Systems and methods for providing in-application messaging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11082380-B2
Application number	US-201916539703-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 13, 2019
Priority date	May 24, 2019
Publication date	Aug 3, 2021
Grant date	Aug 3, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods presented herein provide an in-application messaging system that includes an audio generation system configured to encode at least one audio watermark within an audio signal, and to broadcast the audio signal into a physical environment. The in-application messaging system also includes a portable electronic device configured to receive the audio signal from the physical environment, to identify the at least one audio watermark encoded within the audio signal, and to display in-application messaging information via an application running on the portable electronic device. The in-application messaging information is based at least in part on the at least one audio watermark.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An in-application messaging system, comprising:
an audio generation system configured to encode at least one audio watermark within an audio signal generated for a cinematic presentation of an attraction of an amusement park, and to broadcast the audio signal into a physical environment of the amusement park; and
a portable electronic device configured to receive the audio signal from the physical environment of the amusement park, to identify the at least one audio watermark encoded within the audio signal, and to display in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction via an application running on the portable electronic device during the cinematic presentation of the attraction, wherein the in-application messaging information is based at least in part on the at least one audio watermark, and wherein the in-application messaging information supplements the cinematic presentation of the attraction.

2. The in-application messaging system of claim 1 , wherein the portable electronic device is configured to determine the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction based at least in part on the at least one audio watermark.

3. The in-application messaging system of claim 2 , wherein the portable electronic device is configured to access the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction from a computer-readable memory medium of the portable electronic device.

4. The in-application messaging system of claim 2 , wherein the portable electronic device is configured to wirelessly access the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction from the audio generation system.

5. The in-application messaging system of claim 1 , wherein the portable electronic device is configured to transmit a signal indicative of the at least one audio watermark to the audio generation system, and wherein the audio generation system is configured to determine the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction based at least in part on the signal received from the portable electronic device, and to transmit the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction to the portable electronic device.

6. The in-application messaging system of claim 5 , wherein the audio generation system is configured to transmit a control signal to the portable electronic device to launch the application in response to determination of the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction.

7. The in-application messaging system of claim 1 , comprising:
a video generation system configured to encode at least one video watermark within a video signal generated for the cinematic presentation of the attraction, and to broadcast the video signal into the physical environment of the amusement park, wherein the portable electronic device is configured to receive the video signal from the physical environment of the amusement park, and to identify the at least one video watermark encoded within the video signal, wherein the in-application messaging information is based at least in part on the at least one video watermark.

8. The in-application messaging system of claim 1 , wherein the portable electronic device is configured to identify the at least one audio watermark using spread spectrum audio watermarking algorithms, low bit audio watermarking algorithms, phase coding audio watermarking algorithms, echo hiding audio watermarking algorithms, time scale modification audio watermarking algorithms, amplitude modification audio watermarking algorithms, replica modulation audio watermarking algorithms, dither audio watermarking algorithms, self-marking audio watermarking algorithms, or some combination thereof.

9. The in-application messaging system of claim 1 , wherein the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction comprises closed captioning information, open captioning information, live captioning information, multilingual translation information, guided tour information, hidden secret information, or some combination thereof.

10. A portable electronic device, comprising:
one or more audio sensors configured to detect an audio signal broadcast into a physical environment of an amusement park as part of a cinematic presentation of an attraction of the amusement park; and
processing circuitry configured to identify at least one audio watermark encoded within the audio signal, and to cause a display of the portable electronic device to display in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction based at least in part on the at least one audio watermark during the cinematic presentation of the attraction, wherein the in-application messaging information supplements the cinematic presentation of the attraction.

11. The portable electronic device of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction based at least in part on the at least one audio watermark.

12. The portable electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to access the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction from a computer-readable memory medium of the portable electronic device.

13. The portable electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to wirelessly access the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction from a computer-readable memory medium separate from the portable electronic device.

14. The portable electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to launch an application in response to identification of the at least one audio watermark.

15. The portable electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the one or more audio sensors is configured to detect the audio signal by passively listening for the audio signal.

16. The portable electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the one or more audio sensors is configured to detect the audio signal by actively requesting the audio signal based at least in part on a user input received via an input device of the portable electronic device.

17. The portable electronic device of claim 11 , comprising at least one camera configured to capture video, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to cause the display of the portable electronic device to display the video in conjunction with the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction.

18. The portable electronic device of claim 11 , comprising at least one camera configured to receive a video signal broadcast into the physical environment of the amusement park as part of the cinematic presentation of the attraction, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to identify at least one video watermark encoded within the video signal, and to cause the display of the portable electronic device to display the in-application messaging information relating to the cinematic presentation of the attraction based at least in part on the video watermark.

19. The portable electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to identify the

Assignees

• Universal City Studios Llc

Inventors

• Linguanti Nicholas Anthony
• Humphreys Kimberly Anne
• Kam Humberto Augusto

Classifications

• G06F9/546 Primary

  Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues · CPC title

• H04L51/18 Primary

  Commands or executable codes · CPC title

• H04H2201/50

  characterised by the use of watermarks · CPC title

• H04H60/64

  for providing detail information · CPC title

• H04H60/58 Primary

  of audio {(determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00)} · CPC title