HK1089144B - Information distribution system for use in an elevator - Google Patents

Description

Information dissemination system for use in an elevator

Description of divisional applications

The present application is a divisional application of the chinese patent application having an application date of 20/1/1999 and an application number of 99802260.8 and entitled "information dissemination system for use in elevators".

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a subsequent application to application No.09009279 filed on 20/1/1998.

Background

The present invention relates to providing information to elevators and other public transport vehicles. The advantage of constructing skyscrapers and other high-rise buildings is that real estate is used more efficiently, and particularly in urban areas, where its value is very expensive. In such buildings, especially those with multiple floors, the most basic mode of transport is elevators.

The visual information provided in the elevator is generally limited to floor information and passenger indications in the event of an emergency or when assistance is needed. A static poster is also included in the elevator, informing about the performance and its location on the day.

Summary of The Invention

It is an object of the invention to provide a system for displaying video information to passengers in an elevator on the basis of a display list defining a series of messages. The video information may include digital advertisements, "real-time" integrated information, and information related to buildings.

According to one aspect of the invention, a system includes an elevator display unit having a display monitor for displaying visual information to passengers; and the local server receives the dispatching information related to the visual information through the data communication channel and generates a display list according to the dispatching information so as to display on the elevator display unit.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for providing integrated information and commercial information in an elevator, comprises the steps of: a) providing a local server for scheduling information related to the displayed visual information; b) generating a display list related to the visual information from the scheduling information; and c) generating a display in the elevator on the basis of the dispatch information in order to see the visual information displayed a predetermined number of times.

"visual information" refers to any combination of general information, business information, and information about a building. "commercial information" refers to any information relating to commerce and commerce, including advertisements. As used herein, "integrated information" refers to information of general interest, including news (i.e., recent emergencies, sports, entertainment, etc.) and weather forecasts. The integrated information also includes information about the building in which the elevator is located, such as: 1) things related to buildings; 2) carrying out traffic; 3) transportation arrangements (e.g., rail/air services, etc.). Building-related information refers to information that is particularly relevant to the occupants, tenants, and visitors of the building in which the elevator is located. The building related information may include certain types of commercial information such as advertisements for businesses (e.g., coffee shops, stores, parking lots, florists) within or in the area of the building, and announcements made by building managers for free space. The building-related information also includes notification of several types of integrated information that are particularly relevant to the building and its elevator passengers. For example: such information may include the schedule of activities for the building (e.g., vacation activities, fire tests), public address/emergency information, traffic information, and other information useful to elevator passengers. Generally, information relating to a building is rarely limited by the type of information, but is more limited by its geographic location.

With this system, advertisers, online information providers, and building managers/owners can interact with a specific, well-defined, target audience within an elevator. Elevators are often uncomfortable places for passengers due to being confined to complete strangers. Elevator passengers are often distracted and at an untimely time in the elevator and often look for ways to avoid eye contact with passengers, but with sources of information media available for fixation, the passengers no longer need to stare at the floor or ceiling without purpose.

Users of high-rise office buildings are typically inherently interested and purchasing inclined business persons who are ideal recipients of targeted information and advertising. The system enables information providers (e.g., local, national news sources) and advertisers to selectively target audiences based on building, city, region, business segment, etc. demographics. As such, national, regional, and local online information providers are also provided with an opportunity to distribute consolidated information to passengers in an elevator. The system also enables building owners and managers to provide visual information to particularly relevant, useful tenants and visitors within the building.

Embodiments having these aspects of the invention can include one or more of the following features. The local server receives the scheduling information from the production server through a data communication network such as the internet.

The system also includes an authoring server that generates scheduling information related to the consolidated information and the business information. The production server thus serves as a central propagation point, in particular where scheduling information (such as building lists or descriptions) is generated. The production server includes a production server database for storing data relating to the building and data relating to the integrated information, and data relating to the business information. The database includes, for example, building characteristic data, and addresses for retrieving general and business information over a data communication channel.

The production server includes a scheduling module that retrieves data from the production server database and generates scheduling information and a building load program interface through which data is communicated between the production server and the local server, the building load program interface encrypting data between the production server and the local server and verifying that the local server is a server associated with the system.

The production server includes a billing module that generates records relating to the duration of time the consolidated information and the business information are displayed on the elevator display unit. A database maintenance module is also included in the production server to update the production center database with information relating to elevator occupancy as a function of time.

The local server communicates with the elevator display unit through a local area network. The local area network includes local and integrated information databases, and a schedule information analysis program. The general information and the business information retrieved through the data communication channel are stored in the associated local information database and general information database, respectively. The schedule information analysis program generates a local building display list based on the schedule information retrieved from the production server.

The local area network includes an ethernet channel for connection to an elevator display unit, which further includes an occupancy detector for detecting the number of passengers in a particular elevator at predetermined time intervals.

The generation of the elevator display list is realized by a graphical user interface.

For the BOM interface, the visual information comprises a text message (such as HTML format), the display list comprises a starting date of the text message displayed on the display, and an ending date of the text message stopped being displayed on the display; and a time of day indicating a time period of the day during which the text information is displayed on the display.

The user interface is remotely located from the local server and communicates with the local server via a data communication channel, such as the internet, a dial-up modem, or a local area network. The display list is a building operations display list having visual information and scheduling information, the scheduling information being generated for the building operations display list in relation to the building operations.

The local server further receives a production server display list from a production server remote from the local server via a data communication network. The production server display list is associated with the integrated information and the business information for display at the display unit. The local server includes an analysis program that generates a local building display list based on the production server display list and the building operation display content.

Other features of the invention will be apparent from the following description and from the claims.

In one aspect, an elevator display system is provided for providing video information to elevators in a plurality of buildings, the elevator display system comprising: an elevator display unit having a display monitor located within an elevator to display video information to passengers within the elevator; a plurality of building servers, each building server located within one of the plurality of buildings, each building server retrieving at least one of the following information: scheduling information on the data communication channel; and public address information, each building server generating a display list based on the scheduling information, the display list containing information that causes the elevator display unit to display video information a predetermined number of times.

