SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ENGAGING AN AUDIENCE IN A CONVERSATIONAL ADVERTISEMENT

• US 20140067395A1
• Filed: 08/28/2012
• Published: 03/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Sheedy, Aaron, Balasubramanian, Sundar, McSherry, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,619,812 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/251
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/51 for comparison or discrimination

Abstract

A system and method are described for engaging an audience in a conversational advertisement. A conversational advertising system converses with an audience using spoken words. The conversational advertising system uses a speech recognition application to convert an audience'"'"'s spoken input into text and a text-to-speech application to transform text of a response to speech that is to be played to the audience. The conversational adverting system follows an advertisement script to guide the audience in a conversation.

Claims

1. A system for engaging an audience in a conversational advertisement, wherein the system includes a processor and a memory, the system comprising:

a conversation module implemented by the processor and configured to;

receive an indication to present a conversational advertisement to a member of an audience;

identify a conversational advertisement to present to the member of the audience;

convey a first message of the conversational advertisement to the member of the audience of the conversational advertisement;

process spoken words from audio data representing a verbal response to the first message from the member of the audience; and

determine a response to convey to the member of the audience,

wherein the response is determined based at least in part on the spoken words from the audio data representing the verbal response to the first message from the member of the audience,

a speech recognition module implemented by the processor and configured to;

receive audio data representing the verbal response of the member of the audience to the first message of the conversational advertisement; and

identify spoken words from the audio data representing the verbal response to the first message from the member of the audience, and

a text-to-speech module implemented by the processor and configured to;

convert the response to convey, to the member of the audience, audio data to be played to the member of the audience.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the conversational advertisement includes an advertisement script, wherein the advertisement script includes multiple possible responses based on different received verbal responses; and

the conversation module is further configured to;

compare the spoken words from the audio data to the advertisement script to process spoken words from the audio data representing the verbal response to the member of the audience, and

identify a response that is included in the advertisement script to determine a response to convey to the member of the audience.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the conversation module is further configured to modify the response to the member of the audience based at least in part on information associated with the member of the audience, wherein the audio data is to be played simultaneously with video and/or graphics that is displayable on a computing device used by the member of the audience.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the conversation module is further configured to determine a response to convey to the member of the audience based at least in part on information associated with the member of the audience, and

the information associated with the member of the audience includes gender information determined by analyzing the audio data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the conversation module is further configured to identify a conversational advertisement to present to the member of the audience based at least in part on information associated with the member of the audience.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement script includes at least one of a non-connected path for navigating the advertisement script when the audio data representing the verbal response of the member of the audience cannot be received, a nonsense path for navigating the advertisement script when the audio data representing the verbal response of the member of the audience is nonsensical, and a default path for navigating the advertisement script when, despite being able to receive audio data, no audio data representing the verbal response of the member of the audience is received.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the conversation module is further configured to determine an action that is to be taken based at least in part on the spoken words from the audio data representing the verbal response to the first message from the member of the audience.

8. A method of engaging an audience in a conversational advertisement, wherein the method is performed by a computing system having a processor and a memory, the method comprising:

identifying, at a server computer, a conversational advertisement to present to an audience via a client device in response to a received indication to present an advertisement,

wherein the conversational advertisement is selected from multiple conversational advertisements;

conveying, at the server computer, a first message of the conversational advertisement to the client device to be presented to the audience;

receiving, at the server computer, audio data from the client device representing a verbal response by the audience to the first message of the conversational advertisement;

identifying, at the server computer, spoken words from the audio data representing the verbal response of the audience to the first message;

processing, at the server computer, the spoken words from the audio data representing the verbal response of the audience to the first message;

determining, at the server computer, a response to convey to the audience via the client device,

wherein the response is determined based at least in part on the spoken words from the audio data representing the verbal response of the audience to the first message, and

converting, at the server computer, the response to audio data to be played to the audience.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the conversational advertisement includes an advertisement script,

processing, at the server computer, the spoken words from the audio data representing the verbal response of the audience to the first message includes comparing, at the server computer, the spoken words from the audio data to the advertisement script, and

determining, at the server computer, a response to convey to the audience includes identifying, at the server computer, a response that is included in the advertisement script.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining, at the server computer, a response to convey to the audience via the client device includes identifying the response to convey to the audience based on a calendar entry included on the client device and associated with a member of the audience.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the received indication to present the advertisement is received, at the server computer, from an agent operating on the client device.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein identifying, at the server computer, a conversational advertisement to present to the audience includes identifying, at the server computer, a conversational advertisement associated with an input of the audience on the client device.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein:

determining, at the server computer, a response to convey to the audience includes determining a response based at least in part on information associated with the audience and a previous response of the audience to a conversational advertisement, and

conveying, at the server computer, a first message of the conversational advertisement to the client device to be presented to the audience includes conveying, at the server computer, instructions to present the first message in both audio and textual forms on the client device.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining, at the server computer, an action that is to be taken by the client device, wherein the action is determined based at least in part on the spoken words from the audio data representing the verbal response of the audience to the first message.

15. A computer-readable storage device carrying instructions for performing a method of engaging an audience in an advertisement, comprising:

providing an indication to present an advertisement to a user;

receiving a first message of an identified interactive, audio-based advertisement;

providing audio data representing a verbal response by the user to the first message of the interactive, audio-based advertisement;

receiving a response to provide to the user,

wherein the response is determined based at least in part on spoken words identified from the audio data representing the verbal response of the user to the first message; and

performing an action based on the received response,

wherein the response is related to the audio data representing the verbal response of the user to the first message.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein:

the first message of the identified interactive, audio-based advertisement is selected based at least in part on information associated with the user and an input of the user.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the action based on the received response is identified based at least in part on data associated with the user.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16, further comprising conveying to the user the response to provide the user, wherein the response to provide the user includes information associated with the user, and wherein the response to provide the user includes audio data.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the first message of the identified interactive, audio-based advertisement includes audio data and visual elements, and wherein the first message is determined based at least in part on a calendar entry associated with the user.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein providing the indication to present the advertisement to the user includes providing a user input, wherein the first message of the identified interactive, audio-based advertisement is determined based at least in part on the user input.