Embodiments of the invention relate to a billboard display system that receives data from interior occupant sensing systems of vehicles and analyzes the data to provide advertising on a billboard display that is directed toward the occupants of the vehicles.
The concept of electronic billboard displays is old and known. The electronic billboard displays provide various advertisements that change periodically. The advertisements, however, are simply selected based on payments by advertisers and displayed without any knowledge of, or relationship to, the persons in vehicles that are positioned to view the billboard displays.
Increasingly, products, including vehicles, are being customized for specific customer demographics. Many applications can benefit from improved knowledge of the demographic profile of each occupant in a vehicle. For example, with demographic knowledge of the occupants, vehicles can be designed for the needs of their users, automotive systems can respond and adjust based on the needs and actions of the occupants. In addition to determining the number and profile of occupants in the vehicle, it would also be useful to analyze each occupant's reactions to external stimuli, such as the reactions to advertisements (e.g., billboards). Thus, advertisers can better target advertisements to occupants.
Through data mining and machine learning, dense profiles are modeled and analyzed to assist marketers and advertisers with targeted out-of-vehicle electronic displays.
In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for selectively displaying advertisements with a billboard display system to occupants in one or more vehicles approaching a billboard display located near a roadway. The method includes receiving a number of occupants, demographic information of occupants, and vehicle position information from an interior occupant sensing system for one or more vehicles approaching the billboard display, processing the demographic information and the number of occupants to determine advertising relevant to occupants, and selectively displaying relevant advertising with the billboard display to one or more vehicles approaching the billboard display.
In another embodiment, a billboard display system provides advertising on a billboard display to occupants in one or more vehicles in response to operation of an interior occupant sensing system in one or more vehicles to obtain demographic information of occupants. Besides the billboard display located near a roadway, the billboard display system includes a display controller including a processor and a memory, along with a communication unit for providing communication between the display controller and the interior occupant sensing system of one or more vehicles. The processor is configured to receive via the communication unit, a number of occupants disposed in one or more vehicles, the demographic information for each occupant disposed in one or more vehicles, and vehicle position information from an interior occupant sensing system that includes a video camera disposed in each of the one or more vehicles. In response to at least the demographic information and the vehicle position information, the processor provides an output to the billboard display to selectively display advertising that is targeted to the demographic information of occupants of the one or more vehicles.
In another embodiment, the invention provides a method of selectively displaying advertisements on a billboard display of a billboard display system to occupants in one or more vehicles approaching the billboard display located near a roadway. The method includes, in an interior occupant sensing system of a vehicle approaching the billboard display, operating a video camera to obtain video data including faces of occupants in a vehicle. The video data is provided to an electronic control unit. The method includes sensing a GPS signal and determining a vehicle position information of a vehicle, detecting a number of occupants disposed in a vehicle from the video data, and determining demographic information from the video data of the faces of occupants. The method further includes storing the vehicle position information, the number of occupants, and the demographic information of occupants in a memory of the interior occupant sensing system, and wirelessly transmitting the number of occupants, the demographic information, and the vehicle position information. Further, the method includes, in a display controller of the billboard display system, receiving the number of occupants, the demographic information of occupants, and the vehicle position information wirelessly transmitted by the interior occupant sensing system for a vehicle approaching the billboard display. The billboard display system processes the demographic information and the number of occupants to determine advertising relevant to occupants; and selectively displays relevant advertising on the billboard display to occupants in an approaching vehicle.
Other aspects of the invention will become apparent by consideration of the detailed description and accompanying drawings.
Before any embodiments of the invention are explained in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the following drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways.
Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including,” “comprising” or “having” and variations thereof herein is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. The terms “mounted,” “connected” and “coupled” are used broadly and encompass both direct and indirect mounting, connecting and coupling. Further, “connected” and “coupled” are not restricted to physical or mechanical connections or couplings, and can include electrical connections or couplings, whether direct or indirect. Also, electronic communications and notifications may be performed using any known means including wired connections, wireless connections, etc.
It should also be noted that a plurality of hardware and software based devices, as well as a plurality of different structural components may be used to implement the embodiments. In addition, it should be understood that embodiments may include hardware, software, and electronic components or modules that, for purposes of discussion, may be illustrated and described as if the majority of the components were implemented solely in hardware. However, one of ordinary skill in the art, and based on a reading of this detailed description, would recognize that, in at least one embodiment, the electronic based aspects of the embodiments may be implemented in software (e.g., stored on non-transitory computer-readable medium) executable by one or more processors. As such, it should be noted that a plurality of hardware and software based devices, as well as a plurality of different structural components may be utilized to implement the embodiments. For example, “processing units” and “controllers” described in the specification can include standard processing components, such as one or more processors, one or more memory modules including non-transitory computer-readable medium, one or more input/output interfaces, and various connections (e.g., a system bus) connecting the components.
