MXPA01003778A - Method and apparatus for selectively supplying advertising messages to viewer terminals - Google Patents

Abstract

Advertisements (54) within an EPG are targeted to television viewers. The use of the EPG and the television receiver are monitored to develop a viewer profile.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SELECTIVELY SUPPLY ANNOUNCEMENT MESSAGES TO TELEPHONE TERMINALS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an electronic interactive screen programming guide (EPG) with announcement messages and, more particularly, to advertisement messages selectively supplied to the terminal of a viewer for use in an EPG. It is known to display static ad messages in graphic or textual form in designated areas of an EPG. These advertisements are normally transmitted with the EPG data at the user terminals, for example, television receivers, and displayed on the monitor in the terminal simultaneously with the television program listings. It has been known for a long time that the designation of advertisements to recipients who have a particular interest in the subject matter of the advertisements is more effective than the advertisements sent to the public en masse, without considering the background or interests of the recipients.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION According to one aspect of the invention, advertisements are designed for viewers who have Ref: 128872 a television receiver and a television screen. An EPG is displayed on the television screen. The use of the receiver and / or the EPG is monitored to develop a viewer profile based on the selections * 5 of the viewer. A plurality of advertisements ^ transmits with a television signal to the receivers. Some of the announcements transmitted are selectively stored in the receiver, depending on the profile of the viewer. One or more of the stored ads will display on the screen to match the profile of the viewer. Preferably, the stored advertisements are displayed on the screen simultaneously with the EPG. Another aspect of the invention is to use the base of data from which the EPG is generated as a source of information to develop the profile of the viewer, maintaining the profile of the viewer in a security file in the receiver. Another aspect of the invention is to maintain all or part of the profile of the viewer in a security file in the receiver of the viewer. ** »£ & • * .- > * & amp; amp; . . > jsz-st », .. & ££ > * & amp; BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram of a television transmitter for practicing the invention; Figure 2 is a diagram showing the advertisements transmitted on television by the transmitter of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram of a television receiver for practicing the invention; Figure 4 shows a normal UPG screen on a television monitor in the receiver of the Figure 3; and Figures 5 to 8 show the organization of a normal EPG database used to create the viewer's preferred profiles.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention, the messages of coded ads or graphics to be displayed in the panel ads or headline advertisements in the body of an EPG are created in a television broadcast transmitter, the antenna system of a cable network, or another television signal source. The code for identify types or kinds of ads, for example, Sports equipment, clothes, cars, restaurants, etc. The advertisements are transmitted on television with the television signal to the terminals of the user who has the television receivers, that is, the cable converters, VCRs, and television receivers. In Figure 1 a broadcast television transmitter has a video source 10 which is coupled by a data inserter 12 to a radio frequency modulator (RF MOD) 14. An advertisement source 16 in digital form is fed to the inserter data 19 to include advertisements in a band-based television signal from source 10. If the television signal is analog, ads are preferably included in your VBI. If the television signal is digital, the ads are preferably included in your digital video stream in package form. RF MOD 14 converts the television signal and feeds the resulting RF signal to an antenna 16, which transmits the television signal to a plurality of television receivers. Alternatively, advertisements can be inserted into the television signal of one or more channels in the antenna system of a cable or satellite system. Figure 2 illustrates the advertisements included in the television signal as a time function of left to right. The announcements Al, A2, A3, ..., An-1, An are transmitted repeatedly, separated by intervals P in the form of a carousel. The intervals P could go from zero to 24 hours. The codes that identify the types or classes of announcements are carried by the titles Hl, H2, H3, ..., Hn-1, Hn, which precede the respective announcements Al, A2, A3, ..., An-1, An. In Figure 3, a plurality of receivers have an antenna 20 for intercepting the television signal with the included advertisements. The antenna 20 is coupled by a radio frequency (RF) section 22 to a modulator 24, which selects the channel for reception. The modulator 24 is coupled by a demodulator (DEMOD) 26 to a data decoder 28, which retrieves the announcements from the television signal. If the television signal is analogous, the decoder 28 will conventionally be a VBI decoder. The recovered advertisements with their codes are transmitted to a microprocessor (μP) 30 in a collector 32. The commands are connected by the collector 32 from the microprocessor 30 to the modulator 24 to change the channels at the desired times. The television signal is fed through the decoder 28 to a video processor 34. The video processor 34 operates a television monitor 36. The images displayed on the screen to fcitegw 'z & & amp; > - "J & amp; tFte of the monitor 36, which are described below, are composed in the video processor 34. Reference is made to the PCT International Applications WO 96/07270 and WO 99/04561, published on On March 7, 1996 and January 28, 1999, respectively, the discoveries which were fully incorporated herein by reference for a description of the video processor 30 include a chip or PIP microcircuit with which it operates. The receiver's sound outputs are not described in detail.) An announcement memory 38, a profile memory 40 and an EPG 42 database memory are coupled by the collector 32 to the microprocessor 30 for bilateral data exchange. shows as separate components, two or more of the memories 38, 40 and 42 can be incorporated into a simple RAM microcircuit for convenience.The data and commands are also coupled by the collector 32 to the video processor 34 for its operation An input device of the viewer 44 as an IR remote controller outputs the commands to the microprocessor 44 to operate the described receiver. In Figure 4, a normal EPG screen 50 generated by the video processor 34 is shown under the control of the microprocessor 30. The screen 50 is &, _ iS_ afe > st "£ <at ^ * a &faiifn & > 'divided into several different deployment areas A real-time video area 52, an additional area of panel 54, and an additional area of panel 56 are placed along the screen 50 on the left side. • 5 video 52 is normally produced by a PIP microcircuit. A titular area 58 remains at the top of the screen 10 adjacent the area 52. A program listing area 60 occupies two thirds of the bottom of the screen 50 to the right of the areas 52, 54 and 56.

