Collateral data combined with user characteristics to select web site

• US 20050192933A1
• Filed: 02/15/2005
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B., Rodriguez, Tony F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,108,484 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/43 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/483 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking

Abstract

A system where collateral information in a file or image is used together with information concerning a particular user'"'"'s characteristics to direct a user to a particular web site. A user is direct to a web site and presented with information based both upon the original collateral information and information from the data base of user'"'"'s characteristics. In one embodiment, a file or data stream includes collateral data that identifies the URL of a central web site. When a file containing the collateral data is transferred to a browser, the central web site is accessed and it interrogates a data base containing various information. The output of the data base search is another URL that directs the browser that received the original collateral data to another web site which then sends information to the user. In an alternate embodiment, a user uses a handheld digital camera to gather information from images such as magazine covers or product boxes. The images contain digital watermarks that carry collateral data. The collateral data is used to interrogate either a local or a remote database which contains information pertinent to the particular user'"'"'s characteristics.

Claims

1. A method of providing information to a user in a system that includes i) a first database storing at least collateral data;

ii) a second database storing user interest profiles; and

iii) a third database that identifies web pages indexed according to particular interest profiles, said method comprising;

accessing the first database to obtain the collateral data, wherein the collateral data comprises a network or file address of the second database;

after accessing the second database with the network or file address, interrogating the second database to identify a particular user interest profile that is associated with a user who accessed the collateral data; and

accessing the third database and identifying a web page having information corresponding to the particular user interest profile.

2. A method of customizing content delivery based on user characteristics, said method comprising:

receiving an identifier that is associated with a content item;

identifying a content type or location based at least in part on the identifier;

obtaining user characteristics that are associated with a user to whom media content is to be delivered to;

based on the user characteristics and the content type or location, determining from a plurality of content which content is best suited for the user; and

providing determined content to the user.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the identifier comprises a first part that that was decoded from an auxiliary machine-readable code in the content item and a second part that was derived from the content item itself.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the identifier is steganographically embedded in the content item.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the identifier is derived from the content item itself.

6. A handheld system to access remotely located content, said system comprising:

a camera to acquire an electronic image of a printed image, wherein said printed image comprises a steganographic watermark embedded therein;

a steganographic watermark reading program to read the steganographic watermark from the electronic image;

memory having user characteristics or an index to user characteristics stored therein; and

a program to direct the handheld system to a network resource, wherein the network resource identities a network location of the content based at least in part on the;

i) watermark and ii) user characteristics or information obtained with the index to user characteristics, said program directing the program to the network location to access the remotely located content.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the user characteristics comprise at least one of user history and preferences.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the user characteristics comprise at least access rights.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein system wirelessly communicates with the network resource.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein said program includes a web browser.

11. The system of claim 6 wherein the printed image comprises a photograph.

12. The system of claim 6 wherein the steganographic watermark comprises digital watermarking.

13. A method of accessing content stored in a remote database comprising:

receiving image data;

decoding an auxiliary machine-readable code from the image data;

deriving a fingerprint from the image data itself;

providing user characteristics or an index to user characteristics; and

by using the machine-readable code, fingerprint and user characteristics or information obtained with the index to user characteristics, accessing the content stored in the remote database.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the machine-readable code identifies a network location of the remote database.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the fingerprint identifies the content within the database.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the machine-readable code comprises steganographic encoding.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the method is carried out on a handheld device.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the user characteristics comprise a profile representing a particular user.

19. The system of claim 13 wherein the user characteristics comprise at least one of user history and preferences.

20. The system of claim 13 wherein the user characteristics comprise at least access rights.