Patent Application
20180082340
This disclosure generally relates to automatically pausing an advertisement that is being presented on a user interface in response to input to the user interface that is determined to indicate a lack of engagement or attention.
Video-based advertisements are often presented in connection with other video content. For example, when a user visits a video (or other media) content hosting site or service and selects a video to watch, it is common to serve a pre-roll ad that begins rolling before the selected video or to serve some other type of advertisement.
The following presents a simplified summary of the specification in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the specification. This summary is not an extensive overview of the specification. It is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of the specification nor delineate the scope of any particular embodiments of the specification, or any scope of the claims. Its purpose is to present some concepts of the specification in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented in this disclosure.
Systems disclosed herein relate to pausing a presentation of an advertisement when it is inferred the presentation does not have sufficient attention. A communication component can be configured to receive media data associated with a media content item selected for presentation. The communication component can also receive ad data associated with an advertisement that is to be presented in connection with a presentation of the media content item. A presentation component can be configured to employ a user interface to provide a presentation of the advertisement based on the ad data. A pausing component can be configured to facilitate pausing the presentation of the advertisement in response to input to the user interface that is determined to indicate the presentation of the advertisement lacks attention.
The following description and the drawings set forth certain illustrative aspects of the specification. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the specification may be employed. Other advantages and novel features of the specification will become apparent from the following detailed description of the specification when considered in conjunction with the drawings.
Numerous aspects, embodiments, objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:
Media content (e.g., video) hosting sites or services often serve an advertisement (e.g., a pre-roll ad) prior to presenting the requested content or at some point during the presentation of the requested content. In many cases, these advertisements, whether pre-roll or not, can be skipped either immediately or after a few seconds. Since the ads can be skipped, content consumers are generally not required to view the ad before viewing or returning to the requested content. Rather, the content consumer is afforded to opportunity to watch the ad if desired or to skip the ad otherwise.
Unfortunately, a very common scenario arises in which the content consumer is not interested in the advertisement, but does not skip the ad. Instead, the content consumer might read comments associated with the requested content (which might even scroll the presentation of the ad off the screen); switch to another task such as creating an email; or otherwise ignores the ad. As another example, the content consumer might be interested in the ad, but receive a phone call that prompts the content consumer to mute the presentation before answering the phone.
Such behavior is particularly disadvantageous to advertisers because the advertiser is usually charged while the ad is streaming, irrespective of whether the content consumer is paying attention to the ad. Therefore, it is often the case that the advertiser will prefer their ad be skipped by a user rather than the ad being played and ignored. However, it is generally presumed the content consumer is interested in the ad and paying attention to the ad. Otherwise, the content consumer would have skipped the ad. But as noted above, it is common for content consumer that is not interested in an ad (or otherwise engaged) to let the ad play while the content consumer focuses attention elsewhere.
In order to mitigate these or other issues, the disclosed subject matter can detect or determine that a content consumer is not engaged or no paying attention to an ad. In response, the advertisement being presented can be paused and remain paused until it is detected or determined that the content consumer is once again engaged in the presentation of the advertisement. Hence, content consumers not interested in the ad can skip the ad and content consumer interested in the ad, but temporarily engaged elsewhere (e.g., a phone call), can resume the ad where it was paused. In either case, the advertiser can be billed more appropriately.
In some embodiments, determining whether the content consumer is engaged with the presentation of the advertisement can be accomplished by examining the content consumer's transactions with the user interface that is presenting the advertisement. For example, if the content consumer minimizes the application (e.g., a browser) that is presenting the ad, then it can be inferred the content consumer is not paying attention to the ad and the ad can be automatically paused. The act of minimizing generally requires an input to the user interface (e.g., clicking a minimize button or other UI element), and such input or resultant actions or data can be employed to determine a lack of attention.
Numerous other examples can exist as well, some or all of which relate to or can be detected based on input to the user interface. For example, reducing or muting the volume, either globally for the user device or specifically for the application that is presenting the advertisement, can also indicate a lack of attention. If the presentation of the advertisement is scrolled off screen or otherwise occluded (e.g., by another user interface element) or the presentation of the advertisement is not a primary active element of the user interface (e.g., a different application such as an email application, window, or user interface element has primary focus), then such can be an indication of a lack of attention.
In some embodiments, when it is detected or determined that the presentation of the advertisement no longer lacks attention, then the ad can be automatically resumed or unpaused. In other embodiments, the ad might resume only in response to manual instruction to do so. In some embodiments, a feature to skip the ad can be presented in response to the return of user attention, which can be independent of time-based or other criterion that is typically satisfied prior to enabling the skip ad feature. Hence it is to be appreciated that the intent of some embodiments of the subject matter described herein is not necessarily focused on requiring the content consumer to view the ad, which might lead to dissatisfaction, but rather to remove advertising inefficiencies. Content consumers can now be less likely to miss advertisements that do interest them and more disposed to skip those that do not interest them.