External Billboard Display System
The processor 24 provides a digital image signal for advertising to the display driver 28, which provides the image to the billboard display 30 for viewing thereon. The processor 24 obtains the digital image signal from the memory 26 or from a remote cloud server 36 shown in
Interior Occupant Sensing System
The electronic controller 42 shown in
The database 48 shown in
The communications system 50 shown in
The HMI 52 shown in
As illustrated in
The memory 64 can include a program storage area (e.g., read only memory (ROM) and a data storage area (e.g., random access memory (RAM), and another non-transitory computer readable medium. The electronic processing unit 60 executes software stored in the memory 64. The software may include instructions and algorithms for performing methods as described herein.
The input/output interface 68 shown in
In one embodiment, the electronic controller 42 is configured to perform machine learning functions. The memory 64 stores one or more learning engines executable by the electronic processing unit 60 to process data received from the video camera 44 and the microphone 46, and develop demographic metadata on the occupants of the vehicle. Machine learning generally refers to the ability of a computer application to learn without being explicitly programmed. In particular, a computer application performing machine learning (sometimes referred to as a learning engine) is configured to develop an algorithm based on training data. For example, to perform supervised learning, the training data includes example inputs and corresponding desired (e.g., actual) outputs, and the learning engine progressively develops a model that maps inputs to the outputs included in the training data. Machine learning can be performed using various types of methods and mechanisms including, but not limited to, decision tree learning, association rule learning, artificial neural networks, inductive logic programming, support vector machines, clustering, Bayesian networks, reinforcement learning, representation learning, similarity and metric learning, sparse dictionary learning, and genetic algorithms.
In some embodiments, the electronic controller 42 accesses one or more sources of training data, predictive models, or learning engines through one or more communication networks, such as the Internet and other public and private networks. Alternatively or in addition, the electronic controller 42 stores training data in the database 48 or in the memory 64.
Operation of Interior Occupant Sensing System
For the billboard display system 20 to operate properly, information from at least one of the vehicles 12 shown in
As shown in the images and flow chart 100 of
Upon determining the demographic information from video images of faces of occupants, the electronic processing unit 60 further determines emotive responses (step 110). The emotive responses include 1) gaze estimation, including where the face is looking and 2) current emotions, such as a smile, frown or laugh. Changes in the occupants' emotive response to stimuli may be caused by changes in operation of the vehicle itself or externally (i.e., current emotion). For instance, an occupant might display happiness when the vehicle accelerates, or display anxiety when a warning is issued by the HMI 52. Besides determining emotions, the electronic processing unit 60 is configured for storing the emotions and the exact time that the emotions or emotive responses occur in the memory 64.
Thereafter, the face 104 of an occupant is tracked or followed within the video image (step 114). Tracking faces 104 of occupants enables the interior occupant sensing system 40 to determine emotions of occupants and their emotive responses to stimuli, such as advertising. That way, a face 104 that has been classified is followed and reclassification is not necessarily required.
The electronic processing unit 60 is further configured to combine the demographic information with other vehicle information (i.e. GPS location, duration of trip, passengers entering/exiting, etc.) (step 116). Other vehicle information may include an intended destination for the vehicle, the make and model of the vehicle. Further, the clothing worn by the occupants may be utilized in classifying the occupants and predicting what advertising to provide thereto.
The electronic processing unit 60 is configured to improve classifier estimates as the occupant is tracked over time (step 120). Influences such as lighting, occupant movement, and occupant clothing may vary over time, causing the electronic processing unit 60 to make different demographic estimations over time. The electronic processing unit 60 uses machine learning algorithms to improve its estimates by recognizing trends or eliminating outliers. This continuous improvement ensures the most reliable metadata.
The electronic processing unit 60 is configured to store the demographic information, the vehicle position information, the trip destination information, the trip duration information and additional information as metadata in the database 48 (step 124). The electronic processing unit 60 classifies the data as occupant specific data (for example, based on face, and as set forth below, voice recognition algorithms); generic demographic data tied to a specific vehicle at a specific time and location; or as generic metadata that is not tied to any individual or vehicle, but aggregated to extract demographic patterns of vehicle use and transportation. Depending on the application, this allows for either specific customization of the application to the user, or broad statistics based applications that can ensure individual privacy.
As illustrated in the flow chart 140 of
Moreover, the interior occupant sensing system 40 is capable of providing dense profile models. In one exemplary embodiment, the electronic controller 42 is configured to fuse detected persons with their demographic information, their emotive response and the speech recognition of key words. Collecting occupant data, along with vehicle dynamics, provides market researchers a real-time response of an occupant to an advertisement displayed on the billboard display system.
As illustrated in the flow chart 200 of
More specifically, as shown in
The display controller 22 of the billboard display system 20 analyzes a population of occupants approaching the billboard display 30 from one or more approaching vehicles (step 210). Further, the display controller 22 is configured to analyze the metrics (step 212) from one or more vehicles approaching the billboard display 30. Besides the number of occupants and the demographic information (214) of occupants in multiple vehicles that are approaching the billboard display 30, along with trip destinations (216) and trip durations (218) of the multiple vehicles when the trip data is available, the metrics may include other factors. The type of vehicle, the clothing worn by occupants, and the time of day, are also provided as metrics in some embodiments.
