WO2002005166A1

WO2002005166A1 - Advertising apparatus and method

Info

Publication number: WO2002005166A1
Application number: PCT/KR2001/001182
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sang Ho Chung; Soo Geun You
Original assignee: Mbyn Inc.
Priority date: 2000-07-11
Filing date: 2001-07-10
Publication date: 2002-01-17
Also published as: KR20020006216A; AU2001269590A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to an advertising apparatus and method. In this advertising method, advertising materials stored in a server are delivered to a set top box which outputs advertising contents, if requested, contained in the received advertising materials to a viewer through a displaying machine such as a television set. After outputting, the set top box checks whether or not a viewer actually watches the outputted advertising contents based on if there is an input from a viewer, and it allocates monetary compensation assigned to the outputted advertising contents to the viewer if it is determined that the viewer watches actually. Afterward, the allocated monetary compensation will be paid with real money to the viewer for his/her watching effort.

Description

D E S C R I P T I O N

ADVERTISING APPARATUS AND METHOD

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to apparatus and method of advertising through a displaying machine such as a television set or a personal computer.

2. Background Art

Before Internet, WWW (World Wide Web) , and electronic mail are widely popularized, general advertising or ordering media are an off-line tool such as a newspaper, a magazine, a television set, a signboard, an advertising fabric, postal mail, and a visit.

Because information communicating tools such as Internet,

WWW, electronic mail, and Usenet have been widely used and, thus, a great many persons have been spending their much time in a cyber space, a cyber space attracts attention of advertisement related companies. A banner has been widely used as an advertising tool in a cyber space until now.

However, a person who is doing web-surfing in a cyber space usually examines materials he or she wants to know in a site without seeing contents of a banner, so that effectiveness of advertising through a banner is very weak. To improve effectiveness of advertising, new methods are introduced. One method of them is to give an electronic coupon or a present whenever a banner is clicked. However, this method is suitable to only a minority group, namely, young people who are spending much time in a cyber space, therefore, it fails to satisfy an advertiser's need of delivering advertising contents to numerous people.

In addition, an advertising method through a computer connected to a communication network provides only a small-sized picture, logo, or characters, as a result, visual impression to a viewer is very weak. To overcome such a drawback, a method of showing an advertising picture in a full screen as a background wallpaper has been developed newly. However, it is limited in present communication technology to send high-quality moving pictures through an on-lined communication line. Therefore, the newly-developed method sends a still picture, several consecutive still pictures, or low-quality moving pictures which have a few frames per second, so that visual impression to a viewer by this method is also very slight in comparison with an advertising method by a television set.

A television advertisement provides advertising contents for viewers intermittently between programs. However, a viewer usually changes a current channel with a remote controller without viewing provided advertising contents when a program is ended in the current channel. This viewing habit reduces effectiveness of a television advertisement.

For coping with this viewing habit, a new advertising technique of advertising same contents through several channels at the same time is sometimes used, however, it costs an advertiser terribly so that most advertisers can not use this technique. Furthermore, because channels are increased greatly owing to cable and satellite broadcast, an advertiser who wants to use this technique should buy more channels of same broadcasting time than before. However, buying many channels of same broadcasting time to advertise is almost impossible because broadcasting stations have different individual program schedules.

As a result, a viewer can still avoid television advertising contents so that it is almost impossible to improve effectiveness of advertisement through a television medium. Furthermore, advertising through a mass media is not regarded as an effective advertising technique in consideration of high advertising cost. 3. Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide an advertising method and an apparatus thereof which provide advertising contents to be presented through a television, which is easily accessible for everybody, induce a viewer to watch the provided advertising contents intentionally, and calculate advertising cost in proportion to advertisement delivery effect. In the present advertising apparatus and method, advertising information including advertising data, advertising target information, and view rewarding regulation for each advertisement item is collected and stored in an advertising server where the view rewarding regulation specifies a rule for giving money-corresponding score based on advertisement view time. The stored advertising information is delivered to and then stored in target advertising terminals designated by the advertising target information, and every target advertising terminal keeps checking whether an advertisement viewing request is entered from a viewer. If the request is entered, the target advertising terminal extracts advertising data from the stored advertising information and decodes it to video and/or audio signal. While advertising data is being outputted, the. advertising terminal keeps checking whether a specific key is pressed by a viewer, and, if pressed, it also checks whether or not the key press interval is within a preset time length and gives point in accordance with the view rewarding regulation for the outputted advertising data, based on the check result. Each advertising terminal sends such granted score to the advertising server with viewer-identifying information, then, the advertising server calculates money to pay to each viewer based on all the received scores with each viewer identifying information. The calculated money will be paid to each viewer following an electronic money transfer transaction.

