strength.

In a further aspect, the invention relates to one or more non-volatile storage media on which computer-readable instructions are stored, which when executed by one or more processors, the execution of the inventive method according to one of the previous embodiments.

• – ein oder mehreren Prozessoren;
• – einem internen Speichermedium worauf zumindest eine Nutzer-ID eines Nutzers, welcher dem Kommunikationsgerät zugeordnet ist, gespeichert ist;
• – Mitteln zur Erzeugung einer ersten Nachricht, wobei die erste Nachricht zumindest die gespeicherte Nutzer-ID des Nutzers beinhaltet, wobei die erste Nachricht in Reaktion auf eine Interaktion des Nutzers mit dem Kommunikationsgerät erzeugt wird;
• – Mitteln zum Senden der ersten Nachricht von dem portablen Kommunikationsgerät an ein oder mehrere Basisstationen;
• – Mitteln zum Einstellen einer Signalstärke des Kommunikationsgeräts, wobei die eingestellte Signalstärke eine von mehreren einstellbaren Signalstärken des Kommunikationsgerätes ist und wobei das Kommunikationsgerät dazu ausgebildet ist die erste Nachricht in der eingestellten Signalstärke zu versenden;
• – Mitteln zur Abgabe eines Bestätigungssignals welches geeignet ist dem Nutzer die Versendung der ersten Nachricht anzuzeigen;
• – Mitteln zum Empfang einer weiteren Nachricht (die zuvor als ,dritte Nachricht' bezeichnet wurde) von einer der Basisstationen, wobei die weitere Nachricht in Antwort auf den Versand der ersten Nachricht empfangen wird;
• – Mitteln zur Abgabe eines Feedbacksignals welches geeignet ist den Empfang der weiteren Nachricht dem Nutzer anzuzeigen.

In another aspect, the invention relates to a portable communication device having:

• - one or more processors;
• An internal storage medium on which at least one user ID of a user assigned to the communication device is stored;
• Means for generating a first message, the first message including at least the stored user ID of the user, the first message being generated in response to an interaction of the user with the communication device;
• - means for sending the first message from the portable communication device to one or more base stations;
• - means for adjusting a signal strength of the communication device, wherein the set signal strength is one of a plurality of adjustable signal strengths of the communication device and wherein the communication device is adapted to send the first message in the set signal strength;
• - means for issuing an acknowledgment signal which is suitable for the user to display the transmission of the first message;
• - means for receiving another message (previously referred to as a 'third message') from one of the base stations, wherein the further message is received in response to the dispatch of the first message;
• - means for delivering a feedback signal which is suitable for displaying the receipt of the further message to the user.

Depending on the embodiment of the invention, the confirmation signal is designed as an optical, acoustic and / or mechanical signal. Depending on the embodiment of the invention, the feedback signal to the user as an optical signal, acoustic signal and / or mechanical signal is formed, the type of confirmation signal and the type of feedback signal can be combined as desired.

According to embodiments, the communication device is configured to generate the first message in response to an interaction of the user with the communication device, the interaction consisting in a change of location of the communication device by the user or by actuation of a switching device of the communication device by the user.

• – eine Stempelbewegung des Kommunikationsgerätes;
• – eine Schüttelbewegung des Kommunikationsgerätes;
• – eine Rotationsbewegung des Kommunikationsgerätes;
• – eine Annäherung des Kommunikationsgerätes an eine Wärmequelle, Lichtquelle, Magnetfeldquelle oder elektrischer Feldquelle.

The change of location may be one of the following:

• - A stamp movement of the communication device;
• A shaking motion of the communication device;
• A rotational movement of the communication device;
• - An approach of the communication device to a heat source, light source, magnetic field source or electric field source.

According to embodiments, the punch movement includes that a force exceeding a threshold is applied to at least a portion of the communication device, e.g. As a stamping field, and thereby induces a mechanical switching operation, the force can be done by physical contact of this area with any object. This object can therefore be the object to be selected or another object.

According to a preferred embodiment, the creation and the dispatch of the first message are thus induced by a mechanical force acting on a stamp field of the communication device, wherein the communication device is designed in the form of a stamp. Preferably, the communication device consists of a handle and a stamp part, wherein on the underside of the stamp part a stamping field is attached, which is connected to a button or force sensor. On the outside of the handle or the stamp part may be a display, one or more LEDs and / or a speaker unit. Inside the stamp is a board with one or more electronic components, such as microcontroller, wireless modules, sensors (light sensor, acceleration sensor, etc.), actuators (LED, vibration motor, etc.) of a power source and depending on the communication technology used, for example, hardware components for shipping and for receiving radio signals. In addition, a vibration unit may be located inside the stamp, which vibrates the stamp, for example, after the first message has been sent. This embodiment is advantageous because the operation of the device opens up every user immediately intuitively. The user can thus use the communication device in an intuitive, playful manner to perform a stamp movement on various physical objects, for example exhibition objects. Likewise, he can also perform this stamp movement on related objects, such as a table or wall, as long as it is ensured that the item being stamped has the same base station as the nearest base station as the physical object that the user selects by his stamp action would like to. This does not necessarily imprints on the objects, since no stamping ink must be used for the process.