Various aspects or features of this disclosure are described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In this specification, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of this disclosure. It should be understood, however, that certain aspects of disclosure may be practiced without these specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form to facilitate describing the subject disclosure.
It is to be appreciated that in accordance with one or more implementations described in this disclosure, users can opt-out of providing personal information, demographic information, location information, proprietary information, sensitive information, machine information, or the like in connection with data gathering aspects. Moreover, one or more implementations described herein can provide for anonymizing collected, received, or transmitted data.
Referring now to
Communication component 102 can be configured to receive media data 104 associated with a media content 106 item that is selected for presentation. Communication component 102 can also receive ad data 108 associated with an advertisement 110 that is to be presented in connection with a presentation of the media content 106. For example, advertisement 110 can be a pre-roll ad that is presented prior to the presentation of the media content 106, or a different type of ad such as an ad that is presented after some portion of media content 106 has been presented.
Presentation component 112 can be configured to employ a user interface to provide a presentation 114 of advertisement 110 based on ad data 108. Pausing component 116 can be configured to facilitate pausing the presentation 114 of advertisement 110. Such can be accomplished by way of pause command 118 that can be transmitted to presentation component 112. Pausing component 116 can transmit pause command 118 and/or facilitate pausing of presentation 114 in response to input to the user interface that is determined to indicate the presentation 114 of the advertisement 110 lacks attention from a content consumer that requested media content 106. Additional detail in connection with pause command 118, the user interface and associated input that can be used to determine a lack of attention is further detailed with reference to
Whether presentation 114 lacks attention, has regained, or lost the focus of attention can be determined by other components detailed herein and is further detailed in connection with
While still referring to
Attention determination 120 (e.g., whether presentation 114 lacks attention or not) can be inferred based on input 208 to user interface 206. Such input 208 is not intended to include input that expressly pauses or otherwise affects presentation 114 (e.g., the content consumer manually pauses presentation 114), but rather other input 208 from which it can be inferred that presentation 114 lacks the attention of the content consumer. Various non-limiting examples of input 208 are further discussed in connection with
As noted supra, pausing command 118 can include instructions based on the data included in attention determination 120. For example, if it is determined that a content consumer associated with user interface 206 in which advertisement 110 is being presented withdraws attention from presentation 114, then attention determination 120 can include data indicating presentation 114 lacks attention. In response, pausing component 116 can transmit pause instruction 202 to presentation component 112, which can facilitate a pausing operation associated with presentation 114. As another example, if it is determined that the content consumer returns attention to presentation 114, then attention determination 120 can include data indicating presentation 114 has attention or no longer lacks attention. In that case, pausing component 116 can transmit resume instruction 204 to presentation component 112, which can facilitate resuming or unpausing presentation 114 on user interface 206. Hence, it is understood that pause command 118 can include instructions to pause, resume, or otherwise affect presentation 114.
In some embodiments, presentation 114 need not be automatically resumed in response to attention determination 120 indicating that presentation 114 has regained the attention of the content consumer. Rather, presentation 114 can remain paused until such is manually overridden, for instance, by selection of a user interface element that plays or unpauses the presentation.
Referring now to
Presentation component 112 (depicted in
System 300 can also include focus component 308 that can be configured to determine that presentation 114 of advertisement 110 (or another presentation) lacks attention. Focus component 308 can also determine that presentation 114 has regained attention and/or no longer lacks attention. In any case, the attention information inferred by focus component 308 can be provided to system 100 (e.g., pausing component 116) by way of attention determination 120. Based on the type of information included in attention determination 120, system 100 can issue pause command 118 (e.g., an instruction to pause or resume presentation 114, e.g., issued by pausing component 116 and received by presentation component 112), which can be forwarded to user interface 206 and/or device 306.
Focus component 308 can determine that presentation 114 lacks attention and/or construct attention determination 120 based on attention data 310 that can be received from device 306 and/or user interface 206. Non-limiting examples of attention data 310 are provided in connection with
With reference now to
As another example, focus component 308 can determine presentation 114 either has or lacks attention based on volume data 404. For instance, if the volume setting is low or reduced or is muted, then such can be used to infer a lack of attention. The volume can relate to a global setting for device 306 or for a particular application such as a media player in which advertisement 110 is presented. Presentation scroll data 406 and presentation occlusion data 408 can be other examples of attention data 310. If presentation 114 is scrolled so that all or a portion leaves the visible user interface 206 or if another application or user interface element (e.g., a window) occludes presentation 114, then such attention data 310 can be identified and employed to infer attention determination 120.
