Advertisement filtering and storage for targeted advertisement systems

• US 20020083441A1
• Filed: 12/27/2000
• Published: 06/27/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A., Flickinger, Gregory C.
• Application Number:
  US09/748,949
• Publication Number:
  US 20020083441A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0258 Registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/375 Commercial
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/45 for identifying users
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26233 involving content or additional data duration or size, e.g. length of a movie, size of an executable file
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26241 involving the time of distribution, e.g. the best time of the day for inserting an advertisement or airing a children program
• 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 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 : Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 : involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 : Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 : End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 : Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 : by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 : the inserted signal being digital
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 : by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17354 : in an intermediate station common to a plurality of user terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17363 : at or near the user terminal

Abstract

An advertisement storage and filtering system for selectively identifying targeted advertisements to be stored in the memory of the STB. This storing of the selected advertisements can be accomplished in a number of ways. In one embodiment, the advertisements, in real-time and as they are received at the STB, are processed by the STB and only those advertisements with the appropriate characteristics are stored on the hard drive (HD). This may require some buffering of the advertisements in the STB memory as the STB processes and determines whether or not to store the advertisement. The information required to determine whether or not to store the advertisement could also be sent in advance, e.g., as a data service in an advertisement channel. Alternatively, the STB may store incoming advertisements in a memory temporarily and subsequently determine whether or not to retain the stored advertisements.

Claims

1. In a television network environment, a method for selectively storing targeted advertisements at a set-top box, the method comprising:

receiving an advertisement channel having a plurality of advertisements;

determining if an advertisement is appropriate for the set-top box; and

retaining the advertisement if it is found to be appropriate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining is performed in real-time or near real-time.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the plurality of advertisements from the ad channel on a hard-drive prior to said determining.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising deleting the advertisement from the hard drive if the advertisement is found to be inappropriate.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining is based on one or more pre-determined parameters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving includes receiving one or more targeted advertisements via the advertisement channel.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning each advertisement within the ad channel a unique AD_ID;

assigning each set-top box to one or more groups;

forming an AD_ID group table;

forming an STB-group table; and

joining the AD_ID table and STB-AD_ID table to create a master STB-AD_ID table.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said determination is based on the STB-AD_ID table.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the STB-AD_ID table comprises an STB-MAC_ID column and an AD_ID column.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the AD_ID group table comprises an AD_ID column and a targeted group identification column.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the STB-group table comprises an STB-MAC_ID table and a targeted group identification column.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving includes receiving metadata via the advertisement channel.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the metadata is transmitted in a vertical blanking interval.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving includes receiving the metadata and splice_timing information via the advertisement channel.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the metadata and the splice_timing information is encoded as a data service on the advertisement channel.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising decoding the data service and identifying the timing of the advertisement from the splice_timing information.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said retaining includes storing the advertisement during one or more splice windows identified by the splice timing information.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the set-top box comprises a demodulator or decoder for demodulating or decoding the advertisement channel to differentiate between the metadata information and the advertisements.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the set-top box further comprises a processor for decoding the metadata information to determine one or more corresponding instructions.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the processor further associates the instructions to the received advertisements to select one or more appropriate advertisements.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the set-top box further comprises a memory for storing the selected advertisements.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the advertisement channel generator further comprises a vertical blanking interval encoder for encoding metadata information on an advertisement channel.

24. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising an advertisement sequencer/multiplexer for multiplexing the advertisements on the advertisement channel.

18. In a television network environment, an advertisement management system comprising:

an advertisement channel generator for receiving one or more advertisements and their corresponding metadata information from an advertisement server, and generating an advertisement channel comprising the advertisements and the metadata information; and

a set-top box for receiving the advertisement channel and retrieving the advertisements and the metadata information.