System and method for advertisement delivery within a video time shifting architecture
First Claim
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1. A method for processing an advertisement, the method comprising:
- electronically storing, in a storage device, an advertisement and arbitrarily complex metadata that includes metadata conforming to an arbitrary format, the arbitrarily complex metadata comprising a unique advertisement identifier, a description of the advertisement and a plurality of other items of information maintained by an advertiser;
electronically receiving the advertisement at a control center, wherein the control center is coupled to a plurality of clients over a network;
electronically mapping, using a processor associated with the control center, the arbitrarily complex metadata of the advertisement to canonical metadata that includes metadata conforming to a standard formatting, wherein the canonical metadata includes less information than the arbitrarily complex metadata and wherein the processor maps fewer than all of the arbitrarily complex metadata to the canonical metadata;
storing the advertisement and the canonical metadata at the control center;
receiving at the control center, a request from the advertiser to display the advertisement by reference to the canonical metadata, the advertisement having been determined to be displayed based upon the arbitrarily complex metadata;
maintaining a codec from the control center for decoding audio and video data; and
displaying at least one of the client devices the advertisement determined to be displayed based on the arbitrarily complex metadata in response to a clients program request by using the codec from the control center for decoding audio and video data associated with the advertisement, the advertisement being part of a playlist that comprises a program and one or more advertisements, wherein the control center generates a first playlist in response to receiving the program request and a second playlist in response to receiving a request to play a previously recorded program.
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Abstract
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for employing canonical metadata to describe advertisements comprising an advertiser storing an advertisement and arbitrarily complex metadata that is descriptive of the advertisement, which is received at a control center. At the control center, the advertisement is mapped to canonical metadata. The advertisement and canonical metadata are stored at the control center for use in discriminating between advertisements from a plurality of advertisers.
36 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for processing an advertisement, the method comprising:
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electronically storing, in a storage device, an advertisement and arbitrarily complex metadata that includes metadata conforming to an arbitrary format, the arbitrarily complex metadata comprising a unique advertisement identifier, a description of the advertisement and a plurality of other items of information maintained by an advertiser; electronically receiving the advertisement at a control center, wherein the control center is coupled to a plurality of clients over a network; electronically mapping, using a processor associated with the control center, the arbitrarily complex metadata of the advertisement to canonical metadata that includes metadata conforming to a standard formatting, wherein the canonical metadata includes less information than the arbitrarily complex metadata and wherein the processor maps fewer than all of the arbitrarily complex metadata to the canonical metadata; storing the advertisement and the canonical metadata at the control center; receiving at the control center, a request from the advertiser to display the advertisement by reference to the canonical metadata, the advertisement having been determined to be displayed based upon the arbitrarily complex metadata; maintaining a codec from the control center for decoding audio and video data; and displaying at least one of the client devices the advertisement determined to be displayed based on the arbitrarily complex metadata in response to a clients program request by using the codec from the control center for decoding audio and video data associated with the advertisement, the advertisement being part of a playlist that comprises a program and one or more advertisements, wherein the control center generates a first playlist in response to receiving the program request and a second playlist in response to receiving a request to play a previously recorded program. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method for processing an advertisement, the method comprising:
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electronically storing an advertisement, at an advertiser, with arbitrarily complex metadata associated with the advertisement, the arbitrarily complex metadata includes metadata conforming to an arbitrary format, the arbitrarily complex metadata comprising a unique advertisement identifier, a description of the advertisement and a plurality of other items of information maintained by an advertiser; receiving the advertisement at a control center from a vendor, wherein the control center is coupled to a plurality of clients over a network; electronically mapping, using a processor associated with the control center, the arbitrarily complex metadata of the advertisement to canonical metadata that includes metadata conforming to a standard formatting, wherein the canonical metadata includes less information than the arbitrarily complex metadata and wherein the processor maps fewer than all of the arbitrarily complex metadata to the canonical metadata; storing the advertisement at the control center in association with the canonical metadata; storing a logical array at the control center that identifies program scheduling and description information for a given show and advertisers who desire to display advertisements for the given show; maintaining a codec from the control center for decoding audio and video data; contacting a corresponding advertiser based on an entry in the logical array when the control center determines that an advertisement is needed during the given show; and electronically receiving the canonical metadata associated with advertisement from the vendor upon a determination by the vendor to display the advertisement based upon the arbitrarily complex metadata; displaying at least one of the client devices the advertisement determined to be displayed based on the arbitrarily complex metadata in response to a clients program request by using the codec from the control center for decoding audio and video data associated with the advertisement, the advertisement being part of a playlist that comprises a program and one or more advertisements, wherein the control center generates a first playlist in response to receiving the program request and a second playlist in response to receiving a request to play a previously recorded program.