Active element data 410 can also represent attention data 310. For example, most user interfaces (e.g., user interface 206) track an active user interface element for various reasons such as to determine which interface element is to receive input. If a text editor application and an email application are both running on a device, and the user begins typing input via a keyboard, then the keyboard commands will routed to the application that is active, but not to the application that is not active. Generally, when a user requests media content (e.g., media content 106), then a browser with an embedded media player or another application used to access the media content will be the active user interface element.
Suppose a pre-roll ad (e.g., advertisement 110) is served to the browser and begins playback (e.g., presentation 114), at which point the content consumer switches to an email application to read an email. Upon switching to the email application, the user interface (e.g., user interface 206) or another component of an associated device (e.g., device 306) will switch the active user interface element from the browser to the email application. Associated data can be provided to focus component 308 as attention data 310, from which it can be inferred that presentation 114 lacks attention (e.g., since the user selected the email application while advertisement 110 was being presented).
Turning now to
In some embodiments, skip ad mechanism 512 can be provided in response to a determination that presentation 114 lacks attention. For example, if it is inferred a content consumer is not engaged with presentation 114 resulting in pausing presentation 114, when the content consumer's attention returns to presentation 114, presentation 114 can resume and also provide skip ad mechanism 512, even in cases where such might not otherwise be available. In certain embodiments, skip ad mechanism 512 can be automatically selected upon detection that presentation 114 has regained attention. For instance, in cases where attention data 310 indicates the content consumer is not interested in advertisement 110 as opposed to indicating that the content consumer is merely temporarily engaged (e.g., an important phone call inferred from a mute of the volume, etc.).
In some embodiments, skip ad mechanism 512 can be provided immediately at the initiation of presentation 114 or can become visible or active after some determined time (e.g., after 5 seconds). In the latter case, skip ad mechanism 512 can be activated and/or become visible on user interface 206 after the expiration of a timer 516 for skip ad mechanism 512. In some embodiments, selection of skip ad mechanism 512 can result in instructions to terminate presentation 114 of advertisement 110 and invoke a presentation of media content 106. If the content consumer is potentially interested in an advertisement, but not the advertisement being presented, new ad mechanism 514 can be selected. Such can result in instructions to terminate presentation 114 of advertisement 110 and invoke a different presentation 114 of a different advertisement 110.
Consider the case where attention data 310 indicates that volume associated with presentation 114 is muted and that another user interface element becomes the active element that occludes display 502 two seconds into presentation 114. In that case, focus component 308 can determine that presentation 114 lacks attention and provide associated attention determination 120 to pausing component 116 that indicates presentation 114 should be paused (since it is inferred to lack attention), by way of pause command 118, which is issued either by pausing component 116 or presentation component 112. In response, presentation 114 that is being presented via display area 502 can be paused at the two second mark.
Suppose that after a few minutes, the volume is unmuted and the application that includes display area 502 is no longer occluded, which can be received by way of attention data 310. In response, focus component 308 can infer there is no longer a lack of attention and provide pausing component 116 with associated data (e.g., attention determination 120). Pausing component 118 can issue another pause command 118 that can include instructions to resume presentation 114 on display 502 at the point at which the presentation was paused (e.g., after two seconds).
Further suppose that content hosting policy is to only enable skip ad mechanism 512 after 10 seconds. In some embodiments, skip ad mechanism 512 can be enabled prior to expiration of the 10 second timer 516, such as immediately upon determination that presentation 114 no longer lacks attention (e.g., after only two seconds in this example). In other embodiments, presentation 114 might be required to continue running for eight more seconds before skip ad mechanism 512 is enabled. Accordingly, in addition to transmitting pause command 118 to user interface 206 (or device 306), a similar pause command 118 can be transmitted to timer 516. Therefore, timer 516 can count time only while advertisement 110 is running and/or only when it is determined presentation 114 does not lack attention.
At reference numeral 604, ad data associated with an advertisement that is to be presented in association with a presentation of the video can be received (e.g., by the communication component). The advertisement can be a pre-roll advertisement that is presented prior to the presentation of the media content, or a different type of advertisement such as one that is presented after some portion of media content has been presented.
