Display of user selected advertising content in a digital environment

• US 9,195,991 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2013
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: van Datta, Glen, Poulin, Marty
• Primary Examiner(s): Corbo, Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huerta, Alexander Q
• Application Number:
  US14/028,327
• Publication Number:
  US 20140019229A1
• Time in Patent Office: 799 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.16, 705/14.25, 705/14.52, 705/14.53, 705/14.66, 705/14.73, 725/32, 725/40
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/46 Computing the game score
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/50 Controlling the output signals based on the game progress
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/5258 by dynamically adapting the position of the virtual camera to keep a game object or game character in its viewing frustum, e.g. for tracking a character or a ball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/803 Driving vehicles or craft, e.g. cars, airplanes, ships, robots or tanks
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/535 for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/61 Score computation
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8017 Driving on land or water; Flying
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• 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 21/47205 : for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 : Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 : Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 : using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 : involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8453 : by locking or enabling a set of features, e.g. optional functionalities in an executable program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8583 : by creating hot-spots
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 : with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

A system and method for placing an advertisement in a digital environment based upon a user'"'"'s choice, subject to certain predetermined parameters, is disclosed. Through the method, a user is assigned a rating based upon, for example, his performance in a game. A list of advertisements which correspond to that rating is displayed to the user, who may then select a desired advertisement from the list. The selected advertisement is then displayed in the digital environment. Reports may be generated based upon the advertisements selected and the number of selections and/or impressions (e.g., uses or viewings) by the user, which may be sent to advertisers.

Claims

1. A method for displaying an advertisement in a digital environment based on a selection by a user, the method comprising:

maintaining information regarding a plurality of advertisements in memory, wherein each advertisement is designated as belonging to a group;

maintaining a list of advertisements available to the user for selection in memory, the user having achieved a first user rating based on previous performance of the user in the digital environment, wherein the list includes;

a first group of advertisements associated with the first user rating, and

one or more other groups of advertisements, the one or more other groups each associated with a user rating lower than the first user rating, wherein a lower rating is associated with a lower advertising cost; and

executing instructions stored in a computer-readable storage medium, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor;

displays at the client device the maintained list of advertisements available to the user having the first user rating, wherein;

the advertisements are displayed as respective advertisement identifiers in the maintained list,

each advertisement identifier is sorted into and displayed in a respective group associated with a user rating corresponding to or lower than the first user rating, the advertisement identifiers displayed in a group list in the respective group, placement as a first advertisement identifier in the group list is associated with a higher advertising cost within the respective group, and

each advertisement identifier is associated with a hyperlink to a shopping portal; and

displays one or more advertisements from the maintained list and an associated shopping portal based on received selection input from the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the maintained list includes one or more preview windows that show a portion of the one or more advertisements.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement identifiers that correspond to high user ratings are grayed out in the maintained list.

4. A method for displaying an advertisement in a digital environment based on a selection by a user, the method comprising:

maintaining in memory a list of advertisements available for selection to the user having a first user rating, wherein the list includes a group of advertisements associated with the first user rating; and

executing instructions stored in a computer-readable storage medium, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor;

identifies that the user has achieved a second rating;

updates the maintained list of advertisements available to the user having achieved the second rating to include at least one more group of advertisements associated with the second rating, wherein the updated list of advertisements includes a plurality of advertisement groups each associated with a different user rating, and wherein the advertisements are displayed as respective advertisement identifiers in the updated list, each advertisement identifier is sorted into and displayed in a respective group corresponding to or lower than the second rating, a lower rating is associated with a lower advertising cost, the advertisement identifiers are displayed in a group list in the respective group, placement as a first advertisement identifier in the group list is associated with a higher advertising cost within the respective group, and each advertisement identifier associated with a hyperlink to a shopping portal; and

displays one or more advertisements from the maintained list and an associated shopping portal based on received selection input from the user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each user rating of the plurality of user ratings is associated with a different group of advertisements.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising storing information in memory regarding a plurality of user ratings, wherein the user ratings have an order from lowest to highest.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining that the second user rating is higher than the first user rating.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the updated list excludes advertisements groups associated with user ratings higher than the second user rating.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the plurality of advertisement groups on updated list is associated with the first user rating, the second user rating, or another rating that is lower than the first or second user ratings.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the user gains a higher user rating from causing a game character to play audio or video content in the digital environment.

