The present invention relates generally to the field of media labeling. In particular, the invention relates to methods and systems for labeling digital media with advertising content.
Digital video recorders are devices that are able to record and play audio or video content from satellite, cable or broadcast television. Digital video recorders may make use of a hard drive to record such content. However, other types of digital media have become increasingly popular for recording, storing and playing back the content. For example, digital media, such as compact discs (CDs) or digital versatile discs (DVDs), are a popular form of storage media. Recently, writable digital media have become increasingly popular among users and can be used for storing audio and video content.
Many digital video recorders are provided with the ability to extract and delete advertisements from the broadcast content. For example, commercials interspersed throughout a broadcast television program may be deleted or skipped by the digital video recorder during either recording or playback in order to improve the continuity of the program. As this practice becomes increasingly prevalent, the loss to advertisers and broadcasters may cause harm to the industry in general, which could, in turn, adversely impact consumers by increasing the cost or reducing the availability of program content to consumers.
One embodiment of the invention relates to a method of writing data to a digital medium. The method includes receiving data from a source, the data including primary content and advertising content unrelated to the primary content, writing the primary content to a data portion of a digital medium, and writing at least a portion of the advertising content to a labeling layer of the digital medium.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and exemplary only, and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.
Referring to
The digital media device 110 may receive data broadcast by an over-the-air broadcaster 140 as radio-frequency signals. The data may also be received from a server 120 through a communication network 130, such as the Internet. In this regard, the data may be received as streamed video and/or audio data from a server on the Internet. In other embodiments, the data may be downloaded from the web server 120 by the digital media device 110.
The digital media device 110 also includes a controller 210 adapted to decode data for recording or playback. The controller 210 may be adapted to communicate with various components of the digital media device 110, including the receiver module 220, a memory device 230 such as a hard disk, an output interface 240 and a digital media drive 250.
Upon receiving the data from the source, the controller 210 may analyze or process the data. The processing of the data may be determined according to user input, indication by the source or a pre-determined algorithm implemented in the controller 210. In one embodiment, a user may provide input to the digital media device 110 directing the controller 210 to either playback the data or to store the data in the memory device 230 or a removable storage media, such as a DVD+RW disc, in the digital media drive 250. Further, the controller 210 may be adapted to determine whether the data from the source includes any advertising content. In this regard, the data may include advertising content overlaid or interleaved with the primary content. The presence of the advertising content may be indicated within a header packet of the streamed data, for example. As described below, advertising content embedded in the data may be extracted for printing onto a labeling layer of a digital medium.
The memory device 230 may be provided with pre-stored templates to facilitate labeling digital media. In this regard, the templates may correspond to a specific media type, such as CD or DVD. For example, a template may be in the form of a surface of a disk and may allocate regions of the template for printing of various information, including advertisements as described below with reference to
Referring now to
The digital medium 300 includes a labeling layer 350 on one surface. One such labeling layer 350 includes a layer of laser-sensitive film on a disc and is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0108708 A1. The energy in a laser causes the laser-sensitive film to change color, thereby producing an optically visible image. The digital medium 300 is provided with a central opening 302 for mounting the digital medium 300 onto a digital media drive, for example.
In a particular embodiment, the laser can activate the laser-sensitive film, which may be arranged as a single spiral track or a plurality of circular tracks, similar to the arrangement of digital data on a digital medium. Each track may be approximately 20 microns wide, for example.
Referring now to
A protective layer 330 is provided to protect the data layer 320. The protective layer 330 may be, for example, an aluminum or gold reflective layer. A thin layer of clear lacquer 340, such as acrylic, is provided for further protection. The lacquer layer 340 may have a thickness of approximately four microns. A thin labeling film (approximately 8 microns thick) of a laser-sensitive material forming the labeling layer 350 is positioned on the lacquer layer 340. The thickness and materials of these layers 310, 320, 330, 340, 350 is not limiting on the present invention. In one embodiment, the laser is positioned adjacent labeling layer 350 when labeling the medium 300.
Referring now to
At block 620, a determination is made as to whether the data received from the source includes an advertising content. If the data does not include any advertising content, the process 600 proceeds to block 660. On the other hand, if the data does include advertising content, the process 600 proceeds to block 630.
At block 630, the advertising content and the primary content are separated. This may be achieved in a variety of manners. For example, in one embodiment, streaming data may include a header block for each packet of streamed data indicating whether the data in the packet is primary content or advertising content. A value in the header block of the data packet may be used to determine whether the data packet includes advertising content or primary content. In another embodiment, the primary content may be separated from print files containing the advertising content according to systems and methods described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/628,902, filed Jul. 28, 2003, titled “System and Method for Distinguishing Between Data and Print Files in an Archived File.” For example, a “manifest” file may be generated and included with the data received from the source. A manifest file is a type of metadata that assigns the primary content and the advertising content identifiable locations within the data received from the source. In other words, the manifest file or the metadata provides the primary content and advertising content paths along with their format information. The metadata or the information in the manifest file may be used to automatically determine which portions of the data include primary content and which portions include advertising content. With the primary content and the advertising content separated, the process 600 proceeds to block 640 and obtains a labeling template for printing of advertising content to the labeling layer of the digital medium.
The advertising content contained in the data may be in the form of audio and/or video data. The data may contain corresponding graphical or text data suitable for printing onto a labeling layer. For example, an audio/video advertisement for an automobile may have a corresponding printable advertisement embedded within the data received from the source. Alternatively, the data from the source may include instructions to retrieve the printable advertising content from another source, such as another web server.
Advertising content, as used herein, refers to content that is unrelated to the primary content. In this regard, the advertising content may be indicative of an advertisement for a product, a service, another program or another episode of the program in the primary content, for example. Further, as unrelated to the primary content, the advertising content may be different for the same primary content downloaded by or streamed to different individuals or locations, or for the same individuals or locations but at different times.
Similarly, the data may include instructions to retrieve a labeling template for printing of the advertising content. The instructions may indicate a standardized template stored within the digital media device or a template to be retrieved from another source. In this regard, one or more labeling templates may be stored in a local storage device, such as the memory device 230 of the digital media device 110 shown in
At block 650, the printable advertising content is written to the labeling layer of the digital medium. Other information, such as the title of the primary content, or the program, may also be printed according to the template.
At block 660, the primary content is written to the data portion of the digital medium. As described above, in the case of a CD or DVD, the primary content may be written to the data portion using an optical module adapted to generate a laser beam.
Although the flow chart of
Thus, the user is provided with a convenient way of recording or storing a program without advertisements, while advertisers are provided with an outlet for the advertisements.
The foregoing description of embodiments of the invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and modifications and variation are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention and its practical application to enable one skilled in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modification as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto and their equivalents.