At reference numeral 606, a user interface can be employed for providing a presentation of the advertisement (e.g., by a presentation component). At reference numeral 608, it can be determined that the presentation of the advertisement lost a focus status in connection with the user interface (e.g., by a focus component). For example, various indicators from the user interface that is presenting the advertisement can be utilized to infer whether the presentation has attention or focus. Thus, determination that the focus status is lost can be constructed in response to input to the user interface.
At reference numeral 610, the presentation of the advertisement can be paused (e.g., by a pausing component) in response to the determining the presentation of the advertisement lost the focus status. Method 700 can end or proceed to insert A.
Turning now to
At reference numeral 704, resuming the presentation of the advertisement can be facilitated in response to the determination at reference numeral 702 that the presentation of the advertisement has received the focus status. Additionally or alternatively, resuming the presentation of the advertisement can be facilitated in response to input data received by the user interface (e.g., a user manually unpauses the paused presentation), which is illustrated by reference numeral 706.
At reference numeral 708, the presentation of the advertisement can be terminated in response to skip input data associated with a skip ad element included in the user interface. At reference numeral 710, a timer associated with the skip ad element can be paused in response to the determining the presentation of the advertisement lost the focus status. Method 700 ends.
The systems and processes described below can be embodied within hardware, such as a single integrated circuit (IC) chip, multiple ICs, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or the like. Further, the order in which some or all of the process blocks appear in each process should not be deemed limiting. Rather, it should be understood that some of the process blocks can be executed in a variety of orders, not all of which may be explicitly illustrated herein.
With reference to
The system bus 808 can be any of several types of bus structure(s) including the memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus or external bus, and/or a local bus using any variety of available bus architectures including, but not limited to, Industrial Standard Architecture (ISA), Micro-Channel Architecture (MSA), Extended ISA (EISA), Intelligent Drive Electronics (IDE), VESA Local Bus (VLB), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Card Bus, Universal Serial Bus (USB), Advanced Graphics Port (AGP), Personal Computer Memory Card International Association bus (PCMCIA), Firewire (IEEE 1394), and Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) or others now in existence or later developed.
The system memory 806 includes volatile memory 810 and non-volatile memory 812. The basic input/output system (BIOS), containing the basic routines to transfer information between elements within the computer 802, such as during start-up, is stored in non-volatile memory 812. In addition, according to present innovations, codec 835 may include at least one of an encoder or decoder, wherein the at least one of an encoder or decoder may consist of hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. Although, codec 835 is depicted as a separate component, codec 835 may be contained within non-volatile memory 812 or included in other components detailed herein. By way of illustration, and not limitation, non-volatile memory 812 can include read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory 810 includes random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. According to present aspects, the volatile memory may store the write operation retry logic (not shown in
Computer 802 may also include removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer storage medium.
It is to be appreciated that
A user enters commands or information into the computer 802 through input device(s) 828. Input devices 828 include, but are not limited to, a pointing device such as a mouse, stylus, touch pad, keyboard, microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, TV tuner card, digital camera, digital video camera, web camera, and the like. These and other input devices connect to the processing unit 804 through the system bus 808 via interface port(s) 830. Interface port(s) 830 include, for example, a serial port, a parallel port, a game port, and a universal serial bus (USB). Output device(s) 836 use some of the same type of ports as input device(s) 828. Thus, for example, a USB port may be used to provide input to computer 802 and to output information from computer 802 to an output device 836. Output adapter 834 is provided to illustrate that there are some output devices 836 like monitors, speakers, and printers, among other output devices 836, which require special adapters. The output adapters 834 include, by way of illustration and not limitation, video and sound cards that provide a means of connection between the output device 836 and the system bus 808. It should be noted that other devices and/or systems of devices provide both input and output capabilities such as remote computer(s) 838.
Computer 802 can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as remote computer(s) 838. The remote computer(s) 838 can be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a workstation, a microprocessor based appliance, a peer device, a smart phone, a tablet, or other network node, and typically includes many of the elements described relative to computer 802. For purposes of brevity, only a memory storage device 840 is illustrated with remote computer(s) 838. Remote computer(s) 838 is logically connected to computer 802 through a network interface 842 and then connected via communication connection(s) 844. Network interface 842 encompasses wire and/or wireless communication networks such as local-area networks (LAN) and wide-area networks (WAN) and cellular networks. LAN technologies include Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI), Ethernet, Token Ring and the like. WAN technologies include, but are not limited to, point-to-point links, circuit switching networks like Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN) and variations thereon, packet switching networks, and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL).
Communication connection(s) 844 refers to the hardware/software employed to connect the network interface 842 to the bus 808. While communication connection 844 is shown for illustrative clarity inside computer 802, it can also be external to computer 802. The hardware/software necessary for connection to the network interface 842 includes, for exemplary purposes only, internal and external technologies such as, modems including regular telephone grade modems, cable modems and DSL modems, ISDN adapters, and wired and wireless Ethernet cards, hubs, and routers.
