1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to systems and methods of targeting advertisements, specifically, the invention is directed to multi-media delivery systems for connection to a television display
2. Background of the Invention
Multi-media delivery systems, such as PayTV services, rely on advertisement (ad) revenue. Increased in ad revenue depend on the ability of such systems to deliver targeted ads, maintain or increase the time viewers spend consuming content, empower viewers to consume content more efficiently (i.e. spending less time on browsing, searching, and selecting desirable content and more time on the actual consumption of the desirable content). To deliver targeted ads, systems need to identify viewers, match the viewers against their viewer profile, and pair each viewer with the available ad inventory. Content may refer to a television (TV) program, a movie, an interactive game, a video-on-demand program, a program stored on a digital video recorder (DVR), an audio program, an advertisement, a website, or another consumable media.
To maintain or even increase time viewers spend consuming content, as well as, to increase efficiency of content consumption, systems need to assist viewers with choosing from a possibly overwhelming choice of content. To assist viewers with the overwhelming content choice, a system should offer effective content recommendations. Effective content recommendation capability can be provided by a system if and when the system is aware of who is currently consuming the content. In other words, a system should be able to identify viewers to better assist the viewers to more efficiently browse, search for, and select content.
An additional benefit for a system that can identify viewers is viewers spend less time browsing, searching for, and selection desirable content and more time consuming the desirable content, further increasing the amount and effectiveness of targeted ad consumption.
Various methods are used by existing or proposed systems to identify viewers, all with various degrees of accuracy. To reduce the time it takes for the system to identify viewers and to improve the system's accuracy, some systems rely on the viewers to identify themselves, either by logging in (e.g. by pressing various key on a remote control) or by proactively submitting biometric data (e.g. by submitting voice samples or swiping a finger over a dedicated optical scanner). However, viewers tend to avoid active submission of their biometric data or participation in a log-in process. Such lack of viewer involvement leads to a lower than desirable number of viewer identifications.
The present invention overcomes the problems and disadvantages associated with current strategies and designs and provides new tools and methods of suggesting content and targeting advertisements.
One embodiment of the invention is directed to a behaviometrics measurement system to identify a viewer and determine at least one of a plurality of media to display to the viewer on a display device. The system comprises an input device, at least one passive sensor for behaviometrics measurement embedded in the input device, a first processor in electronic communication with the input device, and a second processor in electronic communication with the first processor. Software executing on the first processor obtains behaviometrics measurement data from the input device, parses the behaviometrics measurement data, determines the identity of the viewer from the parsed behaviometrics measurement data, obtains viewer behavior data for the identified viewer, and exports the identity and viewer behavior data of the viewer to the second processor.
Software executing on the second processor receives the identity and viewer behavior data of the viewer from the first processor, parses the identity and viewer behavior data, determines at least one of a plurality of media to display to the viewer, and exports the at least one media to the first processor.
In a preferred embodiment, the media is at least one of an advertisement or content for display on the display device. Preferably, the media is content for display on the display device and the software executing on the second processor recommends the content to the viewer. The media is preferably an advertisement for display on the display device and the system displays the advertisement injected into content the viewer is currently consuming. In a preferred embodiment, the advertisement is targeted to the viewer.
Preferably, at least one behaviometrics measurement sensor senses at least one of changes in spatial positioning of the input device, motion of the input device, force of buttons pressed on the input device, a fingerprint sensor of a viewer interacting with the input device, and spatial positioning and motion of a viewer. At least one sensor preferably obtains the behaviometrics measurement data without the viewer actively providing the biometric data.
In a preferred embodiment, the viewer behavior data is at least one of history of content a viewer consumed in the past, when the viewer consumed the content, and actions taken by the viewer while the content was consumed. Preferably, at least one sensor is at least one of a force sensor, a fingerprint sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a magnetic field sensor. Preferably, the second processor is housed in one of a set-top-box, a media player, a television, a computer, a tablet, or a hand-held media device.
Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a method of identifying a viewer and determining at least one of a plurality of media to display to the viewer on a display device. The method comprises, at least one processor, obtaining behaviometrics measurement data from an input device, parsing the behaviometrics measurement data, determining the identity of the viewer from the parsed behaviometrics measurement data, obtaining viewer behaviometrics measurement data for the identified viewer, parsing the identity and viewer behaviometrics measurement data, determining at least one of a plurality of media to display to the viewer from the parsed data, and exporting the at least one media for display on the display device.
Preferably, the media is at least one of an advertisement or content for display on the display device. In the preferred embodiment, the media is content for display on the display device, further comprising recommending the content to the viewer. The media is preferably, an advertisement for display on the display device, further comprising displaying the advertisement with the content the viewer is currently consuming. Preferably, the advertisement is targeted to the viewer.
Preferably, the step of obtaining behaviometrics measurement data from an input device comprises sensing at least one of changes in spatial positioning of the input device, motion of the input device, force of buttons pressed on the input device, a fingerprint sensor data of a viewer interacting with the input device, and spatial positioning and motion of a viewer. In a preferred embodiment, the sensing occurs with the viewer passively providing behaviometrics measurement data with at least one sensor. Preferably at least one sensor is at least one of a force sensor, a fingerprint sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a magnetic field sensor.
The viewer behaviometrics measurement data is preferably combined and stored with at least one of history of content a viewer consumed in the past, when the viewer consumed the content, and actions taken by the viewer while the content was consumed. Preferably, the processor is housed in one of a set-top-box, a media player, a television, a computer, a tablet, or a hand-held media device.
Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a remote for a multi-media device. The remote comprises a plurality of buttons, at least one sensor embedded in the remote, a transmitter, and a processor in communication with the plurality of buttons, the at least one biometric sensor, and the transmitter. The at least one sensor obtains the behaviometrics measurement data with a viewer passively providing the behaviometrics measurement data.
Preferably, there are buttons in at least two faces of the remote. In a preferred embodiment, at least one sensor senses at least one of changes in spatial positioning of the input device, motion of the input device, force of buttons pressed on the input device, a fingerprint sensor of a viewer interacting with the input device, and spatial positioning and motion of a viewer. Preferably, at least one sensor is at least one of a force sensor, a fingerprint sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a magnetic field sensor.
Other embodiments and advantages of the invention are set forth in part in the description, which follows, and in part, may be obvious from this description, or may be learned from the practice of the invention.
The invention is described in greater detail by way of example only and with reference to the attached drawing, in which:
As embodied and broadly described herein, the disclosures herein provide detailed embodiments of the invention. However, the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. Therefore, there is no intent that specific structural and functional details should be limiting, but rather the intention is that they provide a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention
This invention offers systems and methods for effective ad targeting and content recommending enabled by increased accuracy, speed, and number of viewer identifications. This invention identifies viewers by combining and processing passively obtained viewer behaviometrics measurement data with data from an Audience Measurement System (AMS).
Passively obtained behaviometrics measurement data is preferably collected by a remote control. The passively obtained behaviometrics measurement data can include, but is not limited to, changes in spatial positioning of the remote control, motion of the remote control, force with which the viewer pressed keys (such force can be collected by force sensors embedded into the remote control buttons), viewer's fingerprint recognition (e.g. from an optical, ultrasonic, or capacitance sensor embedded into one or more of the remote control buttons), or a viewer's spatial positioning and motion (e.g. obtained by one or more proximity sensors or a low resolution optical sensor embedded into a television, set top box, or other viewer facing device). The behaviometrics measurement data is obtained passively, without a viewer actively providing the behaviometrics measurement data or entering information. For example, the viewer does not have to actively and consciously swipe their finger over a fingerprint reader, type in a user identifier, or provide a voice sample.
The behaviometrics measurement data is preferably combined with a viewer's AMS data which comprises content, ad, and product consumption data as well as any product ordering data. For example, the AMS can collect data on what viewer consumed or ordered the content (e.g. correlated to content, ad, or product unique identifier), when the viewer consumed or ordered the content (e.g. by logging a timestamp of a beginning of the content consumption, the content's duration, and logging a timestamp and duration of an ordered product), actions taken by the viewer (e.g. volume up or down, mute, fast forward, pause, or other key presses related to product placement, product promotions, or product purchases).
