Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01C—MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY
  • G01C21/00—Navigation; Navigational instruments not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C19/00
  • G01C21/20—Instruments for performing navigational calculations
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
  • H04W4/02—Services making use of location information
  • H04W4/024—Guidance services
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q50/00—Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism
  • G06Q50/10—Services
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
  • H04W4/02—Services making use of location information

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a system for using a geographical location device to guide a user for an educational, recreational or commercial trail. More particularly, the system for using a geographical location device uses waypoints to take the user along a particular path or tour. Further, the system for using the geographical location device can trigger and notify a user based on a location-based task or information board when the user is near the location for the task. BACKGROUND ART
• Mobile devices have become a constant companion for many people and through the advances made in terms of technology, these mobile devices have become increasingly sophisticated, incorporating features such as digital cameras, internet connections and global positioning systems (GPS), etc.
• GPS global positioning systems
• geographical location devices using GPS are commonly used to determine their location in replacement of the ordinary road maps.
• One advantage of using a mobile device or geographical location device is that the display is interactive, thus making the content more engaging, useful and interesting to the user.
• Existing applications that make use of the GPS function are either straightforward navigation tools or a strictly reference tool which essentially is an ordinary paper map with additional information.
• the present invention seeks to provide a system that alleviates the above mentioned drawbacks at least in part.
• ⁇ users are able to use the onboard functions of the mobile device to gather information. This would ensure that the user is headed in the right direction as well as inform them of the distance to be travelled.
• a system suitable for managing interactive trails comprising a content server and a geolocation device, where an interactive trail is stored by the content server and can be accessed by a first computing device with access to the geolocation device.
• the first computing device is operable to use the geolocation device to provide information and directions according to the interactive trail.
• the interactive trail is uploaded to the content server by a second computing device and stored there until it is accessed by the first computing device.
• the first computing device and second computing device is one of: a personal computer, a mobile phone, or a tablet.
• the system also has a booking system for managing access to the interactive trail, wherein the first computing device and the second computing device have unique identifiers. Further, a booking record is created by the second computing device and the booking record has an associated booking code. Even further preferably, access to the interactive trail is only granted upon an indication of a successful payment in the booking system.
• the first computing device is associated with a first account and the second computing device is associated with a second account.
• the first account and the second account are given different access rights and features.
• a computer implementable method for managing interactive trails comprises the steps of a server storing an interactive trail, a first computing device accessing the interactive trail, where the interactive trail provides information to the first computing device based on the geolocation of the first computing device.
• the second computing device is operable to manage, add, edit, amend and delete the interactive trail stored on the content server.
• the method includes the step of a second computing device uploading the interactive trail to the server.
• the interactive trail incorporates a GPS and beacon geo-fence, whereby an event is triggered when the first computing device crosses the geo-fence.
• the geo-fence is either a geometric shape or a point created using either one of the following technologies: GPS, Bluetooth, cellular phone communication standards or Wi-Fi signals.
• the first computing device further includes a camera function and the first computing device is able to scan and match images and provide further information on the interactive trail to the user based on the image recognition native engine.
• the event is triggered by a geofence or image recognition and is either one or a combination of the following: presenting a picture, displaying a video, directing to a webpage, displaying a quiz, starting a gamelet, showing a set of instructions, showing directions to the next destination, instructions to take a picture for image recognition, or an advertisement.
• the further information include a distance to the next destination on the interactive trail, a direction to head in and sights to see along the way.
• the method includes the step of the first computing device submitting a media to the content server in response to the event.
• the media submitted by the first computing device is tagged to a booking code to allow the second computing device to see all submissions made by the first computing device in relation to the interactive trail.
• the further information includes an advertisement for a nearby merchant.
• the system further comprises a merchant server, wherein an electronic coupon is stored on the merchant server and issued to the first computing device when an event is triggered.
• the electronic coupon is one of the following: QR code, barcode, near field communication (NFC) or an image.
• the system includes a chat function that allows the first computing device and second computing device to communicate with each other.
• the system includes a navigation function that identifies the position of mobile devices based on proximity technology. Further preferably, the system would determine the shortest route from a start point to an end point. Even further preferably, the system has an analytic component that provides detailed behavioral data regarding how the user interacts with a beacon. This would provide information for an administrator to control the deployed becons accordingly.
• Fig. 1 shows the overall system architecture.
• Fig. 2 shows how the servers interact with the mobile application.
• Fig. 3 shows a screenshot of the merchant portal.
• Fig. 4 shows a screenshot of the shopping cart module.
• Fig. 5 shows a screenshot of the comment and rating function.
• Fig. 6 shows a sample QR code for the electronic coupon.
• Fig. 7 shows how the electronic coupons will look on the screen of the mobile device.
• Fig. 8 shows a sample coupon geo-coding API screenshot.
• Fig. 9 shows screenshot of the system user interface.
• Fig. 10 shows the login screen for the system.
• Fig. 11 shows a screenshot of how an interactive trail is created.
• Fig. 12 shows a screenshot of the selection of type of interactive trail being created.
• Fig. 13 shows a screenshot of how the hotspot location is created for the interactive trail by setting the geo-fence.