The advertising apparatus and method according to the present invention can deliver advertising contents to all or part of advertising media such as television sets or personal computers, and induce persons to view the delivered advertising contents by rewarding pecuniarily for their view time.

In addition, the advertising apparatus and method according to the present invention can verify whether a viewer has viewed the delivered advertising contents truly before giving a pecuniary reward to the viewer, whereby an advertiser is guaranteed effectiveness of advertising as much as advertising cost is paid. 4. Brief Description of Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, illustrate the preferred embodiments of the invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present invention. In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an illustrative network to which advertising apparatus and method according to the present invention is applicable;

Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a set top box according to the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a structure of an advertising server according to the present invention depicted from a hardware-and-software integrated point of view;

Fig. 4 shows an illustrative database of subscribers registered in an advertising server according to the present invention;

Fig. 5 shows illustrative advertising information created to be delivered from an advertising server to a set top box;

Fig. 6 shows a format of advertising information stored in a memory of a set top box after extracted from received advertising information;

Fig. 7 shows an example of a menu screen listing advertisement items displayed on a television set; Fig. 8 shows an example of view history created according to subscriber's view of advertisement items;

Fig. 9 shows illustrative format of subscriber's view history transmitted to an advertising server; and 5 Fig. 10 shows an illustrative message created by an advertising server in order to pay rewarding money calculated based on each subscriber's view history by cable transfer. 5. Modes for Carrying out the Invention

In order that the invention may be fully understood, a

10 preferred embodiment thereof will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is an illustrative network to which advertising apparatus and method according to the present invention is applicable. Included in the network of Fig. 1 are a communicating

15 terminal 10a such as a personal computer which helps a user to access a data network through a telephone network; set top boxes (STBs) 300a and 300b receiving television broadcast programs and advertising information and delivering them to a connected television set according to the present invention; an ADSL

20 (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) modem 12 providing the STB 300a with a high-speed interface to the telephone network; a data terminal 10b such as a personal computer equipping with a network adapter capable of interfacing directly to a data network; a hub 11 constituting a LAN (Local Area Network) and connecting the data

25 terminal 10b and the STB 300b to the data network; a portal server 30 providing Internet service including e-mail service and individual e-mail accounts to all subscribers; a financial settling server 40 checking validity of requested monetary transactions and processing them if valid; a advertising server

30 100, connected to the terminals 10a and 10b and the STBs 300a and 300b, receiving individual registration information and information on advertisement view from them and providing necessary advertising data and information regarding view rewaring regulation to them according to the present invention; and a global data network 201 such as Internet or a circuit-switched network 200, e.g., a wired or a wireless telephone network providing data paths between the aforementioned network elements.

Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of the STB 300a or 300b, and Fig. 3 depicts structure of the advertising server 100 from a hardware-and-software integrated point of view.

