Television

• US 20010021994A1
• Filed: 03/07/2001
• Published: 09/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Nash, Jason M.
• Application Number:
  US09/801,067
• Publication Number:
  US 20010021994A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/106 Receiver-side switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/45 for identifying users
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/441 Acquiring end-user identification , e.g. using personal code sent by the remote control or by inserting a card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44226 on social networks
• 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 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/60 for the sound signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 : by receiver means only
• 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

Abstract

A television system which enables advertisements to be targeted at viewers who have a particular interest in the products or services being promoted by the advertisement comprises reviews from a plurality of reviewers (101-1 to 101-n) commissioned by the advertiser (100) and alternatively or additionally by independent reviewers (103-1 to 103-n). These reviews are encoded into a data channel associated with the advertisement. A product rating decoder (106) is provided in a receiver (105) which decodes the data in the data channel and selects advertisements for display based on the data and a user profile generated either explicitly by the user entering preferences via a user interface (109) or implicitly by monitoring the type of programme selected for viewing by the user.

Claims

1. A television system comprising television transmission apparatus, a television transmission medium, and one or more television receiving devices, wherein the television transmission apparatus includes means for transmitting video, audio, and data signals, said data signals comprising data representing television advertisement information concerning advertisements which are to be transmitted, and said television receiving device(s) comprising a data decoder for decoding said transmitted data, a memory for storing at least some of the data received by said receiving device(s), and a processor arranged to examine the stored data to determine advertisements which may be of interest to a viewer based on information entered by the viewer and/or information derived from monitoring the viewing habits of the viewer, wherein the data signals include data provided by a plurality of reviewers representing individual ratings of advertisements or the products or services promoted by said advertisements to be transmitted and the processor is arranged to select or suggest advertisements for viewing by taking into account the ratings of one or more of the reviewers.

2. Television transmission apparatus comprising means for entering individual ratings from a plurality of critics into a database for at least some of the advertisements or the products or services promoted by said advertisements to be transmitted by that or other television transmission apparatus and receivable by one or more receiving device(s), means for encoding the ratings for transmission with other data associated with the programmes, and means for transmitting the data.

3. Television transmission apparatus as claimed in

claim 2

in which the data is multiplexed with one or more of the television programmes being transmitted by the transmission apparatus.

4. Television transmission apparatus as claimed in

claim 2

in which the data is transmitted on a separate channel dedicated to data transmission.

5. A television receiving device for receiving television programmes and data signals transmitted by television transmitting apparatus, said receiving device comprising a data decoder for decoding said transmitted data, a memory for storing at least some of the data decoded by said data decoder, and a processor arranged to select and/or suggest advertisements for a viewer to receive, said selection and/or suggestion being based on information entered by a user and/or derived from monitoring the viewing habits of the user, in which the data signals include data representing the individual ratings of a particular advertisement or particular products or services promoted by the advertisements by a plurality of reviewers and that said selection is further based on the rating accorded by one or more of the reviewers.

6. A television receiving device as claimed in

claim 5

in which a separate user profile is stored for each user so that when a particular user is identified suitable advertisements are selected and/or suggested.

7. A television receiving device as claimed in

claim 5

or

claim 6

in which a remote control device is provided to enable the user to select programmes and other functions of the receiver, wherein the remote control device is arranged to transmit an identification signal to the receiving device specific to the user and the receiving device includes means for receiving the identifying signal and determining the identity of the user.

8. A television receiving device as claimed in

claim 7

in which the remote control device includes means for transmitting one of a plurality of identification signals, the particular identification signal transmitted depending on the person currently using the remote control device.

9. A television receiving device as claimed in

claim 5

or

claim 6

in which a plurality of remote control devices are provided, each of which is arranged to transmit a different identification signal and each of which is identifiable to the users to enable each user to use a particular one of the remote control devices.

10. A television receiving device as claimed in any of

claims 5

to

9

for receiving data signals transmitted on a different channel from television programmes comprising first channel selection means for selecting a programme channel and second channel selection means for selecting a data channel.

11. A television receiving device as claimed in any of

claims 5

to

10

which comprises a set top box.

12. A television receiving device as claimed in any of

claims 5

to

10

which comprises a video recorder.

13. A method of selecting television advertisements for viewing and/or recording comprising the steps of:

i) receiving data representing advertisements to be transmitted, said data indicating at least the date, and time of transmission of the advertisement and the advertisement type;

ii) receiving data representing a rating given to programmes by an individual and/or an organisation;

iii) storing at least some of the data;

iv) entering and/or generating and storing a user profile indicating the type of advertisement of interest to the user; and

v) selecting a programme for viewing and/or recording using the stored data and the user profile.

14. A method as claimed in

claim 13

in which the selection step comprises providing a suggestion to the user as to which current or future advertisements are likely to be of interest.

15. A method as claimed in

claim 13

or

claim 14

in which the user profile is generated and/or refined by monitoring those programmes the user chooses to view or record.

16. A method as claimed in any of

claims 13

to

15

comprising the steps of storing user profiles for a plurality of users, identifying the current user, and using the profile of the current user in step v).