• Fig. 14 shows the authoring tool to build the content pages used in the interactive trail.
• Fig. 15 shows the simulator mode where the creator can replace their physical location with a virtual position using the interactive trail creator.
• Fig. 16 shows the augmented reality function to show the user further information like direction and distance.
• Fig. 17 shows the compass aided map system that directs the user to the next hotspot along the interactive trail.
• Fig. 18 shows how the contents triggered by hotspots including information, quizzes, and other multimedia.
• Fig. 19-31 shows the various system flowcharts on how a user would navigate through the various menus and options.
• a system consisting of an application residing on a mobile device and a geographical positioning system that can determine the location of the mobile device.
• a geographical positioning system that can determine the location of the mobile device.
• the mobile device can be any electronic device that can connect wirelessly to other devices or networks via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or conventional phone networks, such as mobile devices like smartphones, personal digital assistant (PDA) phones and tablets, including mobile devices such as the iPhone and the iPad.
• PDA personal digital assistant
• These devices also contain GPS receivers to enable determination of their location via GPS.
• the portal is known as POCKET TRIPS and it is a powerful online web-based authoring platform with location-based technologies and advertising capabilities that allows anyone, anywhere in the world, without programming knowledge to create their own mobile trails across place of interest such as historic/ cultural/religious sites, nature parks, museums and even shopping centres with GPS, Image Recognition, QR, Augmented Reality, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) proximity triggering, Live Chat and Real-time Tracking functions of quizzes, photos, videos, audio, comments, location taken using the Pocket Trips end-user mobile application.
• POCKET TRIPS is a powerful online web-based authoring platform with location-based technologies and advertising capabilities that allows anyone, anywhere in the world, without programming knowledge to create their own mobile trails across place of interest such as historic/ cultural/religious sites, nature parks, museums and even shopping centres with GPS, Image Recognition, QR, Augmented Reality, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) proximity triggering, Live Chat and Real-time Tracking functions of quizzes, photos, videos, audio, comments, location taken using the Pocket Trips end-user mobile application
• the database tier 100 contains database files and media repository servers that are stored in a database 110 and/or a server 1 15, which can be a cloud server, for example using Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• the application tier 120 has servers 125 to perform heavy duty processes such as image compression, file writing and image recognition training.
• the Content Management System (CMS) web tier 130 has web servers 135 which perform business logic and communicates with the other layers and tiers. Users 140 can access the web servers 135 through load balancers 136 which ensure that the web servers are not overloaded and provide network redundancy in event of an outage.
• the load balancer incorporates the ability to balance both outbound and inbound traffic.
• the system can also incorporate a merchant portal 137 that would allow users 150 that are merchants to manage their accounts via self-registrations and posting of discount coupons with the associated validity period and expiry dates.
• the various connections 127, 142, 152, 157 can be further enhanced and secured with a firewall.
• one embodiment of the invention has the merchant portal 210 and trip portal 220 are hosted on two independent servers, which functionalities are bridged by the application 230 running on the computer or mobile computing device.
• the system can be deployed using an online cloud service, for example AWS, for reliability, scalability and secure hosting.
• a screenshot of the merchant portal is shown in Figure 3.
• the mobile application performs independent tasks specific to each server. Trip content pertaining to locality are stored in the content server, whereas any promotional e-coupons content is hosted on the merchant portal.
• the mobile application communicates with the merchant portal via web service and utilizes near field communication (NFC), Image Recognition (IR) or QR Code to validate and retrieve the e-coupon so that users/patrons will be able to flash their e-coupon to the merchant at the counter for the relevant redemption of item or discount.
• NFC near field communication
• IR Image Recognition
• QR Code QR Code
• the system also features an integrated a 3rd party online payment gateway - PayPal Solutions into the merchant portal to handle online transactions.
• the payment solution allows the merchant portal to accept all major credit and debit cards, with flexible checkout templates, such as PayPal payment options while offer industry leading fraud prevention measures to manage payment operations more effectively across the entire order lifecycle.
• PayPal Seller Protection help covers the business operators in the unlikely event where one receives an unauthorized payment during the transactions.
• the e-coupon creation in the advertising module has been linked up with the payment gateway to allow users to purchase various advertising packages.
• Each coupon has a prescribed lifespan and expiry date depending on the payment package chosen by the merchant during the coupon creation phase.
• This micro-transaction business model is the core mechanism used to offset the maintenance cost of the hardware involved in the hosting of the application.
• the merchants Prior to posting any advertisement onto the Pocket Trips platform via the merchant portal, the merchants can pay a small advertisement fee according to a chosen subscription package, which provides a range of advertisement options for the businesses of varying size and needs.
• the mobile application has a responsive layout to cater for different phone aspect ratios and resolutions respectively.
• This design framework creates a homogeneous optimal viewing experience across difference screen resolutions, sizes, and densities and the mobile applications are compatible with most of the screen sizes available in the market as to reach out to as many users as possible.
• the responsive design techniques allows the mobile application to show different user interface flow depending on the current screen size by defining a few layouts, e.g., portrait and landscape modes.
