Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
  • G06Q20/08—Payment architectures
  • G06Q20/10—Payment architectures specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems

Definitions

• the subject matter discussed herein relates generally to websites, and, more particularly, to systems and methods for incentivizing charitable contributions.
• Systems and methods for incentivizing charitable contributions including a database configured to store charitable contribution selections and instructions for individual users; individual user charitable account information, and payment information; and a platform server coupled with the database, the platform server configured to access the charitable contribution selections and instructions and the account information and to make distributions in accordance with the selections and instructions to various charities on behalf of individual users.
• FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example system for incentivizing charitable contributions in accordance with one embodiment.
• FIG. 2 is an exemplary screenshot of a business profile.
• FIG. 3 is an exemplary screenshot of a cause page.
• FIG. 4 is an exemplary screenshot of a charity page.
• FIG. 5 is an exemplary screen shot of a dashboard.
• FIG. 6 is an exemplary screenshot of a member profile.
• FIG. 7 shows an example device suitable for use in some example
• FIG. 8 is a data flow diagram of an example online environment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
• Various embodiments described herein are directed to a system for incentivizing individuals to participate in and/or provide financial support for various designated charitable organizations.
• a system may operate as follows:
• any number of merchants may register their business to become members of an "affiliate network.”
• the merchant By signing up a business to become a member of the affiliate network, the merchant voluntarily agrees to comply with a set of rules governing the sale of some or all of that merchant's goods and/or services.
• rules may dictate, for example, that a certain percentage of the money received from every sale (or alternatively, that a fixed dollar amount from every sale exceeding a specified minimum threshold price) will be transferred to a special account associated with that individual (or business entity) who purchased the goods or services from the merchant.
• a special account associated with that individual (or business entity) who purchased the goods or services from the merchant.
• embodiments of the present invention also support various other forms of payment technology such as processing payments from mobile wallets, store gift cards, store credit cards, or any other form of payment which allows identity tracking through the final purchase or payment.
• the individual can then login to a webpage hosted by a remote server and designate, for example, which particular charities or other organizations that the individual wishes to donate to with the funds contained within his special account. Funds stored in the individual's special account will then be transferred to the designated charities or other organizations, for instance, upon clicking a button displayed on the webpage and optionally navigating through one or more confirmation screens. In certain embodiments, the individual can pre-designate what charities the funds will go to. In other embodiments, the individual can access the funds, once they are deposited in their special account and make
• the individual can designate charities for the funds to be distributed to, e.g., periodically, but can change the selections or over-ride them with manual distribution instructions.
• Various award points, electronic trophies, and other prizes may then be awarded to the individual based on the amount (and/or number) of charitable contributions that he has made from his special account.
• one or more leaderboards may also be updated to reflect to the top contributors (i.e., members or businesses) to various causes and charities and/or the highest ranked causes and charities.
• the leaderboards may be sorted or filtered by the user based on one or more input criteria (i.e., location/region, activity levels, number of supporters, number of following members, etc.). Also, leaderboards may be displayed to the user in any number of formats or combinations (e.g., displaying name, picture, accrued points/rewards, etc.). Additionally, notifications may be issued in real-time when the rankings change or a new leader is identified (e.g., via a popup message, color change, or other notification). In some embodiments, links to ranking members, businesses, or charities may be provided within the leaderboard interface in order to facilitate access to users who are interested in viewing these profiles or following these respective members, businesses, or charities.
• individual purchasers who wish to participate in this program may first need to register their credit cards on a webpage hosted by a remote server.
• the remote server can be associated with a purchase-processing entity (referred to subsequently as a "payment authentication gateway"), which is responsible for storing information regarding credit card payments, credit card information, and transactions.
• the webpage can be hosted by various servers associated with the same social media platform which allows individual purchasers to contribute to their favorite charities.
• the payment authentication gateway can be responsible for monitoring all sales made from merchants of the affiliate network. Thus, the payment authentication gateway can attempt to match the credit card information used during a purchase with credit card information provided by individuals who have signed up to participate in the program. If a match exists, then the transaction can be specially processed (e.g., the relevant percentage of money received from the sale can then be transferred to the purchasing individual's special account).
