Patent Application
20080222272
This disclosure is directed to the stripping of data, such as advertisements, from communications from the Internet or other audio/video/multimedia-capable network and replacing the stripped data with new data, at the edge of the network, preferably closer to the end-user.
As with television, cable, satellite and telecom networks before it, the Internet has become a primary means of communication. And as before, the Internet has become a major tool for entities to advertise goods and services. One form of such advertising involves the attachment of advertisements to web pages being returned to a user based on a request for information originating from the user. These advertisements are typically generic in nature and thus not particularly helpful to the user. In some instances, the advertisement that is returned is based upon the nature of the information requested by the user. The advertisements are necessarily generic because the information that would be required to download user-specific advertisements—the personal profile of the user-is not readily available to the servers that are attaching these advertisements to downloaded web pages. The same concept is true for other forms of media communications such as radio or television. For example, television advertisements rated for mature audiences only are not transmitted to a television located in a child's room, but are replaced with appropriate child-friendly advertisements or information.
The present invention is directed to using a gateway, through which a requesting user accesses the Internet, Television, Radio, or other Audio/Video network, to strip advertisements and other extraneous data from responses to a user or other communications sent to the user. The gateway accesses or stores demographic information of the user and then uses these demographics, in conjunction with the nature of the inquiry, to obtain new or substitute advertisements or other data in communications sent to the user. Note that the same approach can be used for groups of similar users and that different users can be members of different groups depending on the specific demographic(s) targeted as defining the group.
In one embodiment, the gateway uses the demographics of the user to download data from the same media source network or from another network during periods when the user is not logged onto the media source network. The media source network can be any of: Internet, television, cable, satellite, over-the-air, radio, telecom, or other Audio/Video/Multimedia network. The downloaded data would then be available to the user when the user next logs on to the media source network through the gateway to the end-point communication device such as a personal computer, television, radio, media server, or telephone. This previously downloaded information could be attached or inserted into media and network traffic streams if desired.
In another embodiment, the gateway uses the demographics of the user to download data from the same media source network or from another network while the user is using the media source network. As before, the media source network can be any of: Internet, television, cable, satellite, over-the-air, radio, telecom, or other Audio/Video/Multimedia network. The downloaded data would then be immediately available to the user through the gateway to the end-point communication device such as a personal computer, television, radio, media server, or telephone. This downloaded information could be attached or inserted into media and network traffic streams if desired.
The preferred embodiment uses digital multimedia data distributed via the Internet (as the media source network) to gate systems located closest to the end-users communication device. Where communication devices are also gateway systems, the gateway system is contained in the communication device.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present invention.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:
The user manages the demographic information accessible to or stored on gateway 102 and can provide as much or as little information as desired. Significantly, the demographic information stored on or accessible to gateway 102 is not on the Internet and thus avoids the potential lack of confidentiality associated with personal information being available to the public. In one embodiment, the gateway is a modem and could be located within communication device 101 or 201. Data, such as advertisements, stripped from the inbound communication can be sent to trash 104 or to another source. Trash 104 could, if desired, process the stripped data and send it on to device 101 or 201 perhaps at a later time or in a different form or with different parameters.
Note that while advertisements have been discussed herein, data of any nature can be stripped out of inbound communications and other data substituted therefor. The other data could be more appropriate for the user of device 101 or 201.
In some embodiments, the data to be added may be downloaded at a time when device 101 is not being used. This downloaded data can be stored, for example, in memory 102-1.
A practical example of the operation of one embodiment of the invention is where a user conducts a search via a search engine for make Y cars. The web page with the results of that search will typically have advertisements and links to dealers of make Y cars. However, those advertisements usually represent advertisements for dealers not in proximity to the user. At best, the web page may have advertisements for dealers in the same state as the user. If the user accessed the Internet through gateway 102, however, gateway 102 would be capable of providing advertisements more relevant to the user because gateway 102 stores the demographic information of the user. Specifically, gateway 102 would have stored or accessed the address of the user and therefore could download advertisements of dealers of car Y that are located close to the user's address.
Another practical embodiment of the invention is where a household has numerous television sets. One such Television could be in the children's bedroom while yet another could be in the workshop while yet another could be in the kitchen. With the addition of the gateway system, in which all traffic moves through, each TV set could be “tagged” as per user and user preferences (e.g., a; children in the child's bedroom where the system is set to never deliver mature content advertisements and otherwise replace these offending ads with wholesome ones, or b; to deliver home improvement or automotive ads instead of pharmaceutical ads to the handyman in the workshop) and for specific time based functions (e.g., send customized advertisements for healthy breakfasts and or cereals from local farms during the breakfast hours). Here again, gateway 102 would be capable of delivering advertisements more relevant to the user because gateway 102 would have stored or could immediately access the users preferences and therefore could deliver advertisements more beneficial to the user's.
Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.
The present application is related to concurrently filed, co-pending, and commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No. 66816/P012US/PENDING, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LINKING UTILITY CONTROL DEVICES”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No. 66816/P013US/PENDING, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INFRASTRUCTURE REPORTING”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No. 66816/P014US/PENDING, entitled “LIGHT SWITCH USED AS A COMMUNICATION DEVICE”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No. 66816/P015US/PENDING, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PREMISES MONITORING USING WEIGHT DETECTION”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No. 66816/P016US/10614296, entitled “ANTICIPATORY UTILITY CONTROL DEVICE”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No. 66816/P017US/PENDING, entitled “PLUG AND PLAY UTILITY CONTROL MODULES”, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