• optional components will be displayed if the screen has more room, for instance on a tablet device.
• the application When the user uses the mobile device and starts up the application, the application only downloads the bare-bone information of each coupon and available trips upon the login process. The full package will be downloaded as and when necessary to perform the actual task to minimize the data redundancy and storage latency on the mobile application. The rationale to keep data small is to prevent the application from crashing and the excessively long loading time.
• the merchant portal allows the vendors who are registered with us to create e-coupons and discount offers in just 3 easy steps - 1 ) Upload e-coupon; 2) provide a copy-writing to attract user's attention and 3) publish the discount.
• the portal is designed under the principle of easy access for less tech-sawy users to provide complex functionalities with an intuitive user-interface.
• vendors may specify the promotion period of the coupon to affect its validity.
• the addition of e-coupons in the application creates a mutually beneficial eco-system whereby users are able to enjoy an exciting spectrum of discounts and offers while merchants gain a wide outreach for such a low cost for their publicity efforts.
• the merchant portal operates independently from the Pocket Trips main content server for several reasons:
• Each coupon advertisement involves a transaction and is accompanied by a statistic to enhance the merchant's business intelligence data collection.
• the shopping cart functionality is an extension feature to the member registration portal on the CMS web tier 130.
• One solution is to use existing modules like Ubercart as it already includes essential core functionalities and easy integration of third-party payment gateway.
• the shopping cart features have been integrated into the advertising module as well as the backend content management system, for example, advertising packages were created for merchants who subscribe for their advertising campaigns.
• the shopping cart features also allow users to purchase optional virtual items, such as Premium trips, user icons, emoticons etc.
• a screenshot of the shopping cart is shown in Figure 4.
• PCI DSS Payment Card Industry Digital Security Standard
• a feedback mechanism can also be implemented to allow mobile users to write their comments or reviews about the trips they experienced or read about other user's reviews. Users can submit rating to their favorites trips via the mobile application which would reflected on the web portal. This would then be processed by the server and displayed according to rank, popularity or similar criteria.
• a screenshot of a sample comment and rating is shown in Figure 5.
• the system has an Advertising Management module, with integrated QR code features to allow redemption of coupon from mobile devices via QR code. Users can easily redeem coupons using the built-in QR code scanner within the mobile application.
• the generation of QR code is handled by a back-end system after creation of e-coupons by the merchants. Upon redemption of coupon, the essential statistics will be updated on back-end system, to capture data such as redemption or download counts.
• a sample QR code is shown in Figure 6.
• the system can have a Coupon Creation System whereby the coupon module interfaces with the shopping cart module to create coupons for the mobile app. These coupons are only valid after the entire payment workflow is completed and payment is verified. Coupons that are created but not paid for are saved but suspended until the payment is completed (indicated with gray payment tags).
• a sample of coupon screenshots are shown in Figure 7.
• Google Geo-coding API (Geo-coding API v3) has been used to retrieve the geographic coordinates upon entering postal code or address (dynamic geo- coding with auto- completion) keyed in by the merchant during the e-coupon creation process. The services will be accessed via HTTP requests on the back-end while presenting the query result back to front-end user interface.
• Google Maps can be substituted with other Map APIs including Bing or One Map. Nonetheless, Google has been chosen for the Google Geo-coding API (Geo-coding API v3) to get geographic coordinates upon entering postal code or address.
• a screenshot showing the coupon geo-coding API is shown in Figure 8.
• the user interface has been augmented with a flexible user interface which recognizes the user's ownership through login credentials.
• the user is able to perform all the necessary operations on the list of trails he has created and also edit his profile picture on this page. However, a different user viewing this page would not be able to make changes to this user's profile.
• This flexible user interface features a convenient 2-in-1 view for both the author and user calling the same module on the CMS.
• a screenshot of the user interface is shown in Figure 9.
• the communications between the Pocket Trips mobile client and web portal are through persistent data.
• the web services made accessible using HTTP requests both from Javascript/PHP with the backend portal and from mobile applications.
• Data validation is also added to ensure the integrity of the data transfer between the mobile application and backend system. This is to ensure secure internet transactions, authentication and validation of credential are required before any service is accessed.
• One possible use of the system platform is part of the JLD project to create a digitized trail for members of the public to enjoy educational aspects of the Jurong Lake Park through the integration of BLE 4.0 technologies into our platform. When launched, this will allow family members to use their own smart phone devices/tablets to explore the park and to have relevant flora or fauna content pushed to them as they stroll along the various pathways.
• a new trail can also be created to empower learning in the new Singapore Science Centre that will be built as part of the JLD project for interactive contents such as quizzes and other activities such as photo-taking, video- recording etc to be 'pushed' to the users using BLE triggers when they reach different exhibits to find out more.
• BLE The successful integration of BLE into the authoring platform including the payment gateway and advertising portal will also enable the system to be used in shopping malls, museums and parks. These places can leverage on the popularity of e-Commerce and online shopping, as well as proximity- advertising using technology such as BLE allows merchants to recapture the market using casual shoppers' own mobile devices. BLE will also be able to enhance the museum experience for visitors at very low cost to the museum owners.
