Template based system, device and method for providing interactive content

• US 10,165,330 B2
• Filed: 09/21/2015
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Your Choice Interactive, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Your Choice Interactive, Inc.
• Inventors: Pino, Jr., Angelo J., Sattar, Mohammed, Redling, Peter M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bantamoi, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US14/859,903
• Publication Number:
  US 20160014462A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,191 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4784 receiving rewards
• 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 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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 21/8545 for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method and system for providing television programming content and interactive data services is provided. In one embodiment, the interactive content is displayed on the television concurrently with television programming content and facilitates game play between viewers. The game may be scored for each viewer based on selection data from the viewer and event data that is determined by events occurring in the television programming content. In addition, the interactive content may present a message that conveys an incentive to the viewer to take some action such as actuating a button when a particular commercial is presented thereby allowing the service provider and advertisers to determine how many, and which, viewers watched a particular commercial. In addition, the interactive content (including the incentives) can be presented to viewers when the programming content is stored on a digital video recorder and subsequently presented thereby presenting incentives to viewers to watch commercials that were recorded as part of the television programming content.

Claims

1. A method of providing television programming content and interactive data services via a plurality of communication devices disposed in a plurality of customer premises and wherein each communication device is configured to cause a display device to display television programming content and interactive content to a participant in a contest, comprising:

providing interactive content and programming content from a server having a memory to each of the plurality of communication devices connected to the server for presentation to the participants in the contest, wherein at least one of the plurality of communication devices is a mobile telephone and at least one of the plurality of communication devices is a set top box, wherein the interactive content includes visual content facilitating the contest and is configured to be displayed, at least in some instances, concurrently with the programming content, wherein the participants in the contest are each accorded a score in the contest that is dependent on one or more events that occur in the programming content to facilitate play of the contest between the participants;

providing a commercial from the server to each of the plurality of communication devices for presentation of the commercial to the participants;

receiving selection data by the server that comprises data of one or more selections of contest play from each of a plurality of the participants participating in the contest;

storing selection data of each of the plurality of participants in the memory in association with the participant;

receiving event data from the server that comprises data of one or more events having occurred in the programming content;

for each participant of the plurality of participants, the server determining a score data comprising a number of points based on the selection data by the participant and the received event data;

for each of the participants of the plurality of participants, the server providing that participant'"'"'s score data to the communication device of the participant for presentation to the participant as part of the interactive content;

providing a message to the plurality of communication devices from the server for presentation as part of the interactive content to the participants, wherein the message conveys an incentive comprising bonus points to take a first action during when the commercial is presented;

receiving incentive data from the plurality of communication devices by the server, wherein the incentive data provides an indication that the participant associated with the communication device performed the first action;

transmitting a notification to the plurality of communication devices from the server, wherein the notification comprises information for display to the participant that the incentive is awarded;

determining by the server a number of the participants that watched the commercial based on the number of incentives awarded;

determining by the server a winner based on the total number of the points and the bonus points; and

providing an advertiser with an indication of the number of the participants that watched the commercial.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the contest comprises a fantasy sports game.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein television programming content comprises a sporting event.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interactive content is displayed on the display in the form of a ticker.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interactive content is displayed on the display in form of an alert.

6. A method of providing television programming content and interactive data services via a plurality of communication devices disposed in a plurality of customer premises and wherein each communication device is configured to cause a display device to display television programming content and interactive content to a participant in a contest, comprising:

providing interactive content and programming content from a server having a memory to each of the plurality of communication devices connected to the server for presentation to the participants in the contest, wherein at least one of the plurality of communication devices is a mobile telephone and at least one of the plurality of communication devices is a set top box, wherein the interactive content includes visual content facilitating the contest and is configured to be displayed, at least in some instances, concurrently with the programming content, wherein the participants in the contest are accorded a score in the contest that is dependent on one or more events that occur in the programming content;

providing a commercial to each of the plurality of communication devices from the server for presentation of the commercial to the participants;

receiving selection data by the server that comprises data of one or more selections of contest play from each of a plurality of participants participating in the contest;

storing selection data of each of the plurality of participants in the memory in association with the participant;

receiving event data from the server that comprises data of one or more events having occurred in the programming content;

for each of the participants, determining by the server a score data comprising a number of points based on the selection data by the participant and the received event data;

for each of the participants of the plurality of participants, providing from the server the participant'"'"'s score data to the communication device of that participant for presentation to the participant as part of the interactive content;

providing from the server a message to the plurality of communication devices for presentation as part of the interactive content to the participants, wherein the message conveys an incentive comprising bonus points to take a first action during when the commercial is presented;

receiving incentive data from the plurality of communication devices from the server, wherein the incentive data provides an indication that the participant associated with the communication device performed the first action;

transmitting from the server a notification to the plurality of communication devices, wherein the notification comprises information for display to the participant that the incentive is awarded;

determining by the server a number of the participants that watched the commercial based on the number of incentives awarded;

determining by the servers a winner based on the total number of the points and the bonus points; and

providing an advertiser with an indication of the number of the participants that watched the commercial, wherein the contest is a fantasy sports game and the television content is a sporting event.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the interactive content is displayed on the display in the form of a ticker.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the interactive content is displayed on the display in form of an alert.