• a merchant may wish to offer his own proprietary rewards or cash back program each time an individual makes various purchases. Therefore, in some embodiments, the individual purchaser can be given an option at the time of the sale as to which type of rewards they would like to receive— for example, cash back from the merchant or money transferred into the individual's special account for charitable purposes. Once the purchaser has indicated his desired selection, the payment authentication gateway or credit card company can then process the purchaser's selection accordingly.
• an individual's purchasing habits and/or favorite charities can be tracked and analyzed in order to construct a psychographic profile of that individual.
• This information can include, for instance, where and when the individual generally makes his purchases, how much money the individual typically spends when making a purchase of a particular type of good or service (e.g., how much they typically spend in a day, week, month, or year), what type of businesses or services the individual generally purchases (e.g., what percentage of his purchases are made at hotels, spas, restaurants, nightclubs, bars, shopping boutiques, travel experiences, sports venues, etc.), as well as their frequency of making purchases in specific types of business.
• the system will have information on what charities the individual donates to, the frequency and amount of such donations, who the individual is following, how active they are on the site or with certain groups formed thereon, etc. All of this information can be used to form a psychographic profile.
• one individual's purchasing information might reflect that the individual greatly prefers steakhouses over fish restaurants, that he prefers jazz clubs over techno clubs, and outdoor venues over indoor.
• Myriad other modes of analyzing this data are also possible according to various embodiments.
• the user's favorite charities can also be analyzed in order to paint a more complete picture of that individual's unique profile. From the aggregate of the individual's purchasing habits as well as his favorite charities, a vector that is uniquely associated with that individual can then be constructed.
• data associated the vector can then be used to provide the individual with suggestions of other businesses or venues that the individual might also be interested in.
• These suggestions can be provided to the user via notices received over the social media platform webpage itself, via regular mail, phone, or e-mail in the alternative.
• Such suggestions may be based upon one or more keywords or reference indicia stored within the vector (i.e., related to the individual's purchasing habits and/or favorite charities). For example, if an individual is shown to have contributed extensive sums of money to environmental protection groups, a listing of "green" or eco-friendly establishments might be suggested for that individual. Compound analyses of identified keywords may also be used for the purpose of generating suggestions.
• a certain individual might receive this suggestion: "We noticed that you prefer restaurants with outdoor settings, that you enjoy Italian food, and that you have donated money to a jazz preservation society. We therefore recommend that you try Joey's Italian restaurant, featuring an outdoor patio and a live jazz band every Thursday.”
• third-party advertisers of a particular good or service may wish to acquire a listing of those users who have one or more criteria associated with their vector. For instance, a person who has contributed to a shelter for neglected dogs, and who has also purchased one or more designated supplies from a pet store (e.g., a leash or dog bowl) might have "dog lover” flag stored within his vector.
• An outside advertiser for example, a manufacturer of a certain type of dog food
• each user can specifically control how much of their personal information is made available to other members on the website through the member recommendation engine (i.e., whether they wish to reveal their picture, phone number, e-mail address, or home address to other members). According to some embodiments, if a certain member does not wish to reveal any of their personal information to other members, they can simply elect not to appear in any member recommendations for privacy reasons.
• the social media platform may also include a social feed system that enables members to see various activities of other members (e.g., comments that the user is posting, status updates, causes and charities that the user is supporting, charity events that the user is sharing, links to outside sources, shared photos/multimedia, etc.).
• the social feed can also serve to indicate to other members that a certain individual is planning on attending a scheduled event (e.g., that the individual plans to participate in a political rally occurring on a certain date, that the individual is planning on attending a local beach-cleanup, or that the individual is planning on organizing a letter-writing campaign in opposition to a bill that is presently being considered by representatives).
• status messages from a given member's social feed can also be pushed out to 3 rd party social media websites (e.g., Facebook®, Twitter®, Linkedln®, etc.) if the user has specifically signed up for this feature.
• 3 rd party social media websites e.g., Facebook®, Twitter®, Linkedln®, etc.
• the items in a social feed may be sorted topically, for example, as arranged by most trending to least trending topics.
• an individual can opt to follow one or more other members (or groups). This may enable that individual to automatically receive status updates or social feed messages from all members or groups that he is currently following.