• Beacon positioning and routing module
• a beacon navigation system for users includes a plurality of navigation beacons distributed about a premise through which the user is to navigate.
• a BLE compatible mobile device (geolocation mobile device) is required to determine the mobile user's relative physical location to a beacon. Based on ranging data or approximate distance between user's device to each beacon along with the unique beacon's properties, different level of positioning accuracy can be achieved.
• the system determines the location of device based on a proximity estimate of signal strength emitting from beacon. In addition, it is enhanced with a beacon triangulation method to determine the (x, y, z) local map coordinates of user's indoor position referencing to 3 or more beacons in proximity.
• the receiver estimates its position using average of x,y,z localized coordinates of a floor map for e.g. (x1 , y1 , z1 ), (x2, y2, z2) and (x3, y3, z3).
• the shortest route can be determined given a start (e.g. starting beacon) and destination beacons from building to building, level. It gathers the localised co-ordinates (x, y, z, blk) and finds the shortest path between that node and every other using Dijkstra's alogorithm assigning path token of the route. It can also be used for finding the shortest route from a single beacon to a single destination beacon by stopping the algorithm once the shortest path to the destination beacon has been determined. If the beacon represents buildings and edge path costs represent travelling distances between pairs of building connected by road, Dijkstra's algorithm can be used to find the shortest route between buildings.
• start e.g. starting beacon
• blk the localised co-ordinates
• the cloud based module consists of analytics component which provides the detailed behavioral data about how the user interacts with the beacons for mobile-marketing campaigns.
• analytics component provides the detailed behavioral data about how the user interacts with the beacons for mobile-marketing campaigns.
• the user location, loitering time, preferences, engagement rates, frequency of visits and footfalls paths in the form of charts or 'heat-maps' can be studied and analyzed.
• the module offers an intuitive infrastructure management component to allow administrator to control and monitor the deployed beacons spread across multiple physical locations, administrate floor plans of the buildings and also to examine beacon's battery level.
• ⁇ Provide templates to facilitate different genre of content creation, e.g.,
• Each "Pocket Trip” developed can comprise multiple points-of-interest weaved together by a beautiful storyline and new exciting location-based technologies.
• the user experience may manifest itself as an "Informative Tour”, “Timed Amazing-Race Game”, “City Detective Tour” or even a “War Game Tour” whereby users can walk, learn and bond together using their own smart-phone mobile devices anytime and anywhere across the world.
• schools can create their own curriculum-based mobile field-trips to enhance the learning experience of their students; event organizers can create their own location-based amazing-race challenges to raise brand awareness or funds for charities; museums, zoos and park owners can create their own mobile-guides or mobile treasure-hunts to increase the engagement and fun levels for families and visitors; similarly, malls and retail associations can create their own proximity shopping-guide or promotions to increase sales through location-based loyalty advertising or seasonal mobile treasure-hunts.
• the invention comprises a powerful web-based authoring platform for users to design and develop new location-based trails. It is easy enough for non-programmers to start creating their own trails and can include advertising capabilities for revenue generation.
• the platform is able to publish trails on either iOS and Android mobile applications that can be used to create and host location-based mobile interactive trails created by schools, community organisations, special interest groups and private individuals, in both indoor and outdoor locations, including parks museums, schools, and shopping centres.
• the authoring tool is fully web-based and can be based on HTML5 although other languages and protocols are possible. Users have complete control over all the details of the trails that they create, even down to the position coordinates and the order of depth.
• Possible applications include being used to create navigation trail challenges for school uniformed groups, while tour guides also use the tool to access pertinent information during a tour, including specific talking points, interesting videos, and related photos by using location-based triggers such as GPS to activate the information upon reaching the particular spot.
• Bluetooth technology, image recognition, OCR, QR code readers and augmented reality functions can also be used as a beacon trigger, or a trigger for content, or way-finding.
• Schools, community groups and interest groups can also use this platform to make available a whole host of information by creating community trails with the relevant information embedded which would educate and inform the user while moving along the trail.
• the content producer creates content on the online portal to guide users and can use a storytelling narrative in order to make the content or tour more interesting.
• the first step in creating content is to create and register an online account with the portal and this can be done via any computing device with a connection to the internet and a web browser.
• This online account can either be a free account or a premium account, the difference being the free account having certain restrictions, like the number of trails that can be created and/or uploaded.
• the premium account would be on a paid subscription basis and can be a one-time lifetime payment, an annual subscription, or even a per trails basis whereby each uploaded or downloaded trial or tour beyond the free account is charged individually.
• Either account would be able to log into the mobile application in order to experience the story telling journey, and using the same mobile application, the user is able to rate and give feedback pertaining to the trip or tour and these are uploaded to the portal.
• the backend server managing the portal would analyze and rank the trips and tours according to the ratings, sample size, and number of times the trip or tour has been downloaded or liked, and even provide a list of top trips or tours based on this. These top trips can then be recommended to new users to ensure that their first experience would be a pleasant, interesting and interactive journey.
• a screenshot of the login is shown in Figure 10.
