Interactive television tracking system

• US 7,861,259 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2002
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MK Systems USA Inc. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: GoldPocket Interactive, Inc. (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Barone, Samuel T. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Koenig; Andrew Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bantamoi; Anthony
• Application Number:
  US10/222,445
• Publication Number:
  US 20030051253A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,056 Days
• Field of Search: 725/10, 725/9, 725/23, 725 32- 34, 725/46
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2408 Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• 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 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8166 involving executable data, e.g. software arrangements for executing specific programs G06F9/44; broadcasting computer programmes in broadcast systems H04H20/91; involving the movement of software or configuration parameters H04L67/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 the inserted signal being digital
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

An interactive television system tailoring delivery of interactive content. The system includes a request processing engine accepting user interactions with an interactive television (ITV) application. A user profiling engine associates the user interactions with an individual profile or profile group. The profile group defines events that may be triggered upon receipt of certain user interactions. A trigger/event engine monitors, in real-time, whether the user interactions correspond to any of the defined events. If an event is to be triggered, an action engine transmits an ITV command associated with the event to an encoder. The encoder performs a real-time of encoding of the ITV command for providing viewers with a dynamic ITV experience. The ITV experience provided to the viewers may also be customized based on the profile information obtained for each individual viewer.

Claims

1. A method for tailoring delivery of interactive content in an interactive television (ITV) system comprising:

specifying, under control of a computer, a group profile directed to a group of viewers having a shared characteristic;

maintaining a table of a plurality of trigger events and corresponding event messages, each trigger event triggering a specific interactive experience via the corresponding event message;

specifying, under control of the computer, a specific trigger event for the group profile, the specific trigger event being selected from the plurality of trigger events;

storing, under control of the computer, the specific trigger event in association with the group profile;

delivering a television program associated with an interactive television program application to a plurality of viewers, the interactive television program application presenting the plurality of viewers with a first type of interactive experience during the television program;

determining, under control of the computer, whether the plurality of viewers match the group profile by determining whether the plurality of viewers have the shared characteristic;

based on a determination that the plurality of viewers match the group profile, monitoring and aggregating interactions with the interactive television program application by the plurality of viewers, wherein the aggregating includes adding a value associated with a first interaction by a first one of the plurality of viewers to a second value associated with a second interaction by a second one of the plurality of viewers, and outputting an aggregate value in response;

determining, by an ITV server, whether the aggregate value satisfies the specific trigger event stored in association with the group profile;

based on a determination that the aggregate value satisfies the specific trigger event, retrieving, by the ITV server, the event message corresponding to the specific trigger event;

selecting by the ITV server ITV data associated with the event message; and

transmitting the selected ITV data to a plurality of receivers associated with the plurality of viewers, wherein each of the plurality of receivers is configured to retrieve ITV content in response to the received ITV data, wherein the retrieved ITV content dynamically modifies, during the television program, the first type of interactive experience presented to the plurality of viewers with a modified interactive experience.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is a predetermined total number of viewers matching the group profile that interact with the interactive television program application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified interactive experience awards an award to the plurality of viewers matching the group profile.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first type of interactive experience is an interactive game without the award awarded to the plurality of viewers matching the group profile.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the group profile is associated with a particular gender.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the group profile is associated with a particular age group.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactions of each of the monitored plurality of viewers contribute towards satisfying the specific trigger event.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising delivering the ITV data for triggering the modified interactive experience to a plurality of television systems accessible to the plurality of viewers, via a back channel.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

updating the group profile based on the monitored interactions.

10. An interactive television (ITV) system tailoring delivery of interactive content, the system comprising:

means for specifying a group profile directed to a group of viewers having a shared characteristic;

a data store storing a table of a plurality of trigger events and corresponding event messages, each trigger event triggering a specific interactive experience via the corresponding event message;

means for specifying a specific trigger event for the group profile, the specific trigger event being selected from the plurality of trigger events;

means for storing the specific trigger event in association with the group profile;

means for delivering a television program associated with an interactive television program application to a plurality of viewers, the interactive television program application presenting the plurality of viewers with a first type of interactive experience during the television program;

means for determining, under control of the computer, whether the plurality of viewers match the group profile by determining whether the plurality of viewers have the shared characteristic;

means for monitoring and aggregating interactions with the interactive television program application by the plurality of viewers based on a determination that the plurality of viewers match the group profile, wherein the aggregating includes adding a value associated with a first interaction by a first one of the plurality of viewers to a second value associated with a second interaction by a second one of the plurality of viewers” and

outputting an aggregate value in response;

means located at an ITV server for determining whether the aggregate value satisfies the specific trigger event stored in association with the group profile;

means located at the ITV server for retrieving the event message corresponding to the specific trigger event based on a determination that the aggregate value satisfies the specific trigger event;

means located at the ITV server for selecting ITV data associated with the event message; and

means for transmitting the selected ITV data to a plurality of receivers associated with the plurality of viewers, wherein each of the plurality of receivers include means for retrieving the ITV content in response to the received ITV data, wherein the retrieved ITV content dynamically modifies, during the television program, the first type of interactive experience presented to the plurality of viewers with a modified interactive experience.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the trigger event is a predetermined total number of viewers matching the group profile that interact with the interactive television program application.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the modified interactive experience is configured to award an award to the plurality of viewers matching the group profile.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the first type of interactive experience is an interactive game without the award awarded to the plurality of viewers matching the group profile.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the group profile is associated with a particular gender.