• certain individuals may be significantly more active or influential in championing certain causes or effecting social change at a local, regional, national, or international level. These individuals can be algorithmically distinguished from other individuals based on certain identified criteria (e.g., based on a specific or aggregate amount of money they have contributed to certain causes, the number of events that they host, the number of members currently following them, etc.). Therefore, according to some embodiments, these socially influential individuals are automatically identified and spotlighted by the system based on the satisfaction of one or more of these criteria.
• certain identified criteria e.g., based on a specific or aggregate amount of money they have contributed to certain causes, the number of events that they host, the number of members currently following them, etc.
• Members who are identified as satisfying these criteria can be assigned priority weight or returned first in member search results, they may have their picture and/or social feed displayed in a more prominent location on the webpage than other members, or they may have portions of their profile highlighted, bolded, italicized or placed in different colors than that associated with regular members. In some embodiments, real-world celebrities, sports figures, and/or political figures may also be spotlighted in this manner.
• the award system may utilize algorithmically determined measures of "social influence” or participation in various charitable events as a factor in its underlying point system, achievement system, mission objectives or milestones.
• mobile device location tracking technology e.g., GPS tracking
• Various badges and other rewards can be granted to individuals who have exhibited designated performance objectives (for example, visiting 10 different businesses within 30 days might enable a user to be awarded an "Explorer" badge).
• the award system may be integrated with one or more third party gamification systems (e.g., Badgeville®), while notification of a user's received awards/badges may be pushed out to one or more third party social media platforms (Facebook®, MySpace®, Linkedln®, etc.).
• third party social media platforms Facebook®, MySpace®, Linkedln®, etc.
• the vectors containing information regarding an individual's personal spending habits and/or favorite charities may be integrated within a search engine in order to provide a more targeted set of search results for the individual.
• a member For example, if a member is searching for an athletic club to join, his vector might indicate that he is a "tennis player” and that he lives in "San Diego.”
• a standard search might list all athletic clubs in order of national relevance (where an athletic club located in Cincinnati would likely not be interesting to a San Diegan, nor would an athletic club in San Diego which lacked a tennis court)
• the results from the search engine may then be reordered so that webpages of athletic clubs which have the additional search terms "tennis court” or "San Diego” are listed in the result set first (or alternatively, the search may be conducted with these additional terms automatically included as part of the member's initial input search query).
• search integration feature may be toggled on or off by the member according to various embodiments.
• the various embodiments of the social media platform described above can be supported across a wide variety of computing systems (including, without limitation, desktop, laptop, mobile devices, smart phones, PDA's, tablets), web browsers (including, without limitation, Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome, Safari) and interfaced with a wide variety of software applications (including, without limitation: Phone Gap/Apache Cordova, Titanium Appcelerator, iOS / App store, Android/Google Play, Windows, Symbian, etc.).
• the user interface may be arranged in any number of screens, windows, frames, graphics, and display resolutions.
• the user interface may include a collapsible menu that can be hidden or displayed.
• the collapsible menu may contain logged-in member information, menus of interest, and applications that they have allowed to interact with their account. Other information may also be provided. This information may include, without limitation, a profile picture linked to the user's profile, the user's own name, nickname, or display name, accrued points and monetary information displayed in various charts, graphs, histograms, and other arrangements of data, real-time reactions to user activity, network alerts with pop-up displays/alert information, as well as links to member's charities, photos, events, or applications.
• One or more fixed-position navigational bars may be used for scrolling the display area.
• performance optimization techniques such as lazy loading may be used for faster page speeds and/or loading times, while
• autocomplete/automatic suggestions may be used to facilitate simpler user-interaction.
• FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example system for incentivizing charitable contributions in accordance with one embodiment.
• the system includes an affiliate network 110 that can comprise a plurality of affiliate network devices 1 12 interfaced with a payment authentication gateway 108.
• the gateway 108 can be interfaces with a database 106 that is also interfaces with a platform server 104.
• Server 104 can be configured to host a site on which individual users can create accounts, set up their charitable contributions, join groups, form their own pages, etc.
• Platform server 104 can be configured to access payment information as well as charitable contribution information stored in database 106 in order to carry out the contribution instructions of various individual users.
• server 104 can actually comprise a plurality of servers, routers, APIs, communication ports, etc. It will also be understood that database 106 can comprise a plurality of databases and that gateway 108 can comprise a plurality of gateways. Moreover, platform server 104 and gateway 108 can be integrated at least partially.