Combining the behaviometrics measurement data with data from the AMS via known data mining and data processing algorithms provides substantially improved accuracy, speed, and number of positive viewer identifications over existing systems.
The instant system is preferably able to more effectively generate ad revenue from targeted ad placement, affiliated fees received from product related transactions, and sales of premium content over existing systems.
Additionally, in the preferred embodiment, subset of All Buttons 105 includes Buttons with MEMS Force sensors 106, comprised of Front side buttons with Force Sensors 110 and Back side buttons with Force Sensors 120. When keys 111-116 on Front side buttons with Force Sensors 110 (as depicted in
In the preferred embodiment, processing unit 104 uses embedded software to process data collected from sensors 106, 130, and 140. Processing unit 104 processes the data, packages the data, and sends the data to multi-media adapter 850 through wireless communication interface 107. Preferably, wireless communication interface 107 is an infrared or IEEE 802.15 interface.
Although the exemplary environment described herein employs flash memory, it is appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of computer readable media which can store data that are accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, hard drives, digital versatile disks, cartridges, random access memories (RAMs), read only memory (ROM), a cable or wireless signal containing a bit stream and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operating environment.
Multi-media adapter 850 preferably further includes both a wired communications interface 820 and a wireless communications interface 810. Interfaces 820 and 810 are able to connect to, for example, the Internet 821, one or more Local Area Networks (“LANs”) 811, one or more Metropolitan Area Networks (“MANs”), one or more Wide Area Networks (“WANs”), one or more Bluetooth networks 812, one or more radios 813, one or more GPS systems 814, one or more 3G or 4G modems 815, one or more RF4CE (Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics) systems 816, one or more Intranets, one or more telephone networks 822, one or more storage interfaces 823, etc. Furthermore, interfaces 820 and 810 may also connect to distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by local and remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwired links, wireless links, or by a combination thereof) through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
To enable user interaction with multi-media adapter 850, multi-media adapter 850 can receive input from a number of input mechanisms in addition to remote control 150, such as a microphone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphical input, a keyboard, a mouse, motion input, RJ-45, USB, and so forth. In some instances, multimodal systems enable a viewer to provide multiple types of input to communicate with the multi-media adapter 850. There is no restriction on the invention operating on any particular hardware arrangement and therefore the basic features here may easily be substituted for improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.
Multi-media adapter 850 further includes at least one output port 803 and 804. Output port 803, for example connects multi-media adapter 850 to a TV while output port 804 connects to a speaker. Preferably, output ports 803 and 804 are one of an HDMI port, optical audio port, serial port, USB port, networking port, s-video port, coaxial cable port, composite video, composite audio, and/or VGA port. In preferred embodiments, multi-media adapter 850 may also include additional auxiliary components (e.g. power management devices or digital audio convertors).
For clarity of explanation, the illustrative system embodiments are presented as comprising individual functional blocks. The functions these blocks represent may be provided through the use of either shared or dedicated hardware, including, but not limited to, hardware capable of executing software. For example the functions of one or more processors presented in the figures may be provided by a single shared processor or multiple processors. (Use of the term “processor” should not be construed to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software.) Illustrative embodiments may comprise microprocessor and/or digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, read-only memory (ROM) for storing software performing the operations discussed below, and random access memory (RAM) for storing results. Very large scale integration (VLSI) hardware embodiments, as well as custom VLSI circuitry in combination with a general purpose DSP circuit, may also be provided.
Embodiments within the scope of the present invention include computer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures. When information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or combination thereof) to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of the computer-readable media.
Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Computer-executable instructions also include program modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or network environments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, and data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, and program modules represent examples of the program code means for executing steps of the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or associated data structures represents examples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions described in such steps.
Other embodiments and uses of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. All references cited herein, including all publications, U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications, are specifically and entirely incorporated by reference. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered exemplary only with the true scope and spirit of the invention indicated by the following claims. Furthermore, the term “comprising of” includes the terms “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of.”
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/680464, filed Aug. 7, 2012, entitled “Multi-Media Ad Targeting and Content Recommendation with Viewer Identity Detection System,” and is hereby specifically and entirely incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61680464 | Aug 2012 | US |