• – Mittel, die es dem Nutzer eines ersten Kommunikationsgerätes ermöglichen, ein erstes Adressaustausch-Signal zu senden;
• – Mittel, ein von einem anderen Kommunikationsgerät gesendetes zweites Adressaustausch-Signal zu empfangen;
• – Mittel um zu prüfen, ob das zweite Kommunikationsgerät das zweites Adressaustausch-Signal innerhalb eines vordefinierten maximalen zeitlichen Abstands zum Versand des ersten Adressaustauschsignals gesendet hat und um zu prüfen, ob sich das andere Kommunikationsgerät beim Senden des zweiten Adressaustausch-Signals innerhalb einer vorgegebenen maximalen Distanz vom ersten Kommunikationsgerät befindet;
• – Mittel zur Übertragung von Adress-Daten des Nutzers, die auf dem internen Speichermediums des Kommunikationsgeräts gespeichert sind, an das andere Kommunikationsgerät und zum Empfang und zur Speicherung der Adress-Daten eines Nutzers des anderen Kommunikationsgerätes, falls die Prüfung ergab dass das zweites Adressaustausch-Signal innerhalb des vordefinierten maximalen zeitlichen Abstands gesendet wurde und sich das andere Kommunikationsgerät innerhalb der maximalen Distanz befunden hat.

According to further embodiments, the communication device further includes:

• Means for allowing the user of a first communication device to send a first address exchange signal;
• - means for receiving a second address exchange signal sent from another communication device;
• - means to check whether the second communication device has sent the second address exchange signal within a predefined maximum time interval for sending the first address exchange signal and to check whether the other communication device when sending the second address exchange signal within a predetermined maximum distance located from the first communication device;
• - means for transmitting address data of the user stored on the internal storage medium of the communication device to the other communication device and for receiving and storing the address data of a user of the other communication device, if the check revealed that the second address exchange Signal has been sent within the predefined maximum time interval and the other communication device has been within the maximum distance.

• – Mittel, die es dem Nutzer des Kommunikationsgerätes ermöglichen, ein erstes Spiele-Daten-Austausch-Signal zu senden;
• – Mittel, ein von einem anderen Kommunikationsgerät gesendetes zweites Spiele-Daten-Austausch-Signal zu empfangen;
• – Mittel um zu prüfen, ab das zweite Kommunikationsgerät das zweites Spiele-Daten-Austausch-Signal innerhalb eines vordefinierten maximalen zeitlichen Abstands zum Versand des ersten Spiele-Daten-Austausch-Signals gesendet hat und um zu prüfen, ob sich das andere Kommunikationsgerät beim Senden des zweiten Spiele-Daten-Austausch-Signals innerhalb einer vorgegebenen maximalen Distanz vom ersten Kommunikationsgerät befindet;
• – Mittel zur Übertragung von Spiele-Daten des Nutzers, die auf dem internen Speichermediums des Kommunikationsgeräts gespeichert sind, an das andere Kommunikationsgerät und zum Empfang und zur Speicherung der Spiele-Daten eines Nutzers des anderen Kommunikationsgerätes, falls die Prüfung ergab dass das zweites Spiele-Daten-Austausch-Signal innerhalb des vordefinierten maximalen zeitlichen Abstands gesendet wurde und sich das andere Kommunikationsgerät innerhalb der maximalen Distanz befunden hat.

According to further embodiments, the communication device further includes:

• - means for allowing the user of the communication device to send a first game data exchange signal;
• - means for receiving a second game data exchange signal transmitted from another communication device;
• - means for checking that the second communication device has sent the second game data exchange signal within a predefined maximum time interval for sending the first game data exchange signal and to check whether the other communication device is transmitting the second game data exchange signal is within a predetermined maximum distance from the first communication device;
• - means for transmitting game data of the user stored on the internal storage medium of the communication device to the other communication device and for receiving and storing the game data of a user of the other communication device, if the check revealed that the second game Data exchange signal was sent within the predefined maximum time interval and the other communication device was within the maximum distance.

According to one embodiment, according to which the communication device is designed as a stamp, a first user can, for example, perform three stamping actions on a tabletop, with all three stamping actions occurring in succession in a short time sequence. A second user, with whom the first user wants to exchange his address data, also performs with his stamp three stamp actions in rapid time sequence and in temporal proximity to the stamp action of the first user on the same table top or a nearby other object. According to embodiments of the address exchange signals and the address data on one of the following technologies between the two stamps are exchanged: radio (electromagnetic waves), acoustic waves, Bluetooth ^®, infrared, WiFi, Bluetooth ^® Low Energy, ANT ^TM, ANT + ^TM, each of said both stamps both as a transmitter of an address exchange signal and as a transmitter of address data and as a receiver of an address exchange signal and receiver of address data acts.

The prerequisite for the successful exchange of address data is the successful execution of a check by each of the two stamps, which each had the result that the respective address exchange signals were delivered in temporal and spatial proximity to each other. This ensures that the addresses are only exchanged if the users to whom the stamps are assigned in each case really want to exchange their addresses at will. According to further embodiments, the exchange of the address data takes place only after a further step in which signal the respective users of the two communication devices their consent to address data exchange, z. B. by pressing a switch.

According to some embodiments, in which the address data and / or game data exchange is based on the WLAN technology, the method further includes the following steps: determining that a currently used WLAN channel or WLAN frequency range is overloaded. Performing a frequency domain scan by the communication device to determine a free frequency; automatic selection of the determined free frequency and use of this frequency for exchanging the address data and / or game data by means of WLAN.

