Method and system for internet video and rich media behavioral measurement

• US 8,745,647 B1
• Filed: 12/26/2007
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Acuityads
• Original Assignee: Visible Measures Corp. (AcuityAds Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shin, Brian J., Dean, Rishi I., Griffin, Gary C., Tunney, Jason T., Rundell, Trevor B., Chun, Raymond Yong-Taik
• Primary Examiner(s): Goodarzi, Nasser
• Assistant Examiner(s): Peng, Fred
• Application Number:
  US11/964,479
• Time in Patent Office: 2,351 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/442 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44226 on social networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

This disclosure describes methods and systems to quantify and understand the behavior and consumption patterns of audiences with respect to Internet video and rich media applications. In operation, an end user video player or a rich media application (such as an interactive advertisement built with Flash or other method) is instrumented to capture data. The data is collected by a service provider and made available for viewing by customers of a video experience and rich media behavior measurement service.

Claims

1. An apparatus for measuring end user viewing experience with respect to an Internet Protocol (IP)-delivered video that comprises a set of segments, comprising:

an Internet-accessible infrastructure operating at a service provider domain, the Internet-accessible infrastructure comprising at least one web server, an application server, and a database;

the application server operative to receive and store in the database data generated as a result of end users each viewing and interacting with the video using a video player that receives and renders the video, wherein the data represents interaction events that are tracked at the video player on a segment-by-segment basis for each of the set of segments in the video, the interaction events representing end user interactivity with the video other than viewing of the video, the end user interactivity being one of;

scrubbing, stopping, pausing, re-watching and abandoning, and wherein at least first and second end users view and interact with the video asynchronously from one another;

the application server further operative to generate interaction data that associates the interaction events with a timeline of the video that includes at least some of the set of segments;

the web server operative, following authentication by a permitted entity, to use at least some of the interaction data to display, in a set of one or more web pages, a visualization of end user viewer engagement with the video on a segment-by-segment basis.

2. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the visualization represents a total number of views.

3. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the visualization identifies a portion of the video that has a higher popularity as compared to other portions of the video.

4. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the visualization identifies a portion of the video that has a lower popularity as compared to other portions of the video.

5. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the visualization identifies a proportion of end users that initiate playback that is continued uninterrupted to a location in the timeline.

6. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the visualization identifies a proportion of end users that abandon uninterrupted playback of the video at a location in the timeline.

7. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page a hot spot metric that illustrates a portion of the video that has a higher popularity as compared to other portions of the video.

8. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page a cold spot metric that illustrates a portion of the video that has a lower popularity as compared to other portions of the video.

9. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page a playthrough rate that measures a proportion of end users that initiate playback that is continued uninterrupted to a given location associated with the video.

10. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page an abandonment rate that measures a proportion of end users that abandon uninterrupted playback of the video at a certain segment.

11. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page a number of repeat views divided by a number of total views for the video.

12. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page a captive viewing time (CVT) for the video.

13. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page a ratio of CVT divided by duration.

14. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page a total unique views for the video/total number of unique users for a given customer portfolio*100%.

15. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the previously presented web server is further operative to display within a web page a spread metric.

16. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page a velocity metric that represents a measure of spread over a unit time.

17. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page a momentum metric that quantifies a velocity at which the video is gaining or losing consumption.

18. An apparatus for measuring end user viewing experience with respect to an Internet Protocol (IP)-delivered video that comprises a set of segments, comprising:

an Internet-accessible infrastructure operating at a service provider domain, the Internet-accessible infrastructure comprising at least one web server, an application server, and a database;

the application server operative to receive and store in the database data generated as a result of end users each viewing and interacting with the video using a video player that receives and renders the video, wherein the data represents interaction events that are tracked at the video player on a segment-by-segment basis for each of the set of segments in the video, the interaction events representing end user interactivity with the video other than viewing of the video, the end user interactivity being one of;

scrubbing, stopping, pausing, re-watching and abandoning, and wherein at least first and second end users view and interact with the video asynchronously from one another;

the application server further operative to generate interaction data that associates the interaction events with a timeline of the video that includes at least some of the set of segments;

the web server operative to generate and display a web page that includes the first portion in which the video is playable, and second portion juxtaposed adjacent the first portion and in which a display plot that associates the interaction data with a playhead position of the video is displayed;

wherein as the video is played in the first portion, a visual indicator is overlaid on the display plot indicating a then-current playhead position in the video, and

wherein juxtaposition in the web page of video playback, the display plot of interaction data, and the visual indicator provide visual feedback indicating engagement of end users with respect to the video at respective segments in the set of segments.

19. The apparatus as described in claim 18 wherein the web server is further operative to display within a web page an impact metric that quantifies a rate of change in momentum over time of video consumption.

20. The apparatus as described in claim 18 wherein the web server is further operative to display a web page that includes a metric that is a function of one of:

(i) a captive viewing time, and (ii) a combination of captive viewing time and an intensity of an interaction with the creative.

21. An apparatus for video experience measurement, comprising:

a processor;

computer memory holding computer program instructions executed by the processor to;

receive data generated from a collection of video players, wherein each video player is instrumented to identify a set of interaction events as the video player renders a video and an end user interacts with the video player, wherein the video is broken into a set of segments so that the interaction events are tracked on a segment-by-segment basis; and

process the data for the video to generate a behavior metric, wherein the behavior metric is a captive viewing time (CVT) for the video that is a total number of segment views divided by ((maximum number of segment views for a segment) times the number of segments)).