Methods and computer program products for taking a secondary action responsive to receipt of an advertisement

• US 9,532,108 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2015
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koch, Robert Alan, Malik, Dale W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): Raman, Usha
• Application Number:
  US14/842,173
• Publication Number:
  US 20150371275A1
• Time in Patent Office: 483 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0265 Vehicular advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41422 located in transportation means, e.g. personal vehicle arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• 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 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43622 Interfacing an external recording device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/835 Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 : by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A method for programming a secondary device responsive to an advertisement, including: requesting a file and associated content identifier responsive to the advertisement; receiving the advertisement and a supplementary information associated with the advertisement; presenting a user with an option to initiate a request for an activity in response to the supplementary information; and performing the requested activity in response to the user request.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a vehicle radio, an advertisement and supplementary information associated with the advertisement;

receiving, by the vehicle radio, from a radio broadcast host system, a content identifier exclusively associated with the advertisement, the content identifier distinguishing the advertisement from other advertisements;

wherein both the advertisement and the content identifier exclusively associated with the advertisement are received together from the radio broadcast host system;

wherein the supplementary information includes an activity identifier related to a secondary activity;

presenting, by the vehicle radio, a prompt to a user as one option to initiate a request from the user to execute the secondary activity in response to detecting the activity identifier included in the supplementary information, the request comprising the content identifier and the activity identifier;

transmitting, by the vehicle radio, the request comprising the content identifier and the activity identifier; and

performing, by the vehicle radio, the secondary activity according to the request from the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content identifier comprises an alphanumeric identification that distinguishes the advertisement from the other advertisements having other content identifiers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the prompt is an audio prompt.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is transmitted, by the vehicle radio, to an external server in order to cause implementation of the request for the activity identifier upon selection to execute the secondary activity on the vehicle radio.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplementary information includes an identification of the radio broadcast host system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplementary information includes at least one of an artist name, a composer, a song title, and an owner of content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplementary information includes a station identifier, call letters, and frequency of a radio station.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplementary information includes a web address.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity identifier indicates what type of the secondary activity can be requested for the content identifier.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing, by the vehicle radio, a calendar;

in response to the secondary activity being related to a reminder, obtaining, by the vehicle radio, a calendar event as the reminder for an upcoming music release and for tuning into a show;

presenting, by the vehicle radio, an option to add the calendar event as the reminder in the calendar stored in the vehicle radio.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising in response to the secondary activity being is related to a download and in response to presenting to the user an audible program guide of an upcoming broadcast content, initiating a download request before the upcoming broadcast content is actually broadcast.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing, by the vehicle radio, the secondary activity according to the request from the user, wherein performing the secondary activity comprises:

programming a secondary device to automatically play a broadcast content,

saving a uniform resource locator address as a bookmark for use by a web browser,

displaying a website as identified by the uniform resource locator address,

executing an electronic purchase, and

saving data to an electronic shopping cart for execution of a future electronic purchase.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the content identifier is distinct and different from the supplementary information.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondary activity includes storing the supplementary information on a storage device;

wherein the content identifier is stored in a table, such that the table comprises other content identifiers above and below the content identifier; and

wherein an alphanumeric identification for the content identifier associated with the advertisement includes same alphabets as but different numerals than the other content identifiers above and below the content identifier.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondary activity includes programming a secondary device to automatically record a broadcast content by saving an event to a calendar application, the calendar application being maintained by the secondary device.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting the user with an option to store the supplementary information associated with the advertisement while the advertisement is airing;

presenting the user with another option to store the supplementary information for a period after the advertisement has aired.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplementary information is broadcast via a radio descriptive service and a radio broadcast descriptive service.

18. A vehicle apparatus comprising:

a processing circuit; and

a non-transitory storage medium readable by the processing circuit and storing instructions that, when executed by the processing circuit, cause the processing circuit to perform operations;

receiving an advertisement and supplementary information associated with the advertisement;

receiving, from a radio broadcast host system, a content identifier exclusively associated with the advertisement, the content identifier distinguishing the advertisement from other advertisements;

wherein both the advertisement and the content identifier exclusively associated with the advertisement are received together from the radio broadcast host system;

wherein the supplementary information includes an activity identifier related to a secondary activity;

presenting a prompt to a user as one option to initiate a request from the user to execute the secondary activity in response to detecting the activity identifier included in the supplementary information, the request comprising the content identifier and the activity identifier; and

transmitting the request comprising the content identifier and the activity identifier.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the content identifier comprises an alphanumeric identification that distinguishes the advertisement from the other advertisements having other content identifiers.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the prompt is an audio prompt;

and

wherein the request is transmitted to an external server in order to cause implementation of the request for the activity identifier upon selection to execute the secondary activity.