Commercials on mobile devices

• US 10,616,546 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2018
• Issued: 04/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Penthera Partners, Inc
• Original Assignee: Penthera Partners, Inc
• Inventors: Berger, Adam L., Pressnell, Joshua, Jackson, Richard David
• Primary Examiner(s): Chevalier, Robert
• Application Number:
  US15/963,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20180241981A1
• Time in Patent Office: 712 Days
• Field of Search: 386248, 386249, 386250, 386251, 386296
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/10 Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Measuring tape travel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/92 Transformation of the television signal for recording, e.g. modulation, frequency changing; Inverse transformation for playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/93 Regeneration of the television signal or of selected parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

Among other things, videos and commercials are downloaded to a mobile device for storage on the mobile device and later playout on the mobile device. The downloading includes downloading of metadata associated with the commercials and based on which the mobile device can select commercials for insertion into videos being played back to the user of the mobile device. The commercials to be downloaded are selected based on one or a combination of any two or more of the location of the user, the type of mobile device, and personally-identifiable information about a user of the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method comprising

at a mobile device downloading and storing a video that includes a point for a commercial at the beginning, during, or at the end of the video and downloading one or more promotions or public service announcements and metadata associated with each promotion or public service announcement,

the metadata associated with at least one promotion or public service announcement comprising information representing a lack of one or more of (a) an expiry, (b) times when the promotion or public service announcement may be presented, or (c) restrictions on videos into which the promotion or public service announcement may be inserted,

based on the metadata, the mobile device selecting one of the stored promotions or public-service announcements to be presented in the video at the point for the commercial.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising

at a time when a mobile device would have performed a tracking beacon with respect to a presentation of the promotion or a public service announcement, the presentation having been made when the mobile device was offline:

an app recording on the mobile device one or more of the following;

(A) a network address to which a communication would have been made to perform the tracking beacon, (B) a timestamp for the tracking beacon, and (C) an identification of the promotional or public service announcement.

3. The method of claim 2 comprising at a time when the mobile device is again online, sending a communication to the network address and performing the tracking beacon.

4. The method of claim 3 in which the time between when the communication is sent and the time when the tracking beacon would have been performed is at least one hour.

5. The method of claim 2 in which the timestamp represents a time when the tracking beacon would have been performed had the mobile device then been online.

6. The method of claim 3 in which performing the tracking beacon causes a server to record the presentation of the promotion or public service announcement.

7. The method of claim 2 in which the network address comprises URL.

8. The method of claim 2 in which the app records one or more of the location of the mobile device during presentation of the promotion or public service announcement and the duration of the promotion or public service announcement.

9. The method of claim 3 in which the communication to the network address is performed automatically when the mobile device is again online.

10. The method of claim 3 in which the communication is made to a proxy server operating on behalf of the server.

11. The method of claim 2 in which the app records on the mobile device one or more of the following:

(A) a URL of a server to which a communication would have been made to perform the tracking beacon, (B) a timestamp for the tracking beacon, the time stamp representing a time when the tracking beacon would have been performed had the device then been online, and (C) an identification of the promotional commercial, (D) the location of the mobile device during presentation of the promotional commercial, and (E) the duration of the promotional.

12. The method of claim 1 comprising making at least one of the stored promotions or public service announcements accessible through an API to another application running on the mobile device.

13. The method of claim 12 in which the other application comprises a phone-dialing application that presents a stored promotion or public service announcement while the user is waiting for the call to go through.

14. The method of claim 12 in which the other application runs automatically when the mobile device is booted up, and the application presents a stored promotion or public service announcement during the booting up.

15. The method of claim 12 in which the other application comprises a game application, and the application presents a stored promotion or public service announcement before allowing the user to play the game.

16. The method of claim 12 in which the other application comprises a video-playing application that presents a list of videos for selection by the user, and the application presents a stored promotion or public service announcement at a time before, during, or after playing the video selected by the user.

17. The method of claim 1 comprising downloading more than one video and interleaving the downloading of at least two of the videos with the downloading of at least two of the promotions or public service announcements.

18. The method of claim 1 in which the downloading of the promotion or public service announcement comprises downloading a lower-quality version of a promotion or public service announcement and subsequently downloading a higher-quality version of the promotion or public service announcement.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the video is downloaded over a WAN from a first server, and said promotions or public service announcements and metadata associated with each promotion or public service announcement are downloaded over a WAN from a second server, wherein said first server is distinct from said second server.

20. The method of claim 1, comprising:

in response to receiving a user input, determining whether a remote auxiliary content server is presently accessible by said wireless device over a WAN; and

if said remote auxiliary content server is determined to be presently accessible by said wireless device over a WAN, downloading one or more auxiliary files from said remote auxiliary content server containing commercial content and storing said files in non-volatile memory of said device.

21. The method of claim 20, comprising:

if said remote auxiliary content server is determined not to be presently accessible, retrieving one or more of said stored promotions or public-service announcements for playback.

22. The method of claim 1, comprising playing back said selected stored promotion or public-service announcement in conjunction with playing back said video.

23. The method of claim 1, comprising causing the wireless device to request refreshed promotions or public service announcements from an auxiliary content server based on a predetermined schedule at times when said auxiliary content server is accessible by said wireless device over a WAN.

24. The method of claim 1, comprising causing the wireless device, in response to a user input, to request refreshed promotions or public service announcements from an auxiliary content server if said auxiliary content server is accessible by said wireless device over a WAN.

25. The method of claim 1, comprising determining whether a remote auxiliary content server is presently accessible by said wireless device over a WAN;

and

if said remote auxiliary content server is determined to be presently accessible by said wireless device over a WAN, downloading one or more auxiliary files from said remote auxiliary content server containing commercial content and storing said files in non-volatile memory of said device.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein said downloading one or more promotions or public service announcements and metadata associated with each promotion or public service announcement comprises causing said wireless device to receive a push notification from a server over a WAN.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein said downloading one or more promotions or public service announcements and metadata associated with each promotion or public service announcement comprises causing said wireless device to receive said promotions or public service announcements after the passage of a period of time determined from a prior receipt by said mobile device of promotions or public service announcements.

28. The method of claim 1 comprising, after playing back said selected one of the stored promotions or public service announcements, creating an impression record reflecting said playing back of said selected one of the stored promotions or public service announcements on said wireless device;

and transmitting contents of said impression record to an impression record receiving server.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein said impression record contains timestamp information indicating a time that said selected one of the stored promotions or public service announcements was played back.

30. The method of claim 28, comprising storing said impression record in a non-volatile memory of said mobile device and, if said impression record receiving server is not accessible from said wireless device over a WAN, transmit said stored impression record to the impression record receiving server at a later time when said impression record receiving server is accessible from said wireless device over a WAN.

31. The method of claim 28, comprising transmitting said impression record to said impression record receiving server immediately after it is created if said impression record receiving server is accessible from said wireless device over a WAN at that time.