• – ein oder mehrere Prozessoren;
• – ein Server-Applikationsprogramm, das durch die ein oder mehreren Prozessoren ausgeführt wird;
• – eine erste Schnittstelle zur Kommunikation des Server-Applikationsprogramms mit einer API eines Sozialen Netzwerks;
• – ein Speichermedium auf dessen Daten das Server-Applikationsprogramm zumindest lesend zugreifen kann, wobei in dem Speichermedium mehrere Objekt-IDs gespeichert sind, und in welchem Daten jedes einer Vielzahl von physischen Objekten mit genau einer der Objekt-IDs verknüpft gespeichert sind,
• – eine zweite Schnittstelle zum Empfang einer Nachricht von einer der Basisstationen durch das Server-Applikationsprogramm, wobei die empfangene Nachricht eine der Objekt-IDs, und eine Nutzer-ID enthält, wobei die Basisstation von welcher die Nachricht empfangen wurde diejenige Basisstation darstellt, die für das physische Objekt, welches durch die Objekt-ID der zweiten Nachricht identifiziert wird, die zum Zeitpunkt des Nachrichtenempfangs nächstgelegene Basisstation darstellt; wobei das Server-Applikationsprogramm dazu ausgebildet ist, die Daten, die mit der empfangenen Objekt-ID verknüpft gespeichert sind, zu identifizieren, die identifizierten Daten einem Nutzerprofil des Sozialen Netzwerks mittels der empfangenen Nutzer-ID zuzuordnen und wobei die Übertragung der identifizierten Daten an das Soziale Netzwerk zur Prozessierung der Daten so erfolgt, dass das Soziale Netzwerk die übertragenen Daten dem identifizierten Nutzerprofil zuordnen kann.

In a further aspect, the invention relates to a computer system having a server computer system, the server computer system including:

• - one or more processors;
• A server application program executed by the one or more processors;
• A first interface for communicating the server application program with a social network API;
• A storage medium to whose data the server application program can at least read, in which storage medium a plurality of object IDs are stored, and in which data each of a plurality of physical objects are stored linked to exactly one of the object IDs,
• A second interface for receiving a message from one of the base stations by the server application program, the received message including one of the object IDs, and a user ID, the base station from which the message was received representing the base station used for the physical object identified by the object ID of the second message representing the nearest base station at the time of message reception; wherein the server application program is adapted to identify the data stored associated with the received object ID, associate the identified data with a user profile of the social network using the received user ID, and transmitting the identified data to the user Social network for processing the data is done so that the social network can assign the transmitted data to the identified user profile.

According to embodiments, the computer system further includes a plurality of base stations, wherein each of the base stations is adapted to receive from the communication device a first message, the first message including at least the user ID of the user of the communication device, the message from one of the base stations to the server Computer includes at least the received user ID and one of the object IDs associated with said base station, wherein the message is transmitted from the base station to the server application program via a first communication channel, the first message of the communication device via a second communication channel is received by the base station.

According to embodiments, the computer system further includes a plurality of communication devices, each associated with different users and each having stored a user ID of its respective user. In the following, embodiments of the invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the drawings. Show it:

1 a block diagram of a computer system with a local server, multiple base stations, a communication device and another server with a social network,

2 the computer system of 1 , in addition with a camera that provides a hardware functionality,

3 a flowchart of an embodiment of the method,

4 an embodiment of the communication device in the form of a stamp,

5 Components of an embodiment of the server computer system,

6 an embodiment based on the use of gateways,

7 an embodiment in which at least one of the base stations acts as a gateway for at least one other of the base stations (multihop),

8th an embodiment with a remote server instead of a local server,

nine two base stations with overlapping reception areas,

10 a base station with 4 antennas,

11 two base stations each with 4 antennas, and

12 an overview image of the communication via first and second communication channels.

Elements of the various embodiments are identified by the same reference numerals.

The 1 shows a distributed computer system with a local "server" or "server computer system" 108 , A server application is running on the local server 111 , The server application has at least read access to data 114 , each one of the physical objects 117 - 119 . 100 assigned. For example, the data associated with one of the physical objects is stored each associated with an object ID of that object. A user 113 is a portable communication device 101 associated by the fact that, for example, in a single registration process of the user in the server application program assigned to the user user ID on the communication device 101 is stored and the communication device is handed to the user. The local server 108 is about first communication channels that in 1 are shown with a dashed line, with a plurality of base stations 102 - 106 connected. Each of the base stations in the illustrated embodiment is characterized by having a maximum of one physical object therethrough in that said base station for the physical object represents the spatially closest base station. The user 113 carries the communication device with him and can move freely between the base stations or objects. The communication device 101 is able to emit a first message after the interaction of a user with the communication device, the signal for the transmission of the first message having a limited range of typically up to 2 meters. The illustrated base stations may be mounted on a fairground, for example, with the objects 100 . 117 - 119 each exhibit objects, such as cars represent. If the user is moving to various exhibition booths, each of which can operate one or more base stations, at the exhibition site, the transmission range of his communication device will detect different base stations that are able to receive the first message, depending on the current location of the user the signal strength of the first message is high enough. The fact that the user intentionally interacts with the communication device, ie brings the communication device into contact with an exhibit, for example in a stamp movement, automatically sends the communication device a first message, which is only received by the nearest base station due to the limited range of the communication device. So if the user is the physical object 100 by selecting a stamp action to be particularly interesting for him, the signal thus induced to transmit the first message is selectively only from the base station 102 but not from one of the base stations 103 - 106 , Because, as the description of 5 will explain in more detail, the data of the physical objects are each stored linked to one of the object IDs, the user can clearly mark one of the physical objects as interesting to him, even if he is not necessarily directly with the physical object or a specific point must interact in its vicinity. The user can choose any place or object to interact with, provided that item is still so close to the base station 102 is located that signal strength to communicate the first message to the base station 102 sufficient. This connection is in 1 through the dashed circle around the user 113 , its communication device 101 , the base station 102 and the physical object 100 , which particularly interests the user.

