Attention-based advertisement scheduling in time-shifted content

• US 9,544,647 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2012
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Narasimhan, Nitya, Vasudevan, Venugopal, Wickramasuriya, Jehan, Wodka, Joseph F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhong, Jun Fei
• Application Number:
  US13/682,978
• Publication Number:
  US 20140143803A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,511 Days
• Field of Search: 725/34, 725 12- 13, 725/23, 725/46, 725/121, 725/133, 348/734, 348/500
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• 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 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• 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 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47217 for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

An advertisement system includes an advertising manager that receives a content-event indicator, which indicates playback of an advertisement for viewing on a first display screen at a media-playback device or indicates playback of recorded content that includes advertisements. The advertising manager can determine an optimal time offset as a duration of time before or after playback of an advertisement to the start of an event that is associated with the advertisement for viewing on a second display screen at a mobile device. For recorded content, an optimization schedule is determined that replaces and time-shifts advertisements during playback of the recorded content. The advertising manager can also determine a fulfillment criterion for a product or service based on latency constraints to indicate a duration of time within which fulfillment of the product or service is expected when offered as a second advertisement corresponding to a first advertisement.

Claims

1. An advertisement system comprising:

a processing system to implement an advertising manager that is configured to;

receive a content-event indicator that indicates playback of recorded content for viewing by a viewer at a media-playback device, the recorded content including media content and an advertisement scheduled to be played in a first timeslot, wherein the advertisement is associated with a related advertisement that is to be presented at a mobile device that is associated with the viewer;

receive social media indicators associated with a live distribution of the recorded content, wherein the social media indicators are received from a social media source;

determine a collective viewer interest in the recorded content during at least the first timeslot based on the received social media indicators;

generate an attention profile based on the determined collective viewer interest, wherein the attention profile indicates a first predicted level of attentiveness of the viewer to the recorded content being played back on the media-playback device during the first timeslot and a second predicted level of attentiveness during a second timeslot that is higher than the first predicted level of attentiveness;

determine a playback-optimization schedule that includes time-shifting the advertisement in the first timeslot to the second timeslot during the playback of the recorded content based on the second predicted level of attentiveness;

initiate communication of the playback-optimization schedule to the media-playback device to reschedule the advertisement during playback of the recorded content from the first timeslot to the second timeslot; and

communicate a notification to the mobile device to cause the related advertisement to be presented at the mobile device at a time that is offset from the time of the first timeslot and corresponds with a predicted level of attentiveness that is less than the second predicted level of attentiveness based on the playback-optimization schedule.

2. The advertising system as recited in claim 1 wherein the advertising manager is configured to:

determine the playback-optimization schedule to include replacing the advertisement in the first timeslot with an alternate advertisement during playback of the recorded content; and

initiate communication of the alternate advertisement to the media-playback device to replace the advertisement in the first timeslot stored at the media-playback device.

3. The advertising system as recited in claim 1 wherein the advertising manager is configured to determine the playback-optimization schedule based on determined levels of viewer attention to the live distribution of the recorded content.

4. The advertising system as recited in claim 3 wherein the determined levels of viewer attention to the live distribution of the recorded content are based on the social-media indicators.

5. The advertising system as recited in claim 1 wherein the advertising manager is configured to determine the playback-optimization schedule based on viewer activity in social media.

6. The advertising system as recited in claim 1 wherein the advertising manager is configured to:

determine an optimal time offset from presenting the advertisement at the media-playback device to presenting the related advertisement at the mobile device; and

wherein the notification to the mobile device causes the related advertisement to be presented at the mobile device after the optimal time offset in response to presenting the advertisement at the media-playback device based on the playback-optimization schedule.

7. The advertising system as recited in claim 6 wherein the advertising manager is further configured to determine the playback-optimization schedule based at least in part on the optimal time offset.

8. The advertising system as recited in claim 6 wherein the advertising manager is configured to:

determine a second optimal time offset as a duration of time before presenting the advertisement at the media-playback device; and

wherein the notification to the mobile device causes the related advertisement to be presented at the mobile device at the second optimal time offset before presenting the advertisement at the media-playback device based on the playback-optimization schedule.

9. A method comprising:

receiving a content-event indicator that indicates playback of recorded content for viewing by a viewer at a media-playback device, the recorded content including media content and an advertisement scheduled to be played in a first timeslot, wherein the advertisement is associated with a related advertisement that is to be presented at a mobile device that is associated with the viewer;

receiving social media indicators associated with a live distribution of the recorded content, wherein the social media indicators are received from a social media source;

determining a collective viewer interest in the recorded content during at least the first timeslot based on the received social media indicators;

generating an attention profile based on the determined collective viewer interest, wherein the attention profile indicates a first predicted level of attentiveness of the viewer to the recorded content being played back on the media-playback device during the first timeslot and a second predicted level of attentiveness during a second timeslot that is higher than the first predicted level of attentiveness;

determining a playback-optimization schedule that includes time-shifting the advertisement in the first timeslot to the second timeslot during the playback of the recorded content based on the attention profile indicating that the second predicted level of attentiveness is higher than the first predicted level of attentiveness;

communicating the playback-optimization schedule to the media-playback device to reschedule the advertisement during playback of the recorded content from the first timeslot to the second timeslot; and

communicating a notification to the mobile device to cause the related advertisement to be presented at the mobile device at a time that is offset from the time of the first timeslot and corresponds with a predicted level of attentiveness that is less than the second predicted level of attentiveness based on the playback-optimization schedule.

10. The method as recited in claim 9:

wherein the playback-optimization schedule is determined to include replacing the advertisement in the first timeslot with an alternate advertisement during playback of the recorded content;

the method further comprising communicating the alternate advertisement to the media-playback device to replace the advertisement in the first timeslot stored at the media-playback device.

11. The method as recited in claim 9 wherein the playback-optimization schedule is determined based on determined levels of viewer attention to the live distribution of the recorded content.

12. The method as recited in claim 11 wherein the determined levels of viewer attention to the live distribution of the recorded content are based on the social-media indicators.

13. The method as recited in claim 9 wherein the playback-optimization schedule is determined based on viewer activity in social media.

14. The method as recited in claim 9 further comprising:

determining an optimal time offset from presenting the advertisement at the media-playback device to presenting the related advertisement at the mobile device; and

wherein the notification to the mobile device causes the related advertisement to be presented at the mobile device after the optimal time offset in response to presenting the advertisement at the media-playback device based on the playback-optimization schedule.

15. The advertising system as recited in claim 14 wherein the playback-optimization schedule is determined based at least in part on the optimal time offset.

16. The method as recited in claim 9 further comprising:

determining a second optimal time offset as a duration of time before presenting the advertisement at the media-playback device; and

wherein the notification to the mobile causes the related advertisement to be presented at the mobile device at the optimal time offset before presenting the advertisement at the media-playback device based on the playback-optimization schedule.

17. A method comprising:

receiving a content-event indicator that indicates playback of recorded content for viewing by a viewer at a media-playback device, the recorded content including media content and an advertisement scheduled to be played in a first timeslot;

receiving social media indicators associated with a live distribution of the recorded content, wherein the social media indicators are received from a social media source;

determining a collective viewer interest in the recorded content during at least the first timeslot based on the received social media indicators;

generating an attention profile based on the determined collective viewer interest, wherein the attention profile indicates a first predicted level of attentiveness of the viewer to the recorded content being played back on the media-playback device during the first timeslot and a second predicted level of attentiveness during a second timeslot that is higher than the first predicted level of attentiveness;

determining a playback-optimization schedule that includes replacing the advertisement with an alternate advertisement based on the attention profile indicating that the second predicted level of attentiveness is higher than the first predicted level of attentiveness, wherein the alternate advertisement is associated with a related advertisement that is to be presented at a mobile device;

communicating the alternate advertisement to the media-playback device to replace the advertisement stored at the media-playback device; and

communicating a notification to the mobile device to cause the related advertisement to be presented at the mobile device at a time that is offset from the time of the first timeslot and corresponds with a predicted level of attentiveness that is less than the second predicted level of attentiveness based on the playback-optimization schedule.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising determining an optimal time offset from presenting the alternative advertisement at the media-playback device to presenting the related advertisement at the mobile device, wherein the playback-optimization schedule is determined based at least in part on the optimal time offset.

19. The method as recited in claim 18 wherein the playback-optimization schedule and the optimal time offset are determined based on determined levels of viewer attention to the live distribution of the recorded.

20. The method as recited in claim 18 wherein the playback-optimization schedule and the optimal time offset are determined based on viewer activity in social media.