Utilizing the analyzed metrics, the display controller 22 determines and displays a targeted advertisement (step 220). The targeted advertisement is considered most applicable to the population consisting of the occupants of each of the vehicles in the field of view of the billboard display 30. As set forth above, a targeted advertisement is based on the various factors and based on time of day. For instance, in one embodiment, advertising for hotels or motels in mid or late evening of a long trip duration is provided. At what is considered close to typical mealtimes, advertising is provided for approaching restaurants. The type of restaurants or establishments displayed in advertising is also based on the ages of the occupants. In conclusion, the various metrics interactively assist in the selective display of advertising on the billboard display 30.
Upon the display of advertising for a limited time based on the metrics, the billboard display system 20 queries the approaching vehicles 12 for additional or updated metrics (step 230). The updated metrics include impression counts (232), emotive responses (234), and gaze of eyes (236) of the occupants of the approaching vehicles. The interior occupant sensing system 40 is configured to communicate the impression counts, the emotional states, any emotive responses and gaze of eyes of occupants to the billboard display system (step 240), along with additional metrics.
The display controller 22 executes a program using the above information to target or select a future or immediate advertisement that is more likely relevant or useful to occupants of one or more vehicles approaching the billboard display 30. The display controller 22 is configured to process the trip destination information and/or the trip duration information, in combination with the demographic information and number of occupants, to determine advertising relevant to occupants. In one embodiment, the emotional state of the occupants assists in selection of advertising. For occupants in a positive mood, the advertising is different than the advertising for occupants in an angry or bad mood.
Further, the display controller 22 is configured to track impression counts for current advertising. Using occupant gaze estimations, advertisers accurately analyze and gauge the effectiveness of various advertising schemes. Analyzing the effectiveness from the impression counts maximizes the relevance of the advertising to be displayed in the future to particular occupants of one or more vehicles.
Other metrics, can be used to target advertisements. In one operation, if the billboard display system 20 is informed that a vehicle's fuel level is low, advertising for nearby gas stations appears. In another scenario, child-friendly venues advertise using the billboard display 30 to vehicles 12 carrying children as determined from the demographic information.
In one embodiment, at least one of impression counts, gaze estimation and emotive responses are collected and transmitted to advertisers remotely, such as to the remote cloud server 36, to gauge the success of advertisements provided on the billboard display 30. The billboard display system 20 is in communication over the internet or other communication with the cloud server 36. Thus, the billboard display system 20 provides demographic information to the cloud server 36 and receives advertising for viewing on the billboard display 30.
In some implementations, the above described system is controlled using at least one display controller 22. The display controller 22 includes one or more processing units (e.g., a processor, application specific integrated circuits (“ASIC”), etc.). Likewise, the vehicle electronic controller 42 can include one or more processing units as listed above.
The memory 26 of the display controller 22 and the memory 64 of the vehicle electronic controller 42 are non-transitory computer-readable medium in one embodiment. Both random access memory (RAM) and read only memory (ROM) are contemplated.
Besides the display controller 22, the electronic controller 42 uses the input/output interface 68 for sending and receiving information from one or more sensors or systems external to the electronic controller 42 (e.g., over a vehicle communication bus, such as a controller area network (CAN) bus or a FlexRay bus). In some implementations, the electronic controller 42 can also include one or more additional internal sensors or systems.
The billboard display 30 is an electronic billboard display that displays the electronic images from the display driver 28. The billboard display 30 is a video screen of plasma, LCD, LED or other digital light emitting arrangements. In some embodiments, a loudspeaker or sound output is also provided.
While at least one video camera 44 is contemplated, a plurality of video cameras are provided to obtain video data to detect occupants in some embodiments.
In referencing a situation wherein two vehicles are approaching the billboard display system 20, one vehicle can be considered a first vehicle having a first interior occupant sensing system with a first video camera and another vehicle can be considered a second vehicle having a second interior occupant sensing system with a second video camera. Of course, third, fourth, fifth, etc. vehicles having interior occupant sensing systems are also contemplated.
While
With the availability of an interior video camera 44 primarily used for occupant sensing, additional demographic data of each occupant in a vehicle 12 can be extracted from a camera image. This demographic metadata can be stored, analyzed and fused with a variety of other sensors and vehicle states to provide dense demographic profiles of drivers and passengers. This data is useful for marketers and advertisers.
Thus, the invention provides, among other things, methods for operating a billboard display system 20 to provide advertising directed to the occupants of vehicles 12 approaching a billboard display 30 and for operating an interior occupant sensing system 40 to provide information or data thereto.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/214,416 filed Sep. 4, 2015, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2016/050106 | 9/2/2016 | WO | 00 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62214416 | Sep 2015 | US |