Methods and apparatus for broadcasting interactive advertising using remote advertising templates

• US 7,103,904 B1
• Filed: 06/30/1999
• Issued: 09/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bernardi, Sandra R., Blackketter, Dean J., Zigmond, Daniel J., Park, Timothy F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kelley, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN, RUEBEN M
• Application Number:
  US09/345,223
• Time in Patent Office: 2,624 Days
• Field of Search: 725 32- 36, 725135-138, 725/42
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• 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 21/4622 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 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 the inserted signal being digital
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Described are methods and apparatus for enhancing a television advertisement simultaneously displayed on a number of remote receivers. In one embodiment, one or more advertisement templates are stored in memory on each of the remote receivers. The templates include formatting information and data fields into which can be inserted predefined types of information. For example, a selected template may be adapted to receive and display an advertiser'"'"'s name, product, and a hyperlink to the advertiser'"'"'s web site. A content creator, (e.g., a program producer, broadcaster, affiliate, cable company or satellite provider), embeds an advertisement summary in a data service channel of a broadcast signal. The advertisement summary includes a resource identifier unique to a selected one of the advertisement templates. Upon receiving an advertisement summary directed to a resident advertisement template, the receiver combines custom advertisement information provided in the advertisement summary with formatting information provided in the advertisement template. The receiver employs the combined information to create and display a custom advertisement, which may include hyperlinks to additional produce or service information.

Claims

1. A method for creating custom advertisements in a timely manner for display with television broadcast programming, wherein the custom advertisements include custom advertisement information that can be transmitted over a data service channel having a restricted low bandwidth, but wherein the entire custom advertisement cannot be transmitted over the low bandwidth data service channel in a timely manner, the method comprising:

a. storing, in a receiver, an advertisement template that is identified by a first resource identifier and that includes formatting information corresponding to a custom advertisement that is intended for display during a program that is transmitted over a broadcast signal;

b. monitoring a low bandwidth data service channel of the broadcast signal for an advertisement summary that is addressed to the advertisement template, wherein the advertisement summary includes a second resource identifier and custom advertisement information; and

c. creating the custom advertisement by combining formatting information from the advertisement template and the custom advertisement information upon determining the second resource identifier matches the first resource identifier of the information resource, and such that the custom advertisement embodies a combination of both the advertisement template and the advertising summary, the custom advertisement being too large to be transmitted over the low bandwidth channel in a timely manner during presentation of the program.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the custom advertisement.

3. Thc method of claim 1, wherein the custom advertisement information includes a third resource identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second resource identifiers are local resource identifiers.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the advertising summary is broadcast as a trigger.

6. A method for broadcasting advertising content for display on a remote receiver during the display of a program, the method comprising:

a. storing an advertisement template at a remote receiver, wherein the template includes formatting information corresponding to a custom advertisement that is intended for display during a program;

b. embedding an advertisement summary that is addressed to the advertisement template within a data service channel of a video signal broadcasting the program, the advertisement summary including;

i. a resource identifier unique to the advertisement template; and

ii. custom advertisement information that is configured to be combined with the formatting information of the advertisement template by the remote receiver to create the custom advertisement, such that the custom advertisement embodies a combination of both the advertisement template and the advertising summary, wherein the custom advertisement is too large to transmit over the data service channel in a timely manner during the broadcast of the program; and

c. broadcasting the signal to the remote receiver, such that remote receiver can create and display the custom advertisement in a timely manner during presentation of the program.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the signal is broadcast to a second receiver in addition to the first-mentioned receiver, and wherein the information resource does not reside on the second receiver.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the data service channel is a captioning service channel.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the broadcast signal is a National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) video signal including a text or data-service channel.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the data service channel is line 21 of the NTSC video signal.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the broadcast video signal is selected from a group consisting of Phase Alternate Lines (PAL), Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire (SECAM), High Definition Television (HDTV), a Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) signal, or an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) signal.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising generating a checksum for the resource identifier and the advertisement summary and inserting the checksum into the advertisement summary.

13. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the advertising summary is broadcast as a trigger.

14. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to embed an advertisement summary in a low bandwidth data service channel of a video signal, the advertisement summary including:

a. a resource identifier unique to an advertising template residing on a remote receiver, and

b. custom advertisement information that is configured to be combined with the advertisement template to create a custom advertisement, such that the custom advertisement embodies a combination of both the advertisement template and the advertising summary, and wherein the custom advertisement is too large to transmit over the data service channel in a timely manner during a broadcast of a program that is being transmitted over a video signal associated with the data service channel.

15. A machine-readable medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the advertising summary is embedded as a trigger.

16. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

a. monitor a low bandwidth data service channel of a broadcast video signal for an advertisement summary that is addressed to an advertisement template that is stored by a receiver that is associated with the processor, wherein the advertisement summary includes a resource identifier and custom advertisement information, and wherein a program is being transmitted over the broadcast video signal;

b. create a custom advertisement by combining the custom advertisement information with an advertisement template upon receipt of the advertisement summary, such that the custom advertisement embodies a combination of both the advertisement template and the advertising summary, the custom advertisement being too large to be transmitted over the low bandwidth channel in a timely manner during presentation of the program; and

c. display the custom advertisement with the program.

17. A machine-readable medium as recited in claim 16, wherein the advertising summary is broadcast as a trigger.

18. A system for creating custom advertisements in a timely manner for display with television broadcast programming, wherein the custom advertisements include custom advertisement information that can be transmitted over a data service channel having a restricted low bandwidth, but wherein the entire custom advertisement cannot be transmitted over the low bandwidth data service channel in a timely manner, the system comprising:

a. a broadcast signal source configured to broadcast a video signal in a broadcast video channel;

b. means for embedding an advertisement summary in a low bandwidth data service channel of the video signal, the advertisement summary comprising custom advertisement information and being addressed to a particular advertisement template; and

c. a receiver configured to;

store the advertisement template in local memory, the advertisement template including formatting information for formatting the custom advertisement information into a custom advertisement;

tune to the broadcast video channel to receive the video signal and the embedded advertisement summary; and

create the custom advertisement by combining the formatting information from the advertisement template with the custom advertisement information, such that the custom advertisement embodies a combination of both the advertisement template and the advertising summary, wherein the custom advertisement is too large to be transmitted over the low bandwidth data service channel in a timely manner during presentation of the program.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the receiver is configured to combine information provided in the advertisement summary with formatting information provided in the advertisement template to produce a custom advertisement.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the information provided in the advertisement summary includes a hyperlink.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the advertisement template further comprises a time stamp.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the advertisement summary includes a timeout attribute defining a time to end the custom advertisement.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the advertisement summary includes an attribute that determines at least one of the color, font style, font size, transparency, texture, advertisement size, and advertisement position of the custom advertisement.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein the advertisement summary includes a view attribute that determines whether the custom advertisement is displayed automatically without user intervention.

25. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein the advertising summary is embedded as a trigger.

26. A system for creating a custom advertisement comprising:

a. a broadcast signal source configured to broadcast a program of a specified duration in a broadcast video signal having a data service channel that includes an available data bandwidth;

b. a receiver tuned to receive the program and including local memory, wherein the local memory contains a first set of data representing an advertising template;

c. means for embedding a second set of data in the video signal and broadcasting the second set of data to the receiver, wherein the second set of data represents advertising content addressed to the template; and

d. means for combining the first and second sets of data to form a third set of data representing the custom advertisement for display on the receiver,

e. wherein the third set of data is greater than a product of the available data bandwidth and the specified duration of the program; and

f. wherein the second set of data is less than the product of the available data bandwidth and the specified duration of the program.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the first set of data is less than one half of the product of the available data bandwidth and the specified duration of the program.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the program is a television commercial advertisement.