A time/location information delivery system that provides focused advertising
and/or
other information to individuals based on the time and their location. A wireless
identification device is carried by an individual and can be read from or written
to when the individual passes by interrogators in a specific geographic location.
The detectors read ID information embedded in the wireless identification device.
A computer uses the ID and location information to select, from a list of information
providers, those information providers which provide information content identifiable
or correlated to a location and/or time, and is of interest to the individual.
The information content can be forwarded to the individual by a variety of information
channels. One channel uses conventional Internet email to deliver advertisements
and other information to the individual's Internet mailbox. The email can be delivered
to a conventional PC, a portable computer, a PDA, an intelligent telephone, pager
or other suitable device. For ease of discussion, a pager and a PDA will be referred
to collectively as a PDA. The wireless identification device can be an RFID tag
embedded in a card, or even a wireless telephone. The RFID tag is read or written
to by fixed interrogators and the location of the wireless telephone is detected
by triangulating information from cell towers or by embedding the GPS receiver
in the wireless telephone thereby providing the location information directly from
the telephone. Of course, other nearly identical location determination means,
such as quadrangulation could also be used. The location determination can be performed
through similar means with other devices such as PDAs, laptops, pagers, etc.