The above area 60 remains in a bar area 62 of the horizontally extending menu by which the viewer can select among several different functions. Between the owner area 58 and the bar area of the menu 62 is a detail area 64. The use and The operation of the EPG 50 screen is described in PCT International Application WO 99/04561, published January 28, 1999, which is fully incorporated herein by reference. The EPG database to generate the program listings displayed on the screen 50 (Figure 4) is stored in the memory 42. This database is updated regularly, in a well-known manner, for example by the new EPG data downloaded into the VBI of the signal from television under microprocessor control 30. The microprocessor 30 you can put the modulator 24 in the channel that carries the EPG database at a predetermined time and then coordinate the storage of data in the memory 42. Figure 5 shows the memory database of the schedule of programs. The static area 70 contains among other items a pre-established time list. This structure is described in more detail later. The dynamic area 71 is used to store the schedule data of the television programs. This data takes the form of packages that show the information (SIPs) and the entries of the lists that show the extended topic. These structures are also described in detail below. The data of the television program is received in the downloaded packages. The downloaded packets are sent over the VBI and received by the microprocessor 24 as described with reference to Figure 20. A downloaded packet contains the information of the television programs together with the directed data which allows the system to determine how to store the information in the memory. Figure 6 illustrates a downloaded packet. The packet starts with a package title that contains the ID packet number 72 used to distinguish this packet from the other packets. The package title also contains the number of bits 73 and the number of blocks 74. These values are used to determine the size of the packet. The package title is followed by the package title that shows the information (SIP). This is a package title that shows the information for each package that shows the information in the package. The SIP title contains: the guide number 75 used to determine the internal channel number of the packet data that shows the information; the channel ID 76 used to determine the source of the data in the packet that displays the information; and the time slot 77 used to determine the time and day of the data in the package that displays the information. A package that shows the information 78 followed by the SIP title. At the reception, the microprocessor of the system extracts a package that shows the information from the downloaded package and temporarily stores it in the program schedule memory. The package that shows the information contains a date field that is used to determine if the data is for the current day (today) or the next day (tomorrow).

