AUTOMATION-RESISTANT, ADVERTISING-MERGED INTERACTIVE SERVICES

• US 20100031287A1
• Filed: 07/31/2008
• Published: 02/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Fan, Xiaofeng, Simon, Daniel R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,499,244 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234318 by decomposing into objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42206 characterized by hardware details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• 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 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/475 End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. personal identification number [PIN], preference data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

Systems and methodologies for implementing automation-resistant interactive computing services are provided herein. Function invocation mechanisms can be utilized as described herein to facilitate invocation and/or activation of one or more functions of an interactive service upon performance of an interaction falling within a predefined class of interaction with selected multimedia content. The described functionality invocation mechanisms can operate similarly to a traditional captcha image by requiring interaction that is easily understandable and performable by a human user but is prohibitively difficult for an automated program to carry out. Techniques such as masking relationships between user interaction and function invocation and varying elements of the selected multimedia content for respective accesses can be utilized to provide additional resistance to automation. Described invocation mechanisms can additionally be merged with advertising, which can optionally be targeted to a particular user(s).

Claims

1. A system for implementing an interactive service, comprising:

an interactive service having one or more functions associated therewith; and

a functionality invocation component that delivers a multimedia object within the interactive service, wherein one or more functions of the interactive service are invoked by performance of a user interaction with the multimedia object identified from a predetermined class of user interactions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the multimedia object delivered by the functionality invocation component comprises multimedia content and a set of user instructions that relate to the predetermined class of user interactions with the multimedia content.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the set of user instructions is embedded into the multimedia content.

4. The system of claim 2, further comprising an advertising component that provides one or more advertising elements, wherein the functionality invocation component utilizes the one or more advertising elements as multimedia content in at least one multimedia object delivered within the interactive service.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the advertising component comprises a targeting component that selects advertising elements for a user of the interactive service based on one or more characteristics of the user.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a randomization component that randomizes at least one of multimedia content included in the multimedia object or the predetermined class of user interactions therewith.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the functionality invocation component comprises a matching component that analyzes user interaction with a multimedia object and determines whether the analyzed user interaction satisfies one or more predetermined criteria.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein at least one predetermined criterion is selected to render automation of the desired class of user interactions substantially infeasible.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein data relating to interactions of a user with the multimedia object are relayed to the functionality invocation component, and the matching component comprises an interaction interpretation component that analyzes the data relating to the interactions of the user to determine whether the interactions fall within the predetermined class of user interactions.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the functionality invocation component is located at a server device that is disparate from a device from which the user interacts with the multimedia object.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the predetermined class of user interactions is defined by at least one control point that specifies a position within the multimedia object and an action, and the matching component analyzes the user interaction with the multimedia object by matching respective actions performed during the user interaction and positions thereof to the positions and actions specified by corresponding control points.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the functionality invocation component divides users of the interactive service into a plurality of groups, identifies respective sets of multimedia objects corresponding to the groups, and delivers a multimedia object for a user selected from the set of multimedia objects corresponding to the group to which the user belongs.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive service is a Web-based computing service.

19. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions operable to perform the method of claim 13.

14. A method of preventing automation of an interactive service, comprising:

identifying a function of an interactive service for which automation is to be prevented;

identifying advertising features to be delivered within the interactive service;

creating a multimedia object using multimedia content that includes the identified advertising features;

defining a set of desired interactions with the multimedia object; and

presenting the multimedia object with the identified function of the interactive service such that the function is invoked upon a user interaction with the multimedia object belonging to the defined set of desired interactions therewith.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising incorporating instructions that describe the set of desired interactions into the multimedia object.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising targeting at least one of the multimedia object, the defined set of desired interactions therewith, or one or more advertising features incorporated into the multimedia object to a user of the interactive service based on one or more characteristics of the user.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

recording user interactions with the multimedia object; and

comparing the recorded user interactions to the defined set of desired interactions with the multimedia object to determine whether the user interactions fall within the defined set of desired interactions.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising varying at least one of the multimedia object, one or more advertising features incorporated into the multimedia object, or the defined set of desired interactions with the multimedia object for respective accesses of the identified function.

20. A system for enabling invocation of a function of an interactive service, comprising:

means for identifying a function within an interactive service to be restricted to non-automated use;

means for selecting one or more multimedia objects respectively having at least one advertising element incorporated therein;

means for defining a desired class of interactions with respect to the one or more multimedia objects;

means for delivering the one or more multimedia objects and natural language instructions relating to the desired interaction therewith within the interactive service;

means for receiving data relating to interaction with the one or more multimedia objects; and

means for invoking the identified function of the interactive service upon determining that the data indicates performance of an interaction belonging to the defined class of desired interactions with the one or more multimedia objects.