Method and system for distributing consumer photograph-based advertisement and/or information

• US 7,969,606 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2006
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Yu-Chung Chu
• Original Assignee: Yu-Chung Chu
• Inventors: Chu, Yu-Chung
• Primary Examiner(s): Baker; Charlotte M
• Application Number:
  US11/490,064
• Publication Number:
  US 20070019261A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,803 Days
• Field of Search: 358/540, 358/302, 358/1.15, 358/1.18, 358/450, 358/1.1, 358/1.17
• US Class Current: 358/1.17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00127 Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00132 in a digital photofinishing system, i.e. a system where digital photographic images undergo typical photofinishing processing, e.g. printing ordering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00188 Printing, e.g. prints or reprints H04N1/0019, H04N1/00196 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3873 defined only by a limited number of coordinate points or parameters, e.g. corners, centre; for trimming

Abstract

An automatic advertisement system creates and processes a digital image that includes a user'"'"'s digital photograph and advertisement images from selected advertisers. The new composed images are larger than the standard photographs in size (e.g., 4″×6″, 5″×7″) to allow the user'"'"'s photograph to be in the standard size and to allow space for the advertisement images. The system provides a criteria specification tool to allow advertisers to accurately specify their target audiences based on, e.g., zip code, age, education. The system also provides a criteria specification tool to allow the user to specify his/her preferences of advertisement on his/her digital photograph production. The system further provides various layouts to prevent the user from clipping out advertisement images all at once. The system further allows advertisers to track their advertising results and allows the user to maintain his/her privacy. The system can be applied to contents other than advertisement image, such as announcements, personal messages, invitation cards and so on.

Claims

1. A system for distributing consumer photograph-based advertisements and/or information, the system being implemented by at least one computer including at least one processor and comprising:

a user information database accessible by a computer that stores a user'"'"'s information and user'"'"'s photograph;

an advertisement database accessible by a computer that stores advertisement images and target audience criteria, allowing an advertiser to specify the target audience criteria, wherein the advertisement database includes an algorithm that selects advertisement images from the advertisement database based on the target audience criteria;

a layout template database accessible by a computer that stores layout templates, each layout template including a user'"'"'s photograph area and one or more advertisement image area;

a layout template generator, implemented by the at least one processor, that selects a layout template from the layout template database for each user'"'"'s photograph; and

an image composition engine, implemented by the at least one processor, that combines the selected advertisement images with the user'"'"'s photograph using the selected layout template to compose a new composed image, wherein the new composed image includes the user'"'"'s photograph and the selected advertisement images, wherein each layout template has a different placement of the user'"'"'s photograph and one or more advertising images so that the user cannot clip out the one or more advertising images with a single cut.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement database uses a database query to select advertisement images, the database query incorporating the user'"'"'s information and the target audience criteria to accurately select target audiences.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertiser specifies the target audience criteria using a web-based target audience criteria tool.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the layout template generator:

translates a layout template selection rule into a database query to access the layout template database; and

selects and retrieves the layout template from the layout template database based on the layout template selection rule.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the layout template generator randomly selects the layout template.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a web-based result tracking tool that allows the advertiser to track a result of advertising by placing the advertiser'"'"'s promotion code directly on each advertising image to be combined with the user'"'"'s photograph.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the web-based result tracking tool comprises statistics of geographical distribution of advertisement images sent.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the web-based result tracking tool uses advertisement image barcodes to generate a barcode on the advertisement image to track the result of advertising.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a load balancing mechanism that distributes loads of servers that process the selected advertisement images and the user'"'"'s photograph.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the load balancing mechanism comprises:

one or more data input packs, each data input pack including the selected layout template, the user'"'"'s photograph, and the selected advertisement images;

one or more image composition servers capable of processing the selected advertisement images and the user'"'"'s photograph; and

an image server dispatcher that assigns each data input pack to an image composition server queue based on an number of tasks each image composition server is processing.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a web-based accounting and payment system that allows the advertiser to pay the advertisement fee.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the user uses a client platform to send a user request and upload the user'"'"'s photograph into the user information database located on a central server platform by logging on and using web-based interfaces, wherein the user information is retrieved from the logging information and the user information database.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the target audicncc criteria comprises one or more of demographic information, geographic information, purchase behavior information, product usage information, psychographies information, and a date range of an advertisement.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface for the user to specify preferences for an advertisement.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface for the user to specify preferences for a style of the new composed image.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface for a user to modify an information filter to specify information that the user is willing to release to the advertiser, wherein the information includes one or more of an email address, a phone number and a home address.

