Dynamic video ad format based on user bitrate and bandwidth

• US 9,247,313 B1
• Filed: 01/06/2014
• Issued: 01/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lewis, Justin, Schneider, Michael Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Doshi, Akshay
• Application Number:
  US14/148,360
• Time in Patent Office: 750 Days
• Field of Search: 725 32- 36, 725/94, 725/96
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/238 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for downstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2401 Monitoring of the client buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25825 involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25833 involving client hardware characteristics, e.g. manufacturer, processing or storage capabilities allocation of resources considering hardware capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5044; allocation of resources considering software capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5055
• 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 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• 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 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• 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 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44227 Monitoring of local network, e.g. connection or bandwidth variations; Detecting new devices in the local network configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; monitoring connectivity in data switched networks H04L43/0811
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64738 Monitoring network characteristics, e.g. bandwidth, congestion level data switched network analysis H04L41/14; monitoring functioning in data switched networks H04L43/0817; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods that facilitate employing bandwidth factors to determine, infer, or predict a client device buffer wait time or a client device buffer ratio associated with a video playback on a client device to select an advertisement format for the video and select an advertisement to accompany the video based upon the format.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system including a processor from a client device, a request to play a video;

streaming, by the system to the client device, the video;

receiving, by the system from the client device, one or more bandwidth factors;

determining, by the system, an estimated bandwidth based at least upon the one or more bandwidth factors;

determining, by the system, a client device buffer wait time as a function of a mathematical multiplication of a video playback rate of the video and a buffer length, and a result of the mathematical multiplication divided by the estimated bandwidth, wherein the video playback rate, the buffer length, and the estimated bandwidth are non-zero positive numbers;

selecting, by the system, one or more advertisement formats from a plurality of advertisement formats based on the client device buffer wait time;

selecting, by the system, an advertisement having an advertisement format of the one or more advertisement formats; and

providing, by the system to the client device, the advertisement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more advertisement formats comprise a text advertisement, a video advertisement, an image advertisement, a banner advertisement, an animated advertisement, an interactive advertisement, an audio advertisement, pre-roll advertisement, post-roll advertisement, in-stream advertisement, or a pre-downloaded advertisement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more bandwidth factors include at least one of a client device type, a client device operating system type, a client device video player application type, a client device network connection type, a client device network speed, an observed client device network connect speed, a time of day, a client device geographic location, a length of the video, a type of the video, a format of the video, or a resolution of the video.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to display the advertisement concurrently with playing the video.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to display the advertisement concurrently after playing the video has begun.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to display the advertisement while the video is buffering.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to buffer the advertisement concurrently with buffering the video.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the device, one or more advertisement format restrictions associated with an advertiser.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the advertisement comprises selecting the advertisement from the plurality of advertisements further based on a measure of advertisement efficiency.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the selecting the one or more advertisement formats comprises selecting the one or more advertisement formats from the plurality of advertisement formats further based on the one or more advertisement format restrictions.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution, cause a system including a processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a client device, a request to play a video;

streaming, to the client device, the video;

receiving, from the client device, one or more bandwidth factors;

determining an estimated bandwidth based at least upon the one or more bandwidth factors;

determining a client device buffer wait time as a function of a mathematical multiplication of a video playback rate of the video and a buffer length, and a result of the mathematical multiplication divided by the estimated bandwidth, wherein the video playback rate, the buffer length, and the estimated bandwidth are non-zero positive numbers;

selecting one or more advertisement formats from a plurality of advertisement formats based on the client device buffer wait time;

selecting an advertisement having an advertisement format of the one or more advertisement formats; and

providing, to the client device, the advertisement.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the one or more advertisement formats comprise a text advertisement, a video advertisement, an image advertisement, a banner advertisement, an animated advertisement, an interactive advertisement, an audio advertisement, pre-roll advertisement, post-roll advertisement, in-stream advertisement, or a pre-downloaded advertisement.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the one or more bandwidth factors include at least one of a client device type, a client device operating system type, a client device video player application type, a client device network connection type, a client device network speed, an observed client device network connect speed, a time of day, a client device geographic location, a length of the video, a type of the video, a format of the video, or a resolution of the video.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to display the advertisement concurrently with playing the video.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to display the advertisement concurrently after playing the video has begun.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to display the advertisement while the video is buffering.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to buffer the advertisement concurrently with buffering the video.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising receiving one or more advertisement format restrictions associated with an advertiser.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the selecting the advertisement comprises selecting the advertisement from the plurality of advertisements further based on a measure of advertisement efficiency.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the selecting the one or more advertisement formats comprises selecting the one or more advertisement formats from the plurality of advertisement formats further based on the one or more advertisement format restrictions.

21. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions, comprising;

a video presentation component configured to;

receive, from a client device, a request to play a video, and

stream, to the client device, the video;

a buffer wait time estimation component configured to;

receive, from the client device, one or more bandwidth factors,

determine an estimated bandwidth based at least upon the one or more bandwidth factors,

determine a client device buffer wait time as a function of a mathematical multiplication of a video playback rate of the video and a buffer length, and a result of the mathematical multiplication divided by the estimated bandwidth, wherein the video playback rate, the buffer length, and the estimated bandwidth are non-zero positive numbers; and

an ad format selection component configured to select one or more advertisement formats from a plurality of advertisement formats based on the client device buffer wait time;

an ad selection component configured to select an advertisement having an advertisement format of the one or more advertisement formats; and

an ad presentation component configured to provide, to the client device, the advertisement.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more advertisement formats comprise a text advertisement, a video advertisement, an image advertisement, a banner advertisement, an animated advertisement, an interactive advertisement, an audio advertisement, pre-roll advertisement, post-roll advertisement, in-stream advertisement, or a pre-downloaded advertisement.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more bandwidth factors include at least one of a client device type, a client device operating system type, a client device video player application type, a client device network connection type, a client device network speed, an observed client device network connect speed, a time of day, a client device geographic location, a length of the video, a type of the video, a format of the video, or a resolution of the video.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the ad presentation component is further configured to instruct the client device to display the advertisement concurrently with playing the video.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the ad presentation component is further configured to instruct the client device to display the advertisement concurrently after playing the video has begun.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the ad presentation component is further configured to instruct the client device to display the advertisement while the video is buffering.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the ad presentation component is further configured to instruct the client device to buffer the advertisement concurrently with buffering the video.

28. The system of claim 21, wherein the ad format selection component is further configured to receive one or more advertisement format restrictions associated with an advertiser.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the ad format selection component is further configured to select the one or more advertisement formats from the plurality of advertisement formats further based on a measure of advertisement efficiency.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the ad format selection component is further configured to select the one or more advertisement formats from the plurality of advertisement formats further based on the one or more advertisement format restrictions.

31. A system, comprising:

means for receiving, from a client device, a request to play a video;

means for streaming, to the client device, the video;

means for receiving, from the client device, one or more bandwidth factors;

means for determining an estimated bandwidth based at least upon the one or more bandwidth factors;

means for determining a client device buffer wait time as a function of a mathematical multiplication of a video playback rate of the video and a buffer length, and a result of the mathematical multiplication divided by the estimated bandwidth, wherein the video playback rate, the buffer length, and the estimated bandwidth are non-zero positive numbers;

means for selecting one or more advertisement formats from a plurality of advertisement formats based on the client device buffer wait time;

means for selecting an advertisement having an advertisement format of the one or more advertisement formats; and

means for providing, to the client device, the advertisement.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the one or more advertisement formats comprise a text advertisement, a video advertisement, an image advertisement, a banner advertisement, an animated advertisement, an interactive advertisement, an audio advertisement, pre-roll advertisement, post-roll advertisement, in-stream advertisement, or a pre-downloaded advertisement.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the one or more bandwidth factors include at least one of a client device type, a client device operating system type, a client device video player application type, a client device network connection type, a client device network speed, an observed client device network connect speed, a time of day, a client device geographic location, a length of the video, a type of the video, a format of the video, or a resolution of the video.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to display the advertisement concurrently with playing the video.

35. The system of claim 31, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to display the advertisement concurrently after playing the video has begun.

36. The system of claim 31, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to display the advertisement while the video is buffering.

37. The system of claim 31, wherein the providing the advertisement comprises instructing the client device to buffer the advertisement concurrently with buffering the video.

38. The system of claim 31, further comprising means for receiving one or more advertisement format restrictions associated with an advertiser.

39. The system of claim 31, wherein the selecting the advertisement comprises selecting the advertisement from the plurality of advertisements further based on a measure of advertisement efficiency.

40. The system of claim 38, wherein the selecting the one or more advertisement formats comprises selecting the one or more advertisement formats from the plurality of advertisement formats further based on the one or more advertisement format restrictions.