Patent Application
20120215630
Currently, various content targeted advertising schemes enable the placement of advertisements on Web pages with subject matter similar to that of the advertised product or service. Some schemes implement automated components that select and serve the advertisements based on content displayed by the user. Methods for tailoring advertisements to approximate a consistency with the subject matter of proximately displayed textual content have become sophisticated and well refined.
In contrast, methods for tailoring advertisements to approximate the subject matter of non-textual types of media (video, audio, podcasts, etc.) have not been as fully explored or developed. In fact, focusing advertisements relative to media content such as video on the Web has proven to be a difficult undertaking. Accordingly, advertisements are often not particularly well related to corresponding, non-textual content. Often times, in order to obtain a more focused result in such a scenario, advertisements must be manually selected and assigned to approximate consistency with the subject matter of a particular collection of non-textual content.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended for use as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Embodiments of a computer-implemented advertisement display system are disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a speech recognition component that processes a video clip and produces a corresponding collection of speech recognition data indicative of an audio portion of the video clip. The system also includes a collection of advertising material. An advertisement selection component selects an advertisement from the collection of advertising material based on the corresponding collection of speech recognition data. The system also includes a display. An advertisement presentation component displays an indication of the selected advertisement on the display during a simultaneous display of the video clip.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. The claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in the background.
Embodiments of the present invention pertain to systems and methods for tailoring advertisements to approximate the subject matter of non-textual types of media. In order to provide an illustrative context, embodiments will be described in relation to a specific type of media, namely video. It is to be understood; however, that the scope of the present invention not limited to video. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that same or similar methods and systems can just as easily be applied to other types of non-textual types of media. Embodiments are particularly well suited for audio-oriented types of media including, but certainly not limited to podcasts, audio news programs, music and the like.
Recognized speech data 106 is provided to an advertisement selection component 108. Component 108 analyzes data 106 and, based on that analysis, selects well suited advertisements from a collection 109 of advertising materials. For example, in one embodiment, component 108 selects advertisements that are similar in terms of subject matter to the subject matter of some or all of the recognized speech. In another embodiment, component 108 determines a speaker (or singer, etc.) associated with some or all of the recognized speech, and then selects advertisements that are connected in some way to that speaker. These are just two examples of how component 108 can be configured to select advertisements from materials 109 based on the speech recognition data 106. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that these and many other alternatives should be considered within the scope of the present invention. Additional examples of other possibilities will be discussed below in relation to other Figures.
Upon selection of advertisements from materials 109, an indication 110 of the selections is provided to an advertisement presentation component 112. In one embodiment, data 110 includes actual advertisements. In other embodiment, data 110 also or instead includes a reference indicating from where the actual advertisement or advertisements can be retrieved. In one embodiment, data 110 includes an indication of which advertisement(s) should be displayed with which recognized speech, or which speaker, etc.
Advertisement presentation component 112 facilitates presentation of the advertisement(s) selected by component 108. In one embodiment, component 112 presents the ads in close proximity to a simultaneous presentation of the video upon which the ad selection process was based. In one embodiment, even more narrowly, each ad is presented upon output of audio corresponding to the recognized speech upon which the ad was selected.
For illustratively purposes, advertisement presentation component 112 is shown in conjunction with a display 114. The display includes a presentation 116 of video (e.g., a video clip). The video illustratively is the same as, or corresponds directly to, video data 102. Component 112 facilitates a simultaneous presentation 118 of one or more advertisements 118, as has been described.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the actual form of the presented advertisement(s) 118 will vary. The advertisement might be purely visual in nature, such as a banner advertisement or a hyperlink (e.g., a link to a point of commerce or an advertiser-sponsored collection content) within a displayed transcript of words being spoken in the video presentation. In one embodiment, the advertisement is a highlighted word included within the displayed transcript, the highlighted word being selectable so as to trigger a display of advertising material (e.g., clicking on or simply mousing over the highlighted word initiates retrieval and display of associated advertising content). These and many other alternatives should be considered within the scope of the present invention. Additional examples of other possibilities will be discussed below in relation to other Figures.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are many options for configuring advertisement selection component 108 to assign advertisements as described herein. In one embodiment, an analysis component 120 processes recognized data 106 and, based on that analysis, provides a set of analytical data 122 to component 108. Data 106 is illustratively a transcript of recognized speech data, whereas analytical data is more than a simple transcript, such as a derived interpretation of what some or all of the recognized speech represents in a practical sense. For example, data 122 can be representative of who spoke during one or more speech segments represented in data 106. Alternatively, data 122 can be representative of, in a broad categorical sense, what was being spoken about during one or more speech segments represented in data 106. In one embodiment, component 108 is programmed with enough intelligence to select and assign advertisements based on data 106, based on data 122, and/or based on a combination of data 106 and 122.