11. A system for displaying an advertisement in a digital environment based on a selection by a user, the system comprising:

memory for maintaining a list of advertisements available for selection to the user having a first user rating, wherein the list includes a group of advertisements associated with the first user rating; and

a processor for executing instructions stored in a computer-readable storage medium, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor;

identifies that the user has achieved a second rating;

updates the maintained list of advertisements available to the user having achieved the second rating to include at least one more group of advertisements associated with the second rating, wherein the updated list of advertisements includes a plurality of advertisement groups each associated with a different user rating, and wherein the advertisements are displayed as respective advertisement identifiers in the updated list, each advertisement identifier is sorted into and displayed in a respective group associated with a user rating corresponding to or lower than the second rating, a lower rating is associated with a lower advertising cost, the advertisement identifiers are displayed in a group list in the respective group, placement as a first advertisement identifier in the group list is associated with a higher advertising cost within the respective group, and each advertisement identifier is associated with a hyperlink to a shopping portal; and

generates a display of one or more advertisements and an associated shopping portal from the updated list based on received selection input from the user.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a communications interface for receiving the selection input from the user.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein each user rating of the plurality of user ratings is associated with a different group of advertisements.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising storing information in memory regarding a plurality of user ratings, wherein the user ratings have an order from lowest to highest.

15. The system of claim 11, further comprising determining that the second user rating is higher than the first user rating.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the updated list excludes advertisements groups associated with user ratings higher than the second user rating.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of advertisement groups on updated list is associated with the first user rating, the second user rating, or another rating that is lower than the first or second user ratings.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the user gains a higher user rating from causing a game character to play audio or video content in the digital environment.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for displaying an advertisement in a digital environment based on a selection by a user, the method comprising:

maintaining a list of advertisements available for selection to the user having a first user rating, wherein the list includes a group of advertisements associated with the first user rating;

identifying that the user has achieved a second rating;

updating the maintained list of advertisements available to the user that achieved the second rating, the update to include at least one more group of advertisements associated with the second rating, wherein the updated list of advertisements includes a plurality of advertisement groups each associated with a different user rating, and wherein the advertisements are displayed as respective advertisement identifiers in the updated list, each advertisement identifier is sorted into and displayed in a respective group associated with a user rating corresponding to or lower than the second rating, a lower rating is associated with a lower advertising cost, the advertisement identifiers are displayed in a group list in the respective group, placement as a first advertisement identifier in the group list is associated with a higher advertising cost within the respective group, and each advertisement identifier is associated with a hyperlink to a shopping portal; and

displaying one or more advertisements and an associated shopping portal from the updated list based on received selection input from the user.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for displaying an advertisement in a digital environment based on a selection by a user, the method comprising:

maintaining information regarding a plurality of advertisements, wherein each advertisement is designated as belonging to a group;

maintaining a list of advertisements available to the user for selection, the user having achieved a first user rating based on previous performance of the user in the digital environment, wherein the list includes;

a first group of advertisements associated with the first user rating, and

one or more other groups of advertisements, the one or more other groups each associated with a user rating lower than the first user rating, wherein a lower rating is associated with a lower advertising cost;

displaying the maintained list of advertisements available to the user having the first user rating, wherein the advertisements are displayed as respective advertisement identifiers in the maintained lists, and wherein each advertisement identifier is sorted into and displayed in a respective group associated with a user rating corresponding to or lower than the first user rating, the advertisement identifiers displayed in a group list in the respective group, placement as a first advertisement identifier in the group list is associated with a higher advertising cost within the respective group, and each advertisement identifier associated with a hyperlink to a shopping portal; and

displaying one or more advertisements and an associated shopping portal from the maintained list based on received selection input from the user.