The illustrated system further includes a registration unit 121 , for example, a computer in the entrance area of the exhibition hall, through which the user once in the server application 111 can register, whereby a user ID is assigned to it and whereby the user can deposit furthermore his access data to the social network, for example Facebook, to the server application program thereby the access and the data exchange with the social network 110 via its API 112 to enable. The social network is from another server 109 which communicates with the local server over a network 107 , especially the internet, is hosted. The social network can be an SN application 116 which is capable of evaluating data transmitted from the local server into the social network as well as commenting and / or feedback information on this data from the social network to compute a result obtained from the server application program 111 can be received to generate a feedback message. The content of this feedback message may be on an information terminal, for example 115 displayed and / or by means of one of the base stations in the form of a third message to the communication device 101 be transmitted to the user. By the automatic transmission of data of a physical object for evaluation to the social network and the automatic transmission of the result from the social network to the communication device and / or the information terminal 115 a bidirectional integration of objects of the physical world with data objects of the social network is effected. Data objects of the social network may be, for example, the comments or rating information provided to the data, but also data objects that contain information about which of the friends of a social network user has commented or rated the data.

The dotted circles around the base stations 102 - 105 indicate in each case, within which space segment - for a given transmission strength of the communication device - still a first message can be received by the communication device. One of the base stations 105 is designed as a mobile base station. This base station is a mobile object 118 assigned, for example, by having both the base station 105 as well as the mobile object 118 together on a moving cart.

2 shows a further embodiment of the invention, which in addition to those already in 1 described components a specialized hardware 201 , in this case a camera, includes. The hardware 201 can be connected to a base station, a gateway or to a server. The base station 102 is located in a box designed as a Faraday cage with an opening 120 , The user can be communication device 101 Insert into the box and a punch movement against the side surface or the bottom of the Execute box to initiate the sending of a first message, which in addition to the user ID, an object ID (and optionally also a base station ID) also includes a user action ID, by means of which the camera 201 can be uniquely identified by the server application program. The reception area (ie the sensitivity with respect to the reception of the first message) of the base stations can be set the same or different in the individual base stations. The reception area, represented below by a dashed circle around the base station, depends on the transmission strength of the individual communication devices. In addition, the reception area may be distorted by objects in the room and other factors. The reception area of the base station 102 that are within a Faraday box 120 extends to the interior of this box and the environment represented by the dashed line of the engagement opening of the box. The information mentioned will be sent to the server application program 111 transferred and evaluated there. As a result, the server application program detects that the user 113 the from the camera 201 provided hardware functionality, ie the inclusion of an image wishes. The server application program automatically sends a trigger command directly to an address through which the identified hardware can be made to execute its hardware functionality. This dispatch of the trigger command by the application can also be done via a gateway and / or via one of the base stations. For example, this address may again be an address of the base station 102 be, which transmits a corresponding signal to the camera. Since the camera is located in a predefined place and also the base station in the box spatially limits the whereabouts of the user, it is ensured that the captured image the user and also the physical object 100 represents.

3 shows a flowchart of an embodiment of the inventive method. in step 301 becomes a server application program 111 provided. In step 302 become several base stations 102 - 106 provided, each with the local server 108 via first communication channels, in 1 and 2 shown as dashed lines connected. A second communication channel between the communication device 101 and one of the base stations 102 is shown in the figures by a dotted line. in step 303 generates the portable communication device 101 in response to an interaction of the user 113 with the communication device, a first message, which in step 304 is sent from the portable communication device via the second communication channel.

In step 305 receives at least that base station 102 at the time of generation of the first message to the communication device 101 nearest is the first message and sends in step 306 in response to the receipt of the first message, a second message to the server application program of the first server 108 via one of the first communication channels. That on the local server 108 running server application program 111 receives in step 307 the second message, identified in step 308 those data stored associated with an object ID received with the second message and thereby determines the data of the physical object for which the user 113 interacted with his communication device to express his interest in this object. In step 309 the identified data is assigned to a user profile of the social network by means of the received user ID. According to some embodiments, the received user ID may be identical to an access ID (login data) for the social network. However, according to preferred embodiments, the user ID is stored in association with corresponding social network access data and the received user ID is used to obtain this access data. A login action may now be performed using the identified credentials, or the identified credentials may be used to establish an existing communication link to the social network for those in step 310 following transfer of the identified data to the social network. The data is used to process the data through the social network or through an SN application contained therein 116 transfer, using the API of the social network for the transfer.

