Broadcast response system

• US 7,415,430 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2005
• Issued: 08/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: StratosAudio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: StratosAudio, Inc.
• Inventors: Christensen, Kelly M., Smyth, Thomas J., Thomas, Barry D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Champagne; Luna
• Application Number:
  US11/203,557
• Publication Number:
  US 20050287972A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,103 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10, 705/27, 705/14, 705/26, 455/161.2, 725/24, 725/110
• US Class Current: 705/26.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/30 by a single channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/34 using an out-of-band subcarrier signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/13 radio data system/radio broadcast data system [RDS/RBDS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/30 characterised by the use of a return channel, e.g. for collecting users' opinions, for returning broadcast space/time information or for requesting data
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/37 via a different channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/61 Arrangements for services using the result of monitoring, identification or recognition covered by groups H04H60/29-H04H60/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/63 for services of sales data processing systems or methods specially adapted for electronic commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/74 using programme related information, e.g. title, composer or interpreter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 : Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 : for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 : Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 : for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/274 : Storing end-user multimedia data in response to end-user request , e.g. network recorder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 : Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 : End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 : for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 : involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6181 : involving transmission via a mobile phone network arrangements for providing broadcast or conference services to substation in data switching networks in combination with wireless systems H04L12/189; wireless uplink channel access H04W74/004
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 : comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A broadcast response system provides, e.g., a radio broadcast listener with the ability to obtain media content such as music or speech while listening to the radio. The user can respond to items in the radio broadcast such as advertisements, fund raising drives, or interactive listener polls during the broadcast. Data such as song title and artist, author or publisher and the IP address for the location where the digital version of the content is stored, can be transmitted using, e.g., the RBDS/RDS data stream. A reference number representing song title and artist, author or publisher and the IP address for the location where the digital version of the content is stored can also be employed for ease of implementation. This reference number can reside in a lookup table to be accessed by broadcast response server.

Claims

1. A method of associating a response to a transmission using a unique identifier, comprising in no particular order:

obtaining information by a computer implemented system about a specific transmission by a broadcaster of at least one media segment, the obtained information comprising at least

an identification of the specific occurrence of the transmission by the broadcaster, comprising information that allows determination of the date and time of the transmission by the broadcaster of the media segment;

generating in the computer implemented system the unique identifier for processing by a user device, wherein the unique identifier identifies the specific transmission of the media segment;

storing in a database of the computer implemented system the unique identifier in such a manner as to be database linked with the obtained information;

causing a transmission of the unique identifier to the user device, wherein the user device is configured to receive the unique identifier;

receiving in the computer implemented system a response packet from the user device, based on input into the user device by a user, the response packet comprising at least the unique identifier and a user identifier;

processing in the computer implemented system the response packet from the user device to identify the specific transmission of the media segment based on the unique identifier; and

verifying in the computer implemented system the user identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the response packet provides an indication that a user received the at least one media segment.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating to a device associated with the user identifier.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the device associated with the user identifier is a different device than that which provided the response packet.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the different device was pre-selected by a user.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the response packet includes selection of the different device.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising communication to a third party.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the third party was pre-selected by a user.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the response packet includes selection of the third party.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting information associated with the user identifier.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising storing in the database information associated with the user identifier.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising data mining of the database.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising data mining of the database.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in the database a plurality of transactions associated with the user identifier.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising aggregating a plurality of transactions by a plurality of users.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in the database a plurality of available actions associated with the unique identifier.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a plurality of available actions associated with the unique identifier.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in the database a category associated with the unique identifier.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a category associated with the unique identifier.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising aggregating information of a plurality of transmissions by a plurality of transmitters.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique identifier corresponds to a database key.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the user identifier is verified using a third party.

23. A broadcast response system that assigns a unique identifier to a specific event being broadcast, the system comprising:

a network communications device, connected to a network, that receives event data corresponding to a specific event being broadcast by a broadcaster;

an event data module, responsive to the network communications device, for obtaining information from the event data about the specific event, the specific event obtained information comprising at least

an identification of the specific occurrence of the broadcast by the broadcaster of the specific event;

a unique identifier module for generating a unique identifier for processing by a user device, wherein the unique identifier identifies the specific event obtained information, and for assigning the unique identifier with the broadcast of the specific event;

a database module for storing in a database the unique identifier assigned to the broadcast of the specific event, and the specific event obtained information associated with the unique identifier;

a response packet receiver configured to receive a response packet from a user device, wherein the response packet is based on input into the user device by the user, the response packet comprising at least the unique identifier and a user identifier;

a processor configured to process the response packet from the user device to identify the broadcast of the specific event based on the unique identifier; and

a verification module for verifying the user identifier.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the event database module, the unique identifier module, the database module, response packet receiver, the processor, and the verification module operate on more than one device.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the event database module, the unique identifier module, the database module, response packet receiver, the processor, and the verification module operate on the same device.