Product placement

• US 7,994,930 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2006
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 1, LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Gajdos, Tom Rudolf George, Pettersson, Jenny Irene
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg, George A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Labbees, Edny
• Application Number:
  US11/554,151
• Publication Number:
  US 20080104634A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,744 Days
• Field of Search: 340/500, 340/691.1, 725/32, 725/34, 725/35, 725/115, 725/116, 725/117, 725/118
• US Class Current: 340/691.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search

Abstract

A device may include a receiver to receive a data stream. The device may also include logic to insert a product placement into the data stream based at least one of a location of the device or information associated with a user of the device.

Claims

1. A mobile communication device, comprising:

a receiver to receive a video stream;

a memory storing instructions to;

detect an identifier in the received video stream, where the identifier represents product placement information, identifying a particular type of product placement associated with an object in a scene of the received video stream,

select a first product placement, of a plurality of potential product placements for the particular type of product placement, based on the identifier, where a relevance is determined for each of the plurality of potential product placements based on a user profile, associated with the mobile communication device, and the particular type of product placement,

replace the object with the first product placement,

detect a change in a location of the mobile communication device,

select a second product placement based on the change in the location of the mobile communication device, and

replace another object in another scene, of the received video stream, with the second product placement; and

a processor to execute the instructions.

2. The mobile communication device of claim 1, where the video stream comprises the plurality of potential product placements and the first product placement is determined to have the most relevance of the plurality of potential product placements.

3. The mobile communication device of claim 1, further comprising:

a display, and where the memory includes instructions to output the video stream to the display, after replacing the object with the first product placement.

4. The mobile communication device of claim 1, further comprising:

a communication interface to receive a modified video stream including the first product placement and output the modified video stream to another device for display.

5. The mobile communication device of claim 1, where the memory includes instructions to:

signal another device with the identified first product placement.

6. The mobile communication device of claim 1,

where the memory is further to store information identifying the first and second product placements inserted into the received video stream.

7. A method performed by a communication device, the method comprising:

receiving, using a communication interface associated with the communication device, a video stream;

determining, using a processor associated with the communication device, that the received video stream includes product placement information identifying a particular type of product placement associated with an object in a scene of the video stream;

identifying, using the processor, information associated with a first party to whom a video stream is to be transmitted;

detecting, using the processor, a current geographic location of the communication device;

selecting, using the processor, a product placement, of a plurality of potential product placements for the particular type of product placement, based on a relevance of each of the plurality of potential product placements determined using the identified information, the identifier included in the product placement information, and the current geographic location of the communication device; and

inserting, using the processor, the selected product placement, into the video stream, for the object.

8. The method of claim 7, where identifying comprises:

identifying at least one of profile information associated with the first party or information associated with product placements previously presented to the first party.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

transmitting the video stream to a device associated with the first party.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

inserting the plurality of potential product placements into the video stream for a single product placement to be presented to the first party; and

transmitting, to a display, the video stream with the plurality of potential product placements.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

inserting a plurality of product placements into the video stream based on geographical locations of a plurality of parties, where first product placements, of the plurality of product placements, associated with the first party differ from second product placements, of the plurality of product placements, associated with a second party, when the geographic location of the first party differs from the geographic location of the second party.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

storing information indicating a number of product placements inserted into the video stream for a plurality of advertisers.

13. The method of claim 7, where selecting the product placement is further based on an amount of money paid by an entity associated with the product placement.

14. A memory device having stored thereon sequences of instructions which, when executed by at least one processor of a communication device, cause the at least one processor to:

receive a video stream including information representing a virtual product placement, where the information includes an identifier indicating a particular type of product placement associated with an object in a scene of the received video stream;

detect particular location of the communication device;

identifying, based on the particular location of the communication device, a plurality of virtual product placement candidates for the particular type of product placement;

select, from the plurality of virtual product placement candidates, a particular virtual product placement based on a relevance of each of the plurality of virtual product placement candidates determined using the identifier and user profile information associated with a recipient of the received video stream;

insert the selected virtual product placement into the received video stream; and

provide the received video stream with the inserted selected virtual product placement to the recipient.

15. The memory device of claim 14, further comprising instructions for causing the at least one processor to track information identifying virtual product placements inserted into the received video stream for a plurality of advertisers.

16. A communication device, comprising:

means for receiving a video stream including product placement information;

means for determining, based on the product placement information, that a particular type of virtual product placement is to be inserted into the video stream;

means for detecting a particular location of the communication device;

means for identifying, based on the particular location of the communication device, a plurality of virtual product placement candidates for the particular type of virtual product placement;

means for selecting, from the plurality of virtual product placement candidates, a particular virtual product placement based on a relevance of each of the plurality of virtual product placement candidates determined using the product placement information and a user profile associated with the communication device, where the user profile includes at least one of;

a history of product placements associated with the communication device,

a history of geographic movement associated with the communication device, or

a history of activated applications or files associated with the communication device; and

means for inserting the selected virtual product placement into the video stream.

17. The communication device of claim 16, where the user profile further includes a maximum price value for virtual product placements, where the means for selecting a particular virtual product placement is configured to select the particular virtual product placement further based on the maximum price value.

18. A communication device, comprising:

a receiver to receive a data stream;

a global positioning system to provide a current location of the communication device;

a memory storing instructions to;

detect that the received data stream includes product placement information indicating a particular type of product placement,

select a product placement, of a plurality of potential product placements for the particular type of product placement, based on a relevance of each of the plurality of potential product placements determined using the current location of the communication device and a user profile associated with the communication device, where the user profile includes at least one of;

a history of product placements associated with the communication device,

a history of geographic movement associated with the communication device, or

a history of activated applications or files associated with the communication device, and

insert the selected product placement into the data stream; and

a processor to execute the instructions.

19. The communication device of claim 18, where the user profile further includes information associated with a user of the communication device, the information comprising a threshold cost for the product placement, where the memory further stores instructions to generate the plurality of potential product placements based on the threshold cost.

20. The communication device of claim 18, where the history of product placements associated with the communication device includes:

at least one of a number of times or an amount of time that each of a plurality of product placements were displayed.