4 shows an embodiment of the invention, according to which the communication device 101 is designed as a stamp. The stamp includes a handle 401 as well as a stamp unit 402 , The stamp unit contains a stamp field 403 or adjacent to this, wherein the stamping pad is preferably made of soft material, such as soft plastic, foam, felt or the like designed to prevent the stamped objects are damaged. The stamp field is coupled to a mechanical switching mechanism (eg, push-button or force-measuring sensor), so that after performing a punch movement and after an action, a minimum force on the stamp field generates a first message and is sent to the nearest base station. Upon or after shipping, the stamp sends out a signal, for example in the form of a vibration signal, to indicate to the user that the first message has been sent. Furthermore, the stamp includes, preferably on a surface of the stamp unit 402 , one or more LEDs 404 or other elements for outputting optical signals. These LEDs may, in the event of receiving a third message, provide the user with feedback information indicating that his friends have given several positive reviews, for example in the form of "like" tags, for a particular physical object. According to other embodiments, the LEDs or other signal elements may also indicate to the user that other users who are friends with him through the social network are currently in his immediate vicinity. The communication device in 4 also has a speaker 405 via which an acoustic feedback signal can be transmitted to the user. A vibrating element 406 with a motor and an imbalance may be present for delivering a mechanical feedback signal in the form of a vibratory motion. By means of a lever 407 For example, the signal strength for sending the first message and / or a user action ID can be set. Furthermore, the communication device has a microcontroller 408 and a radio module 409 to send the first message.

5 shows a block diagram of the local server computer system 108 as well as components of this. The local server contains one or more processors 506 which is a server application program 111 To run. The server application program of the illustrated embodiment may include various functional modules, for example a game module 502 or a scoring module 503 which is able to re-evaluate the result received from the social network and associate it with a scoring value and possibly also a premium, which can be communicated to the user via an information terminal or its communication device. In addition, the server application includes a tracking module 508 which can use the collected PING signals of one or more users to create a movement profile for the respective user. The modules 502 . 503 and 508 can each be independent applications, which are on the local server 108 or another PC and can exchange data with the server application. According to further embodiments not shown here, the functionality provided by the said modules can also be provided by a specially developed application within the social network (SN application). The server application program has at least read access to a storage medium 501 in which an object ID 504 of each of the physical objects data 114 assigned. For example, this association may be in the form of an association table of a relational database. In addition, the storage medium includes a plurality of user IDs 505 and SN user profiles 507 , which are stored linked to each other, so that by this link each user registered in the server application program a user profile of the social network is assigned. Further, the storage medium according to embodiments includes a plurality of base station IDs 509 , each stored linked to one or more object IDs, thereby reflecting the spatial association of physical objects to their nearest base station in computer-readable form.

• A) Drahtlosen Datenübertragungstechnik zwischen Basisstation und Gateway, WLAN, LAN oder Glasfaser zwischen Gateway und Server; die drahtlose Übertragungstechnik der Basisstation, die eigentlich zur Kommunikation mit dem Kommunikationsgerät dient, dient gleichzeitig auch der Datenübertragung zwischen Basisstation und Gateway (Vorteil: keine zusätzliche Hardwarekomponente erforderlich)
• B) Drahtlose Datenübertragungstechnik zwischen Basisstation und Gateway, wobei eine zweite drahtlose Datenübertragungstechnik (technisch identisch oder unterschiedlich mit der drahtlosen Datenübertragungstechnik der Variante A) eingesetzt wird, WLAN, LAN oder Glasfaser zwischen Gateway und Server; (Vorteil: Vermeidung von Engpässen, da die drahtlose Datenübertragungstechnik nach Variante A) ausschließlich für die Kommunikation mit dem Kommunikationsgerät, drahtlose Datenübertragungstechnik zur Kommunikation mit dem Gateway dient);
• C) zur Datenübertragung zwischen Basisstation und Kommunikationsgerät bzw. zur Datenübertragung zwischen Basisstation und Gateway werden jeweils entweder WLAN, LAN oder Glasfasertechnik in beliebiger Kombination verwendet.

6 shows a further embodiment of the invention in which the transmission of the second message or the transmission of the feedback message via the first communication channel does not take place directly between the base station and server, but via one or more gateways 122 . 123 , Each gateway can be assigned one or more base stations. The first communication channels are each shown as dashed lines. For data transmission between base station 103 and gateway 122 and the data transfer between gateway 122 and the server 108 each of the same technology platform can be used, for. B. each fiber optic cable. But it is also possible that, for example, the communication between the base station 103 and gateway 122 via WLAN (whereby the free frequency is for example automatically determined by the gateway) and the communication between the gateway and the local server is based on a transmission via fiber-optic cable. The use of gateways can be advantageous since, for example, the laying of cables around the individual base stations can be individually connected to the Internet in each case. Depending on the embodiment, the first communication channel between a base station and the local or remote server via a gateway comprises one of the following combinations of different data transmission technologies:

• A) Wireless data transmission technology between base station and gateway, WLAN, LAN or fiber between gateway and server; The wireless transmission technology of the base station, which actually serves for communication with the communication device, also serves for the data transmission between base station and gateway (advantage: no additional hardware component required)
• B) wireless data transmission technology between base station and gateway, wherein a second wireless data transmission technology (technically identical or different with the wireless data transmission technology variant A) is used, WLAN, LAN or fiber between the gateway and server; (Advantage: avoiding bottlenecks, since the wireless data transmission technology according to variant A) is used exclusively for the communication with the communication device, wireless communication technology is used to communicate with the gateway);
• C) for data transmission between the base station and the communication device or for data transmission between the base station and the gateway either WLAN, LAN or fiber optic technology are used in any combination.

