Content attribute impact invalidation method

• US 7,194,421 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2002
• Issued: 03/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Erinmedia
• Inventors: Conkwright, G. Colby, Vinson, Michael J., Foster, IV, Frank S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Colbert, Ella
• Application Number:
  US10/241,840
• Publication Number:
  US 20030110109A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,650 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10, 705/14, 705/26, 705/27, 705/35, 707/1, 707 7- 11, 707/100, 725/2, 725/9, 725/14, 725/12, 725/34, 725/35, 725/116, 725/10, 725/26, 725/27, 345/719, 709/224
• US Class Current: 705/7.33
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

The invention concerns a method of determining the effect of content attributes on content ratings. The method may include obtaining content attributes, recording set-top box events as content is experienced without knowing individual-specific demographic information, correlating set-top box events to content attributes, and analyzing the correlations of set-top box events to content attributes over time to estimate the effect of content attributes on content ratings.

Claims

1. A method of determining the effect of content attributes on content ratings, comprising:

obtaining content attributes;

recording set-top box events as content is experienced without knowing individual-specific demographic information;

correlating set-top box events to content attributes; and

analyzing the correlations of set-top box events to content attributes over time to estimate the effect of content attributes on content ratings.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content attributes include times at which various content attributes are presented to a set-top box.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

correlating set-top box events and content attributes to demographic characteristics for each set-top box; and

analyzing such correlations over time to estimate the effect of content attributes on content ratings for specific demographic groups.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the content attributes include times at which various content attributes are presented to a set-top box.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the content attributes are obtained from embedded content information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the content attributes are correlated with the set-top box events at the set-top box.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the content attributes are obtained from external sources.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the content attributes are correlated with the set-top box events at a sorting system.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

applying with a computer inverse demographic matrix calculation techniques to estimate probabilities for demographic characteristic and set-top box event dataset correlations; and

ascribing the demographic characteristic probabilities to each set-top box over time based on observed set-top box events and their relationship to the estimated inverse demographic matrix probabilities.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

evaluating the ascribed demographic characteristic probabilities over time through statistical analysis;

fitting the ascribed demographic characteristics probabilities to statistically estimate a set of probable demographic identities for each set-top box; and

,

fitting the set of probable demographic identities to inverse demographic matrix probability sets for a set-top box event.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

storing the set of probable demographic identities in an array over time; and

applying statistical analysis to the stored array to estimate predominant demographic identities for a given set-top box.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the content attributes are obtained from embedded content information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the content attributes are correlated with the set-top box events at the set-top box.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the content attributes are obtained from external sources.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the content attributes are correlated with the set-top box events at a sorting system.