Advertisement distribution system

• US 9,838,752 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Square Enix
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Square Enix
• Inventors: Aoyama, Koji
• Primary Examiner(s): VAN BRAMER, JOHN W
• Application Number:
  US10/952,776
• Publication Number:
  US 20050114526A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,814 Days
• Field of Search: 705 14, 705 1458, 705 1449, 463 40, 463 41, 463 42, 463 43, 709228
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/402 Communication between platforms, i.e. physical link to protocol
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/50 characterized by details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5546 using player registration data, e.g. identification, account, preferences, game history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

Effective advertisements are provided to users of a network. On a terminal of a user B, user names of users whom the user B registered in advance as friends are displayed. On the terminal, information indicating whether respective friend users are online or offline, is also displayed. Icons representing video games, etc., played by the friend users are also displayed on the terminal. When the user B clicks the icon of the Game C associated with the user A, the terminal executes advertisement information display processing. By this processing, an advertisement information screen is displayed on the terminal. On the advertisement information screen, an advertisement relating to the status of the user A registered as the friend is displayed.

Claims

1. An advertisement distributing system having a server computer and a plurality of terminals connected to the server computer via a network, wherein:

a first terminal comprises;

a first receiver that receives evaluation information from a first user that executes a video game and that exists in an amusement facility, the evaluation information including a comment of the first user on the video game and the amusement facility;

a terminal detector that generates status information of the first user using the video game, the status information including a name of the video game that the first user executes and a name of the amusement facility;

a first transmitter that transmits the status information generated by the terminal detector and the evaluation information received by the receiver,

the server computer comprises;

a user relationship storage including the status information of the first user, the evaluation information of the video game and the amusement facility, and associated information of a second user in association with the first user;

an advertisement information storage including advertisement information that corresponds to the name of the video game and the amusement facility;

a second receiver that receives the status information of the first user and the evaluation information of the video game and the amusement facility from the first terminal;

a first detector that detects, in the advertisement information storage, the advertisement information corresponding to the name of the video game and the amusement facility included in the received status information of the first user;

a second detector that detects, in the user relationship storage, the evaluation information corresponding to the advertisement information that the first detector detects; and

a second transmitter that transmits the detected advertisement information, the detected evaluation information, and the status information of the first user to a second terminal of the second user based on the association information included in the user relationship storage,

the second terminal of the second user comprises;

a third receiver that receives the status information, the advertisement information, and the evaluation information from the server computer;

an advertisement execution information storage including executed advertisement information that has been executed by the second terminal; and

a displayer that displays the status information of the first user on the second terminal of the second user, the advertisement information and the evaluation information being associated with the status information when the advertisement information is not stored as the executed advertisement information in the advertisement execution information storage, and displays the advertisement information and the evaluation information when the advertisement information and the evaluation information are associated with the status information and when the status information that is displayed on the second terminal is selected by the second user of the second terminal, and

wherein the amusement facility is a physical location.

2. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 1,

wherein the second transmitter transmits the status information of the first user together with the advertisement information,

the third receiver receives the status information of the first user together with the advertisement information, and

the displayer displays the advertisement information together with the status information of the first user.

3. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 2,

wherein the first transmitter further transmits designation information designating the associated second user,

the second receiver further receives the designation information, and

the user relationship storage includes the information of the first user in association with the second user based upon the designation information.

4. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 1,

wherein the user relationship storage includes the information of the first user in association with a plurality of second users, and

the second transmitter transmits to a terminal of each of the plurality of second users included in the user relationship storage and associated with the first terminal.

5. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 2,

wherein the status information of the first user comprises a connection status of the first terminal of the first user.

6. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 2,

wherein the terminal detector detects an execution status of the video game executed by the first terminal of the first user

as the status information of the first user.

7. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the user relationship storage further includes evaluation information of the status information of the first user.

8. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 2,

wherein the advertisement information storage includes a plurality of pieces of the advertisement information together with a priority for each of the plurality of pieces of the advertisement information, and

the second transmitter transmits the advertisement information so that the plurality of pieces of the advertisement information are displayed on the second terminal in an order based on the priority of each of the plurality of pieces of the advertisement information.

9. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 2,

wherein the first terminal further comprises a designator that designates the status of the first user, and

the first transmitter transmits the status of the first user as designated by the designator.

10. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 9,

wherein the second receiver receives the designated status of the first user from the first transmitter,

the second transmitter transmits the designated status of the first user,

the third receiver receives the designated status of the first user,

the displayer displays the designated status received by the third receiver, and

the second terminal of the second user further comprises a selector that selects any one of the statuses of the first user displayed by the displayer.

11. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 1,

wherein the terminal detector detects at least one of a start and an end of the video game executed by the first terminal

as the status information of the first user.

12. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 1,

wherein the server computer further comprises a processor that executes a user authentication process for authenticating the second user of the second terminal, and that registers a user connection address of the second terminal in the user relationship storage, and

the second transmitter transmits the detected advertisement information, the detected evaluation information, and the status information of the first user to the second terminal of the second user based on the user connection address during an authenticated user session of the second user of the second terminal.

13. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 1,

wherein the advertisement information storage includes the advertisement information together with age limit information of the advertisement information, and

the first detector of the server computer further detects the advertisement information based upon the age limit information.

14. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 1, wherein the server computer further comprises a counter that counts at least one of a number of times the server computer receives the information indicating the status of the first user and a number of times the server computer transmits the advertisement information.

15. An advertisement distributing server computer used in an advertisement distributing system, the server computer being connected to a first terminal and a second terminal via a network, comprising:

a user relationship storage including evaluation information received from a first user that executes a video game and that exists in an amusement facility, status information of the first user generated by the first terminal using the video game, and association information of a second user associated with the first user, the evaluation information including a comment of the first user on the video game and the amusement facility, the status information including a name of the video game that the first user executes and a name of the amusement facility;

an advertisement information storage including advertisement information that corresponds to the name of the video game and the amusement facility included in the status information of the first user;

a receiver that receives the status information of the first user and the evaluation information of the video game and the amusement facility from the first terminal;

a first detector that detects, in the advertisement information storage, the advertisement information corresponding to the name of the video game and the amusement facility included in the received status information of the first user;

a second detector that detects, in the user relationship storage, the evaluation information corresponding to the advertisement information that the first detector detects; and

a transmitter that transmits the detected advertisement information, the detected evaluation information, and the status information of the first user to the second terminal of the second user based on the association information included in the user relationship storage,

wherein the status information is displayed on the second terminal of the second user, the advertisement information and the evaluation information are associated with the displayed status information when the second terminal has not executed the advertisement information, and the advertisement information and the evaluation information are displayed on the second terminal of the second user when the advertisement information and the evaluation information are associated with the status information and when the status information that is displayed on the second terminal is selected by the second user of the second terminal, and

the amusement facility is a physical location.

16. The advertisement distributing server computer according to claim 15, wherein the transmitter transmits the status information of the first user together with the advertisement information.

17. The advertisement distributing server computer according to claim 16,

wherein the receiver further receives designation information designating the second user to be associated with the first user from the first terminal, and

the user relationship storage includes the information of the first user in association with the second user based upon the designation information.

18. The advertisement distributing server computer according to claim 15,

wherein the user relationship storage includes the association information of the first user in association with a plurality of second users, and

the transmitter transmits to a terminal of each of the plurality of second users included in the user relationship storage and associated with the first terminal.

19. The advertisement distributing server computer according to claim 16, wherein the status information of the first user comprises a connection status of the first terminal of the first user.

20. The advertisement distributing server computer according to claim 16, wherein the user relationship storage further includes evaluation information of the status of the first user.