7 is a block diagram of an embodiment in which at least one of the base stations 103 at the same time as a base station for receiving a first message, for example for selecting an object 119 , as well as a gateway to the weather line first messages from the base station 104 or for forwarding from third parties messages to the base station 104 serves. base station 103 So serves as a relay station ('Multihop technology'). In this case, it is also possible, in particular, for a mobile base station to use another base station as gateway. This other base station may also be a mobile base station.

8th is a block diagram of an embodiment in which the application program 111 as well as the data 114 and also the mapping of the data to the object IDs on a remote server 109 are located. In the illustrated embodiment, the remote server includes 109 also the social network 110 , The base stations communicate directly with the application program in this embodiment 111 on the remote server, a local server is not necessary. This embodiment is particularly advantageous if the application program is an integral part or additional component of the social network and provided by the operator of the social network.

nine shows two base stations 104 and 103 with overlapping reception areas. For the physical object 117 sets the base station 104 the nearest base station while for the physical object 119 the base station 103 represents the nearest base station. This is the communication device 101 about 95% in the reception area of the base station 104 and about 60% in the base station reception area 103 , The physical object 117 is positioned so that an interaction of the user with the communication device in the immediate vicinity of the object, the signal strength of the first message is so high that both the base station 104 as well as the base station 103 receive the first message. base station 104 So sends a second message containing the object ID of the object 117 includes, to the application program. Almost at the same time (due to the same user action for interaction with the communication device in the vicinity of the object 117 ) also transmits base station 103 a second message to the application program containing the object ID of the physical object 119 includes. According to embodiments, however, the application program is able to determine, by analyzing the almost simultaneously incoming second messages, which contain an indication of the signal strengths of the respectively received first message, that the information from the base station 103 received second message in this case is not valid, so no forwarding of the data for the object 119 to the social network. This determination is based on an analysis of a time stamp of the second messages received by the same user within a defined period of time as well as an analysis of the signal strength of the first message also specified therein. This allows the application program to determine that the signal strength of the first message, the base station 104 was stronger than the signal strength, the base station 103 has received, so that it must be assumed that the user is closer to the base station 104 was as at base station 103 and accordingly the physical object 117 and not the physical object 119 wanted to select. Considering the timestamp is important to ignore only those second messages that were received almost simultaneously with other second messages from the same user because there should be a possibility for the user to be in the base station space 104 to base station 103 moves and both the object 117 as well as the object 119 to choose. However, a deliberate selection of the two different objects would be made by two consecutive, separate user interactions with the communication device.

10 shows a base station with 4 separate antennas 801.1 - 801.4 which enable the base station, 4 separate reception areas 802.1 - 802.4 for a first message to resolve. The base station 104 is thus able, depending on which of the receiving areas a first message has been received to select one of 4 possible object IDs and send as part of the second message to the application program. For example, the user interacts near the object 117 with his communication device to the transmission of data of the object 117 to induce the social network, so is the signal strength when receiving the first message to the antenna 801.1 higher than at antenna 801.2 , In the base station 104 There is a memory and a corresponding control logic that compares the signal strengths of all signals received from the 4 antennas with each other to determine which of the antennas has received the strongest signal. In the memory of the base station 104 There are 4 object IDs stored and one in each of the 4 reception areas 802.1 - 802.4 assigned. This logic detects that the signal strength of the received first message to antenna 801.1 was the highest, the Object ID for the object 117 sent as part of the second message to the application program. If the signal were to antenna 801.3 stronger, would be an object ID for the object 126 sent to the application on the local or remote server. The evaluation of the signal strength for determining the location of a received signal, for example, by runtime measurement method as in page 10 described described.

Of course, care must be taken in the positioning of the objects within the receiving areas of the base station and in the configuration of the memory and the logic base station that the transmitted from a base station for each receiving area object ID also corresponds to that object ID, which on the part of Application program is stored linked to the data to be transmitted to the corresponding object to the social network.

11 shows two base stations 103 and 104 each with 4 antennas, wherein the communication device 101 located at such a position between the two base stations, that upon interaction of the user with the communication device, a first message from both antenna 851.3 the base station 103 as well as from antenna 801.1 the base station 104 Will be received. Because base station 104 the for the object 117 is the nearest base station, but is only a base station 104 capable of one for the object 117 send specific object ID to the application program. The resolution of the correct object ID is done in the two base stations as for 10 described. However, the problem is that the base station 103 to which the object is not assigned, yet will send a second message with an object ID not characteristic of the object to the application program. Due to the fact that the highest received signal strength of the first message per base station is sent to the application program as part of the second message, the application program is as in nine described being able to identify that base station (base station 104 ), which is the only one capable of communicating the correct object ID as part of the second message.