In another aspect, an elevator display system for use in an elevator in a building is provided, the elevator display system comprising: an elevator display unit having a display monitor, the elevator display unit being disposed within the elevator to display video information to passengers within the elevator; and a local server which receives scheduling information associated with the video information through the data communication channel and generates a display list for displaying the video information on the elevator display unit at predetermined times according to the scheduling information.

In yet another aspect, a method of displaying video information to an elevator display unit disposed inside an elevator of a building is provided, the method comprising: providing scheduling information related to video information to be displayed to a local server; generating a display list related to the video information from scheduling information; and generating display contents for viewing the video information on the elevator display unit at predetermined times according to the schedule information.

Brief description of the drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information dissemination system according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates the concept of demographics of microscale;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a building subsystem portion of the information dissemination system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an example of a display screen of the display shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the production center shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the operation of a scheduling module of the production center;

FIG. 7 shows a format of a display list;

FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram of a building server of the building subsystem portion shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram of a wide area interface between a building server and a propagation channel;

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing a generator LAN interface;

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram showing a server architecture;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating the BOM interface of the information dissemination system of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is an example of an information template utilized by the BOM interface to generate a message;

FIG. 14 shows the format of a BOM display list;

FIG. 15 is a functional block diagram of a building server of the building subsystem portion shown in FIG. 12;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing the operation of the BOM interface analysis function;

FIG. 17 shows a format of a local building display list;

FIG. 18 shows a functional block diagram of a server architecture.

Description of the invention

Referring to fig. 1, an information dissemination system 1 is provided with an intermediate outlet for disseminating integrated information along with digital advertisements to elevator display units 10 installed in elevators 12 of a high-rise office building 14 (indicated by a dashed box). The system 1 includes a production center 20 that generates and disseminates elevator display data by combining advertising information with "real-time" aggregate information, along with other important tasks described below. The aggregated information is considered "real-time" because it is relatively new (refreshed periodically at defined intervals) and is collected, formatted, and displayed by the system 1 without human intervention. The consolidated information is provided by any number of information sources 22 (e.g., sites) connected by a propagation channel (here, the internet 24).

Each building 14 includes a building server 28 that interfaces with the production center via the internet 24 to transmit images of the combined advertising and general information for display to the display units of the elevators. As described in more detail below, each building server provides integrated information and advertising information to each elevator display unit 10 of an associated elevator 12 via a Local Area Network (LAN) 30.

The information dissemination system 1 employs a concept known as "micro-demographics" that enables advertisers and online providers to target desired demographic and business demographics. The ideal customers targeted by a particular advertiser and online provider may vary widely and depend on a variety of factors. As will be discussed below, the system 1 collects or determines a demographic related to a particular building and occupants of that building. Thus, the geographic location and mode of operation of the elevator, as well as the commercial nature of the building occupants, are determined and stored by the production center 20, thereby enabling the building to be conformed by the advertising and building documentation or display lists 68 (FIG. 5) of the integrated ("real-time") content.

Referring to FIG. 2, the buildings 14 are encircled to indicate that they belong to a particular geographic location. For example, small enclosed groups 7a-7f represent buildings 14 within a city (e.g., Boston) that are also enclosed by a larger geographic area (e.g., New England) 8a-8 b. Geographic location is generally a very important demographic factor, just as important as the particular business sector being targeted. Thus, several buildings 14a-14c that are geographically diverse but related to a population of the same business district (e.g., the financial industry) may be grouped together (shown as bounded by cross-hatched portions). The use of geographic locations and segments of business to segment demographics can provide information providers and advertisers with a very spectacular business value.

In an example application of the present system, assume that an advertiser wishes to disseminate advertisements specifically to the gold melt in the northeast of the united states. The advertisement needs to appear at the best time of the morning during the two week period. Production center 20 provides an automatic request for the advertisement to enter a process for obtaining relevant information representative of the targeted demographic. The production center 20 builds a building display list 68 of buildings from the target demographic for possible candidates for advertisements and defines time slots for possible runs to display the advertisements. Several factors that affect the number of candidate buildings and the available time slots include: target demographics (e.g., financial zone in the northeast U.S.), number of ads purchased (i.e., number of times ads are seen), dates on which the ads begin and end (e.g., beginning and end of a two week period), best time requirements (i.e., best time of morning), format of the ads (280 × 90 GIF file), and ad input locator (i.e., where GIF file is assigned). Once the advertisement slots are identified, the production center 20 determines the general information (e.g., news, weather updates) provided by the online provider that is incorporated into and displayed with the advertisements. The building display list 68 specifies the format and content of the elevator display for each instant of the day. Thus, in this example, the production center 20 schedules an advertisement to be displayed at 9 am for 15 seconds while also displaying local news in one building display list, while running the same advertisement at 8 am for 15 minutes and 0 seconds while also displaying an update to the weather in another building display list. It is important to note that the building display list 68 defines when and what is displayed, but does not include the actual display content. Instead, the building display list 68 provides a pointer for obtaining information on the internet 24.

Production center 20 must then communicate the advertisement to the elevator occupant along with the information related to the advertisement contained in building display list 68. The building server 28 is responsible for downloading building display lists from the production center 20, extracting specific advertisements and general information from the internet 24, and then collecting and disseminating the advertisements and information inside the display of the elevator display unit 10. The building server 28 uses the pointers in the display list 68 to retrieve content and stores the content locally at the particular building 14. This allows the building server 28 to establish a very well performing propagation channel within the building 14. In this example, the building server 28 extracts the activated GIF file for the advertisement using the advertisement locator contained in the display list 68 and stores the file locally. Using the locally stored content, the building server 28 reads the display list 68, aggregates the display times indicated by the list, and propagates them to the individual elevators 12. Thus, in this example, at 9 am and 15 seconds, the building server 28 aggregates the designated local news and advertisements together and displays them in the elevator 12.