21. The advertisement distributing server computer according to claim 16,

wherein the advertisement information storage includes a plurality of pieces of the advertisement information together with a priority for each of the plurality of pieces of the advertisement information, and

the transmitter transmits the advertisement information so that the plurality of pieces of the advertisement information are displayed on the second terminal in an order of the priority.

22. The advertisement distribution server computer according to claim 15, further comprising:

a processor that executes a user authentication process for authenticating the second user of the second terminal, and that registers a user connection address of the second terminal in the user relationship storage,

wherein the transmitter transmits the detected advertisement information, the detected evaluation information, and the status information of the first user to the second terminal of the second user based on the user connection address during an authenticated user session of the second user of the second terminal.

23. The advertisement distribution server computer according to claim 15,

wherein the advertisement information storage includes the advertisement information together with age limit information of the advertisement information, and

the first detector further detects the advertisement information based upon the age limit information.

24. The advertisement distribution server computer according to claim 15, further comprising a counter that counts at least one of a number of times the server computer receives the status information of the first user and a number of times the server computer transmits the advertisement information.

25. A non-transitory recording medium on which a program is recorded, the program being executed by a computer of a server in an advertisement distributing system, the server being connected to a first terminal and a second terminal via a network, the program causing the computer to execute:

storing, in a user relationship storage, evaluation information received from a first user that executes a video game and that exists in an amusement facility, status information of the first user generated by the first terminal using the video game and association information of a second user associated with the first user, the evaluation information including a comment of the first user on the video game and the amusement facility, the status information including a name of the video game that the first user executes and a name of the amusement facility;

storing, in an advertisement information storage, advertisement information that corresponds to the name of the video game and the amusement facility included in the status information of the first user;

receiving the status information of the first user and the evaluation information of the video game and the amusement facility from the first terminal;

detecting, in the advertisement information storage, the advertisement information corresponding to the name of the video game and the amusement facility included in the received status information of the first user,

detecting, in the user relationship storage, the evaluation information corresponding to the detected advertisement information; and

transmitting the detected advertisement information, the detected evaluation information, and the status information of the first user to the second terminal of the second user based on the associated information stored in the user relationship storage,

wherein the status information is displayed on the second terminal of the second user, the advertisement information and the evaluation information are associated with the displayed status information when the second terminal has not executed the advertisement information, and the advertisement information and the evaluation information are displayed on the second terminal of the second user when the advertisement information and the evaluation information are associated with the status information and when the status information that is displayed on the second terminal is selected by the second user of the second terminal, and

the amusement facility is a physical location.

26. The recording medium according to claim 25, wherein the detected advertisement information is transmitted with the status information of the first user.

27. The recording medium according to claim 26, wherein the program further causes the computer to execute:

receiving designation information designating the second user to be associated with the first user of the first terminal from the first user, and

the user relationship storage stores the information of the first user in association with the second user based upon the designation information.

28. The recording medium according to claim 26, wherein the status information of the first user comprises a connection status of the first terminal of the first user.

29. The recording medium according to claim 25, wherein the user relationship storage further stores evaluation information of the status of the first user.

30. The recording medium according to claim 26,

wherein the advertisement information storage stores a plurality of pieces of the advertisement information together with a priority for each of the plurality of pieces of the advertisement information, and

the advertisement information is transmitted so that the plurality of pieces of the advertisement information are displayed on the second terminal in an order based on the priority of each of the plurality of pieces of the advertisement information.

31. The recording medium according to claim 25,

wherein the advertisement information storage stores the advertisement information together with expiration date information, and

the advertisement information is further detected based upon the expiration date information.

32. The recording medium according to claim 25, the program further causing the computer to execute:

user authentication processing, by a processor, for authenticating the second user of the second terminal; and

registering, by the processor, a user connection address of the second terminal in the user relationship storage,

wherein the detected advertisement information, the detected evaluation information, and the status information of the first user is transmitted to the second terminal of the second user based on the user connection address during an authenticated user session of the second user of the second terminal.