Set-Top Box, System and Method for Providing Awareness in a Hospitality Environment

A system for providing awareness in a hospitality environment, the system comprising:

• a vertical and horizontal array of set-top boxes, each set-top box being associated with a room in the hospitality environment, each set-top box having an identification including a room identifier;
• the vertical and horizontal array of set-top boxes including a plurality of common space beacon devices, each common space beacon device having an identification including a common space;
• the plurality of set-top boxes and beacon devices being beacons;
• each set-top box of the vertical and horizontal array including:
• a housing;
• a wireless transceiver associated with the housing, the wireless transceiver configured to send a beacon to communicate with a proximate wireless-enabled interactive handheld device;
• a television input and a television output secured in the housing;
• a processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and the television input and the television output;
• a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:
• periodically transmit an identification beacon signal including set-top box identification;
• each of the beacon devices including:
• a processor coupled to a wireless transceiver;
• and
• a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:
• periodically transmit an identification beacon signal including beacon device identification;
• a data packet associated with the proximate wireless-enabled interactive device, the data packet including at least one beacon identification, a corresponding signal strength identification indicating the strength of the beacon identification beacon signal, and a proximate wireless-enabled interactive device identification;
• a vertical and horizontal array of wireless routers disposed in the hospitality environment, each wireless router configured to receive the data packet from the proximate wireless-enabled interactive device and forward the data packet;
• and
• the location of the proximate wireless-enabled interactive device being determined following communication from the vertical and horizontal array of set-top boxes to the proximate wireless-enabled interactive device to the vertical and horizontal array of wireless routers to a server.

A system for providing awareness in a hospitality environment, the system comprising:

• a vertical and horizontal array of set-top boxes, each set-top box being associated with a room in the hospitality environment, each set-top box having an identification including a room identifier;
• the vertical and horizontal array of set-top boxes including a plurality of common space beacon devices, each common space beacon device having an identification including a common space;
• the plurality of set-top boxes and beacon devices being beacons;
• each set-top box of the vertical and horizontal array including:
• a housing;
• a wireless transceiver associated with the housing, the wireless transceiver configured to send a beacon to communicate with a proximate wireless-enabled interactive handheld device;
• the wireless transceiver being configured to communicate with a standard selected from the group consisting of infrared (IR), 802.11, 3G, 4G, Edge, WiFi, ZigBee, near field communications (NFC), Bluetooth and Bluetooth low energy;
• a television input and a television output secured in the housing, the television input and the television output configured to respectively receive content from a source in the hospitality environment and forward content to a television;
• a processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and the television input and the television output;
• a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:
• periodically transmit an identification beacon signal including set-top box identification;
• each of the beacon devices including:
• a processor coupled to a wireless transceiver;
• and
• a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:
• periodically transmit an identification beacon signal including beacon device identification;
• a data packet associated with the proximate wireless-enabled interactive device, the data packet including at least one beacon identification, a corresponding signal strength identification indicating the strength of the beacon identification beacon signal, and a proximate wireless-enabled interactive device identification;
• a vertical and horizontal array of wireless routers disposed in the hospitality environment, each wireless router configured to receive the data packet from the proximate wireless-enabled interactive device and forward the data packet;
• the wireless routers being configured to communicate with a WiFi standard;
• and
• the location of the proximate wireless-enabled interactive device being determined following communication from the vertical and horizontal array of set-top boxes to the proximate wireless-enabled interactive device to the vertical and horizontal array of wireless routers to a server.