System and method for transmitting, receiving and displaying advertisements

• US 7,877,290 B1
• Filed: 01/27/2000
• Issued: 01/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DIRECTV, LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Arsenault, Robert G., Leminh, Tam T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Weiss; John G
• Assistant Examiner(s): VANDERHORST, MARIA VICTORIA
• Application Number:
  US09/492,725
• Time in Patent Office: 4,016 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/14.4, 709/217, 725/42, 725/14
• US Class Current: 705/14.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements

Abstract

Digital data objects containing video-based advertisement information are broadcast via satellite and received by one or more integrated receiver decoders (IRDs). Each IRD selectively discards or caches advertisement objects (AOs) in a local memory. AOs that are incompatible with the sophistication level of the IRD and/or user preferences/characteristics are discarded without being cached and AOs that have a lower priority than currently cached AOs are discarded. The IRD arranges cached AOs into ordered lists to schedule them for display and each ordered list corresponds to a unique display position within a program guide. When the user initiates a program guide session, the IRD cyclically displays the AOs in the program guide according to the ordered lists.

Claims

1. A system to display digital advertisement information, the system comprising:

a receiver for use at a subscriber site;

a processor in the receiver;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor in the receiver; and

software stored on the memory that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

receive an advertisement object and at least one link associated with the advertisement object, wherein the at least one link associates the advertisement object with a plurality of image objects corresponding to the advertisement object, and wherein each of the image objects requires a different processing capability to be rendered by the receiver;

use the link to select one of the plurality of image objects and discard the remaining plurality of image objects based on a processing capability of the receiver, wherein the plurality of image objects are transmitted to the receiver and the one of the plurality of image objects is selected from the transmitted plurality of image objects, and wherein the selected one of the plurality of image objects is capable of being rendered by the receiver; and

display the advertisement object and the selected one of the plurality of image objects.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the software is further adapted to be executed by the processor to select the advertisement object based on a user'"'"'s preference.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the image objects are linked to at least a second advertisement object.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores a local condition indicative of the processing capability of the receiver.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the software is further adapted to be executed by the processor to select a second advertisement object based on a location of the receiver.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the software is further adapted to be executed by the processor to display the advertisement object based on an ordered list.

7. A method of displaying advertisements, the method comprising:

receiving an advertisement object and at least one link associated with the advertisement object, wherein the at least one link associates the advertisement object with a plurality of image objects corresponding to the advertisement object, and wherein each of the image objects requires a different processing capability to be rendered by a receiver;

using the link to select, via a processor, one of the plurality of image objects and discard the remaining plurality of image objects based on the processing capability of the receiver, wherein the plurality of image objects are transmitted to the receiver and the one of the plurality of image objects is selected via the receiver from the transmitted plurality of image objects, and wherein the selected one of the plurality of image objects is capable of being rendered by the receiver; and

displaying the advertisement object and the selected one of the plurality of image objects.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining if the received advertisement object is a new version of a previously cached advertisement object and replacing the previously cached advertisement object with the received advertisement object if the received advertisement object is the new version of the previously cached advertisement object.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining if the received advertisement object is the new version of the previously cached advertisement object includes comparing data elements associated with an advertisement object version.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising comparing a priority of the received advertisement object to a lowest priority associated with a plurality of cached advertisement objects and discarding the received advertisement object if the priority of the received advertisement object is less than or equal to the lowest priority associated with the plurality of cached advertisement objects.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein comparing the priority of the received advertisement object to the lowest priority associated with the plurality of cached advertisement objects includes comparing data elements associated with display priority.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising replacing one from a plurality of cached advertisement objects having a lowest priority with the received advertisement object if the priority of the received advertisement object is greater than the lowest priority of the one from the plurality of the cached advertisement objects.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising discarding expired advertisement objects from a cache memory of the receiver.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein discarding the expired advertisement objects from the cache memory includes comparing a data element associated with advertisement object expiration to a local time at the receiver.

15. The method of claim 7, further comprising selecting the one of the plurality of image objects based on a local condition stored in the receiver indicative of the processing capability of the receiver.

16. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining if the received advertisement object is compatible with a user'"'"'s preference and discarding the received advertisement object if it is not compatible with the user'"'"'s preference.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining if the received advertisement object is compatible with the user'"'"'s preference includes comparing a data element of the advertisement object associated with a descriptor of the user'"'"'s preference.

