Method for monitoring and controlling viewing preferences of a user

• US 9,560,423 B1
• Filed: 03/10/2014
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: PurpleComm Incorporated
• Original Assignee: PurpleComm Incorporated
• Inventors: Chang, Jack H., Sheu, William H., Tuan, Sherman
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Luong, Alan
• Application Number:
  US14/202,968
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 725/34, 725/32, 725/46, 705/14.4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• 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 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

Media system control and advertisement technology, in which input related to advertising preferences of a user of a media system that is connected to a content delivery network is received. An advertisement control policy is defined for the user of the media system based on the received input. During viewing, on the media system, of a channel provided by the content delivery network, the media system is controlled to deliver advertisements based on the defined advertisement policy.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, through an advertising graphical user interface of a media system, selections of one or more advertisement content channels made available on a content delivery network and a target viewing allocation time ratio that allocates a target viewing time for each of the one or more advertisement content channels for a particular user;

defining an information delivery control policy for the particular user of the media system that is connected to the content delivery network, the information delivery control policy being defined by the one or more advertisement content channels made available on the content delivery network, and the target viewing allocation time ratio for each of the one or more advertisement content channels; and

during viewing, on the media system, of an advertisement content channel provided by the content delivery network, controlling, by one or more processors, the media system to deliver information based on the defined information delivery control policy, the controlling comprising;

for each advertisement content channel in the one or more advertisement content channels defined by the information delivery control policy, comparing a cumulative playback time ratio of the advertisement content channel on the media system to the target viewing allocation time ratio for the advertisement content channel, the cumulative playback time ratio of the advertisement content channel being a ratio of a cumulative time the advertisement content channel has been played relative to a cumulative time the one or more advertisement content channels have been played;

based on comparison results, selecting, by the one or more processors from among the one or more advertisement content channels, an advertisement content channel from which to deliver information; and

configuring, by the one or more processors, the advertising graphical user interface to display content from the selected advertisement content channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the information delivery control policy for the particular user of the media system comprises:

determining that the selections were input by the particular user; and

defining the information delivery control policy for the particular user based on the selections.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the information delivery control policy for the particular user of the media system comprises:

determining that the selections were input by the particular user;

automatically identifying, from among advertisement content channels that are made available on the content delivery network and that were not selected by the particular user, an advertisement content channel having one or more attributes that match one or more attributes of the one or more of the particular user-selected advertisement content channels; and

defining the information delivery content channel for the particular user to include the automatically-identified advertisement content channel.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the information delivery control policy for the particular user of the media system comprises:

automatically generating a new advertisement content channel by aggregating information made available on the content delivery network, the automatically-generated advertisement content channel having one or more attributes determined to be associated with the user; and

defining the information delivery content channel for the particular user to include the automatically-generated advertisement content channel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the information delivery control policy for the particular user of the media system comprises:

accessing a viewing behavior history of the particular user of the media system;

automatically identifying, based at least in part on the accessed viewing behavior history of the particular user, an advertisement content channel available on the content delivery network; and

defining the information delivery content channel for the particular user to include the automatically-identified advertisement content channel.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the viewing behavior history of the particular user comprises media system behavior analytics data describing at least one of information viewing behavior of the particular user of the media system and remote control activity of the particular user of the media system during display of information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the information delivery control policy for the particular user further comprises:

selecting, with a first priority, an advertisement content channel that was selected by the particular user as the one or more advertisement content channels in the information delivery control policy for the particular user; and

selecting, with a second priority that is lower than the first priority, an advertisement content channel that was not selected by the particular user as being one of the one or more advertisement content channels in the information delivery control policy for the particular user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more advertising content channels in the information delivery control policy is an information channel comprising multiple individual information pieces, each individual information piece being a media clip with a predefined duration.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein defining the information delivery control policy for the particular user comprises:

selecting, from among predefined information channels that are available on the content delivery network, an information channel; and

defining the selected information channel as an information item in the information delivery control policy for the particular user.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein defining the information delivery control policy for the particular user comprises:

selecting, from among predefined individual information pieces that are available on the content delivery network, one or more individual information pieces; and

automatically generating an information channel that comprises the selected one or more individual information pieces; and

defining the automatically-generated information channel as an advertising content channel in the information delivery control policy for the particular user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more advertisement content channels is an individual information piece, the individual information piece being a media clip with a predefined duration.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein defining the information delivery control policy for the particular user comprises:

selecting, from among predefined individual information pieces that are made available on the content delivery network, an individual information piece; and

defining the selected individual information piece as an advertising content channel in the information delivery control policy for the particular user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the information delivery control policy by the target viewing allocation time ratio for each of the one or more advertisement content channels comprises:

defining a target percentage of time that has been allocated to viewing each of the one or more advertisement content channels in the information delivery control policy.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein, for each advertisement content channel in the one or more advertisement content channels defined by the information delivery control policy, comparing the cumulative playback time ratio of the advertisement content channel on the media system to the target viewing allocation time ratio for the advertisement content channel comprises:

for each advertisement content channel defined by the information delivery control policy, determining a difference between a cumulative percentage of time with which the advertisement content channel has actually been played back on the media system and a percentage of time that has been allocated by the target viewing allocation time ratio for viewing the advertisement content channel.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein, based on comparison results, selecting, by the one or more processors from among the one or more advertisement content channels, an advertisement content channel from which to deliver information comprises:

selecting, by the one or more processors from among the one or more advertisement content channels defined by the information delivery control policy, an advertisement content channel for which the difference between the percentage of time with which the advertisement content channel has actually been played back on the media system and the percentage of time that has been allocated by the target viewing allocation time ratio for viewing the advertisement content channel is maximal.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving input related to viewing preferences of the particular user of the media system.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving input related to viewing preferences of the particular user of the media system comprises:

receiving input from the particular user indicating a device on which to display the one or more advertisement content channels, or a timing with which to display the one or more advertisement content channels.

18. A system comprising:

at least one computer; and

at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to the at least one computer and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the at least one computer, causes the at least one computer to perform operations comprising;

receiving, through an advertising graphical user interface of a media system, selections of one or more advertisement content channels made available on a content delivery network and a target viewing allocation time ratio that allocates a target viewing time for each of the one or more advertisement content channels for a particular user;

defining an information delivery control policy for the particular user of the media system that is connected to the content delivery network, the information delivery control policy being defined by the one or more advertisement content channels made available on the content delivery network, and the target viewing allocation time ratio for each of the one or more advertisement content channels; and

during viewing, on the media system, of an advertisement content channel provided by the content delivery network, controlling the media system to deliver information based on the defined information delivery control policy, the controlling comprising;

for each advertisement content channel in the one or more advertisement content channels defined by the information delivery control policy, comparing a cumulative playback time ratio of the advertisement content channel on the media system to the target viewing allocation time ratio for the advertisement content channel, the cumulative playback time ratio of the advertisement content channel being a ratio of a cumulative time the advertisement content channel has been played relative to a cumulative time the one or more advertisement content channels have been played;

based on comparison results, selecting, from among the one or more advertisement content channels, an advertisement content channel from which to deliver information; and

configuring the advertising graphical user interface to display content from the selected advertisement content channel.

19. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage device encoded with at least one computer program comprising instructions that, when executed, operate to cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, through an advertising graphical user interface of a media system, selections of one or more advertisement content channels made available on a content delivery network and a target viewing allocation time ratio that allocates a target viewing time for each of the one or more advertisement content channels for a particular user;

defining an information delivery control policy for the particular user of the media system that is connected to the content delivery network, the information delivery control policy being defined by the one or more advertisement content channels made available on the content delivery network, and the target viewing allocation time ratio for each of the one or more advertisement content channels; and

during viewing, on the media system, of an advertisement content channel provided by the content delivery network, controlling the media system to deliver information based on the defined information delivery control policy, the controlling comprising;

for each advertisement content channel in the one or more advertisement content channels defined by the information delivery control policy, comparing a cumulative playback time ratio of the advertisement content channel on the media system to the target viewing allocation time ratio for the advertisement content channel, the cumulative playback time ratio of the advertisement content channel being a ratio of a cumulative time the advertisement content channel has been played relative to a cumulative time the one or more advertisement content channels have been played;

based on comparison results, selecting, from among the one or more advertisement content channels, an advertisement content channel from which to deliver information; and

configuring the advertising graphical user interface to display content from the selected advertisement content channel.