Referring now to
Communications can be facilitated via a wired (including optical fiber) and/or wireless technology. The client(s) 902 are operatively connected to one or more client data store(s) 908 that can be employed to store information local to the client(s) 902 (e.g., cookie(s) and/or associated contextual information). Similarly, the server(s) 904 are operatively connected to one or more server data store(s) 910 that can be employed to store information local to the servers 904.
In one embodiment, a client 902 can transfer an encoded file, in accordance with the disclosed subject matter, to server 904. Server 904 can store the file, decode the file, or transmit the file to another client 902. It is to be appreciated, that a client 902 can also transfer uncompressed file to a server 904 and server 904 can compress the file in accordance with the disclosed subject matter. Likewise, server 904 can encode video information and transmit the information via communication framework 906 to one or more clients 902.
The illustrated aspects of the disclosure may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where certain tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules can be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
Moreover, it is to be appreciated that various components described herein can include electrical circuit(s) that can include components and circuitry elements of suitable value in order to implement the embodiments of the subject innovation(s). Furthermore, it can be appreciated that many of the various components can be implemented on one or more integrated circuit (IC) chips. For example, in one embodiment, a set of components can be implemented in a single IC chip. In other embodiments, one or more of respective components are fabricated or implemented on separate IC chips.
What has been described above includes examples of the embodiments of the present invention. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the claimed subject matter, but it is to be appreciated that many further combinations and permutations of the subject innovation are possible. Accordingly, the claimed subject matter is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Moreover, the above description of illustrated embodiments of the subject disclosure, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosed embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. While specific embodiments and examples are described herein for illustrative purposes, various modifications are possible that are considered within the scope of such embodiments and examples, as those skilled in the relevant art can recognize. Moreover, use of the term “an embodiment” or “one embodiment” throughout is not intended to mean the same embodiment unless specifically described as such.
In particular and in regard to the various functions performed by the above described components, devices, circuits, systems and the like, the terms used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component which performs the specified function of the described component (e.g., a functional equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure, which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary aspects of the claimed subject matter. In this regard, it will also be recognized that the innovation includes a system as well as a computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the acts and/or events of the various methods of the claimed subject matter.
The aforementioned systems/circuits/modules have been described with respect to interaction between several components/blocks. It can be appreciated that such systems/circuits and components/blocks can include those components or specified sub-components, some of the specified components or sub-components, and/or additional components, and according to various permutations and combinations of the foregoing. Sub-components can also be implemented as components communicatively coupled to other components rather than included within parent components (hierarchical). Additionally, it should be noted that one or more components may be combined into a single component providing aggregate functionality or divided into several separate sub-components, and any one or more middle layers, such as a management layer, may be provided to communicatively couple to such sub-components in order to provide integrated functionality. Any components described herein may also interact with one or more other components not specifically described herein but known by those of skill in the art.
In addition, while a particular feature of the subject innovation may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “includes,” “including,” “has,” “contains,” variants thereof, and other similar words are used in either the detailed description or the claims, these terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as an open transition word without precluding any additional or other elements.
As used in this application, the terms “component,” “module,” “system,” or the like are generally intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware (e.g., a circuit), a combination of hardware and software, software, or an entity related to an operational machine with one or more specific functionalities. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor (e.g., digital signal processor), a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a controller and the controller can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. Further, a “device” can come in the form of specially designed hardware; generalized hardware made specialized by the execution of software thereon that enables the hardware to perform specific function; software stored on a computer readable medium; or a combination thereof.
Moreover, the words “example” or “exemplary” are used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the words “example” or “exemplary” is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in this application, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form.
Computing devices typically include a variety of media, which can include computer-readable storage media and/or communications media, in which these two terms are used herein differently from one another as follows. Computer-readable storage media can be any available storage media that can be accessed by the computer, is typically of a non-transitory nature, and can include both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable storage media can be implemented in connection with any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, program modules, structured data, or unstructured data. Computer-readable storage media can include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible and/or non-transitory media which can be used to store desired information. Computer-readable storage media can be accessed by one or more local or remote computing devices, e.g., via access requests, queries or other data retrieval protocols, for a variety of operations with respect to the information stored by the medium.
On the other hand, communications media typically embody computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other structured or unstructured data in a data signal that can be transitory such as a modulated data signal, e.g., a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery or transport media. The term “modulated data signal” or signals refers to a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in one or more signals. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media include wired media, such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.