• the portal is based on a fully web-based authoring platform with no need for software to be installed on desktop or laptop computers and the platform or portal can even be accessed using a mobile device, either via a browser or a specifically created application.
• the interactive trail solution uses HTML5, which is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. This enables the portal to be easily scalable and makes the mobile device application accessing the platform available across all operating systems including popular mobile operating systems like Android and iOS.
• the creation of trails can be done in three simple steps and the content pages can be fully customizable, with ready templates, buttons and graphics available to be incorporated into the content page to provide an interactive experience.
• the user can also select the type of trail in order to make it easier for others to discern, like Cultural trail featuring the arts, sculptures or building architectures along the tour, Heritage trail featuring historical places, buildings, peoples and sights, or even a Nature trail featuring flora and fauna highlights along the tour.
• the geolocation or GPS triggers or geo-fence can be a point, a circle, a polygon or even a line, which would trigger an event on the application on the mobile device, which causes it to provide content to the user or display further instructions or directions (like a particularly photogenic spot) or event provide advertisements for nearby merchants.
• These triggers can be created by dropping a virtual pin on the map to determine the desired hotspot location and selecting the appropriate geo-fence, which can be a point, a circle, a polygon or a line.
• the authoring tool is used to create the content pages by uploading images, creating text, generating questions (and answers) and this authoring tool, the content producer can rapidly create content.
• a script editor also offers additional dimension of versatility for expert users to create their own custom interactions via a Javascript editor. Screenshots of the various stages of trail creation can be seen in Figures 1 1 - 14.
• the portal also features a trail simulator, which is an emulator system that runs within the portal and this allows the content producer to check the content prior to publishing or making available their uploaded trails or tours on the portal.
• the trail simulator runs within an emulated environment with a map viewer to simulate the application being run on a mobile device, i.e. a virtual phone or tablet view, and the simulator would display the content on the virtual phone depending on the location selected on the map.
• a pair of screenshots showing the trail simulator in use can be seen in Figure 15.
• the application makes a trail interesting, informative and engaging.
• more advanced content producers may incorporate games into the tour that can use a chat function or video conference function to interact with users anytime, anywhere around the world.
• the games can be in HTML5 format for it to be available and played cross-platform i.e. iOS/Android/Windows.
• the application also has an on-board image recognition and useful augmented reality (AR) way-finding features which renders the trail more interactive and engaging.
• AR augmented reality
• This feature allows users to trigger the hotspot contents in a 'treasure-hunt' manner by using existing objects e.g. a heritage marker or sculpture to take a photo and once recognized, 'pushes' the desired site-related contents to the mobile app.
• existing objects e.g. a heritage marker or sculpture to take a photo and once recognized, 'pushes' the desired site-related contents to the mobile app.
• QR is more effective than using QR whereby it is dependent on pasting a physical bar code and is subject to wear- and-tear due to rain or long use over time especially when the trail is conducted in public areas.
• the IR uses existing permanent features already in place on the hotspot location e.g. Raffles Statue.
• Augmented Reality (AR) navigation uses the mobile device's onboard camera to show the user the direction where they should head towards in and show the distance between the hotspot and the user's current position, as shown in Figure 16.
• AR Augmented Reality
• This is also supplemented and enhanced by a compass-aided map system using the mobile devices' onboard compass, so that the user can easily read the direction of each hotspot within the map.
• a screenshot of this is shown in Figure 17.
• An example of the application in use would see students use a trail (of Gardens by the Bay) uploaded by a teacher or even a fellow student.
• mobile devices either their own or loaned, the students would log in to the mobile application and see a trip overview before selecting the start button to access the hotspots and this is shown in Figure 18.
• the hotspot contents are triggered via GPS to reveal information, quizzes, pictures, videos, activities and other relevant information in Gardens by the Bay.
• Each user has a profile page which is blank by default and the user populates this profile with details, and this page also allows the user to see the content that he has uploaded and manage this content accordingly, either adding, amending, deleting or duplicating trails accordingly. This also means that each user can be given a cap on the amount of space consumed on the portal by the uploaded trails, and this space capacity visualisation can also be shown on the profile page.
• Each user has his own online space capacity limits, therefore an online space capacity visualization has also been added, so that the user is aware of his space consumption before the limit has been reached.
• a further function of the application is to enhance, empower and equip local licensed tour guides.
• the application would perform as a one-stop quick reference mobile application for tour guides to refer to before and while conducting a tour, thus ensuring accuracy of the information delivered by the tour guide.
• the latest talking points developed with subject matter experts would ensure that the tour is made interesting, engaging and full of meaningful information for the tourist.
• the tour guide is also able to conduct a dry run before the actual tour by following the desired trail and noting the various directions. During the tour, he can then refer to the application and offer nuggets of information, or even display multimedia on the phone that can engage those on tour.
• This method of advertisement ensures that the shops paying for the advertisement are not inadvertently left out during a tour.
• the teachers or students can publish the finalized version and avail it for download on their own Android devices, iOS devices or the company's rental devices, which all come prepared with 3G Data cards, lanyards and spare batteries) and can be facilitated by the company's onsite consultants throughout the trail.
