Management of ancillary content delivery and presentation

• US 10,298,703 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2016
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Capati, Allister, Huang, Ennin
• Primary Examiner(s): Brown, Anthony D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Michael D
• Application Number:
  US15/333,932
• Publication Number:
  US 20170208145A1
• Time in Patent Office: 938 Days
• Field of Search: 726 4
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/73 Authorising game programs or game devices, e.g. checking authenticity
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/75 Enforcing rules, e.g. detecting foul play or generating lists of cheating players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/535 for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• 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 2300/5573 player location
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5586 for enforcing rights or rules, e.g. to prevent foul play
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2109 Game systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 : Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 : Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2143 : Clearing memory, e.g. to prevent the data from being stolen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 : Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 : Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 : Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 : for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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 67/303 : Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 : using third party service providers
• 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 67/56 : Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address delivery of content, including advertising, in an online or networked digital environment. Undesirable content or content that needs to be removed from the digital environment may be eliminated through invocation of a ‘kill switch’ that terminates further delivery of the aforementioned content. The ‘kill switch’ may also eliminate certain instantiations of that content already delivered to end-user client devices. In order to lessen the need for termination of content following delivery to the digital environment, content developers and content providers may view content scheduled for delivery in digital environment ‘mock ups’ prior to actual delivery. Content developers and content providers, too, may control certain attributes related to content scheduled for delivery to further obviate post-delivery termination or modification.

Claims

1. A method for statistical tracking of end-user devices, the method comprising:

delivering digital content over a communication network to an end-user device, wherein the digital content is associated with a set of predetermined variables;

tracking information received from the end-user device regarding activity related to the set of predetermined variables associated with the digital content at the end-user device, wherein the tracking is based on the set of predetermined variables;

receiving a variable update that modifies at least one variable in the set of predetermined variables, the variable update received after delivery of the digital content to the end-user device;

generating provisioning instructions for the end-user device based on the variable update, the provisioning instructions executable by the end-user device to modify a functionality of the digital content in accordance with the at least one modified variable;

sending the provisioning instructions over the communication network to the end-user device, wherein the end-user device is provisioned in accordance with the provisioning instructions; and

updating tracking information associated with the end-user device based on the modified functionality of the digital content at the end-user device in accordance with the provisioning instructions.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a library of available variables in memory, wherein the set of predetermined variables is selected from the stored library of available variables.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising associating the digital content with the set of predetermined variables that are selected from the stored library of available variables.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the set of predetermined variables associated with the digital content based on the variable update, wherein subsequent deliveries of the digital content is associated with the updated set of predetermined variables.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the variable update includes at least one of a new variable, removal of one of the predetermined variables, and update to a routine associated with one of the predetermined variables.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning instructions are sent as part of a schedule communication with the end-user device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning instructions are sent to the end-user device when the end-user device is connected to the communication network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the tracking information comprises terminating delivery of tracking information regarding the end-user device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the tracking information comprises associating the end-user device with a different classification associated with a different set of tracking parameters.

10. A system for statistical tracking of end-user devices, the system comprising:

at least one content server that delivers digital content over a communication network to an end-user device, wherein the digital content is associated with a set of predetermined variables;

a reporting server that receives tracking information from the end-user device regarding activity related to the set of predetermined variables associated with the digital content at the end-user device, wherein the tracking is based on the set of predetermined variables; and

a mediation server that;

receives a variable update that modifies at least one variable in the set of predetermined variables, the variable update received after delivery of the digital content to the end-user device,

generates provisioning instructions for the end-user device based on the variable update, the provisioning instructions executable by the end-user device to modify a functionality of the digital content in accordance with the at least one modified variable,

sends the provisioning instructions over the communication network to the end-user device, wherein the end-user device is provisioned in accordance with the provisioning instructions, and

updates tracking information associated with the end-user device based on the modified functionality of the digital content at the end-user device in accordance with the provisioning instructions.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the mediation server further stores a library of available variables in memory, wherein the set of predetermined variables are selected from the stored library of available variables.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the mediation server further associates the digital content with the set of predetermined variables that are selected from the stored library of available variables.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the mediation server further updates the set of predetermined variables associated with the digital content based on the variable update, wherein subsequent deliveries of the digital content is associated with the updated set of predetermined variables.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the variable update includes at least one of a new variable, removal of one of the predetermined variables, and update to a routine associated with one of the predetermined variables.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the provisioning instructions are sent as part of a schedule communication with the end-user device.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the provisioning instructions are sent to the end-user device when the end-user device is connected to the communication network.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the mediation server updates the tracking information so as to terminate delivery of tracking information regarding the end-user device.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the mediation server updates the tracking information by associating the end-user device with a different classification associated with a different set of tracking parameters.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for statistical tracking of end-user devices, the method comprising:

delivering digital content over a communication network to an end-user device, wherein the digital content is associated with a set of predetermined variables;

tracking information received from the end-user device regarding activity related to the set of predetermined variables associated with the digital content at the end-user device, wherein the tracking is based on the set of predetermined variables;

receiving a variable update that modifies at least one variable in the set of predetermined variables, the variable update received after delivery of the digital content to the end-user device;

generating provisioning instructions for the end-user device based on the variable update, the provisioning instructions executable to modify a functionality of the digital content in accordance with the at least one modified variable;

sending the provisioning instructions over the communication network to the end-user device, wherein the end-user device is provisioned in accordance with the provisioning instructions; and

updating tracking information associated with the end-user device based on the digital content at the end-user device in accordance with the provisioning instructions.