SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING AN AD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR AN EXTENSIBLE MEDIA PLAYER

• US 20090106104A1
• Filed: 08/01/2008
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: UPENDRAN, Manish, BLINNIKKA, Tomi, DE LA CRUZ, Allen, MURNIKOV, Pavel
• Granted Patent: US 9,843,774 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.500
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

In a method and system for creating an extensible media player, a multimedia player application is instantiated on a client system. A presentation data file is transmitted to the client system from a server. The presentation data file includes a playlist of timelines, with at least one multimedia file being played or at least one application being executed for each timeline. The presentation data file is parsed to activate an advertising manager module. The activated advertising manager module instantiates an advertising plug-in. The advertising plug-in connects to an advertising network and downloads select advertising policies and dynamically schedules advertisements for the timelines. Upon the occurrence of an event generated by a timeline, the advertising manager module inserts a blocking module to block execution of the timeline. An advertisement is dynamically retrieved and rendered in an advertising display overlaying a multimedia player application display. When the advertisement has concluded, execution of the timeline is resumed.

Claims

1. An extensible media player, comprising:

a media player application to load and play one or more multimedia files or load and execute one or more applications;

an advertising manager module to dynamically schedule, retrieve, and deliver advertisements; and

a presentation data file to identify a playlist of timelines, wherein at least one multimedia file is played back or at least one application is executed during each of the timelines;

wherein said media player application parses said presentation data file, loads the timelines, and plays the timelines sequentially; and

wherein the advertising manager module dynamically blocks playback of a timeline and inserts an advertisement when the advertisement is scheduled to be displayed.

2. The extensible media player of claim 1, wherein the advertising manager module retrieves advertisements using a dedicated communications channel.

3. The extensible media player of claim 1, wherein the advertising manager module includes an advertising plug-in to retrieve and schedule the advertisements.

4. The extensible media player of claim 1, wherein the advertising manager module includes multiple advertising plug-ins that are managed simultaneously by the advertising manager module, the multiple advertising plug-ins each communicating with a different advertising server and retrieving and scheduling a different set of advertisements.

5. The extensible media player of claim 1, further comprising a metrics reporting module to track and report advertising metrics data to a reporting server.

6. The extensible media player of claim 1, further comprising an advertisement display module overlaying a media player application display to display the advertisement.

7. The extensible media player of claim 6, wherein the advertising display module includes one or more advertising slot modules, and wherein the advertisement is dynamically assigned to the one or more advertising slot modules.

8. The extensible media player of claim 1, wherein the advertising manager module retrieves advertising policies and rules and dynamically schedules the advertisements based on the advertising policies and rules.

9. The extensible media player of claim 1, wherein the advertising manager module dynamically blocks the timeline and inserts the advertisement in response to a timeline event.

10. The extensible media player of claim 9, wherein the advertising manager module consults with an advertising plug-in to determine a response to the timeline event.

11. The extensible media player of claim 9, wherein the advertising manager module and an advertising plug-in consult with an advertising server to determine a response to the timeline event.

12. The extensible media player of claim 9, wherein the advertising manager module dynamically blocks the timeline by inserting a blocking module into the timeline.

13. The extensible media player of claim 2, wherein if the advertising manager module is disconnected from the dedicated communications link, the advertising manager module implements static ad policies for the timelines.

14. The extensible media player of claim 13, wherein the static ad policies include displaying already delivered advertisements in a periodic static interval.

15. A method, comprising:

instantiating a multimedia player application on a client system;

transmitting to the client system a presentation data file from a server, the presentation data file including a playlist of timelines, wherein at least one multimedia file is played back or at least one application is executed during each of the timelines;

parsing the presentation data file to activate an advertising manager module;

instantiating, in the advertising manager module, an advertising plug-in, the advertising plug-in connecting with an advertising network to download advertising policies and dynamically schedule advertisements based on the advertising policies;

in response to an event generated by a timeline, inserting a blocking module into the timeline to block execution of the timeline;

while the timeline execution is blocked, retrieving and rendering an advertisement in an advertising display overlaying a multimedia player application display; and

upon conclusion of the advertisement, resuming execution of the timeline.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising assigning the rendered advertisement to at least one advertising slot module of the advertising display.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising tracking playback of the advertisement and reporting advertisement metrics to at least one reporting server.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising connecting the advertising plug-in with the advertising network via a dedicated communications channel.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising, if the advertising plug-in disconnects from the advertising network, implementing a static ad policy for the timelines.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the static ad policy displays previously retrieved advertisements in a periodic interval for the timelines.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising, in response to the generated timeline event, retrieving, by the instantiated ad plug-in, new advertising policies.

22. A multimedia presentation system, comprising:

a content server storing a presentation data file, a plurality of multimedia files, a plurality of modules, and a plurality of presentation themes;

an advertising server storing advertising policies and advertisements;

a client, configured to communicate with said content server and said advertising server, comprising a processing unit and a memory unit, said memory unit storing instructions adapted to be executed by the processing unit to;

instantiate a multimedia player application on a client system;

transmit to the client a presentation data file from the content server, the presentation data file including a playlist of timelines, wherein at least one multimedia file is played back or at least one application is executed during each of the timelines;

parse the presentation data file to activate an advertising manager module;

instantiate, in the advertising manager module, an advertising plug-in, the advertising plug-in connecting with the advertising server to download certain ones of the advertising policies and dynamically schedule certain ones of the advertisements based on the advertising policy;

in response to an event generated by a timeline, insert, using the advertising manager module, a blocking module into the timeline to block execution of the timeline;

while the timeline execution is blocked, retrieve and render an advertisement in an advertising display overlaying a multimedia player application display; and

upon conclusion of the advertisement, resume execution of the timeline.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the rendered advertisement is assigned to at least one advertising slot module of the advertising display.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein playback of the advertisement is tracked and advertisement metrics are reported to at least one reporting server.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the advertising plug-in connects with the advertising network via a dedicated communications channel.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein, if the advertising plug-in disconnects from the advertising network, a static ad policy is implemented from among the downloaded advertising policies for the timelines.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the static ad policy displays previously retrieved advertisements in a periodic interval for the timelines.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein, in response to the generated timeline event the instantiated ad plug-in retrieves new advertising policies.