• FIGS. 2-6 are various screenshots of exemplary display areas which may be used in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.
• FIG. 2 is an exemplary screenshot of a business profile
• FIG. 3 is an exemplary screenshot of a cause page
• FIG. 4 is an exemplary screenshot of a charity page
• FIG. 5 is an exemplary screen shot of a dashboard
• FIG. 6 is an exemplary screenshot of a member profile.
• the business profile may include different versions for private and public view.
• the business profile may display its goals, supporting members, celebrity endorses, affiliated charities.
• a social data display may also be included providing the number of member supporters, subscribers, activity pictures, posts and updates. Each charity or cause that the business supports may also be described.
• a featured box/display area may be included for static display of promotionals, endorsed causes, and/or endorsed events.
• a portion of the data appearing on the business profile may be retrieved from secondary data sources (e.g., CityGrid, GooglePlaces, etc.).
• the member profile may also include different versions for private and public view.
• the member profile may include the member's goal achievements, badges, accrued points, rank in network, overall rank, rank in a city/region, etc.
• the profile may also include the most supported businesses, the business where the member spent/accrued the most points, the members favorite charities, the member's friends and/or most supported friends, pictures, and an activity feed.
• An input textual description, profile picture, set of social media links and listing of philanthropic interests may also be included.
• a portion of the data appearing on the member's profile may be retrieved from secondary data sources (e.g., Facebook, Linkedln, Twitter, etc.).
• the charity and cause profiles may also include different versions for private and public viewing. These profiles may display the charity or cause's goals, the biggest supporters of the cause or charity, the businesses where various supporters accrued the most points, a listing of celebrity endorsers, and a listing of affiliated charities. Social data may also be displayed, including the number of member supporters, subscribers, activity pictures, posts and updates. A description of the charity or cause may be provided, as well as a featured box/display area for promotionals, endorsed causes, and/or endorsed events. Data appearing on the charity or cause profile may also be pulled in from secondary sources (e.g., Charity Navigator).
• secondary sources e.g., Charity Navigator
• FIG. 7 shows an example device suitable for use in some example
• Device 700 a wired and/or wireless device
• the device 700 may be used in connection with various embodiments described herein.
• the device 700 may be used as or in conjunction with one or more of the mechanisms or processes described above, and may represent components of server(s), user system(s), and/or other devices described herein.
• the device 700 can be a server or any conventional personal computer, or any other processor- enabled device that is capable of wired or wireless data communication.
• Other computer systems and/or architectures may be also used, as will be clear to those skilled in the art.
• the device 700 preferably includes one or more processors, such as processor
• Additional processors may be provided, such as an auxiliary processor to manage input/output, an auxiliary processor to perform floating point mathematical operations, a special-purpose microprocessor having an architecture suitable for fast execution of signal processing algorithms (e.g., digital signal processor), a slave processor subordinate to the main processing system (e.g., back-end processor), an additional microprocessor or controller for dual or multiple processor systems, or a coprocessor.
• auxiliary processors may be discrete processors or may be integrated with the processor 710. Examples of processors which may be used with device 700 include, without limitation, the Pentium® processor, Core i7® processor, and Xeon® processor, all of which are available from Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, California.
• the processor 710 is preferably connected to a communication bus 705.
• the communication bus 705 may include a data channel for facilitating information transfer between storage and other peripheral components of the device 700.
• the communication bus 705 further may provide a set of signals used for communication with the processor 710, including a data bus, address bus, and control bus (not shown).
• the communication bus 705 may comprise any standard or non-standard bus architecture such as, for example, bus architectures compliant with industry standard architecture (ISA), extended industry standard architecture (EISA), Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI) local bus, or standards promulgated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) including IEEE 488 general-purpose interface bus (GPIB), IEEE 696/S- 100, and the like.
• ISA industry standard architecture
• EISA extended industry standard architecture
• MCA Micro Channel Architecture
• PCI peripheral component interconnect
• Device 700 preferably includes a main memory 715 and may also include a secondary memory 720.
• the main memory 715 provides storage of instructions and data for programs executing on the processor 710, such as one or more of the functions and/or modules discussed above. It should be understood that programs stored in the memory and executed by processor 710 may be written and/or compiled according to any suitable language, including without limitation C/C++, Java, JavaScript, Pearl, Visual Basic, .NET, and the like.
