Advertising impression determination

• US 9,466,074 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2014
• Issued: 10/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: van Datta, Glen, Zalewski, Gary
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Kevin Y
• Application Number:
  US14/336,452
• Publication Number:
  US 20140324576A1
• Time in Patent Office: 813 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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

Systems and methods for defining and tracking advertising campaigns across a channel video game network are disclosed. The system allows advertisements to be dynamically activated in video games. Advertisements are tracked to determine user impressions and user exposure to the advertisement. In the system, an impression area is defined relative an advertisements in the game. Methods for redefining the impression area or for accounting for the existence of obstructions that distort the view of the advertisement are also provided.

Claims

1. A method for verifying an advertising impression in a virtual three-dimensional environment, the method comprising:

identifying that a portion of the virtual three-dimensional environment is tagged as an advertisement area;

providing a stream of an advertisement to the tagged advertisement area, wherein the advertisement is streamed in real-time;

rendering the stream of advertisement in accordance with one or more graphic rendering techniques specific to the identified portion of the virtual three-dimensional environment;

executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor;

identifies that a character is within a predetermined distance from the advertisement within the tagged advertisement area, and

identifies that a line-of-sight of the character is oriented toward the advertisement, wherein the identified line-of-sight is confirmed to be unobstructed; and

updating advertising impression information stored in memory regarding the advertisement streamed in real-time, wherein an advertising impression is based on the identification of the character within the predetermined distance from the advertisement and having the line-of-sight oriented towards the advertisement, wherein the stream of the advertisement is replaced with a stream of a new advertisement based on the updated advertising impression.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is associated with a predetermined time period.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising updating the advertisement with new ad copy, wherein a subsequent stream of the advertisement includes the new ad copy.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the advertisement to be streamed based on a geographic location of a user associated with the character.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a user device associated with the character is one of a game console, a desktop computer, or a portable device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a price to be charged to an advertiser based on a number of advertising impressions associated with the streamed advertisement.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining a number of unique users associated with the advertising impressions, wherein the price is further based on the number of unique users.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the tagged advertisement area is a virtual object selected from a group comprising a virtual billboard, a virtual poster, a virtual kiosk, a virtual bus, a virtual flyer, a virtual television, an online newspaper, an online magazine, and an online blog.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing content associated with another three-dimensional environment via download, wherein the advertisement is included in the download.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein a graphic rendering technique includes dynamic rendering of the advertisement when the character is detected a pre-determined distance away from the virtual three-dimensional environment.

10. A system for verifying an advertising impression in a three-dimensional environment of a network game, the system comprising:

memory that stores a plurality of advertisements; and

a processor that executes instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor;

identifies that a portion of the virtual three-dimensional environment is tagged as an advertisement area, and

renders a stream of advertisement in accordance with one or more graphic rendering techniques specific to the identified portion of the virtual three-dimensional environment; and

a communication interface that provides the stream of an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements to the tagged advertisement area, wherein the advertisement is streamed in real-time, and wherein the stream of advertisement is provided to the tagged advertisement area when a character has been detected in an area that is a pre-determined distance away from the tagged advertisement area;

wherein further execution of instructions by the processor;

identifies that a character is within a predetermined distance from the advertisement within the tagged advertisement area, and

identifies that a line-of-sight of the character is oriented toward the advertisement, wherein the identified line-of-sight is confirmed to be unobstructed, wherein memory updates stored advertising impression information regarding the advertisement streamed in real-time, wherein an advertising impression is based on the identification of the character within the predetermined distance from the advertisement and having the line-of-sight oriented towards the advertisement, wherein the stream of the advertisement is replaced with a stream of a new advertisement based on the updated advertising impression.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the advertisement is associated with a predetermined time period.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the advertisement is updated with new ad copy, and wherein a subsequent stream of the advertisement includes the new ad copy.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein further execution of instructions by the processor selects the advertisement to be streamed based on a geographic location of a user associated with the character.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein a user device associated with the character is one of a game console, a desktop computer, or a portable device.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising determining a price to be charged to an advertiser based on a number of advertising impressions associated with the streamed advertisement.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein further execution of instructions by the processor determines a number of unique users associated with the advertising impressions, wherein the price is further based on the number of unique users.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the tagged advertisement area is a virtual object selected from a group comprising a virtual billboard, a virtual poster, a virtual kiosk, a virtual bus, a virtual flyer, a virtual television, an online newspaper, an online magazine, and an online blog.

18. The system of claim 10, further comprising providing content associated with another three-dimensional environment via download, wherein the advertisement is included in the download.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for verifying an advertising impression in a virtual three-dimensional environment, the method comprising:

identifying that a portion of the virtual three-dimensional environment is tagged as an advertisement area;

providing a stream of an advertisement to the tagged advertisement area, wherein the advertisement is streamed in real-time;

rendering the stream of advertisement in accordance with one or more graphic rendering techniques specific to the identified portion of the virtual three-dimensional environment;

identifying that a character is within a predetermined distance from the advertisement, and

identifying that a line-of-sight of the character is oriented toward the advertisement, wherein the identified line-of-sight is confirmed to be unobstructed; and

updating advertising impression information stored in memory regarding the advertisement streamed in real-time, wherein an advertising impression is based on the identification of the character within the predetermined distance from the advertisement and having the line-of-sight oriented towards the advertisement, wherein the stream of the advertisement is replaced with a stream of a new advertisement based on the updated advertising impression.