The STB configured as Fig. 2 includes a tuner 301 receiving digital television signals through an antenna and converting a tuned signal to an I/F signal; an I/F converter 302 converting the I/F signal to a corresponding baseband signal; a demodulator 303 outputting digital data stream by demodulating the baseband signal according to the modulation algorithm having been applied to it; a program selector 304 selecting stream packets belonging to a chosen channel or program; a line interface 311 communicating signals in appropriate formats with the counterpart, e.g., the modem 12 or the hub 11 and detecting line state; a buffer 313 storing temporally data to be transmitted or received; an accessing unit 312 conducting direct memory access (DMA) to the buffer 313 and converting parallel data to serial one, and vice versa; an input means 321 such as a key pad or a remote controller for entering command or data; a ROM 322 storing an operating program, a communication program such as Web browser, several decoding programs, an advertising and viewing management program, and menu data; a front-end processor 320 processing data or command entered through the input means 321 and requesting or conducting a requested operation by executing the operating program stored in the ROM 322; an timer 323; a real-time clock (RTC) 324; a main processor 330 conducting Web-surfing and management of advertisement view by executing appropriate programs; a non-volatile (N/V) memory 331 (or a harddisk) for storing advertising data and information on view history; a path switch 305 selecting the stream packets of the program selector 304 or advertising data stream read from the memory 331 by the main processor 330; a parser 306 separating MPEG data contained in the selected data stream by the path switch 305 into video and audio data; a video 307a and an audio decoder 307b decoding the separated video and audio data into respective digital data of pre-specified format; and a video 308a and an audio processor 308b converting the respective digital data of pre-specified format into analog television video signals and an analog audio signals, respectively.

The line interface 311 is implemented with a signal converter converting data bits to physical signals and vice versa if the STB 300a is to be connected to the ADSL modem 12, and with a network adapter whose adapting protocol conforms to a LAN if the STB 300b is to be connected to the LAN.

The advertising server 100 consists of an operating server and an advertisement processing server, which are connected each other with a leased link, as shown in Fig. 3.

The operating server comprises a network interfacing module 102 sending and receiving data in predetermined-sized frames through a link connected to the data network 201; a packet data module 103 communicating data packets reliably with a remote counterpart through the network; an application protocol module 104 packetizing and depacketizing file, hypertext, or mail data to/from data packets; a data service module 106 composing a hypertext-typed document (called web page' hereinafter) with text, picture, file, and so on, and sending the composed web pages through the application protocol module 104; a data storage module 107 storing all data necessary for various web pages to be sent to a connected terminal; a subscriber database 109 storing all information on registered subscribers; a subscriber managing module 120 formatting data entered by a subscriber to database members, storing them in the subscriber database 109, and managing the stored subscriber database; a call processing module 105 making a connection to a terminal through a network; a link module 101a sending and receiving data to/from the advertisement processing server through the leased link; an interworking (i/W) 5 module 110a analyzing data communicated with the advertisement processing server, and processing or alloting it to one of the elements based on the analysis; and a supervising module 108 supervising whole system operations.

The advertisement processing server comprises a link module

10 101b and an i/W module 110b conducting corresponding operations of the link module 101a and the i/W module 110a of the operating server; an input module 113 for receiving all information required for advertisement via a medium such as an optical disk; an advertisement database 117 storing received advertising

15 information and advertisement view history of all subscribers; an RTC 115; an advertisement managing module 111 adding, deleting, and modifying the stored data in the advertisement database 117, and managing advertising information provided for subscribers; a settling module 112 calculating advertising cost and rewarding 0 score or money based on the advertisement view history stored in the advertisement database 117; and a controlling module 130 controlling all above elements for advertising and rewarding operation.

Instead of implementing the advertising server with 5 separate servers as shown in Fig.3, it is also possible to combine the two separate servers into a one body by connecting the two i/W module 110a and 110b through an internal bus if system performance is allowable. If the advertising server is integrated like this, the link modules 101a and 101b can be removed and system 0 can respond more rapidly.

Described below in detail is how a user of the personal computer 10a or 10b uses an advertising method according to the present invention. A user who wants an advertising service provided by the advertising server 100 makes a connection to the advertising server 100 through the telephone network 200 with the terminal 10a. This connection can be made by two ways. The first is made via the portal server 30 from the terminal 10a or 10b after connection to the portal server 30 is made first. The second is made to the advertising server 100 directly through the data network 201 by entering URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the advertising server 100 in the terminal 10b capable of connecting directly to the data network such as Internet.

The connection request signal from the terminal 10a or 10b is sent to the call processing module 105. The call processing module 105 determines, based on information carried by the connection request signal, which protocol is suitable to data communication with the terminal 10a or 10b, and it commands the application protocol module 104 to run the determined protocol, for example, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)^' and activates the packet data module 103 to process data packets at a lower protocol stack. After these operations are done, the call processing module 105 notifies the data service module 106 of connection setup to a terminal.

