Mobile ticketing

Abstract

Embodiments of a transit ticket system are provided. The transit ticket system may include a mobile computing device configured to (i) download a mobile ticketing application from a ticket management server, the mobile ticketing application including a graphical data sheet, a ticket dictionary, and ticket strings, (ii) receive ticket rendering instructions from the ticket management server in response to completion of a ticket purchase process via the mobile computing device, and (iii) render for display an active ticket on the mobile computing device with data stored on the mobile computing device based on the ticket rendering instructions, the graphical data sheet, ticket dictionary, and ticket strings in response to an activation input command.

1 . A transit ticket system comprising:
 a mobile computing device configured to (i) download a mobile ticketing application from a ticket management server, the mobile ticketing application including a graphical data sheet, a ticket dictionary, and ticket strings, (ii) receive ticket rendering instructions from the ticket management server in response to completion of a ticket purchase process via the mobile computing device, and (iii) render for display an active ticket on the mobile computing device with data stored in the mobile computing device based on the ticket rendering instructions, the graphical data sheet, ticket dictionary, and ticket strings in response to an activation input command.   
     
     
         2 . The transit ticket system of  claim 1 , where the graphical data sheet includes a plurality of rendered graphical objects. 
     
     
         3 . The transit ticket system of  claim 2 , where at least two of the graphical objects are associated with different types of tickets. 
     
     
         4 . The transit ticket system of  claim 2 , where rendering the active ticket includes selecting one or more graphical objects for display from the plurality of rendered graphical objects. 
     
     
         5 . The transit ticket system of  claim 1 , where the ticket management server is configured to automatically send updates of one or more of the graphical data sheet, ticket dictionary data, and ticket string at predetermined time intervals to the mobile computing device independent of ticket purchase processes implemented by the mobile computing device. 
     
     
         6 . The transit ticket system of  claim 5 , where the update includes adding, overwriting, or deleting data in the graphical data sheet, ticket dictionary, or ticket strings. 
     
     
         7 . The transit ticket system of  claim 1 , where the ticket purchase process includes exchange of payment data with the ticket management server. 
     
     
         8 . The transit ticket system of  claim 1 , where the ticket string includes instructions for animating graphical elements in the graphical data sheet. 
     
     
         9 . The transit ticket system of  claim 1 , where the ticket strings includes color data, transparency data, and scale data related to the graphical elements in the graphical data sheet. 
     
     
         10 . The transit ticket system of  claim 1 , where the graphical data sheet includes animated graphical objects. 
     
     
         11 . A method for managing a transit ticket system, comprising:
 at a mobile computing device, downloading a mobile ticketing application from a ticket management server, the mobile ticketing application including a graphical data sheet, ticket dictionary, and ticket strings, the graphical data sheet including a plurality of rendered graphical objects corresponding to a plurality of different tickets;   receiving ticket rendering instructions from the ticket management server in response to completion of a ticket purchase process via the mobile computing device; and   rendering for display an active ticket on the mobile computing device with data stored on the mobile computing device based on the ticket rendering instructions, the graphical data sheet, ticket dictionary, and ticket strings in response to an activation input command.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising at the ticket management server, automatically sending updates of one or more of the graphical data sheet, ticket dictionary data, and ticket string at predetermined time intervals to the mobile computing device independent of ticket purchase processes implemented by the mobile computing device. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , where automatically sending updates includes adding, overwriting, or deleting data in the graphical data sheet, ticket dictionary, or ticket strings. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , where rendering the active ticket includes selecting one or more graphical objects for display from the plurality of rendered graphical objects. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , where the selected graphical objects are layered for display. 
     
     
         16 . A method for gathering analytic information from a transit ticket system, comprising:
 gathering ticket use data via a ticket management server in communication with a plurality of mobile computing devices executing a mobile ticketing application;   at the ticket management server, generating analytical ticket data based on the ticket use data, the analytical ticket data including one or more of total ticket sales, total number of riders, peak ridership, base ridership, average ridership, ridership percentage trends, number of approved tickets, most activated ticket type, frequency of ticket activation, time of activated tickets, new system users, or location of activated ticket; and   at the ticket management server, displaying the analytical ticket data in an analytic dashboard.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , where the ticket user data is gathered in real time. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , where the analytical ticket data is applied to a map. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , where the map is a heat map. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , where the ticket use data is further gathered from a plurality of ticket inspector applications, each inspector application executed on a different mobile computing device.