Measuring user engagement during presentation of media content

• US 10,299,001 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2015
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: Sidi, Ariff, Hedinsson, Skarpi, Manzari, Giuseppe, Liu, Yii Lih
• Primary Examiner(s): Theriault, Steven B
• Application Number:
  US14/875,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20160105716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,323 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

There is provided a method including rendering a gating media content segment presentation, providing a user interface to a user viewing the gating media content segment presentation, and determining two user interaction indices, including an under-threshold index and an over-threshold index, associated with the gating media content segment presentation. The method determines the under-threshold index using a first user interaction data measured before a threshold event and determines the over-threshold index using a second user interaction data measured after the threshold event, the threshold event occurs after beginning the rendering of the gating media content segment presentation and makes a user interactive mechanism selectable, the second user interaction data includes data corresponds to a user selection of the user interactive mechanism, and one of the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index is calculated using a user interaction with the user interface using an input device.

Claims

1. A method of providing a media content including a plurality of protected media content segments and a plurality of gating media content segments, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a user to a media content player for the media content;

rendering, in response to the request, the media content on a display by interleaving each of the plurality of gating media content segments between and prior to each of the plurality of protected media content segments, as a condition for accessing each of the plurality of protected media content segments;

providing a user interface to the user viewing the media content on the display;

determining at least two user interaction indices, including an under-threshold index and an over-threshold index, associated with a first one of the plurality of gating media content segments being rendered, wherein the determining determines the under-threshold index using a first user interaction data measured before a threshold event and determines the over-threshold index using a second user interaction data measured after the threshold event, wherein the threshold event occurs after beginning of the rendering of the first one of the plurality of gating media content segments, wherein at least one of the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index is calculated using at least two values x and y obtained respectively from the first user interaction data and the second user interaction data, and wherein the at least one of the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index is calculated based on w₁*x+w₂*y, where each of the at least two values x and y corresponds to a type of user interactions with the user interface, and where w₁ is a first weight given to x and w₂ is a second weight given to y;

rendering, after the rendering of the first one of the plurality of gating media content segments, a first one of the plurality of protected media content segments on the display;

identifying, based on the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index, a second one of the plurality of gating media content segments for rendering after the rendering of the first one of the plurality of protected media content segments; and

rendering, after the rendering of the first one of the plurality of protected media content segments, the second one of the plurality of gating media content segments identified based on the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index on the display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interactions include at least one of a selection action, a pointer movement action, a pointer position action, and a key entry action.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first one the planarity of gating media content segments comprises a first advertisement, and the second one the planarity of gating media content segments comprises a second advertisement.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to the rendering of the first one the planarity of gating media content segments on the display, the method further comprises:

making a call to an advertisement server; and

receiving, in response to the call, the first one the planarity of gating media content segments from the advertisement server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold event makes a user interactive mechanism selectable, wherein the user interactive mechanism is a graphical user interface button made selectable when the threshold event occurs.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold event makes a user interactive mechanism selectable, wherein the user selection of the user interactive mechanism terminates the rendering of the first one the planarity of gating media content segments on the display.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold event makes a user interactive mechanism selectable, wherein the user selection of the user interactive mechanism activates the rendering of the first one of the plurality of protected media content segments on the display.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user interaction data includes a number of user initiated actions using the input device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the number of user initiated actions using the input device includes a number of mouse clicks.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold event makes a user interactive mechanism selectable, wherein the second user interaction data includes an amount of time from when the threshold event occurs until the selection of the user interactive mechanism by the user.

11. A system comprising:

a computing platform having a central processing unit executing a software program to;

receive a request from a user to a media content player for a media content;

render, in response to the request, the media content on a display by interleaving each of the plurality of gating media content segments between and prior to each of the plurality of protected media content segments, as a condition for accessing each of the plurality of protected media content segments;

provide a user interface to the user viewing the media content on the display;

determine at least two user interaction indices, including an under-threshold index and an over-threshold index, associated with a first one of the plurality of gating media content segments being rendered, wherein the determining determines the under-threshold index using a first user interaction data measured before a threshold event and determines the over-threshold index using a second user interaction data measured after the threshold event, wherein the threshold event occurs after beginning of the rendering of the first one of the plurality of gating media content segments, wherein at least one of the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index is calculated using at least two values x and y obtained respectively from the first user interaction data and the second user interaction data, and wherein the at least one of the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index is calculated based on w₁*x+w₂*y where each of the at least two values x and y corresponds to a type of user interactions with the user interface, and where w₁ is a first weight given to x and w₂ is a second weight given to y;

render, after the rendering of the first one of the plurality of gating media content segments, a first one of the plurality of protected media content segments on the display;

identify, based on the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index, a second one of the plurality of gating media content segments for rendering after the rendering of the first one of the plurality of protected media content segments; and

render, after the rendering of the first one of the plurality of protected media content segments, the second one of the plurality of gating media content segments identified based on the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index on the display.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the user interactions include at least one of a selection action, a pointer movement action, a pointer position action, and a key entry action.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the first one the planarity of gating media content segments comprises a first advertisement, and the second one the planarity of gating media content segments comprises a second advertisement.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein prior to the rendering of the first one the planarity of gating media content segments on the display, the computing platform executes the software program to:

make a call to an advertisement server; and

receive, in response to the call, the first one the planarity of gating media content segments from the advertisement server.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the threshold event makes a user interactive mechanism selectable, wherein the user interactive mechanism is a graphical user interface button made selectable when the threshold event occurs.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the threshold event makes a user interactive mechanism selectable, wherein the user selection of the user interactive mechanism terminates the rendering of the first one the planarity of gating media content segments on the display.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the threshold event makes a user interactive mechanism selectable, wherein the user selection of the user interactive mechanism activates the rendering of the first one of the plurality of protected media content segments on the display.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the first user interaction data includes a number of user initiated actions using the input device.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the threshold event makes a user interactive mechanism selectable, and wherein the second user interaction data includes an amount of time from when the threshold event occurs until the selection of the user interactive mechanism by the user.

20. A method of providing a media content including a plurality of protected media content segments and a plurality of gating media content segments, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a user to a media content player for the media content;

rendering, in response to the request, the media content on a display by interleaving each of the plurality of gating media content segments between and prior to each of the plurality of protected media content segments, as a condition for accessing each of the plurality of protected media content segments;

providing a user interface to the user viewing the media content on the display;

determining a user interaction index associated with interactions of the user with a first one of the plurality of gating media content segments being rendered, the user interaction index being one of an under-threshold index using a first user interaction data measured before a threshold event and an over-threshold index using a second user interaction data measured after the threshold event, wherein at least one of the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index is calculated using at least two values x and y obtained respectively from the first user interaction data and the second user interaction data, and wherein the at least one of the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index is calculated based on w₁*x+w₂*y, where each of the at least two values x and y corresponds to a type of user interactions with the user interface, and where w₁ is a first weight given to x and w₂ is a second weight given to y;

rendering, after the rendering of the first one of the plurality of gating media content segments, a first one of the plurality of protected media content segments on the display;

identifying, based on the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index, a second one of the plurality of gating media content segments for rendering after the rendering of the first one of the plurality of protected media content segments; and

rendering, after the rendering of the first one of the plurality of protected media content segments, the second one of the plurality of gating media content segments identified based on the under-threshold index and the over-threshold index on the display.