The details of the main components of the information dissemination system 1 are as follows.

Referring to fig. 3, an Elevator Display Unit (EDU)10 receives and processes data provided by the building server 28 to generate a display image. The elevator display unit 10 includes a display 13 controlled by a single board computer 34 and a Network Interface Card (NIC)36, the display 13 including an LCD controller, a backlight assembly, a power transformer, and a flat panel display (not shown). Computer 34 manages the operation of elevator display unit 10 including system installation and monitoring, network overhead, display data transfer, and elevator occupancy. The network interface card 36 interacts with the local network 30 and is installed by the computer 34 during system start-up. The display data broadcast down from the building server 28 to the elevator display unit 10 represents the traffic of most networks. In the downward direction (i.e. from the building server 28 to the elevator display unit 10) the network traffic mostly comprises the displayed propagation data. In the downward direction, there is only a limited amount of control information, although these data are ignored. The network interface card 36 communicates display data directly to the display 13. The control information issues a service interrupt request to the computer 13. In the upward direction (i.e., from the elevator display unit 10 to the building server 28), the network traffic includes occupancy information and system monitoring data. All upward data generated by the computer 34 is passed to the network interface card 36 for transmission of the data.

Data from the building server 28 is transmitted to each elevator display unit 10 via a local area network 30 (shown as the portion enclosed by the dashed line). Specifically, data is sent over the copper twisted pair 38 using an ethernet network switch 40 that manages data transmission.

The system 1 has an important feature not discussed, namely its closed-loop nature. The advertisement is detected based on the image (i.e., the number of times the advertisement is viewed). Determining the number of images delivered by the system 1 requires feedback from the system of the results produced by the measurement of the occupancy of the elevator.

To provide feedback to the system 1, each elevator display unit 10 includes an occupancy detector 42 that detects the number of people that a particular elevator uses throughout the day at predetermined time intervals (e.g., 5 seconds). This data is aggregated on a per building basis, particularly during downtime, and uploaded to the production center 20 via the building server 28. The production center 20 uses the feedback information to account for and maintains a database 60 (shown in fig. 5) of the production center. Specifically, the feedback is used to update the advertising images that are still being displayed and to establish statistical transmission information for each building. This data is critical to the schedule and advertising sales process.

The occupancy detector 42 generates a pair of pulses with a sensor (not shown) as passengers enter or leave the elevator. For example, the sensor may be disposed within an elevator door. The pulse characteristics of the sensor determine whether a passenger enters or leaves the elevator. The occupancy detector 42 saves a count value of occupancy based on these sensor outputs. The computer 34 performs periodic sampling of the occupancy count value. Thus, each elevator display unit 10 generates a daily occupancy history that can be used in the advertising billing process.

Referring to fig. 4, under the control of the building server 28, the display 13 is displayed in sections, with specific types of information being displayed in specific areas of the display. The display 13 includes an advertisement banner portion 44 for displaying advertisements and other commercial information, and a "real-time" content portion 46 for displaying integrated information. The "live" content portion 46 may be divided into other portions (e.g., a snippet 50 of display information), one or more pictures 52 associated with the snippet, and a description of the picture 54. For example, as shown in the figure, the elevator passengers are provided with a special food for breakfast the day in the coffee shop at the headline section 44, e.g., the coffee shop is located at the first floor of the building 14. Meanwhile, news content of general interest is shown in the message excerpt portion 50, along with the associated picture 54.

As described above, the basic function of the production center 20 is to create and distribute elevator display data. The established elevator display data includes incorporating news, information, and advertisements to make a building specific display list 68. The display list is published through the internet 24.

Another important function of production center 20 is to manage and maintain the web site of system 1. The website administration building 14 and a central site where potential advertisers can obtain information related to advertising on the system. The user of the elevator can also enter the website to obtain auxiliary information relating to "real-time" information or advertising information displayed on display 13 in elevator 12. For example, a news story is used that may not remember the details of a particular advertisement (a featured dish for a restaurant in the building today), or that wants to learn more about the excerpt displayed on the "live" section 48.

Manufacturing center

Referring to FIG. 5, production center 20 includes a production center database 60, a scheduling module 62, a building loader 64, and a billing and database maintenance module 66. Generally, production center database 60 stores data relating to advertisements, "real-time" content, and building parameters.

Dispatch module 62 uses the database to generate a display list 68 for a building 14. As described above, the building display list 68 (shown in FIG. 5) functions as a menu for the building server 28 to create a full day of display images. The scheduling module 62 also provides useful advertising and content information that is communicated to the billing and database maintenance module 66, which module 66 generates cumulative billing and invoices 70 for each advertiser and "real-time" content provider. The cumulative bills and invoices 70 are also stored for later retrieval at the production center database 60.

Production center database

Production center database 60 includes three basic types of databases: 1) a characteristic of the building; 2) "real-time" content; 3) the content of the advertisement.

The resulting building characteristic data is used to establish a micro-demographic profile for the particular building. Establishing demographic demographics begins with the building construction process of its nature. The process of building property construction consists of three parts: the geographic location of the building-i.e., where the building is located (city, state, region, etc.); business category-the population of buildings is divided into business categories (banks, insurance, financial services, law, advertising, real estate, etc.); self-learning-once installed, the system is able to capture the characteristics of the building. Peak operating periods (often established as optimal time periods) and average elevator occupancy situations (important dispatch sections) are typical self-learning features.

The results of the property processing are stored as building property data in the production center database 60 for use in the scheduling process and include the information listed in table 1 below.