If §1 package falls within these two days the system window determines if the data is duplicate of existing data. The package that shows the information contains a version number § used to determine if the data is new or if it already exists in memory. If the data is new then it is stored and the address of the package that shows the information is placed in the appropriate indicator in the preset time list. The The pre-established time list will be explained in detail later. If the package that shows the information is outside the window of the two current days (today and tomorrow) and the package that shows the information contains the programs that have the subject information, these programs with the subject information are taken from the package that shows the information and placed in the list that shows the appropriate extended theme. The list that shows the extended theme is described in more detail ahead. If the package that shows the information is outside the window of two current days and does not contain the subject information, or if the package that shows the information is the duplicate of one that is already stored, the package that shows the information is completely discarded. j? #S? B * z, «** j? 4hv * rv, The data in the program schedule memory is stored in the data structures that allow the system to interpret the data. Several of the data structures are of fixed length and reside in the static area 70. Other data structures are of variable length and reside in the dynamic area 71. The fixed data structures include: the preset time list, the channel map, the control arrangement, the call letter map, the memory map and the waiting register. Variable data structures include: the packages that display the information and the lists that show the extended topic. The preset time list is used to locate television program information for each channel in the system. The pre-established time list only refers to the program information that is transmitted on the current day (today) or the next day (tomorrow). The pre-established time list refers to the data through the use of indicators that are pieces of data that contain the addresses of the desired data tables. Figure 7 illustrates the pre-established time list. The preset time list contains a group of twelve indicators 41 for each channel in the system. Each indicator corresponds to a packet that shows the information that contains the data for a block of four hours of television programming. For example, in Figure 7, the El indicator corresponds to the program data of the four p.m. at eight p.m. The twelve indicators represent 24 hours of programming information during the current day and 24 hours of programming information for the next day. Referring to Figure 8, indicators A2 to L2 are used to represent the data of the programs associated with the second channel in the system. Each indicator contains an address of a packet that shows the information of variable duration that contains the data of the current television programming. When the specific data is needed, the first microprocessor 30 appears in the preset time list to secure the indicator, then uses the address found at the location to determine where the data is currently stored. For example, if the data for the second channel in the system is needed for a television program between eight p.m. and twelve midnight the system will use the address in indicator F2 as &amp '$ • &? - to determine the location of the package that shows the information that contains the data. The packages that display the information are variable-length data structures that contain - '5 data of the current schedules of television programs. Each packet that shows the information contains the data of a block of four hours of television programming for a specific channel. The duration of the package that shows the information is variable because the number of exhibits in each block of four hours will depend on the durations of the individual exhibitions. Figure 8 describes a package that shows the information. A package that shows the information contains the following: the amount of memory used to determine how much space was used to store the packet that displays the information and therefore, how much space is free after the package displaying the information is no longer required; the control date - used to determine if the data in a package that shows the specific information is for the current day, the next day or outside the current two day window; and the number of the version used to specify the version specific to the programming data. ** ^^ ** saft ^. '^ - ^ ^^^ ^^^^^ a ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ - l = ^ - Following these three fields, the specific data for each exhibit fit within of the block of time for four hours For a given display, represented by block 80, the following fields are presented in the package that shows the information: the field indicating a multiple display - used to determine if this display is the last display Within the package, or if there are other subsequent exhibits to be processed: the start time field - a four hour blog start time offset, this compensation is added to the time of the four hour block to determine the start time of the display, the specific duration field airtime for the particular exhibition, the subject field - contains the information of the type of exhibition, for example the exhibition can be a sporting event, a news program or a movie; determines whether or not the exhibition is subtitled; the stereophonic field - determines whether or not the display is transmitted in stereo; the field of more information - it is a field left for expansion, this field will contain more information about the exhibition as the information that becomes normal in the technique.