• the Pocket-Trips platform app is made available on Windows, iTunes and Google Play with a booking ID to access the trails for public to then install the 'Pocket-Trips' User mobile app on their mobile device, and download the desired trail shared by the teacher / student.
• the mobile or computing device can use various methods in determining direction ranging from simple direct request of direction from GPS satellites systems, to self-calculated direction from data received through Cellular- based systems. This calculation is commonly obtained by using the multiple signal strengths to a base transceiver station (BTS) and comparing the readings.
• BLE can track traffic as BLE 4.0 be used to locate own position?
• BLE can track traffic as a beacon/trigger and location using an indoor floor map.
• the method to derive a direction from a Cell Location Reading has many standard or proprietary methods, which the base principals has also been applied by many other hardware equipment manufacturers to not only mobile devices, but also to network equipment such as wireless network routers. These methods are also not just restricted to telcos and BTS, similarly, within a confined space or indoors, such as a factory, shopping center, with a relay of wifi-routers embedded with triangulation algorithm, it is mathematically possible to derive the location of each device connected to the wireless router. Such algorithms or even processes or methods to derive location via signal strength, are not confined only to mobile devices such as phones, it can be on the wireless router or server.
• the Free User - has one trails that can be created with 5 hotspots and stored against the account.
• the account can also be limited by the amount of storage space allocated, e.g. 200MB.
• the templates for the creation of trails can also be limited to the simpler designs and not all features like games, quizzes and multimedia are available.
• the Premium User - has no limit or a high limit on the number of trips or trails they can create. For administrative purposes, there is an upper limit on the space although it is envisaged that ordinary usage should not reach this limit. Access is also granted to prm widgets and other features like the Augmented Reality, games, Bluetooth triggers and image recognition.
• An example of a Premium user would be a teacher or a school or recreation group or any other use who would be keen to create a number of trails for their students, group members or even members of the public.
• the Corporate User - has no limit or a high limit on the number of trips or trails they can create. For administrative purposes, there is an upper limit on the space although it is envisaged that ordinary usage should not reach this limit and this upper limit may be more than the Premium User.
• the Corporate User also has administrative access, as well as booking and collaborative features that enable them to advertise on the application and can range from individual shop owners (especially those along a trail) to even a shopping mall management/owner trying to promote merchants within the mall.
• the Advertisement User has access to the merchant portal and can create advertisements to be triggered depending on the proximity of the mobile device to the shop. Once again different tiers can be applied for different advertisement pricing, which would determine when the advertisements are triggered. All accounts would have an expiry date tagged to their account and this is authenticated each time they log in. For the Corporate User, they are able to see that their accounts are expiring soon and will not be able to access the payment page. Also, renewing the membership for the Corporate User will update all the users' expiry date under the same company. A pop-up or drop down notification would let users know a preset time period before the expiry date to let them know that the account is expiring soon. A further feature has this notification on permanently until the account is renewed.
• BLE Bluetooth Low Energy
• Beacon Management System to provide an easy way to connect online information and activities with offline context which enable visitors to access, share, and engage with their physical location.
• Custom templates for Trail/Trip creation e.g. for Treasure hunt, Amazing race types of trails
• the top trails can be retrieved from the database 323 for ease of reference. Further the trails can be filtered 324 according to the permission level of the user and top trails can be displayed 324 accordingly.
• a welcome message can also be incorporated that displays the user's name 326. All processes carried out by a user within the system can be logged for accountability and oversight.
• the administrator panel 316 would provide the administrator with the ability to manage the trail bookings, manage the user accounts, manage the member profiles, manage the organization profile, etc.
• the trail booking process can be seen in Figure 20, where the system would retrieve the trails from the database 410 and filter the trails by permission level 41 1 according to the user's account.
• the available trails would be displayed 412 to the user for a trail to be selected 413.
• the corresponding booking calendar for that trail would be displayed 414 so that an appropriate date and time can be selected 415.
• This booking function can be run by a separate server for ease of maintenance, especially when combined with online payment options.
• the booking form can then be filled up 416 with fields such as facilitators, devices, SD cards, Point-of-Contact personnel and the system would check on the availability of the various logistic requirements listed 417, should there be any problems with availability the user would be prompted to reconsider and reselect 418 accordingly.
• the system would check whether it is a new booking 420. If new, a booking would be created in the database 421 and the transaction history for the booking changes are stored in the database 422 and a booking invoice is generated 423.
• the system would overwrite the previous booking entry in the database 424 and append the transaction history for applying a penalty for urgent changes 425, and update and generate the booking invoice 426 accordingly.
• the user log is updated in the database 427 once the trail booking process is completed.
• a booking code can be generated with each booking, such that participants to a trail can use the booking code to access the trail. This booking code can be limited to a number of participants based on the details of the booking made and the associated successful payment of the invoice. The booking code also can be used to access any content that was uploaded by the trail participants.