17. A method for distributing consumer photograph-based advertisements and/or information, the method being implemented by at least one computer including at least one processor and comprising:

storing a user'"'"'s information and user'"'"'s photograph in a user information database accessible by a computer;

storing advertisement images and target audience criteria in an advertisement database accessible by a computer, wherein the target audience criteria can be specified by an advertiser;

selecting, using the at least one processor, advertisement images from the advertisement database based on the target audience criteria;

storing layout templates in a layout template database accessible by a computer, each layout template including a user'"'"'s photograph area and one or more advertisement image area;

selecting, using the at least one processor, a layout template from the layout template database for each user'"'"'s photograph; and

combining, using the at least one processor, the selected advertisement images with the user'"'"'s photograph using the selected layout template to compose a new composed image, wherein the new composed image includes the user'"'"'s photograph and the selected advertisement images, wherein each layout template has a different placement of the user'"'"'s photograph and one or more advertising images so that the user cannot clip out the one or more advertising images with a single cut.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the selecting advertisement images step comprises using a database query that incorporates the user'"'"'s information and the target audience criteria to accurately select target audiences.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the selecting a layout template step comprises:

translating a layout template selection rule into a database query to access the layout template database; and

selecting and retrieving the layout template from the layout template database based on the layout template selection rule.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the selecting a layout template step comprises randomly selecting the layout template.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising using a web-based result tracking tool to track a result of advertising.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising using a load balancing mechanism to distribute loads of servers that process the selected advertisement images and the user'"'"'s photograph.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising using a web-based accounting and payment system to allow the advertiser to pay an advertisement fee.

24. The method of claim 17, further comprising using a client platform to send a user request and uploading the user'"'"'s photograph into the user information database located on a central server platform, wherein the user information is retrieved from a logging information and the user information database.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the advertiser specifies the target audience criteria using a web-based target audience criteria tool.

26. The method of Claim 17, wherein the target audience criteria comprises one or more of demographic information, geographic information, purchase behavior information, product usage information, psychographics information, and a date range of an advertisement.

27. The method of claim 17, further comprising using an interface for the user to specify preferences for an advertisement.

28. The method of claim 17, further comprising using an interface for the user to specify preferences for a style of the new composed image.

29. The method of claim 17, further comprising using an interface for a user to specify information that the user is willing to release to the advertiser, wherein the information includes one or more of an email address, a phone number and a home address.

30. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

enabling a first user in a first country to upload the first user'"'"'s photograph to a first server in the first country through the Internet; and

generating a first new composed image based the first user'"'"'s photograph, wherein the first new composed image includes the first user'"'"'s photograph and selected advertisement images, wherein the first new composed image is delivered by a first postman of the first country to a domestic receiver.

31. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

enabling a first user in a first country to upload the first user'"'"'s photograph to a second server in a second country through the international Internet; and

generating a first new composed image based the first user'"'"'s photograph, wherein the first new composed image includes the first user'"'"'s photograph and selected advertisement images, wherein the first new composed image is delivered by a second postman of the second country to a receiver in the second country.

32. An automatic image composition system, comprising:

an advertisement image barcode system that generates a barcode on one or more selected advertisement images for an advertiser to track a result of advertising;

a layout generator that randomly selects a layout template to be used to combine a user'"'"'s photograph and the one or more selected advertisement images to compose a new image; and

an image composition engine that combines the advertisement image with the user'"'"'s photograph using the randomly selected layout template to compose a new composed image, wherein the new composed image includes the user'"'"'s photograph and the one or more selected advertisement image, wherein each layout template has a different placement of the user'"'"'s photograph and one or more advertising images so that the user cannot clip out the one or more advertising images with a single cut.

33. A non-transitory, tangible computer readable medium providing instructions for distributing consumer photograph-based advertisements and information, the instructions comprising:

storing a user'"'"'s information and user'"'"'s photograph in a user information database;

storing advertisement images and target audience criteria in an advertisement database, wherein the target audience criteria can be specified by an advertiser;

selecting advertisement images from the advertisement database based on the target audience criteria;

storing layout templates in a layout template database, each layout template including a user'"'"'s photograph area and one or more advertisement image area;

selecting a layout template from the layout template database for each user'"'"'s photograph; and

combining the selected advertisement images with the user'"'"'s photograph using the selected layout template to compose a new composed image, wherein the new composed image includes the user'"'"'s photograph and the selected advertisement images, wherein each layout template has a different placement of the user'"'"'s photograph and one or more advertising images so that the user cannot clip out the one or more advertising images with a single cut.