Virtual Tour Hotspot Content Management via Third-Party Integration

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Solution Overview

Problem

Updating virtual tours with embedded hotspots is expensive and inflexible, as creators must update content or provide custom management tools, making it burdensome to keep content current.

Innovation Solution

Integrating third-party content management providers through hyperlinks and access codes within virtual tours, allowing owners to update content without involving the tour creator, by exposing hotspots with associated hyperlinks to third-party providers and displaying received content directly within the tour.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If content is stored with the virtual tour, then the virtual tour is complete and functional, but updating the content becomes difficult and expensive

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent completenessVSAvoidcontent update difficulty

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the content management function from the virtual tour creator and places it with the virtual tour owner. Content is stored separately in a content management system rather than being embedded in the virtual tour file, allowing owners to update content without involving the original creator or requiring complex update mechanisms.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces a content management system as an intermediary between the virtual tour and the content. This system manages content storage, retrieval, and updates independently, allowing virtual tour owners to update content through a user interface without affecting the virtual tour infrastructure or requiring creator involvement.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Ease of operation

If custom content management tools are provided, then content can be updated, but the system becomes more complex and expensive

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent update capabilityVSAvoidmanagement tool complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a universal content management system that can serve multiple virtual tours and various content types. The system provides general-purpose content management capabilities through a standardized user interface, eliminating the need for custom tools for each virtual tour and reducing overall system complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent enables virtual tour owners to update content independently through an intuitive user interface without requiring technical expertise or involvement from the virtual tour creator. The content management system handles all technical aspects of content storage, retrieval, and updating automatically, making the process simple and self-service oriented.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentUS20240397011A1Content management for virtual tours

Publication Date: 2024.11.28 VIRTUALLY ANYWHERE INTERACTIVE LLC

AI summary

Content management for virtual tours including exposing, within a virtual tour, a hotspot, the hotspot having an associated hyperlink to a third-party content management provider and access code for accessing content from the third-party content management provider; receiving an invocation of the hotspot; invoking the hyperlink associated with the hotspot; invoking the access code for accessing content from third-party content management provider; receiving content from the third-party content management provider; and displaying the received content within the virtual tour.