12 shows an overview of the data transmission between communication device 101 and social 110 Network via first and second data transmission channels. user 113 want data from the physical object 100 to the social network 110 send this z. B. to be rated by his friends. Through interaction with the communication device 101 within the reception range of that base station 102 that for the object 100 represents the nearest base station becomes the communication device 101 causes a first message 860 to the nearest base station 102 to send. The first message is thereby via the second communication channel 864 transfer. The first message contains at least one user ID. After receiving the first message, the base station sends 102 a second message 861 to an application program on a local server 108 , The second message is sent over the first communication channel 865 sent and contains at least one of the base station 102 certain object ID and the user ID of the first message 860 , Depending on the embodiment, the second message may also include a base station ID or the base station ID may act as an object ID. The application program uses the received object ID in the second message to determine the data related to the object 100 belong and are linked to its object ID. In addition, the application program determines a user profile of the user 113 within the social network 110 , The data collected will be sent over the network 107 via the API 112 of the social network to the social network for processing the data, in particular for evaluation by friends of the user 113 , Posted. The application program also is able to receive the rating information from the social network and in the form of a feedback message 826 over the first communication channel to the base station 102 to convey. According to some embodiments, the application program is able to send the feedback message to the base station near which the user is 113 currently (ie not necessarily the same base station from which the second message was received). The base station passes the feedback message 862 in the form of a third message 863 to the communication device 101 the user further, where this outputs a mechanical, visual, and / or acoustic signal to the user.

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of the documents listed by the applicant has been generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited patent literature

• US 200910106085 A1 [0004]
• US 2011/0125688 A1 [0004]

Claims (16)

