Method for creating content, method for tracking content use actions, and corresponding terminal and signals

• US 9,003,013 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2008
• Issued: 04/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Streamezzo
• Original Assignee: Streamezzo
• Inventors: Audinet, Bertrand, Cantin, Benoit, Dufourd, Jean-Claude, Dupain, Vincent, Lafoucriere, Philippe, Orsini, Laetitia
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phuoc
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, STEVEN C
• Application Number:
  US12/600,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20110055384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,527 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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

Abstract

A method is provided for tracking at least one use of at least one piece of multimedia content on a terminal connected to a communication network. The piece of content is transmitted to the terminal in the form of at least one description file generated according to a predetermined description format. The method includes using the piece of content by a user of the terminal, including activation of at least one interaction element; implementing at least one instruction followed by the use associated with the activated interaction element; executing the use tracking instruction controlling storage of at least one piece of information concerning the activation of the interaction element, or use tracking information; and transmitting by the terminal the piece of use tracking information to a tracking terminal in charge of processing the use tracking information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

creating multimedia content intended for use by a user at a terminal, the multimedia content including a plurality of interaction elements, and

associating a use tracking instruction with at least one of the plurality of interaction elements, where the tracking instruction controls storage of use tracking information associated with the activation of the interaction element, and where the use tracking information includes identifiers representative of;

the content,

an action carried out by the user on the content;

the user of the content;

the terminal; and

timestamp information corresponding to the action carried out by the user on the content;

transmitting the multimedia content from a presentation server to the terminal;

in response to use of the multimedia content by the user, transmitting the use tracking information from the terminal to a tracking server separate from the presentation server for processing by the tracking server, where the transmitting includes;

determining by the terminal that the terminal cannot directly transmit the use tracking information to the tracking server,

transmitting the use tracking information as a single string of data in a first format from the terminal to a presentation server, in response to the determining,

storing the received use tracking information at the presentation server in the first format, and

transmitting a batch of tracking information including the use tracking information in a second format different from the first format from the presentation server to the tracking server;

wherein the transmission is delayed and the use tracking information is temporarily stored at the terminal based on one or more of use performance criteria for the terminal and predefined availability criteria for the tracking server, in order to avoid tying up a communication network during use of the content by the user;

wherein the transmission is delayed and the use tracking information is temporarily stored at the terminal when a communication network cannot be detected by the terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a description file for the content in a predetermined description format;

inserting one or more of the plurality of interaction elements into the file; and

associating said at least one use tracking instruction with said interaction element.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the at least one use tracking instruction enables access to a memory space of the terminal, enables access to a memory space of the terminal, and enables access to a memory space external to the terminal.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the tracking information further includes identifiers representative of an object of said content.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the terminal issues a request for the multimedia content to the presentation server and receives the requested multimedia content from the presentation server in response to the request.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the request from said terminal is received by the presentation server, and the presentation server transmits a portion of the request to the tracking server, and in response to receiving the portion of the request, the tracking server sends media relevant to the portion of the request to the presentation server, and the presentation server incorporates the media into a remainder of the requested multimedia content and sends the requested multimedia content to the terminal.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein transmitting the batch of the tracking information to the tracking server is performed at an initiative of the presentation server.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein transmitting the batch of the tracking information to the tracking server is performed at an initiative of the tracking server.

4. A system, including at least one hardware processor, for:

creating multimedia content intended for use by a user at a terminal, the multimedia content including a plurality of interaction elements, and

associating a use tracking instruction with at least one of the plurality of interaction elements, where the tracking instruction controls storage of use tracking information associated with the activation of the interaction element, and where the use tracking information includes identifiers representative of;

the content,

an action carried out by the user on the content;

the user of the content;

the terminal; and

timestamp information corresponding to the action carried out by the user on the content;

transmitting the multimedia content from a presentation server to the terminal;

in response to use of the multimedia content by the user, transmitting the use tracking information from the terminal to a tracking server separate from the presentation server for processing by the tracking server, where the transmitting includes;

determining by the terminal that the terminal cannot directly transmit the use tracking information to the tracking server,

transmitting the use tracking information as a single string of data in a first format from the terminal to a presentation server, in response to the determining,

storing the received use tracking information at the presentation server in the first format, and

transmitting a batch of tracking information including the use tracking information in a second format different from the first format from the presentation server to the tracking server;

wherein the transmission is delayed and the use tracking information is temporarily stored at the terminal based on one or more of use performance criteria for the terminal and predefined availability criteria for the tracking server, in order to avoid tying up a communication network during use of the content by the user;

wherein the transmission is delayed and the use tracking information is temporarily stored at the terminal when a communication network cannot be detected by the terminal.

6. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising computer code for:

creating multimedia content intended for use by a user at a terminal, the multimedia content including a plurality of interaction elements, and

associating a use tracking instruction with at least one of the plurality of interaction elements, where the tracking instruction controls storage of use tracking information associated with the activation of the interaction element, and where the use tracking information includes identifiers representative of;

the content,

an action carried out by the user on the content;

the user of the content;

the terminal; and

timestamp information corresponding to the action carried out by the user on the content;

transmitting the multimedia content from a presentation server to the terminal;

in response to use of the multimedia content by the user, transmitting the use tracking information from the terminal to a tracking server separate from the presentation server for processing by the tracking server, where the transmitting includes;

determining by the terminal that the terminal cannot directly transmit the use tracking information to the tracking server,

transmitting the use tracking information as a single string of data in a first format from the terminal to a presentation server, in response to the determining,

storing the received use tracking information at the presentation server in the first format, and

transmitting a batch of tracking information including the use tracking information in a second format different from the first format from the presentation server to the tracking server;

wherein the transmission is delayed and the use tracking information is temporarily stored at the terminal based on one or more of use performance criteria for the terminal and predefined availability criteria for the tracking server, in order to avoid tying up a communication network during use of the content by the user;

wherein the transmission is delayed and the use tracking information is temporarily stored at the terminal when a communication network cannot be detected by the terminal.