Name of building

<Code of building>

Building location	<Name of building><Street address><City, state post code>
		Management organization	<Name (R)><Name of building><Street address><City, state post code>
Managing an organization contact	<Name (I)><Telephone set>
		Population of buildings	<The number of users>
Classification of buildings	<Raw classification><Second order classification>
		Name of area	<Area code>
Local name	<Native code>
		Number of elevator displays	<Number of>
Number of restroom displays	<Number of>
		Working time of buildings	From<At a certain time of day>EST to<At a certain time of day>EST
Optimum period	From<At a certain time of day>EST to<At a certain time of day>EST
		Average occupancy rate of elevator	<Number of>
Website address	<IP address>
		Identity verification	<Identity verification code>
Subscription fee	<$ per month>
		Prioritizing real-time content	<Content listing>

TABLE 1

The results of the property processing are stored in the production center database 60. The formatting of this data is described in the building characteristics data section. Online information providers and advertisers establish connections between their target audience and buildings using specific audience demographics. The micro-demographics use the characteristics of the buildings to classify the advertisers into select buildings one by one, as shown in table 1, from which to determine the associations. The scheduling module maps advertisements to buildings through these associations, as described below.

As described above, the "real-time" information (i.e., the integrated information) is data that is merged with the advertising data, thereby generating elevator display data. To achieve this, the content of the "real-time" information must conform to a particular format that represents the segmented portions 44, 46 of the display 13 and describes the content 50, 52, 54 contained in these segments (as shown in FIG. 4).

For example, each "live" content source 22 (shown in FIG. 1), production center database 60 contains a description of the format type and locates each content segment within that format. The format determines the number of segments per entry. The positioning locations are illustrated by Universal Resource Locators (URLs). The database parameters maintained for each "real-time" content source are shown in table 2 below.

"real-time" content name	<RT code>
		Information source	<Name of supplier><Street address><City, state post code>
Information source contact	<Name (I)><Telephone set>
		Refresh interval	<Time>
Format name	<Format code>
		Content segment 1	<URL>
Content segmentation 2	<URL>
		Content segmentation N	<URL>

TABLE 2

The advertisement content data includes two parts. The first part defines when an advertisement must be displayed, where it is displayed, and for how long it is displayed. The second section describes where the ad was extracted from and how it was inserted into the display. First the displayed parameters are considered. Advertisers purchase advertising time at the cost of every thousand pictures (CPMs) in the system. Advertisers may further target specific populations by requiring advertisements to be distributed nationally, locally, or in specific commercial segments. In addition, the ad campaign may have time variations as well. For example, only two weeks may be advertised and required to be displayed at 10 am to 1 pm of each day. These contents constitute the parameters of the advertisement run. It is equally important what the actual advertising content is, how it is integrated with the system, and how it is displayed. The parameters that describe this information are content parameters, which include ad locator and format type. The database parameters maintained for each advertising content source are shown in table 3 below.

Advertisement content name	<Advertisement code>
		Information source	<Name of supplier><Street address><City, state post code>
Information source contact	<Name (I)><Telephone set>
		Untransmitted image	<Number of>
CPM	<$>
		Date of advertisement start	<Date>
Date of advertisement end	<Date>
		Statistical population selector	<Micro demographics>
Optimum time requirement	<Percentage of advertisement display time>
		Time of flight	<Start time-end time>
Advertising format	<Format code>
		Advertisement positioner	<URL>

TABLE 3

Scheduling module

The scheduling module 62 may be provided with the primary function of building a building display list by generating advertising content and "real-time" content from the production center database 60 and merging these together.

Referring to FIG. 6, scheduling module 62 performs a first analysis step (100) to determine which buildings are likely to be targeted for each advertisement in production center database 60. The scheduling module 62 utilizes information provided by the advertiser in a manner that automatically requests a login process to generate an initial list 72 of buildings and advertisements that may be paired with them. Advertisers use the web site of the production center to perform the registration process, and the web site can provide an electronic registration format which enables the advertisers to register the required information, and the advertisement information needs to be published according to the schedule so as to be seen by the target demographic and business population. Alternatively, the advertiser may provide the relevant information through a telephone meeting, an application form, or a third party representative. The initial list 72 may be further pruned at the second analysis step (102) using auxiliary criteria such as advertisement start/end date, optimal time requirements, delivery time, and image parameters. The result of these analysis steps is the generation of a specific list 68 of advertising buildings that illustrates the advertisements and the time intervals during which they may be displayed.

Next, by connecting building characterization data (see Table 1) to the buildings (104), scheduling module 62 may take "real-time" content preferences for each building as a starting point. With this information, a "real-time" building-specific list 76 of "real-time" content may be generated.

Using the advertising content and "real-time" content assigned to the building, scheduling module 62 merges lists 74 and 76 together to generate a building display list 68 (106). Specifically, in merging the advertising content and the "real-time" content for each building 14, the scheduling module 62 may consider the format of the content, the time interval, and the advertising dissemination. The time intervals and advertisement propagation are considered first because they determine when the advertisements are displayed and what "real-time" content is displayed with the advertisements. The "real-time" content is displayed at regular intervals (e.g., every 30 seconds). Thus, scheduling module 62 will first deposit the "real-time" content.

The display schedule of the advertisement is subject to the propagation conditions and occupancy. In terms of effectively propagating a particular advertisement, the situation that a network user goes to work or goes out of work is always an important propagation condition. For example, most people arrive at the office, eat lunch, and leave the office at the same time every day within 30 minutes. Thus, for any given building, scheduling module 62 will ensure that the same advertisement displayed the previous day is not redisplayed within this 30 minutes. The result is that the advertisement is spread relatively evenly across the demographic range of the building. Ad occupancy is another important condition. The advertisement may be rotated quickly (e.g., once every 15 seconds). However, in case the advertisement schedule is not completely full, the system 1 will rotate the same advertisement fixedly or some advertisements with limited rotation. This can be tedious for elevator passengers. To reduce this potential annoyance, scheduling module 62 extends the display period of each advertisement, making this transition less noticeable.

Once the advertising content and "real-time" content are defined for each time slot, scheduling module 62 creates a display. The format of the advertisements and the "real-time" content is important because the format can determine which template to select for full display. As mentioned above, advertisements and "real-time" content must comply with a range of predefined formats. Once they are merged together, they are placed into a frame. The frame represents the template from which the final display is generated. Since the format of the content may vary, the scheduling module 62 selects the appropriate frame types to merge them. The number of content formats needs to be intentionally limited to simplify the merging process. With the information for the determined time slot and frame type, dispatch module 62 may build building display list 68.