18. A system for generating digital advertisements, the system comprising:

a processor;

a computer readable medium coupled to the processor; and

software stored on the computer readable medium that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

generate an advertisement object;

generate at least one link associated with the advertisement object, wherein the at least one link associates the advertisement object with a plurality of image objects corresponding to the advertisement object, and wherein each of the image objects requires a different processing capability to be rendered by a receiver; and

transmit the advertisement object, the plurality of image objects, and the at least one link via a transmission data stream to the receiver, wherein the receiver is to select one of the plurality of image objects and discard the remaining plurality of image objects based on a processing capability of the receiver, and wherein the selected one of the plurality of image objects is capable of being rendered by the receiver.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the receiver is configured to store therein a respective local condition indicative of the processing capability of the receiver.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the software is further adapted to transmit along with the advertisement object and the at least one network link a data element indicative of at least one of a user preference, a geographic location, a user interface sophistication level, a location within a display unit, a display priority, or a display time.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein each of the image objects includes one of video information, graphical information or textual information.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein each of the image objects includes data associated with one of a version of the image information, a priority, a sophistication level or an image format.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the image objects are based on a transport protocol.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein a first one of the image objects is a non-animated graphic requiring the receiver to have a processing capability to render the non-animated graphic, and wherein a second one of the image objects is an animated graphic requiring the receiver to have a processing capability to render the animated graphic.

25. A receiver comprising:

an interface configured to communicatively couple the receiver to a television at a subscriber site;

a processor to receive an advertisement object and at least one link associated with the advertisement object, wherein the at least one link associates the advertisement object with a plurality of image objects corresponding to the advertisement object, and wherein each of the image objects requires a different processing capability to be rendered by the receiver;

a communication interface to select one of the plurality of image objects using the link and discard the remaining plurality of image objects based on a processing capability of the receiver, and wherein the selected one of the plurality of image objects is capable of being rendered by the receiver; and

a display interface to display the advertisement object and the selected one of the plurality of image objects.

26. The receiver of claim 25, wherein the processor is further configured to select the advertisement object based on at least one of a user'"'"'s preference or a geographic location of the receiver.

27. The receiver of claim 25, further comprising a memory configured to store a local condition indicative of the processing capability of the receiver wherein the processor is further configured to select the advertisement object based on the local condition and discard other advertisement objects based on the local condition.

28. The receiver of claim 25, further comprising a tuner to receive television programming from a broadcast transmission station.

29. The receiver of claim 25, further comprising a display interface configured to display a program guide and overlay the advertisement object and the retrieved image object onto the program guide.

30. The receiver of claim 25, wherein the processor is further configured to receive an update list and manage the advertisement object and other cached advertisement objects previously stored in the receiver based on the update list.

31. The receiver of claim 30, wherein the processor is further configured to manage the advertisement object by storing the advertisement object based on the update list.

32. The receiver of claim 30, wherein the processor is further configured to manage the cached advertisement objects by discarding at least some of the cached advertisement objects based on the update list.

33. A method of generating digital advertisements, comprising:

generating an advertisement object;

generating, via an encoding system, at least one link associated with the advertisement object, wherein the at least one link associates the advertisement object with a plurality of image objects corresponding to the advertisement object, and wherein each of the image objects requires a different processing capability to be rendered by a receiver; and

transmitting the advertisement object, the plurality of image objects, and the at least one link via a transmission data stream to the receiver, wherein the receiver is to select one of the plurality of image objects and discard the remaining plurality of image objects based on a processing capability of the receiver, and wherein the selected one of the plurality of image objects is capable of being rendered by the receiver.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising replacing a cached advertisement object previously stored in the receiver with the advertisement object if the advertisement object is a new version of the cached advertisement object.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising comparing via the receiver data associated with the advertisement object with data stored in the receiver to determine whether the advertisement object is the new version of the cached advertisement object.

36. The method of claim 33, further comprising if the received advertisement object is not compatible with the receiver based on a local condition stored in the receiver indicative of a processing capability of the receiver, discarding the advertisement object via the receiver.

37. The method of claim 33, further comprising comparing via the receiver a priority level of the advertisement object to a second priority level and discarding the advertisement object via the receiver if the priority level of the advertisement object is less than or equal to the second priority level.

38. The method of claim 33, further comprising comparing via the receiver a priority level of the advertisement object to a second priority level and replacing a cached advertisement object previously stored in the receiver with the advertisement object if the priority level of the advertisement object is greater than the second priority level.

39. The method of claim 33, further comprising discarding other advertisement objects via the receiver based on at least one of a user'"'"'s preference or a geographic location of the receiver.

40. The method of claim 33, further comprising displaying a program guide and overlaying the advertisement object and one of the image objects onto the program guide via the receiver.

41. The method of claim 33, further comprising receiving at the receiver an update list and using the update list to manage via the receiver the advertisement object received at the receiver and cached advertisement objects previously stored in the receiver.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein managing via the receiver the advertisement object received at the receiver includes storing in the receiver the advertisement object based on the update list.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein managing via the receiver the cached advertisement objects includes discarding at least some of the cached advertisement objects from the receiver based on the update list.

44. The method of claim 33, wherein a first one of the image objects is a non-animated graphic requiring the receiver to have a processing capability to render the non-animated graphic, and wherein a second one of the image objects is an animated graphic requiring the receiver to have a processing capability to render the animated graphic.