NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[krays]

I strongly recommend that everyone takes a little time to read this patent application. Originally filed in the US but not yet published here. We may be more at the center of the PWC universe than we could have imagined with just the 048 patent. Is this what is really going on with the Neustar initiative??

BACKGROUND ART

Various companies are in the process of developing and deploying systems designed to allow end users to perform operations via client devices (also called access points) such as mobile phones, triggered by reading machine-readable codes such as linear (ID) and two-dimensional (2D) barcodes. For the purposes of this specification, such systems are referred to generally as messaging systems (and in the case of barcode scanning as Optical Messaging Systems (OMS) ) . Some examples of the operations that might be triggered by a machine-readable code include, but are not limited to:

• Launching a web browser to a particular URL

• Dialing a telephone number • Sending an SMS

• Displaying a coupon

Certain classes of barcodes and their corresponding

operations can be properly performed by any access point that is capable of reading the particular barcode. An example of this might be a full URL that is encoded into a 2D barcode such as a DATAMATRIX code. Any access point that is capable of reading this barcode and extracting the URL would then be capable of launching a web browser to that address. For the purposes of this specification, we refer to these as direct or unmanaged codes.

Other classes of barcodes cannot be processed without the involvement of processes or services not resident on the access point. Where the internal encoding of the barcode data is proprietary, and/or where the data requires interaction with a server-based database in order to complete the operation, an interchange with the issuing OMS is required in order to properly complete the operation intended. For the purposes of this specification, we refer to these as indirect or managed codes.

As OMS systems become more ubiquitous and widely deployed, it is likely that situations will arise in which an access point developed by Company A will be employed by users to read Managed Codes issued by Company B. Because of the requirement for the involvement of Company B' s infrastructure, without some interface between this infrastructure and Company A' s access point (s), such codes will not be able to be processed.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a methodology and system for providing interoperability between and amongst various disparate messaging systems.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a message interchange system that provides a method via which individual messaging systems can collaborate and interoperate in order to allow each system to extend support to codes of the other systems.

Specifically, the system of the present invention is designed to allow a messaging system which receives a foreign code (i.e. not a code native to that OMS) to submit that code to the messaging interchange system for identification and correct routing information or to redirect the code to the correct messaging system (e.g.) resolution server. The messaging interchange system takes the responsibility for determining the correct owner of the code, providing routing information back to the home (originating) messaging system or routing the request to the destination messaging system (the owning messaging system) , and returning an indication of the function that is to be performed back to the home messaging system via a standardized protocol. The home messaging system can then translate this information into its own internal formats, and arrange for the intended operation to be performed for the user.

The net effect of this is that, assuming Company A and Company B support each other's barcode symbologies, codes produced by Company B' s messaging system can be transparently read and serviced by Company A' s access points (and vice versa) , thus extending the reach and interoperability of both companies, vastly improving the end user experience, thereby facilitating market adoption of messaging systems and services as a whole.


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