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6. A control center which displays advertisements, the control center coupled to a plurality of clients over a network, the control center comprising:
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a processor operative to receive an advertisement and arbitrarily complex metadata that includes metadata conforming to an arbitrary format, the arbitrarily complex metadata comprising a unique advertisement identifier, a description of the advertisement and a plurality of other items of information maintained by from an advertiser, the processor further operative to map the arbitrarily complex metadata of the advertisement to canonical metadata, wherein the canonical metadata includes less information than the arbitrarily complex metadata, the canonical metadata conforms to a standard formatting, and wherein the processor maps fewer than all of the arbitrarily complex metadata to the canonical metadata; the processor further operative to display at least one of the client devices the advertisement based upon the canonical metadata in response to a clients program request, wherein the advertisement is part of a playlist that comprises a program and one or more advertisements, wherein the control center generates a first playlist in response to receiving the program request and a second playlist in response to receiving a request to play a previously recorded program, the advertisement having been selected to be displayed based upon a determination by the advertiser using the arbitrarily complex metadata; and a memory operative to store the advertisement in association with the canonical metadata, the memory further operative to maintain a codec from the control center for decoding audio and video data. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9)
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10. A system for displaying an advertisement, the system comprising:
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an advertiser component maintaining one or more advertisements; and a control center coupled to a plurality of clients over a network, the control center including; an advertisement management system (AMS) operative to receive an advertisement and arbitrarily complex metadata that includes metadata conforming to an arbitrary format, the arbitrarily complex metadata comprising a unique advertisement identifier, a description of the advertisement and a plurality of other items of information maintained by the advertiser component and map fewer than all of the arbitrarily the arbitrarily complex metadata of the advertisement to canonical metadata that includes less information than the arbitrarily complex metadata, the canonical metadata is data that conforms to a standard formatting, the advertisement management system further operative to display the advertisement at least one of the client devices based upon the canonical metadata in response to a clients program request, the advertisement being part of a playlist that comprises a program and one or more advertisements, wherein the control center generates a first playlist in response to receiving the program request and a second playlist in response to receiving a request to play a previously recorded program, the advertisement having been selected to be displayed based upon a determination by the advertiser using the arbitrarily complex metadata, and a memory operative to store the advertisement in association with the canonical metadata, the memory further operative to maintain a codec from the control center for decoding audio and video data. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An application program interface (API) for facilitating communication between a first computer and a second computer, the API comprising:
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a first computer requesting registration with a second computer, the second computer responding to the registration request of the first computer and the first computer to store a plurality advertisements and arbitrarily complex metadata that includes metadata conforming to an arbitrary format, the arbitrarily complex metadata comprising a unique advertisement identifier, a description is descriptive of each of the advertisements and a plurality of other items of information maintained by an advertiser; a mapping component mapping the arbitrarily complex metadata of the advertisements to canonical metadata that includes metadata conforming to a standard formatting, wherein the mapping component maps fewer than all of the arbitrarily complex metadata to the canonical metadata; an advertisement identifier based on the canonical metadata from the first computer in response to the occurrence of an event, the advertisement identifier being requested by the second computer, the advertisement identifier associated with a selected advertisement, the selected advertisement having been selected by the first computer based upon the arbitrarily complex metadata and the selected advertisement being part of a playlist that comprises a program and one or more selected advertisements, wherein the second computer generates a first playlist in response to receiving a program request and a second playlist in response to receiving a request to play a previously recorded program; a transmission component transmitting the advertisement identifier from the first computer to the second computer; a playback of an advertisement associated with the advertisement identifier is complete, the second computer sending an acknowledgement to the first computer upon completion of the playback of the advertisement associated with the advertisement identifier; a new advertisement is available, the new advertisement associated with an alert transmitted from the second computer to the first computer; a set of available advertisements, the set of advertisements being listed by the second computer in response to instructions sent by the first computer; and a listing of the set of available advertisements in response to the first computer'"'"'s instruction, the listing of the set of available advertisements being transmitted by the second computer. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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Specification