Media methods and systems

• US 8,825,518 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2008
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Levy, Kenneth L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Brown, Alvin L
• Application Number:
  US12/331,129
• Publication Number:
  US 20090158318A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,093 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1063 Personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/125 by manipulating the program code, e.g. source code, compiled code, interpreted code, machine code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/36 by graphic or iconic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6272 by registering files or documents with a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2129 Authenticate client device independently of the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467

Abstract

Several novel watermarking and fingerprinting applications—and related improvements—are disclosed. Some relate to advertising. These include techniques for replacing broadcast advertising with other advertising; inserting advertising based on a viewer'"'"'s ad-viewing history; triggering insertion of advertising based on fingerprint data derived from compressed video content; and discontinuing advertising when a threshold amount of advertising has apparently been viewed. A great number of other features and technologies are also detailed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

downloading a video advertisement to a personal video recorder;

analyzing, by a processor of the personal video recorder, video content provided to a device in communication with the personal video recorder to detect a broadcast advertisement having an embedded character, wherein the embedded character is a fingerprint; and

replacing, by the processor, the broadcast advertisement having the embedded character with the video advertisement downloaded to the personal video recorder so that a display of the device presents the video advertisement rather than the broadcast advertisement.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising downloading plural video advertisements to the personal video recorder, wherein the replacing comprises replacing the broadcast advertisement with a selected one of the plural downloaded video advertisements, and wherein the selection is based on a subject matter of non-advertisement video content in which the broadcast advertisement was detected.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising downloading plural video advertisements to the personal video recorder, wherein the replacing comprises replacing the broadcast advertisement with a selected one of the plural downloaded video advertisements, and wherein the selection is dependent on a time of day.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing further comprises detecting a digital watermark steganographically encoded in the broadcast advertisement.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the fingerprint comprises selected frames of the broadcast advertisement based on a known key, and further comprising performing a lossy transformation on the selected frames.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the video content has a start point, and further wherein discerning the behavior comprises:

beginning the presentation of the video content to the user at a non-starting point in the video content;

tracking an elapsed time between the non-starting point in the video content and a current presentation point in the video content; and

inserting the one or more advertisements when the elapsed time has reached a certain threshold.

5. A method comprising:

downloading plural advertisements to a personal video recorder;

discerning, by a processor of the personal video recorder, a behavior of a user relating to advertisement viewing, wherein the behavior is discerned at least in part using an embedded character in video content; and

inserting, by the processor, one or more advertisements from the plural advertisements into the video content for presentation to the user, wherein the insertion is based at least in part on the discerned behavior.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the discerning comprises identifying a class of advertisement that the user apparently does not watch.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the discerning comprises identifying a class of advertisements that the user apparently watches.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the discerning comprises identifying a class of advertisements relating to a given subject.

9. A method comprising:

presenting video content, including advertising, on a display device;

tracking, by a processor in communication with the display device, an amount of advertising that is apparently viewed on the display device; and

changing the presentation of advertising based on the tracked amount of advertising apparently viewed on the display device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the tracking comprises counting a number of apparently-watched advertisements by a particular viewer, and wherein the changing comprises changing a frequency of advertisements based on the counted number.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the changing comprises presenting no further advertisements for a predetermined period of time after a threshold number of apparently-watched advertisements has been reached.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

delivering one or more advertisements to a personal video recorder; and

inserting the one or more advertisements into the video content.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein tracking the amount of advertising comprises tracking the amount of advertising that is apparently skipped by fast-forwarding.

13. A method comprising:

deriving fingerprint data from compressed video content broadcast to a display device; and

triggering, by a processor in communication with the display device, advertisement insertion into the video content based at least in part on the derived fingerprint data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the advertisement is inserted from a personal video recorder (PVR) storage device.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing the advertisement on an optical storage disk, and wherein the advertisement is inserted into the video content from the optical storage disk.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising identifying the advertisement to insert from a plurality of advertisements based at least in part on a rule set, wherein parameters of the rule set comprise one or more of a time of day, data indicating advertisements previously shown, and data indicating a subject matter of the video content.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

instructions to download plural advertisements to a personal video recorder;

instructions to discern a behavior of a user relating to advertisement viewing, wherein the behavior is discerned using an embedded character in video content; and

instructions to insert one or more advertisements from the plural advertisements into the video content for presentation to the user, wherein the insertion is based at least in part on the discerned behavior.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

instructions to present video content, including advertising, on a display device of a consumer;

instructions to track an amount of advertising the consumer apparently views; and

instructions to change the presentation of advertising based on the tracked amount of advertising apparently viewed by the consumer.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

instructions to derive fingerprint data from compressed video content; and

instructions to trigger advertisement insertion into the video content based at least in part on the derived fingerprint data.