Referring to FIG. 7, a format of a building display list 68 for managing a collection of "real-time" content and advertising content is shown. Display list 68 includes a "real-time" content portion 80 that is generated directly from the "real-time" data within production center database 60 and determines the refresh period of the "real-time" content. The display list 68 also includes an advertising content section 82 that defines the time and frame type for the advertising content.

Referring to fig. 5, production center 20 also includes a building loader 64 that serves as an interface between production center 20 and building 14 within system 1. This provides a cost effective and widespread mechanism for communicating with buildings over the internet 24. Unfortunately, the internet 24 is also a potentially degrading system channel. In view of this risk, the system 1 is designed to require each building server 28 to request information from the production center 20, rather than having the production center 20 disseminate data. The building loader 64 performs a verification process to ensure that the request is made from a server associated with the system 1 and that the request is recognized by the system 1 so that each building requests a display list. The display list is encrypted by the building loader 64 prior to propagation to further protect the information from potential corruption.

Billing and database maintenance module

Billing and database maintenance are also critical to the closed loop nature of the system 1. As described above, the scheduling module 62 generates a building display list based on the demographic parameters and the statistical probabilities that a large number of advertisement images are generated within a particular building at a given time. To form a closed loop system, elevator occupancy information for each building 14 is accumulated on a daily basis. This allows the system 1 to adapt to changes in building characteristics to better spread advertising and content. The billing and database maintenance module 66 is used to provide such feedback to the system 1. The two operations, billing and database maintenance, are in the same process, but produce different outputs. The feedback process involves overlaying the building display list 68 onto the number of building occupancies. From this process, the actual number of images for each advertisement may be calculated. The billing operation uses this information to create advertiser reports and invoices 70. The database maintenance operation uses this data to update the images of each advertisement that has not yet been delivered in production center database 60. That is, the number of "untransmitted images" (see table 3) is changed. In addition, the billing and database maintenance module 66 will further alter the building occupancy to alter the building characteristic data. For example, the billing and database maintenance module 66 may change the field labels "building hours of operation," "optimal time period," and "average occupancy of elevator" (see table 1). The important feedback here is to define the dead zone (time with only a few elevator passengers), the peak viewing period, and the average occupancy of the elevator. These are important parameters used by the scheduling module 62 in the scheduling process.

Building server

Generally, the building server 28 interfaces with the production center 20, stores advertisements and "real-time" content, causes elevator displays to be displayed, and manages the local area network 30.

Referring to FIG. 8, the building server 28 includes a production center/WAN (PCWAN) interface 90 that is responsible for communicating with the production center 20 and the Internet 24. As described above, each building 14 receives a display list 68 from the production center 20, which list defines the display content and time intervals. The internet 24 is used to collect "real-time" content and to deliver advertising information. The "real-time" output from the interface 90 is stored to a local "real-time" database 92, while the advertisement output extracted from the internet 24 is stored to an advertisement database 94. These represent local copies of information extracted via the internet 24. The local copy is saved to avoid potential failures that would effectively prohibit the production of high performance display images, including, for example, image vitality, image fluency, and cinematic effects. The database update operation is performed as needed for the building display list definition.

The compilation and display of content is performed by a display generator/lan (dglan) interface 96 that interprets building display lists and compiles specific content. As a result, an HTML document is generated which is supplied to each elevator display unit 10 via the local area network 30.

Building server 28 also includes an occupancy database 98 for storing information regarding the occupancy of individual elevators 12 within the building.

Manufacturing center/WAN interface

Referring to FIG. 9, a PCWAN interface 90 manages the interaction with the Internet 24. Interaction with Wide Area Networks (WANs) typically begins with buildings in order to increase security within the system. PCWAN interface 90 includes a display list parser 110 that performs a conversion task to establish local benchmarks for advertising and "real-time" content. Conversion is necessary because all of the content displayed within the building 14 is stored locally within the databases 92, 94. Thus, the WAN-based URLs contained in the initial display list are invalidated. The analysis program 110 also interacts with an ad content accumulator 112. Since the advertisements are stored locally in the building, an accumulation process must be performed to establish local storage. The parser 110 initiates the accumulation of advertisements once it determines that the display list contains advertisements that are not available in the current advertisement content database. The accumulator function will interact with the WAN, extract the missing information, and store the information to the database. For local URL return of advertisements, the parser 110 writes data to a local building list. Similar operations are performed for "real-time" content. However, in this case, the refresh operation is performed according to the refresh cycle. A refresh period for "real-time" content is defined within the building display list. The display list parser 110 passes the refresh period, the WAN-based URL, and the "real-time" database address to the "real-time" agent module 116. The agent module 116 adjusts the refresh period and interacts with the WAN interface controller 109 to extract "real-time" content. The content is stored according to a locator provided by the analysis program 110.

Display generator/LAN interface

Referring to FIG. 10, the generator/LAN (DGLAN) interface 96 is shown performing two different operations; 1) assembly and transmission of displays; 2) occupancy data is collected.

For the second step in these operations, the calculation of occupancy plays a very important role in the system. Ads are measured in price per 1000 visual impressions increments. The effect of a person being advertised is defined as a visual impression. In system 1, the display of the advertisement occurs within elevator 12. To determine the number of advertising visual impressions displayed using the system 1, a method of measuring elevator occupancy is needed. DGLAN interface 96 accumulates the information measured from each elevator to build an occupancy database for each building 14. The occupancy accumulator 130 extracts measurement data from each elevator during system shutdown (typically at the end of the day). This information provides elevator occupancy at fixed intervals throughout the day. Occupancy accumulator 130 aggregates this information into a separate list that is transmitted to production center 20 for billing.

