Systems, methods, and apparatus for the purchase of and/or free sampling of products. The systems, methods, and/or apparatus may permit push notifications of purchased products and/or free product samples being available and may permit the use of mobile devices and/or mobile device applications to be used to purchase products or dispense free samples of products via a product dispenser or vending machine.

Parking validation systems and methods are disclosed for managing parking events and providing a merchant the ability to validate parking for their customer. A network of intelligent parking meters is networked with a central control computer system. The merchant sets up a validation account. The merchant can set alterable parameters of their account. The parker can scan a QR code, provided by a merchant, using a mobile parking application or can scan a parking coupon at the parking meter or kiosk. The merchant's point of sale system in other embodiments can interface with the central computer over the network to validate the parking of a customer of that merchant. The merchant's validation account is debited the validation amount.

A computerized information and display apparatus useful for providing information to a user via a display. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a processor apparatus, touch screen input and display device, and speech input apparatus, and at least one computer program configured to run on the processor apparatus, the at least one program being configured to enable an user to intuitively operate the apparatus to rapidly converge on a desired organization or entity which they wish to locate, via speech input of only a name or a part of a name. The information and display apparatus is particularly useful in time-pressured mobile transport vehicle environments, and when the user is unfamiliar with the operation of the apparatus.

Confusion between service providers due to the technical limitation of a GPS sensor included in a wireless communication device of a service user is avoided. A data transmission device connected to a server and for transmitting visit data to a wireless communication device is disclosed. The data transmission device may include a button part, when pressed, for transmitting to the server visit data of the wireless communication device; and touch screen touching parts connected to the button part so as to input an electrical signal to a touch screen of the wireless communication device. The visit data may be transmitted to the wireless communication device from the server when the button is pressed and an electric signal is input to the touch screen. The at least one touch screen touching part may include a plurality of touch screen touching parts, and each of the data transmission devices in a predetermined area may have different layouts of the touch screen touching parts.

A method includes receiving a map indicating a layout of a location, receiving a point-of-interest (POI) data structure representing a POI, and POI metadata associated with the POI, generating an annotated floor map, based on the map, the annotated floor map including a POI indicator placed on the map at the location of the POI, the POI indicator indicating the type of the POI and the status of the POI, displaying at least a portion of the annotated floor map, in response to the client computing device moving within the location or out of the location, transmitting location information to a map selector and receiving one or more maps selected by the map selector, the one or more maps include or bound by the location information.

A computerized information apparatus useful for providing information to a user via a display. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a processor apparatus, and first wireless interface, radio frequency apparatus, and at least one computer program configured to run on the processor apparatus, the at least one program being configured to enable functions within a transport device including remote control of environment functions (e.g., HVAC, lighting, imagery capture) based on authentication of a user carrying a portable radio frequency device.

A computerized information apparatus useful for providing information to a user via a display. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a processor apparatus, and speech input apparatus, touch screen input and display apparatus, and at least one computer program configured to run on the processor apparatus, the at least one program being configured to provide a user with contextually relevant content without an affirmative request for such content, but rather based on context divined from one or more free form words spoken by the user, whether while searching for information or otherwise. In one variant, the context determination is performed by a remote networked server after having been provided digitized speech samples via wireless interface. In another variant, the context is determined based on soft function key inputs from the user while requesting information. A virtual database structure enabling rapid context determination is also disclosed.

Systems and methods are provided for determining in real-time geographic areas having a threshold level of content consumption and deploying dynamic geo-fences to contain these geographic areas. These dynamic geo-fences provide a means for timing message notifications in order to optimize the chances of delivering targeted content to a mobile device user based on the current geographic location of the user's device relative to a threshold level of content consumption area. As mobile device users may be more likely to launch a client application in a place where other users are currently consuming content, a general message notification sent to the user's device located in a dynamic geo-fence created based on real-time content consumption, may increase the likelihood that the user will launch the client application and thereby, allow targeted content to be delivered to the user's mobile device.

Computer-implemented techniques for allowing a vendor to more easily provide shopping experiences with vendor-specific and context-specific information on different devices used by a customer and vendor personnel. One embodiment provides vendor-specific information using a smart list that is sharable with multiple vendors. The smart list is stored on a server and shared with multiple vendors and identifies items that the customer is considering acquiring. The technique involves receiving input from the customer to share the smart list with a vendor and, based on the input, sharing the smart list from the customer device or server with a vendor device of the vendor. The technique identifies vendor-specific information using an item of the smart list that the customer is considering acquiring and provides the vendor-specific information to the customer or a vender support person.

A facility wayfinding system is provided which includes an interactive public display device and a mobile device, running a mobile wayfinding application. The interactive public display device, which is situated at a first location within a facility, displays a facility map showing facility units, receives a user selection of a facility unit as a second location, and displays a route from the first location to the second location on the facility map. The mobile device also displays the facility map, displays a route from a start location to a destination location on the facility map, and updates the start location to the first location and the destination location to the second location by synchronizing with the interactive public display device.