Program guide system with monitoring of advertisement usage and user activities

• US 20080196053A1
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Connie T. Marshall, David M. Berezowski, Donald C. Kern, Edward Knudson, Franklin E. Boyer, Joel G. Hassell, Michael David Ellis, Thomas R. Lemmons, William L. Thomas
• Original Assignee: Connie T. Marshall, David M. Berezowski, Donald C. Kern, Edward Knudson, Franklin E. Boyer, Joel G. Hassell, Michael David Ellis, Thomas R. Lemmons, William L. Thomas
• Inventors: Ellis, Michael D., Hassell, Joel G., Lemmons, Thomas R., Berezowski, David M., Thomas, William L., Knudson, Edward B., Boyer, Franklin E., Marshall, Connie T., Kern, Donald C.
• Application Number:
  US11/894,691
• Publication Number:
  US 20080196053A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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 21/2668 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 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42228 the reprogrammable keys being displayed on a display screen in order to reduce the number of keys on the remote control device itself
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/442 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44245 Monitoring the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. its availability, bandwidth
• 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 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 : End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• 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 5/782 : on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 : Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 : by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 : with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A program guide system is provided in which interactive television program guide advertisement usage is monitored. Advertisement usage may be monitored by monitoring when advertisements are transmitted from a television distribution facility to user television equipment. Advertisement usage information may also be monitored by monitoring when advertisements are received by the user television equipment. Advertisement usage information may also be monitored at the time at which advertisements are displayed by a program guide. Less important data may be filtered from the collected advertisement usage data. Other activities that may be monitored include the viewing activities of the user, which program guide screens are displayed, and which non-program-guide applications are used. Real-time ratings information (e.g., real-time ratings of the popularity of certain television programs, video games, or other applications) may be provided to users in real time.

Claims

1-97. -97. (canceled)

98. A method of generating real-time ratings, comprising:

monitoring user interactions at user equipment at a plurality of locations, wherein the user equipment at each location is associated with demographic information for at least one user at that location;

automatically collecting user interaction data based on the monitoring, wherein the user interaction data is collected from a subset of the user equipment that are associated with demographic information of a particular demographic attribute; and

generating real-time ratings using the subset of the user interaction data.

99. The method of claim 98, further comprising:

automatically generating the demographic information at each user equipment.

100. The method of claim 98, wherein the particular demographic attribute comprises at least one of a particular income level, gender, age, and interests.

101. The method of claim 98, wherein the user interaction data is collected at the user equipment, the method further comprising:

transmitting the user interaction data to a data processing facility remote from the user equipment for real-time ratings generation.

102. The method of claim 98, further comprising:

periodically polling the user equipment at each location, wherein the user interaction data is received in response to the periodic polling.

103. The method of claim 98, further comprising:

storing at the user equipment the monitored user interactions in at least one user profile, wherein the at least one user profile is associated with the at least one user, and

wherein automatically collecting the user interaction data comprises processing the at least one user profile.

104. The method of claim 98, further comprising:

maintaining a plurality of user profiles at the user equipment for at least one of the locations, wherein;

each user profile is associated with a particular user at the at least one of the locations,

each user profile includes user-specific demographic information for the particular user associated with that user profile, and

automatically collecting user interaction data comprises processing each of the user profiles based on the user-specific demographic information associated with each of the user profiles.

105. The method of claim 98, wherein generating the real-time ratings comprises determining most popular programs among those having the particular demographic attribute.

106. A method of generating real-time ratings for advertisements, comprising:

automatically collecting advertisement access data for a plurality of advertisements at user equipment;

identifying a sub-plurality of the plurality of advertisements; and

in response to identifying the sub-plurality of advertisements;

transmitting a portion of the advertisement access data corresponding to the sub-plurality to a data processing facility remote from the user equipment; and

generating real-time ratings for the sub-plurality of advertisements using at least the advertisement access data.

107. The method of claim 106, wherein automatically collecting the advertisement access data comprises:

monitoring user interactions with the plurality of advertisements at the user equipment; and

obtaining the advertisement access data based on the monitored user interactions.

108. The method of claim 106, wherein automatically collecting the advertisement access data comprises:

monitoring an amount of times that each of the plurality of advertisements are displayed on the user equipment; and

obtaining the advertisement access data based on the amount of times.

109. The method of claim 106, wherein generating the real-time ratings comprises identifying the effectiveness of the sub-plurality of advertisements based on the subset.

110. A method of generating real-time ratings, comprising:

automatically collecting user action data based on monitoring of a plurality of user actions received at user equipment;

identifying a sub-plurality of the plurality of user actions; and

in response to identifying the sub-plurality of user actions;

transmitting a portion of the user action data corresponding to the sub-plurality to a data processing facility remote from the user equipment; and

generating real-time ratings for the sub-plurality of user actions using at least the advertisement access data.

111. The method of claim 110, wherein the sub-plurality of user actions corresponds to a particular type of action.

112. The method of claim 111, wherein the particular type of action is at least one of a purchasing of a product or ordering of a pay-per-view program.

113. The method of claim 112, wherein generating the real-time ratings comprises identifying a popularity of the product or pay-per-view program.

114. A system for generating real-time ratings, the system configured to:

monitor user interactions at user equipment at a plurality of locations, wherein the user equipment at each location is associated with demographic information for at least one user at that location;

automatically collect user interaction data based on the monitoring, wherein the user interaction data is collected from a subset of the user equipment that are associated with demographic information of a particular demographic attribute; and

generate real-time ratings using the subset of the user interaction data.

115. The system of claim 114, wherein the system is further configured to:

automatically generate the demographic information at each user equipment.

116. The system of claim 114, wherein the system is further configured to:

collect the user interaction data at the user equipment; and

transmit the user interaction data to a data processing facility remote from the user equipment for real-time ratings generation.

117. The system of claim 114, wherein the system is further configured to:

store at the user equipment the monitored user interactions in at least one user profile, wherein the at least one user profile is associated with the at least one user; and

process the at least one user profile to obtain the user interaction data.

118. The system of claim 114, wherein the system is further configured to determine the most popular programs among those having the particular demographic attribute.

119. A system for generating real-time ratings for advertisements, the system configured to:

automatically collect advertisement access data for a plurality of advertisements at user equipment;

identify a sub-plurality of the plurality of advertisements; and

in response to identifying the sub-plurality of advertisements;

transmit a portion of the advertisement access data corresponding to the sub-plurality to a data processing facility remote from the user equipment; and

generate real-time ratings for the sub-plurality of advertisements using at least the advertisement access data.

120. The system of claim 119, wherein the system is further configured to:

monitor user interactions with the plurality of advertisements at the user equipment;

monitor an amount of times that each of the plurality of advertisements are displayed on the user equipment; and

obtain the advertisement access data based on the monitored user interactions and the amount of times.

121. A system for generating real-time ratings, the system configured to:

automatically collect user action data based on monitoring of a plurality of user actions received at user equipment;

identify a sub-plurality of the plurality of user actions; and

in response to identifying the sub-plurality of user actions;

transmit a portion of the user action data corresponding to the sub-plurality to a data processing facility remote from the user equipment; and

generate real-time ratings for the sub-plurality of user actions using at least the advertisement access data.

122. The system of claim 121, wherein the sub-plurality of user actions corresponds to a particular type of action.