Display assembly and transmission is the primary function of DGLAN interface 96. The display assembly is controlled by a local building display list 114 which uses the same format as the building list 68 shown in figure 5, except that the "real time" control parameters are deleted and all content locators (e.g., URLs) are replaced by locally equivalent components. DGLAN interface 96 includes a display format analysis program 120 and a display assembly program 122. The display format parser 120 builds a display frame using Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). HTML is widely used on the internet 24, can produce display information, and is readily understood by modern browsing techniques. Once provided, the display format parser 120 generates an HTML template that is used to create the actual display content. The local building display list defines a frame type. The display parser 120 interprets the frame type and generates an HTML file that describes the physical properties of the display. These attributes include absolute position, size, and bounds of each content segment. The template has no pointers to these content segments. The content segment pointer is generated by the display assembler 122.

The display assembler 122 applies the final phase of the display generation cycle. The assembly of the display is started according to the time interval defined in the display list. Each display is assembled and transmitted to the display server 124 as defined by the time indicator. The display assembler 122 parses the HTML template generated by the display format parser 120 to find the boundaries of the content segments. The template will conform to the boundaries of the content segments illustrated in the display list 114. As a result, the display assembler 122 inserts a positioning pointer for each content segment. Once the pointer for each content segment is inserted, the HTML file is ready for transmission to the elevator display unit 10.

The elevator display unit 10 is connected to the building server 28 via a local area network 30. The display server 124 manages the local area network by extracting HTML files from the display assembler 122, as well as "real-time" and advertising content described by the HTML. The display server 124 then converts the timing data into a display format compatible with the elevator display unit 10, encapsulates the file transfer protocol and the converted data, and transmits the encapsulated data to the gateway 40 (shown in fig. 3) for dissemination. The task of extracting data from the display assembler 122 creates more difficulty because the distance separating the elevator display unit 11 from the building server 28 is too large (e.g., greater than 1500 feet).

Referring to fig. 11, the display server 124 and the elevator display unit 10 form a network master/display pair, with the elevator display 13 being merely an extension of the server display. The THML file is interpreted by a browser 136 (e.g., Internet Explorer 4.0, a product of Microsoft corporation). A browser 136 within an operating system (such as Microsoft windows nt, manufactured by Microsoft corporation) used by the building server 28 interacts with a display driver 138 to communicate with the hardware associated with the display 13. The display data is extracted by the translator 140 which again aligns the data to the elevator display unit 10 and display 13. This data is stored locally to the server 28, reducing the effect of browser refresh delay. The network protocol encapsulation software module 42 extracts the data from the cache and adds to the TCP/IP communication layer. The encapsulated data is passed to the network interface and transmitted to the LAN through gateway 30 (shown in figure 3).

Further embodiments are supported by the following claims. The propagation channel used by the above-described information propagation system 1 is, for example, the internet 24. The internet, or "network," provides a growing, existing infrastructure for obtaining information and establishing communications between computers. However, the information dissemination system 1 may also be implemented using other channels including cable modem, satellite, XDSL.

As discussed above in connection with fig. 4, twisted pairs 38 may be replaced with other types of propagation media including fiber optics, coaxial cable, RF transmission. Also, in certain applications, the ethernet connection in the local area network 30 of fig. 3 may be replaced with an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL).

Building Owner Manager (BOM) interface

The information dissemination system 1 as described above represented in fig. 1 comprises a production centre 20 which interacts with a building server 28 to convert the image combining the advertising and general information for display on the elevator display unit 10. As described above, the system 1 also enables building owners and managers to communicate with occupants of a building. This capability is provided to the building manager through a Building Owner Manager (BOM) interface, as will be described immediately below.

For example, referring to FIG. 12, a BOM interface 200 is shown that includes a BOM interface (BOMGUI)202 that communicates with one or more building subsystems 204 over propagation channel 24. The illustrated building subsystem 204 includes the building server 28, the building LAN30, and a building display unit 206 including the elevator display unit 10 installed in the elevator 12. As shown in fig. 1, the propagation channel 24 may be represented by a device such as the internet 24. In this case, the illustrated propagation channel 24 includes other connections, such as direct or indirect connections through a public building LAN 208, a dial-up modem 210, and an internet service provider 209. It is important to note the distinction between the common building LAN 208 and the building LAN30 of the building subsystem 204. Specifically, the public building LAN 208 represents the building manager's own local area network for intra-office communications. On the other hand, the building LAN30 is a private local area network, and is exclusively used only for the information dissemination system 1.

Generally, BOM interface 200 enables a building manager to transmit information to a building resident, who may view the information on display unit 10 installed in elevator 12, as well as other displays 206 installed throughout the building. The information generated using BOMGUI 200 is consolidated at the building server without interaction with production center 20. Thus, the building manager can control the generation and dissemination of information and can quickly modify the information.

There are many types of information that may be conveyed using BOM interface 200, such as:

emergency information including fire alarm test, parking garage closing, building operation time change and specific building operation information;

special events, such as: holiday scheduling, activities within the building;

features/services of new buildings, including health clubs, cafeterias equipment, parking lots, coffee shops, florists;

public address/emergency information including indication of passengers riding in an elevator, storm warning, fire message;

advertising messages such as available room announcements, regulatory agencies, and descriptions of their functions.

BOM user interface (BOMGUI)

BOMGUI 200 represents the user portion of BOM interface 200 for providing a building manager with an operating environment to create, modify, and send messages to display units from virtually any of a variety of connected components from virtually any location in the world.

Referring to fig. 13, the BOMGUI 200 defines a message structure and format using a template 212. The template 212 is based on HTML to provide a variable, rich environment for its upgrades. In one embodiment, the template 212 fits into a 640 by 480 format with a remark field <! -information text- >, the remark field inserted at the placement of the information. The information to fill the selection template is text-registered using the BOMGUI 202. The provided text entry fields may use tabs, carriage returns, spaces, and general text information.

BOMGUI202 may also be able to enter a completed html file. This allows building owners and managers to create special announcements and display them on the information system without having to use the template structure discussed immediately above.

