System and method for harvesting advertising data for dynamic placement into end user data streams

• US 8,566,158 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2008
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cansler, James L., Scott, Charles, White, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): VANDERHORST, MARIA VICTORIA
• Application Number:
  US12/020,642
• Publication Number:
  US 20090193453A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,094 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32, 705/1, 705/14.49
• US Class Current: 705/14.49
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; 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 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

A method is disclosed for selecting advertising data at an end user device, the method comprising monitoring a plurality of advertising data items in a first video data stream at the end user device; correlating advertising characterization data for the advertising data item with end user profile data for an end user at the end user device; and selecting based on the correlating at least one of the plurality of advertising data items for presentation during display of a second video data stream at the end user device. A system is disclosed for performing the method. A data structure is disclosed for containing data used by the system and method.

Claims

1. A tangible non-transitory computer readable medium containing a computer program comprising computer instructions executable by a computer the computer program comprising:

instructions to receive, at an end user device, targeted advertising data items wherein the targeted advertising data items are targeted to an end user at the end user device and a monitoring script comprising monitoring script data indicating a plurality of original broadcast video data streams to monitor and original broadcast times for monitoring the targeted advertising data items during the original broadcast time embedded in the plurality of video streams during the original broadcast time;

instructions to monitor and store the targeted advertising data items from the plurality of video streams during the original broadcast time, at the end user device in accordance with the monitoring script data when the end user device is not presenting a video data stream;

instructions to correlate advertising characterization data for the plurality of targeted advertising data items with video characterization data for a currently viewed program at the end user device with end user profile data for the end user at the end user device; and

instructions to select based on the correlating, at least one of the plurality of targeted advertising data items for presentation to the end user during display of the currently viewed program at the end user device.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of original broadcast video data streams are received from an internet protocol television system.

3. The medium of claim 1, the computer program further comprising:

instructions to correlate the advertising characterization data, end user profile and video characterization data for the currently viewed program wherein the advertising data items are categorized by a correlative index based on the correlating and stored in a data base at the end user device.

4. The medium of claim 2, wherein the instructions to monitor further comprise instructions to monitor video channels at prescribed times defined in the monitoring script at the end user device.

5. The medium of claim 1, wherein the end user device is set top box.

6. The medium of claim 1, wherein the advertising characterization data is subsonic audio data.

7. The medium of claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of advertising data item is removed from the data base at the end user device after being presented a predetermined number of times at a plurality of end user devices.

8. The medium of claim7, the computer program further comprising:

instructions to report from the end user device, a selection of the advertising data for presentation during the currently viewed program.

9. A system for selecting advertising data at an end user device comprising:

a processor in data communication with a tangible computer readable storage medium;

a computer program stored in the computer readable medium, the computer program comprising;

instructions to receive, at an end user device, targeted advertising data items wherein the targeted advertising data items are targeted to an end user at the end user device and a monitoring script comprising monitoring script data indicating a plurality of original broadcast video data streams to monitor and original broadcast times for monitoring the targeted advertising data items during the original broadcast time embedded in the plurality of video streams during the original broadcast time;

instructions to monitor and store the targeted advertising data items from the plurality of video streams during the original broadcast time, at the end user device in accordance with the monitoring script data when the end user device is not presenting a video data stream;

instructions to correlate advertising characterization data for the plurality of targeted advertising data items with video characterization data for a currently viewed program at the end user device with end user profile data for the end user at the end user device; and

instructions to select based on the correlating, at least one of the plurality of targeted advertising data items for presentation to the end user during display of the currently viewed program at the end user device.

10. The system and claim 9, wherein the plurality of video data streams received from an internet protocol television system.

11. The system of claim 9, the computer program further comprising instructions to correlate the advertising characterization data, end user profile and video characterization data for the currently viewed program wherein the advertising data items are categorized by a correlative index based on the correlating and are stored in a data base at the end user device.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions to monitor further comprises instruction too monitor video channels at prescribed times defined in the monitoring script at the end user device.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the end user device is a device is one of a set top box, a mobile phone, a personal computer and a digital video recorder.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the advertising characterization data are black frames.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the one of the plurality of advertising data items is removed from the data base at the end user device after being presented at a predetermined number of times at end user devices.

16. The system of claim 15, the computer program further comprising instructions to report from the end user device, a selection of the advertising data for presentation during the currently viewed program.

17. A data structure embedded in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium for containing data used by an end user processor for presenting advertising data, the data structure comprising:

a first field for storing data indicating a monitoring script comprising times and a plurality of original broadcast video data stream containing targeted advertising data targeted to an end user at the end user device, to be monitored during the original broadcast times at the end user device while the end user device is not presenting a video data stream to the end user for use by a processor;

a second field for storing data indicative of harvested advertising data monitored in accordance with the monitoring script during the original broadcast times during idle times while the end user device in not presenting a video stream;

a third field for storing data indicative of a correlation index based on correlating advertising characterization data for the advertising data item with end user profile data for an end user at the end user device; and

a fourth field for storing data indicative of an advertising data item selected based on the correlation index for at least one of the plurality of advertising data items for presentation during display of a second video data stream at the end user device.

18. The data structure of claim 17, the data further comprising:

a fifth field for storing data indicative of advertising characterization data describing the harvested advertising data.

19. The data structure of claim 18, the data structure further comprising:

a sixth field for storing data indicative of video characterization data for a currently viewed program; and

a seventh field for storing data indicative of an end user profile.

20. The data structure of claim 19, the data structure further comprising:

an eighth field for containing data indicating a correlative index for a correlation between the advertising characterization data, the video characterization data and the end user profile data.