• the main memory 715 is typically semiconductor-based memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or static random access memory (SRAM). Other semiconductor-based memory types include, for example, synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), Rambus dynamic random access memory (RDRAM), ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), and the like, including read only memory (ROM).
• SDRAM synchronous dynamic random access memory
• RDRAM Rambus dynamic random access memory
• FRAM ferroelectric random access memory
• ROM read only memory
• the secondary memory 720 may optionally include an internal memory 725 and/or a removable medium 730, for example a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, a compact disc (CD) drive, a digital versatile disc (DVD) drive, other optical drive, a flash memory drive, etc.
• the removable medium 730 is read from and/or written to in a well- known manner.
• Removable storage medium 730 may be, for example, a floppy disk, magnetic tape, CD, DVD, SD card, etc.
• the removable storage medium 730 may be a non-transitory computer- readable medium having stored thereon computer executable code (i.e., software) and/or data (e.g., for implementing at least a portion of the subject matter described herein).
• the computer software or data stored on the removable storage medium 730 is read into the device 700 for execution by the processor 710.
• secondary memory 720 may include other similar means for allowing computer programs or other data or instructions to be loaded into the device 700. Such means may include, for example, an external storage medium 745 and an interface 740. Examples of external storage medium 745 may include an external hard disk drive or an external optical drive, or and external magneto-optical drive. [45] Other examples of secondary memory 720 may include semiconductor-based memory such as programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable readonly memory (EPROM), electrically erasable read-only memory (EEPROM), or flash memory (block oriented memory similar to EEPROM). Also included are any other removable storage media 730 and communication interface 740, which allow software and data to be transferred from an external medium 745 to the device 700.
• PROM programmable read-only memory
• EPROM erasable programmable readonly memory
• EEPROM electrically erasable read-only memory
• flash memory block oriented memory similar to EEPROM
• Device 700 may include a communication interface 740.
• the communication interface 740 allows software and data to be transferred between device 700 and external devices (e.g. printers), networks, or information sources.
• computer software or executable code may be transferred to device 700 from a network server via communication interface 740.
• Examples of communication interface 740 include a built-in network adapter, network interface card (NIC), Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) network card, card bus network adapter, wireless network adapter, Universal Serial Bus (USB) network adapter, modem, a network interface card (NIC), a wireless data card, a communications port, an infrared interface, an IEEE 1394 fire-wire, or any other device capable of interfacing device 700 with a network or another computing device.
• NIC network interface card
• PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
• USB Universal Serial Bus
• Communication interface 740 preferably implements industry promulgated protocol standards, such as Ethernet IEEE 802 standards, Fiber Channel, digital subscriber line (DSL), asynchronous digital subscriber line (ADSL), frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), integrated digital services network (ISDN), personal communications services (PCS), transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), serial line Internet protocol/point to point protocol (SLIP/PPP), and so on, but may also implement customized or non-standard interface protocols as well.
• industry promulgated protocol standards such as Ethernet IEEE 802 standards, Fiber Channel, digital subscriber line (DSL), asynchronous digital subscriber line (ADSL), frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), integrated digital services network (ISDN), personal communications services (PCS), transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), serial line Internet protocol/point to point protocol (SLIP/PPP), and so on, but may also implement customized or non-standard interface protocols as well.
• industry promulgated protocol standards such as Ethernet IEEE 802 standards, Fiber Channel, digital subscriber
• Communication channel 750 may be a wired or wireless network, or any variety of other communication links.
• Communication channel 750 carries signals 755 and can be implemented using a variety of wired or wireless communication means including wire or cable, fiber optics, conventional phone line, cellular phone link, wireless data communication link, radio frequency (“RF”) link, or infrared link, just to name a few.
• RF radio frequency
• Computer executable code i.e., computer programs or software
• main memory 715 and/or the secondary memory 720 Computer programs can also be received via communication interface 740 and stored in the main memory 715 and/or the secondary memory 720. Such computer programs, when executed, enable the device 700 to perform the various functions, such as those described herein.
• computer readable medium is used to refer to any non-transitory computer readable storage media used to provide computer executable code (e.g., software and computer programs) to the device 700.