Creation of information

The information building process needs to fill every area of the template. Inside BOMGUI202, this is done in one of two ways. The first approach utilizes an information building wizard that guides the user through each step of the information building process by prompting for input of the content to be entered as the user fills each area. The second method uses an information log-in format generated by the wizard and pre-stored as the information establishing mode. This format contains all the information areas that the user has to fill in and typically edits the existing information. With both approaches, the result of the login process is valid information that can be displayed on the system. BOMGUI202 converts this information from template 212 into a file that can be read and displayed on the system display unit.

As described below, BOMGUI202 includes an analysis program for analyzing the selected template file. A first set of analysis programs searches for a remark field <! -information text- - >. Once the region is located, the second set of parsers manipulate the message text, converting the message into HTML format. The result is an HTML file named < info name >. htm. These files are transmitted to the building server 28 for display on the system. BOMGUI202 may also enable the supervisor to pre-view information prior to display on other displays within the elevator or within the building. This process is repeated for each message created by BOMGUI 202.

Building of BOM display list

BOMGUI202 may enable a building manager to create a plurality of information displayed within a building. This information may be ordered to be displayed or disseminated simultaneously throughout the week/month/year.

Referring to FIG. 14, the BOM display list 220 includes a series of building information 221, each of which includes the following: start date, stop date, display period of one day, information template, and information text. The start and stop dates determine when the information is first displayed by the system and when it exits from the system. The period during which information is displayed during a day may also be selected within BOMGUI 202. In one embodiment, a day is divided into four periods, namely, a morning period, a Lunch Time (LT) period, an afternoon period, and a Sleep (SLP) period. These periods represent time slots within a day and are programmable by the system. For example, the morning hours may be defined as from 6 am to 11 am of each day. The building manager may choose a particular time period for the display of information or choose to have such information displayed throughout the day. Thus, the BOM display list 220 defines a time period, i.e., when each message is displayed, for how long (e.g., one month, one year). The format of BOM display list 220 is similar to building display list 68 created by production center 20, described above in connection with fig. 5-9. However, BOM display list 220 includes additional start and stop regions.

The BOM display list 220 is created using BOMGUI202 and is generated by outputting file information separately through each HTML so that the period of the day and the start and stop dates can be determined. The period of the day is used to define which time period the information will occur. The start and stop dates are converted directly to the BOM display list format. For example, the sample BOM display list in fig. 14 indicates that the ordering of BOM _ message.htm is displayed only during the morning hours between day 12 of month 6 98 and day 13 of month 6 98, and the ordering of BOM _ message.htm is displayed all day between day 12 of month 6 98 and day 14 of month 6 98. As described above, BOMGUI202 may enable a building manager to send information to a display from any physically present place in the world. This can be done in most computers today using popular LAN and WAN technologies. BOMGUI202 includes a connection setup menu. The connection setup menu may enable the user to define the method of interacting with the building subsystems via the propagation channel 24. With the setup menu, the user may set up multiple channels to send information to the building subsystem 204. For example, if resident within a building, a building manager may send information over the public building LAN 208. The same building manager can also use BOM interface 200 to send information to the system from a remote location through the connection of a dial-up modem 210 or Internet Service Provider (ISP) 209. In each case, the building manager will simply define the connection information within BOMGUI202, store the information, and then select the appropriate connection each time the information is sent. BOMGUI202 automatically establishes the connection, sends the message, and disconnects the connection when the message is sent.

Building subsystem

As described above in connection with FIG. 9, BOM interface 200 analyzes the BOM display list using a BOM display list analysis program in a manner similar to that used by display list analysis program 110 to analyze building display list 68. Specifically, display list parser 110 converts BOM display list 220 to establish a local reference for advertising or "real-time" content.

The BOM interface 200 is also configured to allow a building owner and building manager to establish and communicate information to one or more specific elevator display units 10 via the building server 28 and building LAN 30. This flexibility is particularly useful, for example, for providing an indication to elevator passengers in a stopped elevator. Thus, the building manager can maintain communication with passengers in the off-going elevators without surprising passengers in other elevators.

In some embodiments, the BOM interface works in conjunction with the production center/WAN interface 90 described above in connection with FIG. 9.

Display list analysis/design

Referring to FIG. 15, in this case, the local building display list analysis function of the building server 28 must be altered to receive information from the display list compiled by the production center 20 and the BOM display list 220.

As described above in connection with fig. 9, absent a BOM interface, the display list parser 110 operates to remap URLs to the building database. With the addition of the BOM interface, the display list parser 222 must perform remapping and interleaving operations.

Referring to FIG. 16, the display list analyzer 222 may be initialized 230 by updating the Production Center (PC) building display list 68 or the BOM display list 232. If neither display list has been updated, the analysis program 222 waits for a predetermined period of time and then makes a query to determine a change in the updated status of the display list. On the other hand, if both display lists have been updated, the parser 222 then queries whether the PC display list 68 has been updated (234). The PC building display list 68 represents a base version of the local building display list 114. That is, the local building display list 114 is derived from a starting point established from the PC building display list 68. If the PC building display list has been updated, parser 222 performs a re-mapping of the URL as described above with reference to FIG. 9, and parser 222 performs a second pass to cross-place the information of BOM display list 220 into the updated PC building display list 68 (238).

In another application, the BOM interface 200 is used by a building manager alone as a means of communicating with its residents without any interaction with the production center. In these applications, there is no PC display list inside the BOM display list intersection. Thus, referring to FIG. 16, display list parser 222 may simply determine whether the BOM display list has been updated (232) and generate local building display list 114 from BOM display list 220 alone.

The purpose of the crossover function is to insert a set number of building manager messages per minute during a given time period using a priority scheme that cycles sequentially. The number of messages inserted per minute can be designed from 0 to all available gaps. Of course, prior to inserting the information, the analysis program 222 will verify that the current time and data falls within the range of the start-stop date and time period parameters of the information.

