METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACCESSING ELECTRONIC DATA VIA A PLURALITY OF ELECTRONIC TAGS

摘要

The disclosed methods and apparatus relate generally to the use of electronic devices to interact with electronic tags associated with objects, services, places, people, or animals (“objects”) in order to access programming material related to these objects. The invention discloses the input of keywords, phrases, preferences, or interests into a user's device to search a plurality of electronic tags within a given physical range to access programming material from the tags—or via data links provided in the tags—that matches the keywords, phrases, preferences, or interests. Furthermore, the invention locates, maps, and labels the objects associated with this programming material on the user's display.

主权项

1. A method for mapping and displaying electronic information to a user, comprising:
reading with a feature recognition unit of a communication device associated with the user a plurality of electronic tags located in a vicinity, wherein each electronic tag is associated with an object and wherein each electronic tag comprises electronic data including location information of the associated object within the vicinity, and a link to access electronic information about the associated object; identifying the electronic tags having encoded data, or remote access to data, corresponding to, or matching, user-specified keywords, phrases, preferences or interests; receiving by the communication device from the identified electronic tags location information and links to access electronic information about the associated objects; displaying on said communication device a map of the vicinity and icons associated with corresponding links at locations coordinated with the location information of the identified electronic tags; and upon a selection of an icon by the user, the communication device retrieves the link associated with the icon and accesses electronic information about an object associated with the selected link.