Advertising in a digital media playback system

• US 20130254340A1
• Filed: 01/26/2010
• Published: 09/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Inventors: Lang, Jonathan, Kuper, Ron
• Granted Patent: US 10,061,742 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/74 using programme related information, e.g. title, composer or interpreter
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2368 Multiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58

Abstract

Techniques pertaining to advertising through a digital data network are disclosed. Advertisement information is embedded in multimedia data stream as structured metadata, and transmitted through networks. Multimedia players installed in different locations, or zones, in a data network are configured to receive the stream data, and detect the presence of the embedded metadata. Through a network interface in the player, the metadata information is transmitted to and displayed on a controller. A user input interface in the controller allows a user to response to the displayed metadata and select to obtain the desired information accordingly.

Claims

1. A method for advertising in an audio signal, the method comprising:

receiving a streaming audio signal at a zone player, wherein the streaming audio signal comprises audio and an advertising information tag;

detecting, via the zone player, the advertising information tag during examination of the streaming audio signal by the zone player for playback of the audio; and

without affecting the playback of the audio, responsively transporting data representing the advertising information tag from the zone player over a wireless network to a controller of the zone player to be displayed on a display screen of the controller.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the streaming audio signal is represented by a sequence of data packets, at least one of the data packets including the data representing the advertising information tag.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the zone player is configured to examine at least a portion of the sequence of data packets to detect the advertising information tag.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the transporting of the data representing the advertising information tag comprises:

reformatting the data representing the advertising information tag to be destined to the controller subsequent to detecting the advertising information tag; and

transporting the reformatted data to the controller.

23. The method according to claim 4, wherein the examination of the at least a portion of the sequence of the data packets occurs before playback of audio from any of the at least a portion of the sequence of the data packets.

24. The method according to claim 4, wherein the examination of the at least a portion of the sequence of the data packets occurs during playback of audio from any of the at least a portion of the sequence of the data packets.

25. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data representing the advertising information tag comprises an image to be displayed on the display screen.

26. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data representing the advertising information tag comprises a script that is activated to cause any of the zone player and controller to retrieve additional information to be displayed on the display screen.

27. The method according to claim 1, further comprising transporting data representing the advertising information tag from the zone player over the wireless network to the controller and at least one additional controller.

2. (canceled)

6-22. -22. (canceled)

28. A tangible computer readable storage medium including instructions for execution by a processor, the instructions when executed implementing a method for advertising in an audio signal, the method comprising:

receiving a streaming audio signal at a zone player, wherein the streaming audio signal comprises audio and an advertising information tag;

detecting, via the zone player, the advertising information tag during examination of the streaming audio signal by the zone player for playback of the audio; and

without affecting the playback of the audio, responsively transporting data representing the advertising information tag from the zone player over a wireless network to a controller of the zone player to be displayed on a display screen of the controller.

29. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 28, wherein the streaming audio signal is represented by a sequence of data packets, at least one of the data packets including the data representing the advertising information tag.

30. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 29, wherein the zone player is configured to examine at least a portion of the sequence of data packets to detect the advertising information tag.

31. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 30, wherein the transporting of the data representing the advertising information tag comprises:

reformatting the data representing the advertising information tag to be destined to the controller subsequent to detecting the advertising information tag; and

transporting the reformatted data to the controller.

32. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 30, wherein the examination of the at least a portion of the sequence of the data packets occurs before playback of audio from any of the at least a portion of the sequence of the data packets.

33. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 30, wherein the examination of the at least a portion of the sequence of the data packets occurs during playback of audio from any of the at least a portion of the sequence of the data packets.

34. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 28, wherein the data representing the advertising information tag comprises an image to be displayed on the display screen.

35. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 28, wherein the data representing the advertising information tag comprises a script that is activated to cause any of the zone player and controller to retrieve additional information to be displayed on the display screen.

36. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 28, wherein the method further comprises transporting data representing the advertising information tag from the zone player over the wireless network to the controller and at least one additional controller.