Systems and methods for providing targeted advertisements to a charging station for electric vehicles

Abstract

Systems and methods are described which provide targeted advertisements to a charging station for electric vehicles. A data collector records data associated with individuals near a charging station. A meter determines whether the charging station is being used to charge an electric vehicle. When the charging station is being used, a display displays advertisements targeted to the individuals. The targeted advertisements are selected from a database according to the data recorded by the data collector, and the database stores advertising content with discrete advertising segments that are electronically accessible. A processor is coupled to the data collector, the meter, and the display. The processor transmits the data recorded by the data collector, and receives the targeted advertisements.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A charging station for electric vehicles, the charging station comprising:
 a data collector that records data associated with individuals who are near the charging station;   a meter that determines whether the charging station is being used to charge an electric vehicle;   a display that displays advertisements targeted to the individuals, wherein the targeted advertisements are selected from a database according to the data recorded by the data collector, and the database stores advertising content with discrete advertising segments that are electronically accessible; and   a processor coupled to the data collector, the meter, and the display, wherein the processor is configured to:
 transmit, over a network to a server, the data recorded by the data collector; 
 receive, over the network from the server, the selected targeted advertisements from the database; and 
 provide the selected targeted advertisements to the display. 
   
     
     
         2 . The charging station of  claim 1 , comprising a counter that tracks an estimated number of individuals who are proximate the charging station, wherein the data collector is a camera that records video signals at the charging station, and the counter provides information that is redundant to the recorded video signals. 
     
     
         3 . The charging station of  claim 1 , wherein the data collector is programmed to discard high resolution data associated with individuals. 
     
     
         4 . The charging station of  claim 1 , wherein the processor processes the recorded data to determine whether the individuals are engaging with the display, and to determine a length of time that the individuals are engaging with the display. 
     
     
         5 . The charging station of  claim 4 , wherein the processor determines whether the individuals are engaging with the display by detecting whether the individuals make eye contact with the display, by detecting whether the individuals are facing the display, or whether the individuals make a gesture toward the display. 
     
     
         6 . The charging station of  claim 4 , wherein a second selected targeted advertisement is selected based on whether the individuals are engaging with a first selected targeted advertisement on the display. 
     
     
         7 . The charging station of  claim 1 , wherein the selected targeted advertisements are selected based on whether the charging station is being used to charge an electric vehicle. 
     
     
         8 . A computer-implemented method of providing targeted advertisements on a display near a charging station for electric vehicles, the method comprising:
 receiving, at a server, a computational model that predicts a relative length of time that an individual will engage with a candidate advertisement in a plurality of candidate advertisements, wherein:
 the computational model is generated based on data collected from a plurality of individuals, a plurality of advertisements, and measured lengths of time that the plurality of individuals engage with the plurality of advertisements; 
 a plurality of user features characterize each individual in the plurality of individuals; and 
 a plurality of advertisement features characterize each advertisement in the plurality of advertisements; 
   receiving, in real time, an indication that a target individual is engaging with the display and a plurality of target user features that characterize the target individual;   assessing a plurality of scores for the target individual based on the plurality of target user features and the computational model, wherein each score in the plurality of scores is indicative of a predicted relative length of time associated with the target individual and a candidate advertisement in the plurality of candidate advertisements;   selecting a targeted advertisement from the plurality of candidate advertisements based at least in part on an optimization performed on the plurality of scores; and   providing the targeted advertisement to the display.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the target individual is a first target individual and the plurality of target user features is a plurality of first target user features, and the method further comprises receiving, in real time, an indication that a second target individual is interacting with the display and a plurality of second target user features that characterize the second target individual, wherein the first target individual is a user of the charging station and the second target individual is not a user of the charging station. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising receiving meter data from a meter at the charging station, wherein the meter data provides an estimated length of time until the first target individual's use of the charging station is complete. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising selecting between the first target individual and the second target individual based on the estimated length of time, and providing the plurality of target user features that characterize the selected target individual to the computational model to assess the plurality of scores, wherein the first target individual is selected when the estimated length of time is below a threshold, and the second target individual is selected when the estimated length of time is above the threshold. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising selecting a mode of operation based on whether the charging station is being used to charge an electric vehicle, wherein the mode of operation determines whether a driver of the electric vehicle is the target individual, a first mode is selected when the charging station is being used to charge an electric vehicle, and the driver of the electric is the target individual, and a second mode is selected when the charging station is not being used to charge an electric vehicle, and target individual is an individual near the charging station. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the predicted relative length of time corresponds to an amount of user involvement with the display, and the candidate advertisement associated with a predicted length of time that exceeds a threshold is selected as the targeted advertisement. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the amount of user involvement includes the predicted relative length of time and a predicted relative extent of engagement between the individual and the candidate advertisement. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the target individual engages with the targeted advertisement by facing the display, the method further comprising determining the length of time that the target individual faces the display, wherein the computational model is updated according to the determined length of time, the plurality of target user features, and a plurality of target advertisement features that characterize the targeted advertisement. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the charging station is a first charging station, the method further comprising:
 detecting that the target individual is leaving a vicinity of the first charging station and moving in a direction of a second charging station; and   transmitting a signal indicative of the targeted advertisement to the second charging station.   
     
     
         17 . A method for enabling users to identify one or more available charging stations for electric vehicles, the method comprising:
 receiving, at a processor in real time, station data indicative of a plurality of charging stations, wherein the station data includes locations of the charging stations and indicates whether each of the charging stations is available or unavailable;   displaying to a user, in real time on a mobile device, a map including first markers for the locations of the available charging stations and second markers for the locations of the unavailable charging stations, wherein the first markers and the second markers are updated in real time on the map according to when charging stations become available and unavailable;   determining when the user initiates a charging process between the user's electric vehicle and a selected charging station selected from the available charging stations;   receiving meter data recorded by a meter at the selected charging station, wherein the meter data includes an estimated length of time remaining until the charging process is complete; and   displaying the estimated length of time to the user over the mobile device.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 identifying a plurality of businesses that are near the selected charging station;   identifying one or more promotional offers associated with each of the plurality of businesses;   selecting at least one promotional offer from the plurality of promotional offers based at least in part on the estimated length of time remaining until the charging process is complete; and   transmitting the selected at least one promotional offer to the mobile device.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising comparing the estimated length of time remaining until the charging process is complete to a threshold, wherein:
 when the estimated length of time remaining is less than the threshold, the selected promotional offer is associated with a first business in the plurality of businesses;   when the estimated length of time remaining is greater than the threshold, the selected promotional offer is associated with a second business in the plurality of business; and   the first business is located closer to the selected charging station than the second business.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising displaying a first message to the user indicating that the electric vehicle is unplugged from the selected charging station or transmitting a second message to the mobile device when the charging process is complete.