15. An interactive television (ITV) system tailoring delivery of interactive content, the system comprising:

a first engine at an ITV server configured to;

specify a group profile directed to a group of viewers having a shared characteristic;

maintain a table of a plurality of trigger events and corresponding event messages, each trigger event triggering a specific interactive experience via the corresponding event message;

specify a specific trigger event for the group profile, the specific trigger event being selected from the plurality of trigger events;

store the specific trigger event in association with the group profile;

determine whether a plurality of viewers match the group profile by determining whether the plurality of viewers have the shared characteristic;

based on a determination that the plurality of viewers match the group profile, monitor and aggregate interactions with an interactive television program application by the plurality of viewers, the interactive television program application presenting the plurality of viewers with a first type of interactive experience during a television program, wherein the aggregating includes adding a value associated with a first interaction by a first one of the plurality of viewers to a second value associated with a second interaction by a second one of the plurality of viewers, and outputting an aggregate value in response;

a second engine at the ITV server configured to;

determine whether the aggregate value satisfies the specific trigger event stored in association with the group profile; and

based on a determination that the aggregate value satisfies the specific trigger event, retrieve the event message corresponding to the specific trigger event; and

a third engine at the ITV server configured to;

select ITV data associated with the event message; and

transmit the selected ITV data to a plurality of receivers associated with the plurality of viewers, wherein each of the plurality of receivers is configured to retrieve ITV content in response to the received ITV data, wherein the retrieved ITV content dynamically modifies, during the television program, the first type of interactive experience presented to the plurality of viewers with a modified interactive experience.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the trigger event is a predetermined total number of viewers matching the group profile that interact with the interactive television program application.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the modified interactive experience is configured to award an award to the plurality of viewers matching the group profile.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the first type of interactive experience is an interactive game without the award awarded to the plurality of viewers matching the group profile.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the group profile is associated with a particular gender.

20. A method for providing interactive content in an interactive television (ITV) system, the method comprising:

specifying, under control of a computer, a group profile directed to a group of viewers having a shared characteristic;

storing, under control of the computer, a milestone in association with the group profile;

determining, under control of the computer, whether a plurality of users interacting with an ITV application associated a television program match the group profile by determining whether the plurality of viewers have the shared characteristic, the ITV application presenting the plurality of viewers with a first type of interactive experience during the television program;

based on a determination that the plurality of viewers match the group profile, monitoring and aggregating interactions with the ITV application by the plurality of users that match the group profile, wherein the aggregating includes adding a value associated with a first interaction by a first one of the plurality of viewers to a second value associated with a second interaction by a second one of the plurality of viewers, and outputting an aggregate value in response;

determining, by an ITV server, whether the aggregate value achieves the specified milestone; and

based on a determination that the aggregate value achieves the specified milestone, inserting ITV data into a video signal carrying the television program during the broadcast of the television program for delivery to a plurality of receivers associated with the plurality of viewers, wherein each of the plurality of receivers is configured to retrieve ITV content in response to the received ITV data, wherein the retrieved ITV content dynamically modifies, during the associated television program, the first type of interactive experience presented to the plurality of viewers with a modified interactive experience.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the interactions of each of the monitored plurality of users contribute towards satisfying the specific trigger event.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the modifying of the first type of interactive experience includes altering timing of presentation of particular elements of the ITV application from a broadcast head end, during the television program.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the modifying of the first type of interactive experience includes altering an order of presentation of particular elements of the ITV application from a broadcast head end, concurrently during the μ

television program.

24. A method for providing interactive content to a plurality of television systems accessed by a plurality of users, the method comprising:

specifying by an interactive television (ITV) server a group profile directed to a group of viewers having a shared characteristic;

storing by the ITV server a milestone in association with the group profile;

providing a broadcast station coupled to the ITV server a television program associated with an ITV application presenting the plurality of users with a first type of interactive experience during the television program;

receiving by the ITV server information on interactions by each of the plurality of users with the ITV application;

determining by the ITV server whether the plurality of users interacting with the ITV application match the group profile by determining whether the plurality of viewers have the shared characteristic;

monitoring and aggregating by the head end system interactions with the ITV application by the plurality of users that match the group profile, wherein the aggregating includes adding a value associated with a first interaction by a first one of the plurality of viewers to a second value associated with a second interaction by a second one of the plurality of viewers, and outputting an aggregate value in response;

determining by the ITV server whether the aggregate value by the monitored plurality of users achieves the specified milestone; and

based on a determination that the aggregate value achieves the specified milestone, inserting ITV data into a video signal carrying the television program during the broadcast of the television program, the inserted ITV data being transmitted to the plurality of television systems, wherein each of the plurality of television systems is configured to retrieve ITV content in response to the received ITV data, wherein the retrieved ITV content dynamically modifies during the associated television program, the first type of interactive experience presented to the plurality of users with a modified interactive experience.