Server side adaptive bit rate reporting

• US 9,615,115 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2016
• Issued: 04/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: This Technology, Inc. (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Mick, Jr., John Raymond, Sherwin, Jeffrey, Santangelo, Bryan David
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Castro, Alfonso
• Application Number:
  US14/994,768
• Publication Number:
  US 20160249082A1
• Time in Patent Office: 447 Days
• Field of Search: 725 32
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A server receives metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal stream from an encoder, the metadata identifying a specified frame of the transport signal stream corresponding to a point in time of the advertisement. The server instructs an encoder, by a server, to insert a marker into the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the marker identifying the point in time of the advertisement. The server receives data from a smart appliance. The server detects the marker in the data. The server identifies the marker as the specified frame of the transport signal stream played by the smart appliance. The server maps the marker to the identified point in time of the advertisement.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, comprising:

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal stream from a first system, the metadata identifying a specified frame of the transport signal stream corresponding to a point in time of the advertisement;

responsive to determining, by the one or more computing devices, that the transport signal stream is operating at a first frame rate, instructing the first system, by the one or more computing devices, to insert a first marker into the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the first marker identifying the point in time of the advertisement for the first frame rate;

responsive to determining, by the one or more computing devices, that the transport signal stream is operating at a second frame rate differing from the first frame rate, instructing the first system, by the one or more computing devices, to insert a second marker differing from the first marker into the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the second marker identifying the point in time of the advertisement for the second frame rate;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, data from a viewing system;

detecting, by the one or more computing devices, one of the first marker and the second marker in the data;

identifying, by the one or more computing devices, one of the first marker and the second marker as the specified frame of the transport signal stream played by the viewing system; and

mapping, by the one or more computing devices, one of the first marker and the second marker to the identified point in time of the advertisement.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising mapping, by the one or more computing devices, one of the first marker and the second marker to a total percentage of the advertisement played by the viewing system in view of the identified point in time of the advertisement.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising reporting, by the one or more computing devices, the total percentage of the advertisement played by the viewing system to a tracking element.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising charging an organization associated with the tracking element a fee based on the percentage of an advertisement played.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising instructing the first system to insert one of the first marker and the second marker into the specified frame of the transport signal stream on a per frame, per segment, per sub-segment, or per plurality of segments basis.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising instructing the first system to insert different markers into corresponding frames in the transport signal stream corresponding to different points in time of the advertisement.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the different points in time of the advertisement correspond to quartiles of an advertisement playable by the viewing system.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising instructing the first system to insert one of the first marker and the second marker into at least one of a first frame of a percentile, a last frame of a percentile, multiple but not all frame of a percentile, or throughout a percentile.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first marker and the second marker comprises an ID3 tag.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the ID3 tag comprises a unique identifier indicative of the identified point in time of the advertisement playable by the viewing system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the unique identifier is a universal unique identifier (UUID).

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the ID3 tag is inserted into a data track or a fundamental track of the transport signal stream.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the received data comprises a universal resource locator comprising at least one of a universal unique identifier corresponding to the identified point in time of the advertisement played by the viewing system, a device identifier or MAC identifier indicative of a specific session, and a time stamp corresponding to a synchronized broadcast time.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to instructing the first system to insert one of the first marker and the second marker, instructing the first system by the one or more computing devices to transmit code to the viewing system to permit the viewing system to detect one of the first marker and the second marker and to permit the viewing system to report one of the first marker and the second marker to the one or more computing devices.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising instructing, by the one or more computing devices, an advertisement decision service to insert the code into at least a first segment of a session.

16. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, comprising:

receiving metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal stream from a first system, the metadata identifying a specified frame of the transport signal stream corresponding to a point in time of the advertisement;

responsive to determining that the transport signal stream is operating at a first frame rate, instructing the first system to insert a first marker into the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the first marker identifying the point in time of the advertisement for the first frame rate;

responsive to determining that the transport signal stream is operating at a second frame rate differing from the first frame rate, instructing the first system to insert a second marker differing from the first marker into the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the second marker identifying the point in time of the advertisement for the second frame rate;

receiving data from a device, the data corresponding to content played at the device;

detecting one of the first marker and the second marker in the data;

identifying one of the first marker and the second marker as the specified frame of the transport signal stream played by the device; and

mapping one of the first marker and the second marker to the identified point in time of the advertisement.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising mapping one of the first marker and the second marker to a total percentage of the advertisement played by the device in view of the identified point in time of the advertisement.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising reporting the total percentage of the advertisement played by the device to a tracking element.

19. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, comprising:

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal stream from a first system, the metadata identifying a specified frame of the transport signal stream corresponding to a point in time of the advertisement;

responsive to determining, by the one or more computing devices, that the transport signal stream is operating at a first frame rate, instructing the first system, by the one or more computing devices, to insert a first marker into the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the first marker identifying the point in time of the advertisement for the first frame rate;

responsive to determining, by the one or more computing devices, that the transport signal stream is operating at a second frame rate differing from the first frame rate, instructing the first system, by the one or more computing devices, to insert a second marker differing from the first marker into the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the second marker identifying the point in time of the advertisement for the second frame rate;

detecting, by the one or more computing devices, one of the first marker and the second marker in the transport signal stream;

identifying, by the one or more computing devices, one of the first marker and the second marker as the specified frame of the transport signal stream played by a device; and

mapping, by the one or more computing devices, one of the first marker and the second marker to the identified point in time of the advertisement.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising mapping, by the one or more computing devices, one of the first marker and the second marker to a total percentage of the advertisement played by the device in view of the identified point in time of the advertisement.