Method for linking data ( 114 ) of one or more physical objects ( 100 . 117 - 119 ) with data objects of a social network ( 110 ), where each of the physical objects is assigned exactly one object ID, with the steps: 301 ) of a server application program ( 111 ) on a first server ( 108 ), whereby the server application program is accessible via an API ( 112 ) is interoperable with the social network; - Provision ( 302 ) one or more base stations ( 102 - 106 ) connected to the first server via first communication channels ( 865 ) connected; Wherein each of the physical objects is assigned to exactly one of the base stations by that base station being the base station closest to the physical object, each of the base stations being associated with one or more of the physical objects for which said base station represents the nearest base station; Where data of each of the physical objects is associated with exactly one of the object IDs on a storage medium ( 501 ) are stored; - production ( 303 ) of a first message ( 860 ) by a portable communication device ( 101 ) which at least one user ID ( 505 ) of a user ( 113 ) of the portable communication device, wherein the first message is generated in response to an interaction of the user with the communication device; - send ( 304 ) of the first message from the portable communication device via a second communication channel ( 864 ), wherein the first message contains at least the user ID of the user; - Reception ( 305 ) of the first message at least by that of the base stations closest to the communication device at the time of generation of the first message; - send ( 306 ) a second message ( 861 ) from said base station to the server application program via one of the first communication channels, the second message including at least the user ID and one of the object IDs associated with said base station; - Reception ( 307 ) of the second message by the server application program; - Identify ( 308 ), by the server application program, the data associated with the received object ID ( 504 ) are stored linked; - assignment ( 309 ) the identified data to a user profile of the social network by means of the received user ID; and - transmission ( 310 ) of the identified data to the social network for processing the data, the transmission of the data being such that the social network can associate the transmitted data with the identified user profile. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communication channels are based on one or a combination of the following: WLAN, LAN, or fiber optic technology and / or wherein the transmission of the first message over the second communication channel is based on a wireless data transmission technique, the second communication channel an electromagnetic field or on the transmission of sound waves, wherein in the case of the use of an electromagnetic field one of the following data transmission standards is used: - WLAN; - Bluetooth ^® ; - Bluetooth ^® low energy; - ANT ^TM ; or - ANT + ^TM The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the second communication channel is a wireless communication channel and wherein the portable communication device has a power source and is configured to actively transmit the first message using that power source. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the communication device is designed to send the first message in several different signal strengths and further comprises means for selecting and adjusting one of these signal strengths for sending the first message, further comprising the step: - Receiving a control signal by the communication device and adjusting the signal strength of the communication device in response to the control signal, wherein the first message is sent according to the set signal strength via the second communication channel. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the second message further includes a base station ID of the base station sending the second message, further comprising the steps of: receiving, by the server application program, a result of the processing of the transmitted data from the social network; the result being associated with the physical object associated with the transmitted data and the user; - analysis of the result by the server application program; - Depending on the result of the analysis, send a feedback message ( 862 ) from the server application program to one of the base stations via one of the first communication channels; Receiving the feedback message by said base station and sending a third message ( 863 ) containing the feedback message to the communication device; - Output of a feedback signal by the communication device to the user. The method of claim 5, wherein the results of the processing include annotation and / or rating information regarding the transmitted data submitted by the owners of other social network user profiles, the further user profiles having the identified user profile represented by an edge of a network graph of the social network where the rating information is qualitative and / or quantitative. A method according to any one of the preceding claims 5-6, wherein each of the base stations is adapted to transmit the third message in one of a plurality of adjustable signal strengths and further includes means for selecting and / or adjusting one of these signal strengths, further comprising the step of: - Receiving a control signal through each of the base stations and adjusting the signal strength of the base station in response to the control signal, wherein the third message is sent according to the set signal strength over the second communication channel. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the reception of the first message is selectively effected only by the nearest base station, wherein the selectivity is effected by the transmission strength of the communication device and the spatial arrangement of the base stations are coordinated so that selectively only the communication device nearest base station can receive the first message with a predefined minimum strength. Method according to one of the preceding claims, further comprising the steps: Sending PING signals at predefined time intervals from the communication device to the nearest base station, the PING signal including at least the user ID of the user; - forwarding the PING signals together with an object ID in each case by one of the base stations to the server application program, wherein the object ID of the forwarded PING message is inserted by the forwarding base station in the forwarded PING signal, wherein the PING Signal from the communication device, the base station and / or the server application program when sending and / or receiving the PING signal is provided with a time information; - Analysis by the server application program of the PING signals received together with the user ID, the time information and the object ID for creating a movement profile of the user to which the user ID is assigned. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the first and / or second message further includes a user action ID, further comprising the steps of: - evaluation of the user action ID by the server application program; Depending on the user action ID, identifying a hardware functionality and an address via which a hardware ( 201 ) that provides the identified hardware functionality can be addressed; Sending a trigger command from the server application program to the identified hardware address for triggering the hardware functionality. Method for linking data ( 114 ) of one or more physical objects ( 100 . 117 - 119 ) with data objects of a social network ( 110 ) with the steps: - Provision ( 301 ) of a server application program ( 111 ) on a first server ( 108 ), whereby the server application program is accessible via an API ( 112 ) is interoperable with the social network, the first server with multiple base stations ( 102 - 106 ) via first communication channels ( 865 ), the server application program having access to a storage medium ( 501 ), in which object IDs are stored, and in which data each of the physical objects with exactly one of the object IDs ( 504 ) are stored, - reception ( 307 ) of a message ( 861 ) from one of the base stations by the server application program, the received message including one of the object IDs and a user ID, wherein the base station from which the message was received is the base station corresponding to the physical object transmitted by the Object ID of the second message representing the nearest base station at the time of message reception; - Identify ( 308 ), by the server application program, the data ( 114 ) with the received object ID ( 504 ) are stored linked; - assignment ( 309 ) the identified data to a user profile of the social network by means of the received user ID; and - transmission ( 310 ) of the identified data to the social network for processing the data, the transmission of the data being such that the social network can associate the transmitted data with the identified user profile. Method for linking data from one or more physical objects ( 100 . 117 - 119 ) with data objects of a social network ( 110 ) comprising the steps of: - receiving a control signal; - Setting a signal strength of the communication device in response to the received control signal, the set signal strength one of a plurality of adjustable signal strengths of the communication device; - generation of a first message ( 860 ) by the portable communication device which at least one user ID ( 505 ) of a user ( 113 ) of the portable communication device, wherein the first message is generated in response to an interaction of the user with the communication device; Sending the first message from the portable communication device via a communication channel ( 864 ), wherein the first message contains at least the user ID of the user, to at least one of a plurality of base stations ( 102 - 106 ), wherein the first message is sent at the set signal strength, the at least one base station being the base station closest to the communication device, the first message being transmitted around one of the physical objects for which the at least one base station is the nearest base station, to select by the user and to initiate the transfer of data of the selected physical object to the social network; - Issuing an acknowledgment signal which is suitable for the user to display the transmission of the first message; - Receipt of another message ( 863 ) from one of the base stations by the communication device, wherein the further message is received in response to the dispatch of the first message; - Issuing a feedback signal which is suitable to indicate the receipt of the third message to the user. One or more non-volatile storage media having computer readable instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, effect execution of the method of any one of the preceding claims 1-12. Portable communication device ( 101 ) with: - one or more processors; An internal storage medium on which at least one user ID ( 505 ) of a user associated with the communication device is stored; Means for generating a first message, the first message including at least the stored user ID of the user, the first message being generated in response to an interaction of the user with the communication device, means for sending the first message ( 860 ) from the portable communication device to one or more base stations; - means for adjusting a signal strength of the communication device, wherein the set signal strength is one of a plurality of adjustable signal strengths of the communication device and wherein the communication device is adapted to send the first message in the set signal strength; - means ( 404 . 405 . 406 ) for issuing an acknowledgment signal which is suitable for indicating to the user the dispatch of the first message; - means for receiving another message ( 863 ) from one of the base stations ( 102 - 106 ), wherein the further message is received in response to the dispatch of the first message; - means for delivering a feedback signal which is suitable for displaying the receipt of the further message to the user. The portable communication device according to claim 14, wherein the interaction of the user with the communication device consists of a change of location of the communication device by the user and the communication device has means for detecting this change of location, or wherein the interaction of the user is in an operation of a circuit device of the communication device by the user where the change of location is one of the following: - A stamp movement of the communication device; A shaking motion of the communication device; A rotational movement of the communication device; - An approach of the communication device to a heat source, light source, magnetic field source or electric field source. Computer system with a server computer system ( 108 ), wherein the server computer system includes: - one or more processors ( 506 ); A server application program ( 111 ) executed by the one or more processors; A first interface for communication of the server application program with an API ( 112 ) of a social network; - a storage medium ( 501 ) on whose data the server application program can at least read access, wherein in the storage medium several object IDs ( 504 ) and in which data each of a plurality of physical objects with exactly one of the object IDs ( 504 ) - a second interface for receiving a message ( 861 ) from one of the base stations by the server application program, the received message having one of the object IDs, and a user ID ( 505 ), wherein the base station from which the message was received represents the base station which, for the physical object identified by the object ID of the second message, represents the nearest base station at the time of message reception; wherein the server application program is adapted to identify the data stored associated with the received object ID, the identified data a user profile ( 507 ) of the social network ( 110 ) and the transmission of the identified data to the social network for processing the data so that the social network can associate the transmitted data with the identified user profile.

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