As ^ F --.- and. & B & amp; amp; amp; - ~,. -, "-, ^. - .. ^ i 6Í - '* jtf ^' ^ t- «fc-. < , '.-? > Following these fields, are fields that represent the title of the program, the main description - a short description of the program, the secondary description - a greater description of the program and the VCR + PLUSCODE. Each of these elements is represented by two fields, one containing the * length of a specific element as the length of the title, and one that contains the element itself, such as the title. Following this information, there is a field for ending the exhibition. The display completion field is used to indicate that the information for the particular exhibition has ended. A package that displays the information may contain the information for one or more exhibits depending on how many exhibits are broadcast within the four-hour block. The presence of multiple displays is represented by numbers 81 and 82. A package that displays the information is structured to provide several unique features for storing data. The fields of the length of the title, the length of the primary description, the length of the secondary description and the length of the VCR + PLUSCODE can be extended for values that are beyond the maximum value that can be »& amp; & amp; & amp; & amp;? • 8 & * t &; * 5L- < & < E ~ s - ^ ft @ 3i * se ^ -aA ^ *. -. ^ t ^ ^^. ._. .. ^^^^^^? ^^^^^^^ £ ^ ^ £? == ^ g ^ S ^ S ^ É ^ === S ^ a = -l- stored within a bit. For example, referring to Figure 27, if the length of the secondary description is greater than the maximum value that can be stored within a bit, the length of the bit is then set to the maximum value. The system then assumes that the next bit is also a bit in length and adds the two values to determine the length of the secondary description. In this way, a package that displays the information can dynamically allocate space to accommodate longer descriptions or longer titles. The field of completion of the exhibition allows the inclusion of data in the package that shows the information that is not read by the current version of the system. As shown again in Figure 7, continuing with the VCR + PLUSCODE field, there are two unspecified data fields. This is the data that can be read by future versions of the system but is not currently processed by the current system. When the data of the package that shows the information is processed, the system will discard this data until it reads a field of completion of the exhibition. The system will not initiate data processing for a new display until it finds an end field for the display. This feature feih'-ií ^ fií allows the system to access the same data as a potential future version that can incorporate more data. In each user terminal, the use of the user's terminal, that is, what programs are viewed, with what frequency and for how long, or the use of the EPG, that is, which programs are selected to record the programming, for see or display more details, or which programs are highlighted with the cursor and how many times, it is monitored and processed by a microprocessor 30 to create a profile of the viewer's preference. This profile is maintained, ie, it is stored in the memory 40 as a security file in each user terminal to preserve the privacy of the viewer. Therefore, the unauthorized parties do not have access to the profile. In other words, the viewer's preference profile can not be loaded to another location such as a service center, an antenna system, or a communication network or Internet site. Alternatively, only the part of the user profile, ie, the privacy-susceptible part, for example, the user's name, is retained as a security file, and other commercially useful anonymous marketing information on the use is transmitted to a .sai jüsfei * ... »,. , j.-3fc -j »..- * -! ¡, < S -fjfeüfc fa5smj remote processing center via telephone line, sorter, Internet, etc. for the analysis. In addition to its normal function of providing the information for generating the display of the program listing, the EPG database is also preferably used as a source of information to generate the viewer's preference profiles in the viewer terminal as described below. . As a result, the privacy of the data about the viewer's television habits is not committed by sending them to a remote location. By way of example, the microprocessor can monitor the fixation of the modulator 24 and keep a record of the time, day and duration that the tuner sets to each channel and those designated by program category could be stored in the EPG database as part of the information about each program. Current programs or program titles or those designated by program category could be identified from the time, day, and duration of the modulator by the use of the EPG database resident in the user's terminal. Each time the modulator 24 is reset, the channel and time could be used per microprocessor 30 to access the packet displaying the information (SIP) for the program to be transmitted on the channel at that time by means of the channel-time panel and the corresponding indicator. The category of the program used to generate the program category guides could be recovered from the SIP through the • 5 microprocessor 30 for use in the profile formulation of the viewer. Each time the modulator 24 is reset, the time interval after the last modulator was reset is used by the microprocessor 30 with the program category transmitted on the channel during the interval to generate an accumulated value of the observation time of the programs in that category. Therefore, the memory 40 can count all the observation time of the categories and thus provide a profile of the viewer. If desired, specially adjusted program categories different from those used to generate the program category guides could be stored in the SIPs to focus more precisely on the interests of the viewer in select the ads suitable for deployment. In the case of the structure of the database described above, the microprocessor 30 is programmed to obtain the indicator for the desired SIP from the list of pre-established time based on the time as it is read from a real-time clock and the channel as read from the modulator. The microprocessor 30 while reading the category from the SIP for the time and channel. Instead of monitoring the modulator 24, the program categories could properly be transmitted in the VBI of each program in real time as well as the XDS or the main control valuations. However, this requires the cooperation of the television signal provider to achieve this. The profile in a terminal of the user is correlated with the codes of the announcements transmitted in the titles Hl, H2, H3, ... Hn-1, Hn, also the microprocessor 30 can allocate the transmitted announcements Al, A2, A3 ,. .., An-l, An-2 that could be of greater interest to a person represented by the stored profile file. For example, as described above, in a simple correlation scheme, the same codes used for the advertisements could also be assigned to television programs and stored in the EPG database. The user profile could represent the high code count of television programs or the two high code counts, etc.

