PHYSICAL REFERENCES FOR PROVIDING SUPPLEMENTAL REAL ESTATE INFORMATION

摘要

A supplemental information system is described herein that uses physical references placed throughout a property to provide extended information about the property to a potential buyer or other interested party. A seller or seller's agent describes various items of the property in electronic form. The seller associates each item description with a physical reference, such as a QR code. Next, the seller prints out and affixes the physical reference to the item of interest. Potential buyers or others interested in the property can use a smartphone or similar device with a physical reference reading application to read the physical reference and retrieve the supplemental information. The reference may also change behavior over time or provide different information based on the requesting user. Thus, the system makes it easy for real estate sellers and others to connect extended electronic information with physical real estate items.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method to tag a physical item with associated electronic information by creating a physical reference to the electronic information, the method comprising:
receiving a selection of a physical item for which a user wants to provide supplemental electronic information; identifying the selected item electronically; creating a physical reference that points to supplemental electronic information related to the selected item; receiving a reference type that indicates how the physical reference will be handled once decoded; receiving the supplemental information to associate with the physical reference; producing a physical manifestation of the physical reference; and storing the received reference information for handling later requests to decode the physical reference and provide the associated supplemental electronic information, wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor.