METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR STREAMING ADVERTISEMENTS CONCURRENTLY WITH REQUESTED VIDEO
First Claim
1. A server, accessible by a receiving device via a network, comprising:
- a computer system having a processor and a network interface, the computer system being in communication with a database storing a plurality of composite video assets, each of the assets identifying a respective plurality of pictures to be displayed in sequence, and each of the assets being retrievable and transmittable by the server in response to a request,wherein each given one of the assets carries a movie within a first rectangular region in successive pictures of the given asset and carries a plurality of temporally-arranged advertising images in a second rectangular region in the successive pictures,wherein the first and second rectangular regions are adjacent to each other along a common edge and have equal length in a dimension of the common edge,wherein the second rectangular region is smaller than the first rectangular region in a dimension perpendicular to the common edge,and wherein the images in the first and second rectangular regions are composited together as a single picture in each of at least some successive pictures of the asset.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Roughly described, a server, accessible by a requesting device via a network, includes a database storing a plurality of composite video assets each having pictures to be displayed in sequence. Each of the pictures in the asset has first and second rectangular regions, which are adjacent to each other along a common edge. A primary movie is carried in the first rectangular region while the second rectangular region carries a plurality of temporally-arranged advertising images. The advertising images do not overlap, intrude on or distort the primary movie, but rather expand the canvas on which both image sequences appear. The images in the first and second rectangular regions are spatially composited together in each picture as single, unitary pictures prior to streaming transmission toward the user'"'"'s device, so that no second concurrent stream is required. Several methods to develop the composite assets are described.
54 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A server, accessible by a receiving device via a network, comprising:
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a computer system having a processor and a network interface, the computer system being in communication with a database storing a plurality of composite video assets, each of the assets identifying a respective plurality of pictures to be displayed in sequence, and each of the assets being retrievable and transmittable by the server in response to a request, wherein each given one of the assets carries a movie within a first rectangular region in successive pictures of the given asset and carries a plurality of temporally-arranged advertising images in a second rectangular region in the successive pictures, wherein the first and second rectangular regions are adjacent to each other along a common edge and have equal length in a dimension of the common edge, wherein the second rectangular region is smaller than the first rectangular region in a dimension perpendicular to the common edge, and wherein the images in the first and second rectangular regions are composited together as a single picture in each of at least some successive pictures of the asset. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for streaming a composite video asset toward a receiving device via a network, for use by a computer system, comprising the steps of:
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providing a primary video in which each picture has a first height and a first width; providing a plurality of advertising images; the computer system combining the primary video with the advertising images into a composite video asset identifying a plurality of pictures to be displayed in sequence, wherein for at least some of the pictures in the composite video asset, each picture has first and second rectangular regions, the first rectangular region carrying the primary video in successive pictures of the composite video asset and the second rectangular region carrying in successive pictures of the composite video asset a temporal composite of the advertising images, wherein the first and second rectangular regions are adjacent to each other along a common edge and have equal length in a dimension of the common edge, wherein the second rectangular region is smaller than the first rectangular region in a dimension perpendicular to the common edge, and wherein the images in the first and second rectangular regions are composited together as a single picture in each of the at least some pictures of the composite video asset; and transmitting the composite video asset toward the receiving device via the network and a streaming video server in response to a user request. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A server comprising:
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a computer system having a processor and a network interface, the computer system being in communication with a streaming video source and a plurality of advertising images, the computer system spatially compositing pictures from the source with the advertising images to develop a composite video asset, the composite video asset identifying a plurality of pictures to be displayed in sequence and being transmittable by the server toward a receiving device, wherein each given one of the assets carries a movie within a first rectangular region in successive pictures of the given asset and carries a plurality of temporally-arranged advertising images in a second rectangular region in the successive pictures, wherein the first and second rectangular regions are adjacent to each other along a common edge and have equal length in a dimension of the common edge, wherein the second rectangular region is smaller than the first rectangular region in a dimension perpendicular to the common edge, and wherein the images in the first and second rectangular regions are composited together as a single picture in each of at least some successive pictures of the asset.
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25. A method for streaming a composite video asset toward a receiving device via a network, for use by a computer system, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a source video stream in which each picture has a first height and a first width; providing a plurality of advertising images; the computer system combining the source video with the advertising images into a composite video asset identifying a plurality of pictures to be displayed in sequence, wherein for at least some of the pictures in the composite video asset, each picture has first and second rectangular regions, the first rectangular region carrying the primary video in successive pictures of the composite video asset and the second rectangular region carrying in successive pictures of the composite video asset a temporal composite of the advertising images, wherein the first and second rectangular regions are adjacent to each other along a common edge and have equal length in a dimension of the common edge, wherein the second rectangular region is smaller than the first rectangular region in a dimension perpendicular to the common edge, and wherein the images in the first and second rectangular regions are composited together as a single picture in each of the at least some pictures of the composite video asset; and transmitting the composite video asset toward the receiving device via the network and a streaming video server in response to a user request.
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Specification