In one embodiment, components 104 and 120 are programmed to apply acoustic and conversational analysis so as to segment video data 102 into unique segments corresponding to different speaker characteristics (e.g., speaker identity, speaker gender, etc.) and/or different topics. Dividing the content into different topics enables advertisement selection component 108 to target an advertisement for a particular topic when that topic is being displayed or otherwise output. For example, a topic-specific advertisement can be timed for display while a segment of the video that corresponds to that topic is being displayed to the user. Similarly, dividing the content based on who is speaking enables selection component 108 to time an advertisement to correspond to appearances of a particular individual(s) included in the video clip. In one embodiment, this segmentation can be done at various scales—i.e. the entire video can be treated as one conversation or each sub-conversation can be targeted separately, thereby enabling multiple opportunities for the assignment of advertisements.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that topic analysis and speaker identity analysis are simply examples. Speech recognition data 106 can be processed and analyzed in many different ways to produce many potential data sets. It is within the scope of the present invention to incorporate any such data set into the selection and assignment of advertising material.
In one embodiment, a component 120 processes data 106 and identifies keywords contained in the transcript of recognized speech. Those keywords are provided to the advertisement selection component 108 (e.g., as data 122). Component 108 then selects one or more corresponding advertisements. Based on information received from component 108, ad presentation component 112 manages presentation of the advertisements in association with the corresponding keywords. For example, in one embodiment, an advertisement is presented on display 114 when the corresponding keyword occurs within the speech output of video presentation 116. In another embodiment, the keyword is highlighted (e.g., appears as a hyperlink) within a speech transcript 121 that appears on display 114, the highlighting being an indication that the user can click the keyword and navigate to advertiser-sponsored content. In one embodiment, selecting a keyword triggers presentation of a corresponding advertisement, such as, but not limited to a banner advertisement.
In one embodiment, when ads are actually displayed or otherwise presented to a user during presentation of the corresponding video clip, the ads transition automatically to match the current status of the video output. For example, in one embodiment, the ads change automatically when a conversation in the video moves from one topic to another, or from one speaker to another, etc.
Within an area 404, a transcript (i.e., textual representation of recognized speech content) that corresponds to the video displayed in area 402 is displayed. In one embodiment, advertising material is incorporated into area 404 based on the content of the video. For example, words within the transcript may appear as hyperlinks that can be navigated by the user in order to access advertiser-sponsored content. As has been described in relation to other Figures, advertisements promoted within area 404 are illustratively selected based on content characteristics of the video shown within area 402.
More traditional advertisements such as, but not limited to, banner and classified style ads are illustratively displayed within an area 406. As has been described in relation to other Figures, advertisements promoted within area 406 are illustratively selected based on content characteristics of the video shown within area 402.
Access to additional video clips is provided within an area 412. Videos and/or commercials promoted within area 406 are illustratively selected based on content characteristics of the video shown within area 402. In one embodiment, as has been described, advertisements incorporated into sections 404, 406412, or elsewhere within the display are selected and presented so as to be relevant to the subject matter content of the video displayed in area 402. For example, if the video is related to surgery, then displayed ads will illustratively also be related to surgery.
Other information about the video can also be displayed. For example, screen shot 400 includes an indicator 408 that shows when various speakers are speaking during the video. Indicator 408 assigns a color to each speaker (e.g., speaker 0, speaker 2, speaker 3 and speaker 4). Indicator shows, through corresponding color-coded blocks, who speaks over the course of the entire video clip. Similarly, indicator 410 provides, on a color-coded basis, an overview of the topics discussed during the course of the entire video clip. The user can illustratively click anywhere on either of indicators 408 and 410 in order to “jump” to a different point in the video clip, for example, if they are interested in a particular speaker or topic. As has been alluded to, advertisements may automatically change within area 404, 406, 412 or elsewhere in the display depending upon which segment of indicator 408 and/or 410 is currently being displayed in area 402.
Embodiments are operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with various embodiments include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, telephony systems, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
Embodiments have been described herein in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Embodiments can be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules can be located on both (or either) local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.
With reference to
Computer 610 typically includes a variety of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 610 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by computer 610. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media.
The system memory 630 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 631 and random access memory (RAM) 632. A basic input/output system 633 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 610, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 631. RAM 632 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 620. By way of example, and not limitation,
The computer 610 may also include other removable/non-removable volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,
The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in
A user may enter commands and information into the computer 610 through input devices such as a keyboard 662 and a pointing device 661, such as a mouse, trackball or touch pad. Other input devices (not shown) may include a joystick, game pad, microphone, satellite dish, scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 620 through a user input interface 660 that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 691 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 621 via an interface, such as a video interface 690. In addition to the monitor, computers may also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers 697 and printer 696, which may be connected through an output peripheral interface 695.
The computer 610 is operated in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 680. The logical connection depicted in
It is worth mentioning that the scope of the present invention is broad enough to encompass the selection and assignment of advertising material based on any audio content derived from a video clip. With reference to
In reference to
In reference to
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
The present application is a continuation of and claims priority of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/134,214, filed Jun. 6, 2008, which is based on and claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/025,498, filed Feb. 1, 2008, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61025498 | Feb 2008 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12134214 | Jun 2008 | US |
| Child | 13459435 | US |