An embodiment will help illustrate how the parser 222 works, assuming the building manager has created and downloaded the BOM display list shown in fig. 14 via BOMGUI (202). If the current date is 98 years, 6 months, 12 days, and the gap per minute is 1, the analysis program generates a local display list 114 as shown in FIG. 17.

Note that during the morning hours, bom _ message.htm and bom _ message2.htm are interleaved into the PC display list 68, and also that these information are changed in a "sequential loop" fashion during the morning hours. In the LT, PM, and SLP periods, only bom _ message2.btm is displayed. This information appears every minute during this period.

Information storage/transmission

Unlike the production centric channel for content assembly described above in connection with FIG. 10, the pages created by BOMGUI202 need not be updated with building subsystems. However, the composition of the page of advertisements will be automatically assembled within the building.

Referring to fig. 18, BOMGUI202 stores the information file to BOM information memory 240. While the display assembler 122 interprets the local building display list, it also looks up all the building information in the BOM information store. Advertisements associated with information are defined by the display list and inserted by the display assembler 122 before delivery to the display server 124.

In an embodiment, the building subsystem interfaces with the production center 20 and a dial-up modem is typically used to establish the connection. To add functionality to the BOM interface, the system 1 may be configured with a network card to interact with the private building LAN 30. If the physical connection of the BOM interface is through the dial-up modem 210 and the ISP209, a single modem interface is sufficient. This can be done by running software at BOMGUI202 and the production center. The fabrication center performs a retry to multiply the data. Resulting in reduced hardware equipment.

Security for BOM interfaces

BOM interface 200 is a direct access to information system 1. Thus, security for such interfaces is important to ensure that inappropriate and unauthorized applications are not allowed. The steps of system security may be performed in three layers, BOMGUI password protection, secure connection, and password/access protection provided on the building subsystems. BOMGUI202 performs a username and password checking process before invoking the user interface. The password and username are encrypted and stored in a protected file, and only individuals with top level privileges are allowed to manage this information. At the physical connection level, the channel name and dialing feature are encrypted and only authorized persons can access them. Finally, the building subsystem 204 provides two layers of protection. The username and password are first verified against the information of each requesting system, which ensures that the security monitor of the system 1 knows all the allowed users. Second, the BOM information is maintained as a separate part on the building server 28. This ensures that users not authorized by the system are prevented from accessing other functions unrelated to the system. All three of these approaches can make it very difficult for any unauthorized user to access the system.

Other embodiments are also included in the claims.

Claims (27)

1. An elevator display system for providing video information to elevators in a plurality of buildings, the elevator display system comprising:

an elevator display unit having a display monitor located within an elevator to display video information to passengers within the elevator;

a plurality of building servers, each building server located within one of the plurality of buildings, each building server retrieving at least one of the following information:

scheduling information on the data communication channel; and

the information on the address is disclosed and,

wherein each building server generates a display list containing information that causes the elevator display unit to display video information a predetermined number of times in accordance with the scheduling information.

2. The elevator display system of claim 1, wherein the public address information is related to a building displaying the public address information.

3. The elevator display system of claim 2 wherein the public address information relates to an emergency situation within a building in which the public address information is displayed.

4. The elevator display system of claim 3 wherein the public address information includes an indication to a passenger within an elevator displaying the public address information.

5. The elevator display system of claim 4 wherein the channel for data communication is the internet.

6. An elevator display system for use in an elevator in a building, the elevator display system comprising:

an elevator display unit having a display monitor, the elevator display unit being disposed within the elevator to display video information to passengers within the elevator; and

and a local server which receives scheduling information associated with the video information through the data communication channel and generates a display list for displaying the video information on the elevator display unit at predetermined times according to the scheduling information.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a user interface for generating scheduling information received by the local server.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the video information comprises a text message and the display list comprises:

a start date of a text message displayed on the display monitor;

an expiration date of the text message displayed on the display monitor; and

representing a time period of the part of the day during which the text message is displayed on the display monitor.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the text message is in HTML format.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the user interface is remote from the local server and communicates with the local server via a data communication channel.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the data communication channel is the internet.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the data communication channel is a dial-up modem.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the data communication channel is a local area network.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the display list is a building operations display list, and wherein the visual information and the schedule information used to generate the building operations display list relate to building operations.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the local server further receives a production server display list associated with the general information and the commercial information for display on the display unit from a production server remote from the local server through a data communication network.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the local server includes an analysis program that generates a local building display list from the production server display list and building operations display list.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a production server generating the production server display list associated with the integrated information and the business information.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the production server comprises:

a production server database for storing data relating to the building, data relating to the integrated information, and data relating to the business information; and

a scheduling module that extracts data from the production server database and generates additional scheduling information.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the data related to the general information and the data related to the business information comprise addresses from which the general information and the business information can be extracted through the data communication channel, respectively.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the production server further comprises a building loader interface through which data can be transmitted between the production server and the local server; the building loader interface encrypts data transmitted between the production server and the local server and verifies that the local server is system-related.

21. A method of displaying video information on an elevator display unit, the method comprising:

providing scheduling information related to video information to be displayed to a local server;

generating a display list related to the video information from scheduling information; and

display contents for viewing the video information on the elevator display unit are generated a predetermined number of times in accordance with the schedule information.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the generating of the elevator display list is accomplished with a graphical user interface.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the video information comprises a text message, and the scheduling information comprises:

a start date of a text message displayed on the display monitor;

an expiration date of the text message displayed on the display monitor; and

representing a time period of the part of the day during which the text message is displayed on the display monitor.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the user interface is remote from the local server and communicates with the local server via a data communication channel.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the display list is a building operations display list, the visual information and the scheduling information being used to generate the building operations display list related to building operations.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of providing scheduling information related to the video information to be displayed to the local server further comprises receiving, at the local server, a production server display list associated with the general information and the commercial information for display on the display unit from a production server remote from the local server through a data communication network.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein generating a display list comprises analyzing a local building display list from the production server display list and the building operations display list.