METHODS FOR SERVING INTERACTIVE CONTENT TO A USER

• US 20170024098A1
• Filed: 07/22/2016
• Published: 01/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yieldmo, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Yieldmo, Inc.
• Inventors: Sprockett, Shawn, Wu, Eric (Ge), Bao, Yiming, Silvernight, Firecrow, Doherty, Connor Francis, Goligorsky, David Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,852,759 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/005 Reproducing at a different information rate from the information rate of recording for television signals H04N5/783
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/036 Insert-editing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/102 Programmed access in sequence to addressed parts of tracks of operating record carriers access by moving the head G11B3/08, G11B5/54, G11B7/085, G11B21/022; by moving the record carrier G11B15/005, G11B17/005, by driving of both record carrier and head G11B15/1816
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3081 used signal is a video-frame or a video-field (P.I.P)
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• 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 21/47217 for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

One variation of a method for serving interactive content to a user includes, at a visual element inserted into a document accessed by a computing device: loading a first frame from a digital video; in response to a scroll-down event that moves the visual element upward from a bottom of a window rendered on the computing device toward a top of the window, seeking from the first frame through a subset of frames in the digital video in a first direction at a rate corresponding to a scroll rate of the scroll-down event, the subset of frames spanning a duration of the digital video corresponding to a length of the scroll-down event; and, in response to termination of the scroll-down event with the visual element remaining in view within the window, playing the digital video forward from a last frame in the subset of frames in the digital video.

Claims

1. A method for serving interactive content to a user, the method comprising:

accessing a digital video from a database;

selecting a subset of frames from the digital video, the subset of frames comprising a predefined number of frames from the digital video;

compiling the subset of frames into a single static image file;

at a computing device;

at a first time, in response to a first scroll-down event that moves a visual element into view at a bottom of a window rendered on a display of the computing device, inserting a first region of the image file corresponding to a first frame in the subset of frames into the visual element;

at a second time succeeding the first time, inserting a second region of the image file into the visual element in response to a second scroll-down event that moves the visual element to a second position above the bottom of the window, the second region of the image file corresponding to a second frame succeeding the first frame in the subset of frames;

at a third time succeeding the second time, inserting a last region of the image file into the visual element in response to a third scroll-down event that moves the visual element to a top of the window, the last region of the image file corresponding to a last frame succeeding the second frame in the subset of frames; and

at a fourth time succeeding the third time, inserting the second region of the image file into the visual element in response to a scroll-up event that moves the visual element to the second position of the window, the second region of the image file corresponding to a second frame succeeding the first frame in the subset of frames.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the subset of frames from the digital video comprises selecting a predefined number of frames, approximately equal to a number of frames in one second of playback of the digital video at a standard video frame rate, from the digital video.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the subset of frames from the digital video comprises:

rendering a representation of frames in the digital video spanning the duration of the digital video within a virtual portal; and

selecting the subset of frames distributed at uniform intervals across a section of the digital video between two markers positioned along the length of the representation of frames rendered within the virtual portal.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising updating the selection of the subset of frames from the digital video in response to manual relocation of one of the two markers relative to the representation of frames rendered within the virtual portal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein compiling the subset of frames into the single static image file comprises generating the single static image file comprising the subset of frames adjoined in a single column in an order from bottom to top corresponding to an order of the subset of frames within the digital video.

6. The method of claim 5,

wherein inserting the first region of the image file corresponding to the first frame in the subset of frames into the visual element at the first time comprises positioning a crop area over the first region of the image file corresponding to a first range of positions of the visual element rendered proximal the bottom of the window;

wherein inserting the second region of the image file corresponding to the second frame in the subset of frames into the visual element at the second time comprises indexing the crop area over the second region of the image file corresponding to a second range of positions of the visual element above the first range of positions within the window, the second range of positions comprising the second position; and

wherein inserting the last region of the image file corresponding to the last frame in the subset of frames into the visual element at the third time comprises indexing the crop area over the last region of the image file corresponding to a third range of positions of the visual element above the second range of positions within the window, the third range of positions comprising the last position.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising, in response to the computing device accessing a document containing ad content:

loading the image file and the visual element onto the computing device; and

assigning one unique vertical position range of the visual element within the window to each discrete region in the image file corresponding to one frame in the subset of frames.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein assigning one unique vertical position range of the visual element within the window to each discrete region in the image file comprises:

resizing regions of the visual element, at a locked aspect ratio, to fill one of the height and the width of the visual element rendered within the window;

segmenting a height of the window less a height of the visual element into a number of discrete vertical position ranges equal to the number of frames in the set of frames; and

assigning each discrete vertical position range to one region of the image file corresponding to one frame in the set of frames.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting the first region of the image file into the visual element at the first time, inserting the second region of the image file into the visual element at the second time, and inserting the last region of the image file into the visual element at the third time comprise:

inserting the first region of the image file into the visual element, inserting the second region of the image file into the visual element, and inserting the last region of the image file into the visual element in response to the first, second, and third scroll-down events comprising a continuous scroll-down input into the computing device from the first time to the third time.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to a web browser, executing on the computing device, accessing a web page calling ad content;

loading the image file and the visual element into the web browser responsive to the webpage containing content spanning a height greater than a height of the visual element; and

inserting the visual element into the web page below the top of the webpage and above the bottom of the webpage.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the digital video comprises accessing a video advertisement from a database;

and wherein inserting the first region of the image file into the visual element comprises inserting the first region of the image file into the visual element comprising content in a Hypertext Markup Language iframe served to a web browser executing on the computing device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting the first region of the image file into the visual element comprises inserting the first region of the image file into the visual element in response to entry of a top edge of the visual element into the bottom of the window during the first scroll-down event and maintaining the first region of the image file statically within the visual element until the visual element reaches the second position within the window.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the visual element, generating an interaction record comprising a number of scroll-down events and scroll-up events occurring at the computing device and maintaining the visual element within the window; and

serving the interaction record to a remote interaction database.

14. A method for serving interactive content to a user, the method comprising:

accessing a digital video from a database;

selecting a subset of frames from the digital video, the subset of frames comprising a predefined number of frames from the digital video;

storing the subset of frames in a container;

at a visual element inserted into a document accessed by a computing device;

loading the container from a remote database;

during a scroll-down event at the computing device, rendering a first frame, from the container, between when a top edge of the visual element first enters a window rendered on a display of the computing device and when the visual element is shown in full at the bottom of the window in a first position;

during the scroll-down event, rendering a second frame, from the container, in replacement of the first frame in response to relocation of the visual element from the first position to a second position within the window above the first position;

during the scroll-down event, rendering a last frame, from the container, in response to relocation of the visual element to a top position within the window above the second position; and

in response to a scroll-up event at the computing device, rendering the second frame in response to relocation of the visual element from the top position to the second position within the window.

15. A method for serving interactive content to a user, the method comprising:

at a visual element inserted into a document accessed by a computing device;

loading a first frame from a digital video;

in response to a scroll-down event that moves the visual element upward from a bottom of a window rendered on a display of the computing device toward a top of the window, seeking from the first frame through a first subset of frames in the digital video in a first direction at a rate corresponding to a scroll rate of the scroll-down event, the first subset of frames spanning a duration of the digital video corresponding to a length of the scroll-down event; and

in response to termination of the scroll-down event with the visual element remaining in view within the window, replaying the digital video forward from a last frame in the first subset of frames in the digital video loaded into the visual element.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

in response to a scroll-up event that moves the visual element downward from proximal a top of the window toward the bottom of the window, seeking from a last frame loaded into the visual element through a second subset of frames in the digital video in a second direction at a rate corresponding to a scroll rate of the scroll-up event, the second subset of frames spanning a duration of the digital video corresponding to a length of the scroll-up event, the second direction opposite the first direction; and

in response to termination of the scroll-up event with the visual element remaining in view within the window, replaying the digital video forward from a last frame in the second subset of frames in the digital video loaded into the visual element.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising, in response to selection of the visual element within the window, opening a video player comprising video replay controls at the computing device and replaying the digital video forward from the first frame.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein loading the first frame from the digital video comprises loading the first frame from the digital video into the visual element contained within a web page in response to navigation to the web page within a web browser executing on the computing device;

and further comprising;

generating an interaction record comprising a number of scroll-down events and scroll-up events occurring at the computing device and maintaining the visual element within the window;

appending the interaction record with a total duration of the digital video represented by frames inserted into the visual element before navigation to an alternate webpage; and

serving the interaction record to a remote interaction database.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein loading the first frame of the digital video comprises inserting the first frame of the digital video into the visual element in response to entry of a top edge of the visual element into the bottom of the window during the scroll-down event;

and wherein seeking from the first frame through the first subset of frames comprises inserting a second frame in the digital frame into the visual element in replacement of the first frame in response to relocation of the visual element fully within the window during the scroll-down event.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein replaying the digital video forward from the last frame in the first subset of frames comprises:

recording a first load time for a display of the computing device to render the visual element containing a first frame in a second subset of frames succeeding the first subset of frames in the digital video;

selecting a second frame in the second subset of frames assigned a second timestamp chronologically offset from a first timestamp of the first image in the second subset of frames by a duration nearest the first load time;

loading the second frame in the second subset of frames into the visual element;

recording a second load time for the display of the computing device to render the visual element containing the second frame in the second subset of frames;

selecting a third frame in the second subset of frames assigned a third timestamp chronologically offset from the second timestamp of the second image in the second subset of frames by a duration nearest the third load time; and

loading the third frame in the second subset of frames into the visual element.