Interactive television program guide system for determining user values for demographic categories

• US 9,635,406 B2
• Filed: 03/10/2015
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Knee, Robert A., Reynolds, Steven J., Ellis, Michael D., Hassell, Joel G.
• Primary Examiner(s): MENGESHA, MULUGETA A
• Application Number:
  US14/643,852
• Publication Number:
  US 20150222943A1
• Time in Patent Office: 777 Days
• Field of Search: 725 32, 725 34- 35
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4662 characterized by learning algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

An interactive television program guide system for determining user input values for demographic categories is provided. The system includes user television equipment having a receiver for receiving program guide information for the interactive television program guide, a user input receiver for receiving user input from user interface, such as a remote control, a microprocessor which utilizes the user input received to determine user values for demographic categories, and memory for storing the user values determined. In one illustrative use of the system for targeting advertisements to a user of the interactive television program guide, the receiver also receives advertisements, where the advertisements have preselected values for specified demographic categories. The user television equipment, preferably using microprocessor, compares the preselected values for the specified demographic categories associated with the advertisements with values of corresponding demographic categories stored in memory to determine which advertisements should be displayed. Those advertisements determined to be displayable based upon the comparison are then displayed.

Claims

1. A method for targeting advertisements to a user of an interactive system, the method comprising:

receiving a user input associated with a video program at a first time period, wherein the video program is associated with a demographic characteristic;

determining whether the received user input is a first or a second type of function of a plurality of different types of functions of the interactive system, wherein;

each of the plurality of different types of functions performs a different type of function of the interactive system with respect to the video program and each of the plurality of different types of functions is associated with a weight value quantifying the user'"'"'s affiliation with the demographic characteristic associated with the video program,

a first weight value of the first type of function is larger than a second weight value of the second type of function indicating that the first type of function indicates a stronger user affiliation with the demographic characteristic associated with the video program than the second type of function, and

a memory stores a first association between the first weight value and the first type of function and a second association between the second weight value and the second type of function;

in response to determining that the received user input is the first type of function, retrieving, from the memory, based on the first association, the first weight value associated with the first type of function;

calculating, using a processor, a user demographic modification value, based on the retrieved first weight value by weighting the demographic characteristic associated with the video program by the first weight value;

modifying a user demographic value based on the user demographic modification value;

storing the user demographic value at the interactive system;

comparing the user demographic value to a plurality of demographic criteria associated with a plurality of advertisements to identify an advertisement associated with a demographic value that corresponds to the user demographic value; and

selecting the identified advertisement of the plurality of advertisements based on the comparing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user demographic value is a default value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input requests activation of the first type of function of the interactive system for the video program.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user demographic value is modified if a required number of user inputs requesting the first type of function of the interactive system are received.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user demographic value is set to a default user demographic value if a required number of user inputs requesting the first type of function of the interactive system are not received.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user demographic value is adjusted toward a predetermined user demographic value after a predetermined amount of time wherein the user demographic value is not modified.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the user demographic value is adjusted based on a decay function.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user demographic value is associated with at least one demographic category.

9. An interactive system for targeting advertisements to a user of the interactive system, the interactive system comprising:

a user input receiver configured to receive a user input associated with a video program at a first time period, wherein the video program is associated with a demographic characteristic; and

a processor, wherein the processor is configured to;

determine whether the received user input is a first or a second type of function of a plurality of different types of functions of the interactive system, wherein;

each of the plurality of different types of functions performs a different type of function of the interactive system with respect to the video program and each of the plurality of different types of functions is associated with a weight value quantifying the user'"'"'s affiliation with the demographic characteristic associated with the video program,

a first weight value of the first type of function is larger than a second weight value of the second type of function indicating that the first type of function indicates a stronger user affiliation with the demographic characteristic associated with the video program than the second type of function, and

a memory stores a first association between the first weight value and the first type of function and a second association between the second weight value and the second type of function;

in response to determining that the received user input is the first type of function, retrieve, from the memory, based on the first association, the first weight value association with the first type of function;

calculate a user demographic modification value, based on the retrieved first weight value by weighting the demographic characteristic associated with the video program by the first weight value;

modify a user demographic value based on the user demographic modification value;

store the user demographic value at the interactive system;

compare the user demographic value to a plurality of demographic criteria associated with a plurality of advertisements to identify an advertisement associated with a demographic value that corresponds to the user demographic value; and

select the identified advertisement of the plurality of advertisements based on the comparing.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the user demographic value is a default value.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the user input requests activation of the first type of function of the interactive system for the video program.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the user demographic value is modified if a required number of user inputs requesting the first type of function of the interactive system are received.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the user demographic value is set to a default user demographic value if a required number of user inputs requesting the first type of function of the interactive system are not received.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the user demographic value is adjusted toward a predetermined user demographic value after a predetermined amount of time wherein the user demographic value is not modified.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the user demographic value is adjusted based on a decay function.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the user demographic value is associated with at least one demographic category.