Qualified video delivery advertisement

• US 9,633,379 B1
• Filed: 05/17/2012
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Perry, David, Gault, Andrew Buchanan, Pereira, Rui Filipe Andrade
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Jimmy H
• Application Number:
  US13/474,665
• Time in Patent Office: 1,804 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/355 Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/358 Adapting the game course according to the network or server load, e.g. for reducing latency due to different connection speeds between clients
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/70 Game security or game management aspects
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/85 Providing additional services to players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/409 Data transfer via television network
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/552 for downloading to client devices, e.g. using OS version, hardware or software profile of the client device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/57 details of game services offered to the player
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 : Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 : Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 : Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder

Abstract

A video server is configured to provide streaming video to players of computer games over a computing network. The video server can provided video of different games to different players simultaneously. This is accomplished by rendering several video streams in parallel using a single GPU. The output of the GPU is provided to graphics processing pipelines that are each associated with a specific client/player and are dynamically allocated as needed. A client qualifier may be used to assure that only clients capable of presenting the streaming video to a player at a minimum level of quality receive the video stream.

Claims

1. A video server system, comprising:

a client qualifier configured to determine if a client is qualified to receive a video stream configured for display on the client, qualification of the client being based on abilities of the client to receive and display the video stream at a minimum level of quality;

an advertisement source configured to provide an advertisement to the client, the advertisement having multiple levels of available functionality, the advertisement having a lower level of functionality enabled when the advertisement is provided to the client for display at the client, the advertisement configured to have a higher level of functionality enabled at the client upon determination by the client qualifier that the client is qualified to receive the video stream, wherein the advertisement includes logic configured to change the level of the functionality of the advertisement in response to information provided by the client qualifier;

a video source configured to provide the video stream, and to provide the video stream when the client is qualified to receive the video stream as determined by the client qualifier;

an input/output device configured for communicating with the client via a communication network;

a storage configured to store image data for use by the video source or the client qualifier; and

a hardware processor configured to execute software components of the video source or the client qualifier as stored on a computer memory.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the client qualifier is further configured to provide a software agent to the client, the software agent configured to determine if the client is qualified to receive and display the video stream.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the software agent is provided in response to a request for the advertisement.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the software agent is configured to change the level of functionality of the advertisement in response to information provided by the client qualifier after the advertisement is initially displayed at the client.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein changing the level of functionality of the advertisement does not change an appearance of the advertisement at the client.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein changing the level of functionality of the advertisement includes changing the appearance of the advertisement at the client.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is initially displayed at the client after determination by the client qualifier that the client is qualified to receive the video stream.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement includes a universal resource locator and an image.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein changing the level of functionality of the advertisement includes changing a universal resource locator configured to be accessed upon user selection of the advertisement.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the client qualifier is further configured to determine which member of a plurality of video sources, including the video source, is best qualified to provide the video stream to the client.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the video source is configured to provide at least two versions of the video stream to the client, the two versions of the video stream having one or more of different encodings, different frame sizes, different color depths, and different frame rates.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the input/output device is configured for communicating the at least two versions of the video stream to different internet protocol (IP) addresses.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the IP addresses is an IP address of a social networking site.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein part of the client qualifier is configured to execute on the client.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the client qualifier is configured to determine which of a plurality of alternative video streams the client is qualified to receive.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the client qualifier is configured to determine from which of a plurality of alternative video games the client is qualified to receive the video stream.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the lower level of functionality corresponds to a display of an image of the advertisement with the advertisement being non-responsive to a user selection of the advertisement.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the higher level of functionality corresponds to a display of an image of the advertisement with the advertisement being responsive to a user selection of the advertisement by accessing a universal resource locator (URL).

19. A method for qualifying a client to receive streaming video, comprising:

receiving a request for an advertisement from the client;

providing the advertisement to the client, the advertisement having multiple levels of available functionality, the advertisement having a lower level of functionality enabled when the advertisement is provided to the client for display at the client, the advertisement configured to have a higher level of functionality enabled upon determination that the client is qualified to receive streaming video, wherein the advertisement includes logic configured to change the level of the functionality of the advertisement in response to determining that the client is qualified to receive the streaming video;

determining that the client is qualified to receive streaming video, after providing the advertisement to the client; and

upon determining that the client is qualified to receive the streaming video, changing the level of functionality of the advertisement on the client to the higher level of functionality without changing the appearance of an entirety of the advertisement.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving a communication indicating selection of the advertisement at the client; and

providing the streaming video to the client in response to the selection of the advertisement.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the level of functionality of the advertisement is changed by changing an internet link configured to be processed when the advertisement is selected at the client.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the request includes referral information configured to be included in the advertisement.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the level of functionality of the advertisement is changed while the advertisement is displayed on the client.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the appearance of the advertisement as displayed on the client is not changed when the level of functionality of the advertisement is changed.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein determining that the client is qualified to receive streaming video includes determining that the client is qualified to receive one of a plurality of alternative video streams characterized by different bandwidth requirements.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the lower level of functionality corresponds to a display of an image of the advertisement with the advertisement being non-responsive to a user selection of the advertisement.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the higher level of functionality corresponds to a display of an image of the advertisement with the advertisement being responsive to a user selection of the advertisement by accessing a universal resource locator (URL).