More sophisticated correlation schemes such as that described in application No. 60 / 110,301 could also be employed. To conserve local memory space, the processing part could be done in a central location, if privacy is not a concern. When an advertisement is received at a user terminal, its code is compared to the user's profile. (In the simple correlation scheme described above, the advertisement code is directly compared to the code or codes of the profile.) If a match is detected, the advertisement is stored in the memory 38 for further display in the 54 and / or 56 area of the television screen in the EPG (FIG 4).

If the advertisement code indicates that the advertisement is not of interest, the advertisement is not stored in the memory 38. This conserves the memory space in the user's terminal. Preferably, several ads indicated accurately according to the user's interest, as is reflected by the profile, stored and accessed in rotation for deployment in the EPG according to a prescribed schedule as described in application No. 60/141/331, filed on June 28, 1999, which is incorporated completely in the present by reference. > ¿M¿aiME ** A * ai * -L »!. "¡ES? '^ V? Ln & amp; S & amp; s *: Although it is preferable to transmit the advertisements and their codes with a television signal, they could alternatively be transmitted on a separate link, such as a sorting channel or on the Internet. The invention does not depend on the way the profile was developed. The profile could be generated by the answers to a series of questions, directly by the user input of a code, or by the supervision of other operations that reflect the interests of the user such as the use of the Internet.

It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry to practice the cited invention, is the conventional for the manufacture of the objects or products to which it refers.

Claims (14)

2. Having described the invention as above, the content of the following claims is claimed as property: 1. A method for designating or directing advertisements to viewers having a receiver and a television screen, the method is characterized in that it comprises the steps of: unfolding an EPG on the television screen; monitor or supervise the use of the receiver to develop a viewer profile based on the viewer's selections; transmitting a plurality of advertisements with a television signal to the receiver; selectively store some of the ads in the receiver depending on the profile of the viewer; and display one or more of the ads stored on the screen. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the stored advertisements are simultaneously displayed on the screen with the EPG.
3. 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the transmitted advertisements are included in a television signal. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the television signal is in analogous form with a VBI and the transmitted advertisements are included in the VBI. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the television signal is structured as a digital video stream and the transmitted announcements are included in the video stream. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it additionally comprises the step of maintaining the profile of the viewer in a security file in the receiver. 7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it additionally comprises the step of storing an EP database in the receiver, the EPG database includes the time, channel, and program category identifiers of the program transmission. By television; and the monitoring stage retrieves the program categories of the television programs selected by the viewer for display on the screen from the EPG database, directing the time and channel of the selected television programs. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that the monitoring step additionally records the time in which the programs of each category are deployed and the storage stage saves an advertisement that matches the category having the longest registered time. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that the stage of the EPG deployment uses the same program category identifiers to compile the program category guides. 10. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that the EPG deployment stage uses different identifiers of program categories to compile the program category guides. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the monitoring or supervision stage monitors the television channel for the receiver to be tuned. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it additionally comprises the step of storing an EPG database in k'X U the receiver, the EPG database includes the time, channel and program category identifiers of the transmitted television programs; the television receiver has a modulator and a real time clock; and the monitoring step registers the channel to which the modulator is set and the clock time each time the modulator is reset and retrieves the program categories of the transmitted television programs from the EPG database with the recorded times and channels . The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it additionally comprises the step of storing an EPG database in the receiver, the EPG database includes the time, channel, and identifiers of the program category of the programs broadcast on television; the stage of deployment of the EPG allows viewers to highlight the lists of programs deployed to initiate another action; and the monitoring stage retrieves the program categories of the television programs selected by the viewer for display on the screen from the EPG database by directing the time and channel of the selected television programs.1
4. 4. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that the monitoring stage calculates by category the number of times the other action starts. -^