• Examples of these media include main memory 715, secondary memory 720 (including internal memory 725, removable medium 730, and external storage medium 745), and any peripheral device communicatively coupled with communication interface 740 (including a network information server or other network device).
• These non-transitory computer readable mediums are means for providing executable code, programming instructions, and software to the device 700.
• the software may be stored on a computer readable medium and loaded into the device 700 by way of removable medium 730, I/O interface 723, or communication interface 740.
• the software is loaded into the device 700 in the form of electrical communication signals 755.
• the software when executed by the processor 710, preferably causes the processor 710 to perform the inventive features and functions previously described herein.
• I/O interface 723 provides an interface between one or more components of device 700 and one or more input and/or output devices.
• Example input devices include, without limitation, keyboards, touch screens or other touch-sensitive devices, biometric sensing devices, computer mice, trackballs, pen-based pointing devices, and the like.
• Examples of output devices include, without limitation, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), plasma displays, light-emitting diode (LED) displays, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), printers, vacuum florescent displays (VFDs), surface-conduction electron-emitter displays (SEDs), field emission displays (FEDs), and the like.
• CTRs cathode ray tubes
• LED light-emitting diode
• LCDs liquid crystal displays
• VFDs vacuum florescent displays
• SEDs surface-conduction electron-emitter displays
• FEDs field emission displays
• the device 700 also includes optional wireless communication components that facilitate wireless communication over a voice and over a data network.
• the wireless communication components may comprise an antenna system 760, a radio system 76, a baseband system 770, or any combination thereof.
• radio frequency (RF) signals are transmitted and received over the air by the antenna system 760 under the management of the radio system 76.
• the antenna system 760 may comprise one or more antennae and one or more multiplexors (not shown) that perform a switching function to provide the antenna system 760 with transmit and receive signal paths.
• received RF signals can be coupled from a multiplexor to a low noise amplifier (not shown) that amplifies the received RF signal and sends the amplified signal to the radio system 765.
• the radio system 765 may comprise one or more radios that are configured to communicate over various frequencies.
• the radio system 765 may combine a demodulator (not shown) and modulator (not shown) in one integrated circuit (IC).
• the demodulator and modulator can also be separate components. In the incoming path, the demodulator strips away the RF carrier signal leaving a baseband receive audio signal, which is sent from the radio system 765 to the baseband system 770.
• baseband system 770 decodes the signal and converts it to an analog signal. Then the signal is amplified and sent to a speaker. The baseband system 770 also receives analog audio signals from a
• the baseband system 770 also codes the digital signals for transmission and generates a baseband transmit audio signal that is routed to the modulator portion of the radio system 765.
• the modulator mixes the baseband transmit audio signal with an RF carrier signal generating an RF transmit signal that is routed to the antenna system and may pass through a power amplifier (not shown).
• the power amplifier amplifies the RF transmit signal and routes it to the antenna system 760 where the signal is switched to the antenna port for transmission.
• the baseband system 770 is also communicatively coupled with the processor
• the central processing unit 710 has access to data storage areas 715 and 720.
• the central processing unit 710 is preferably configured to execute instructions (i.e., computer programs or software) that can be stored in the memory 715 or the secondary memory 720.
• Computer programs can also be received from the baseband processor 760 and stored in the data storage area 715 or in secondary memory 720, or executed upon receipt.
• Such computer programs when executed, enable the device 700 to perform the various functions, such as those described herein.
• data storage areas 715 may include various software modules (not shown).
• Various embodiments may also be implemented primarily in hardware using, for example, components such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Implementation of a hardware state machine capable of performing the functions described herein will also be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art. Various embodiments may also be implemented using a combination of both hardware and software. [59] Furthermore, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and method steps described in connection with the above described figures and the embodiments disclosed herein can often be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both.
• DSP digital signal processor
• a general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor can be any processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine.
• a processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.
• a software module can reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium including a network storage medium.
• An exemplary storage medium can be coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium.
• the storage medium can be integral to the processor.
• the processor and the storage medium can also reside in an ASIC.
• a component may be a stand-alone software package, or it may be a software package incorporated as a "tool" in a larger software product. It may be downloadable from a network, for example, a website, as a stand-alone product or as an add-in package for installation in an existing software application. It may also be available as a client-server software application, as a web-enabled software application, and/or as a mobile application.

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