• the booking history option is shown in Figure 21 , and the system retrieves the booking from the database 510, filters the bookings by permission levels 51 1 and displays the booking history 512. Once a booked trail is selected 513, the system retrieves the invoice from the database 5 4 and displays it to the user 515. At the same time, the system would also check whether the trail has taken place 520, usually based on the date of the trail stored. If the trail has taken place, then the user would be prompted to view the booking details 730 ( Figure 23) and the booking invoice is retrieved 514 and displayed 515. If the trail has not taken place, and a built in buffer period can be set in order to preempt a trail that just about to take place, the system directs the user to edit or cancel the booking in Figure 22.
• the system first checks the duration before the booked date 610 and the appropriate penalties for 3 days 61 1 , 1 week 612 and 2 weeks 613 are displayed with the user prompted whether to accept and confirm the displayed penalty 620. If the displayed penalty is not accepted the user is directed back to the booking history 512 ( Figure 21 ). Once the penalty is accepted and confirmed, the system also checks with the user whether the booking should be canceled 630, and if so the booking entry is deleted from the database 631 and the transaction history is appended for date change penalty and the user is directed back to the booking history 512 ( Figure 21 ). If the booking continues, then the user is directed back to the booking calendar 414 ( Figure 20). Based on the booking details viewed 730 in Figure 23, the system also provides the option for the user to view the media gallery 720 (and continue on Figure 24) and check the quiz result 710 (and continue on Figure 25).
• the system would retrieve the media files form the database 810 and display the photo gallery as the active tab 811 which would prompt the user to select a type of media 820 accordingly, for example a video or a photo.
• the appropriate files would then be filtered and displayed either by video format 821 or by image format 822.
• Other types of media can also stored and displayed if required, for example audio recordings, 3D renderings, etc.
• the files are arranged by hotspots 823 and the user is prompted whether to filter by teams 830 and the system would filter accordingly 831 ; alternatively, the user can be prompted whether to filter by hotspot 840 and the system would filter accordingly 841.
• the outcome according to the applied filters is displayed 842 and the user can select a file to view further details 843 and display the media file in a light box 844 and the process repeated if needed.
• the light box is an overlaying area that can either pop-up in the same screen or appear in a separate window and it showcases the collective images and videos from the gallery where the media files were uploaded from the individual participants during the trail.
• the trail performance can also be reviewed based on the quiz carried out as shown in Figure 25.
• the system would retrieve the overview quiz result from the database 910, possibly by looking up the associated booking code, compute the quiz results 911 accordingly and display the quiz analytics and possibly grouped by hotspots for ease of reading. Details such as quiz name, average score, statistics such as median, minimum score, maximum score can also be computed and displayed 912. The user would be able to select a quiz 913, which the system would retrieve the quiz result from the database 914 and display the quiz result with the name and score 915. Further details can also be retrieved from the database 916 and displayed according to the questions asked, the choices available (for multiple choice questions) as well as the answers made 917.
• FIG. 26 Another option from the admin panel 321 (Figure 19) the administrator has is the creation of a new user as shown in Figure 26.
• the member creation form is displayed 1010 for the user to fill up 101 1 and the system would check whether the fields are valid and the compulsory fields are filled up 1020, and the new member is thus created in the database 1021 and the user log is updated in the database 1022.
• the data can be imported into the database if the format can be recognized by the system, which can result in multiple new users being created at the same time, which is appropriate when a teacher or a group supervisor is trying to enter the details for their class or group, and can thus do so offline.
• the administrator can also edit a member's profile or permission level from the admin panel 321 (Figure 19) and is shown in Figure 27 where the system would display a member list 1 110 and from there, the member profile form can be displayed 1 120 which would trigger a member creation form for the user to fill up 1 121 and the changes confirmed 1130 by the user.
• the member's profile can then be updated in the database 1131 and the user log is updated in the database 1 132 accordingly.
• the system would display the permission level 1210 from the displayed member list 1 1 10 ( Figure 27) and at an organizational level, the system can set that the reading of any trails can be disabled 1211 or enabled 1215 or the writing of any trails can be disabled 1213 or enabled 1214 and the member's permission in the database can be updated 1212 and the user log updated in the database 1216.
• the administrator can also choose to delete a member from the admin panel 321 ( Figure 19) and this process is shown in Figure 29. From the displayed member profile 1310, the user would select a member to delete and the system would confirm this 1320. Once confirmed, the member account is removed from the organization 1321 and the user log is updated in the database 1322.
• the profile of an organization can also be managed by the administrator from the admin panel 321 ( Figure 19) and this is shown in Figure 30, where the organization profile can be viewed 1410 and filled up 1411 accordingly, with the changes being confirmed 1420 before the organization profile is updated in the database 1421 and the user log updated accordingly 1422.
• the personal profile for ordinary users can also be edited by them and this is shown in Figure 31. From the opening screen with their user name and welcome message 333 (in Figure 19), the system would retrieve their personal profile from the database 1510 and display the personal profile form 1511 and they would be prompted to fill up the profile form 1512 and confirm the changes 1520, possibly with the added security of password verification to prevent unauthorized access. The member's profile would then be updated in the database accordingly 1521.
• the system can also direct users to a Trail projects after the opening message 333 (in Figure 19) and this is shown in Figure 32, where the system begins by retrieving all the trails in the database that the user has permission to access 1610 and this is displayed in the user's trail gallery 1612.
• the user can opt to create a new trail 1620 or to select an existing trail 1621 , of which the profile, summary and other details of the selected trail is displayed 1622.
• the user can opt to edit the trail 1630 and publish the trail 1640 that has been created. The trail is then published to the live database 1641 and the user log is updated in the database 1642.
• the process is displayed in Figure 34 where the system displays a trail creation form 1810 and the user is directed to fill up the trail profile which can include details such as the trail name, a description (possibly word limited), thumbnail image of the trail or other media, the type of trail, etc 181 1 .
• the parameters for each type- specific trail is also displayed 1812 and the user would be prompted to fill up the type-specific trail parameters 1813.
• the system would then create a trail record in the database 1814 and the user log in the database is updated 1815 and the process continues in Figure 35 where the user is allowed to edit the trails.
• Users can also delete a trail from the database via the process shown in Figure 33, where the system would prompt the user to confirm the deletion 1710 and then remove the selected trail from the database 171 1 and at the same time remove the content files from the media repository 1712 and the user log is updated in the database accordingly 1713.
• the system would retrieve the selected trails from the database 1910 and check whether the user wishes to delete the trail 1920, which would trigger the process shown in Figure 33 (described earlier). Otherwise the system would obtain the user's position 1921 and retrieve all the hotspots in the database that the user has permission to access 1922 and display the map and nearby hotspots 1923, possibly filtering by proximity, by maximum allowed distance, or according to the default map parameters.
• the system can also arrange the hotspot sequence 1930 if the user requires and carry out the rearrangement 1931 and update the trail in the database 1932.
• the user can also create a new hotspot 1940 (which triggers the process shown in Figure 36) or delete a hotspot 1950 (which triggers the process shown in Figure 37) or edit the hotpot 1960 (which triggers the process shown in Figure 38) and these are described as follows.
• the user would be prompted to select the hotpot shape 2010 and then draw the hotspot on the map 201 1 , and a corresponding hotspot creation form would be displayed 2012 where the user would fill up the profile of the hotspot 3013 including details such as the hotspot name, description, thumbnail or other form of media, type of hotspot, etc.
• the trail would then be updated in the database 2014 and the user log updated as well 2015.
• the deletion of a hotspot is shown in Figure 37 where the user is prompted to confirm the deletion 2 10 before the selected trail is removed from the database 21 12 and the associated content files are removed from the media repository 2013 and the user log updated 21 14.
• the editing of the hotspot is shown in Figure 38 where the system would retrieve the hotspot from the database 2210 and display the hotspot's page gallery 221 1 for the user to decide whether to create a new page 2220 with the selection of a HTML page 22221 or to delete a page 2230, which would cause the system to remove a page in the hotspot 2231 and update the trail in the database 2232 before displaying the (updated) hotspot's page gallery 221 1 again.
• the user can also opt to edit an existing page 2240, otherwise the system would retrieve the HTML page from the database 2241 and update the user log 2242 accordingly.
• FIG 39 The process of editing the page in the hotspot gallery is shown in Figure 39, where the system would launch a new window and load the rapid authoring tool interface, retrieve the selected page from the database 231 1 and display the page layout in the rapid authoring tool 2312.
• This new window with the rapid authoring tool can be a layer resting on top of the trail creation layer, which ensures that the page does not refresh if the authoring layer is closed, thus the user can quickly return to editing the page where he left off on the map layer.
• Available widgets to the user that would enhance the page can also be retrieved from the database 2313 and displayed in the user interface 2314. The user can select a widget by simply dragging and dropping the widget to a user interface shelf or area 2315 where the system would check for the validity of the landing position 2320.
• the properties for the widgets can also be set 2321 and these include an image, a video, a textbox, augmented reality or image recognition with an autosave feature 2324 that saves the generated widget every preset period of time, e.g. 15 minutes.
• an image is set as a property
• an image cropping tool can be displayed 2322 to ensure the image would fit and thereafter the image (cropped) can be updated in the database 2323.
• the setting panel is displayed 2325 and the system would convert the parameters to JSON 2326 and update the page in the database 2327 before directing the user by back to the available widgets 2314. This conversion process allows the parameters to be saved in the event the page refreshes or crashes, as it writes to a text file as part of the save function so that data can be retrieved back from the text file when the page is refreshed.
• Some of the widgets displayed 2314 would require payment before they can be used and these are premium widgets, and the process for purchasing these premium widgets is shown in Figure 40.
• the system can check the organization type 241 1 in order to determine the steps moving forward. For example, corporate and individual users can proceed to pay directly via paypal, credit card or any other form of electronic transfer of funds 2412, but government organizations would typically require an invoice to order for payment to be meted out 2413.
• the purchased widget is added to the organization's or individual's widget inventory database 2422 and the transaction history 2423 and user log 2424 are updated in the database accordingly before direct the user back to the available widgets 2314 ( Figure 39).

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• 2015
  • 2015-09-15 EP EP15842897.9A patent/EP3195631A1/de not_active Withdrawn
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