Then, the data service module 106 reads an initial page for subscription to this advertising service from the data storage module 107 and sends it in web-page format to the connected remote terminal 10a or 10b through the application protocol module 104. This subscription-guiding page is displayed through a web browser running in the terminal 10a or 10b.

Then, a user enters subscription information through the web browser. The subscription information may include name, personal identification number (PIN) , job, bank and account number (called 'account information' hereinafter) in which money rewarding for advertisement view is to be deposited, address information on a STB advertising information is delivered to, login name, password, residence address, e-mail address or telephone number, etc. The address information of a STB may be an IP address or a telephone number if an IP address is not allocated. In addition, a user may access the advertising server 100 and receive the advertising information from it through a STB if the STB can not be accessible from outside. In this case, the STB address information is not needed to be registered.

After all subscription information has been entered, subscriber number is allocated and displayed on the web browser. A user enters the displayed subscriber number in the STB 300a or 300b through pressing buttons on the input means 321. The entered subscriber number is stored in the N/V memory 331.

If a user requests subscription after having entered all subscription information, the entered subscription information is delivered to the subscriber managing module 120. The subscriber managing module 120 checks whether or not the received subscription information is for an already-registered subscriber, and it notifies the data service module 106 of subscription rejection if for an already-registered subscriber, otherwise, it allocates a new subscriber number and stores it in the subscriber database 109 with the received subscription information as shown in Fig. 4.

In the illustrative format of subscription information of Fig.4, the size of each field is fixed so that data size allocated for each subscriber is same. This makes it possible to access each subscription information entry with an index variable, namely, an address of each subscription information entry is obtained through the index variable multiplied by the data size of the subscription information entry. The login name and password of a user are used when he or she is connected to the advertising server 100 in order to confirm his or her acquired score or money which are accumulated to him or her at every advertisement view. The above-explained subscriber registration can be also conducted with the STB 300a or 300b as follows.

When a power is supplied to the STB 300a or 300b, the front-end processor 320 starts to execute the operating program stored in the ROM 322 and it reads out menu data from the ROM 322 and sends it to the main processor 330. The main processor 330 delivers the received menu data to the video processor 308a which converts the menu data into corresponding television signals acceptable to a connected television set, for example, NTSC-formatted signals. The converted television signals are presented as a menu screen on a television set. In the condition that the menu data has been outputted, the front-end processor 320 keeps tracing every press of 'direction' buttons and an 'enter' button on the input means 321 and determines which item on the menu is selected based on the traced information.

If a user selects a web-surfing function, the front-end processor 320 notifies the main processor 330 of the selection of web-surfing function. Then, the main processor 330 executes a web-browsing program in the ROM 322 and sends data resulted from execution of the web-browsing program to the video 308a and the audio processor 308b. As a result, a web-browser is presented on a screen and start-up audio also sounds through a speaker at the same time, whereby it is possible to do web-surfing through the STB 300a or 300b now. Then, a user enters data or address which is delivered to the main processor 330 through the front-end processor 320 in the STB 300a or 300b. The main processor 330 adds necessary header data to the delivered data. The header data is added in accordance with a specified Internet protocol. The main processor 330 stores the header-added data in the buffer 313 and, at the same time, it requests transmission of the stored data as advising the accessing unit 312 of start address and size of the stored data. Therefore, the accessing unit 312 conducts consecutive reading of the buffer 313 and converts each parallel read data into corresponding serial bits which are applied to the line interface 311 one by one. Each bit or bit group applied to the line interface 311 is changed to a transmission signal suitable to a physical transmission media and then propagated up to the hub 11 or the modem 12. Finally, the data or address entered to the STB 300a or 300b by the user is routed to the advertising server 100 through the network 201.

For a reverse path, if data is received from the network 201, it is temporally stored in the buffer 313 after processed by the line interface 311 and the accessing unit 312 in turn. The web browser executed by the main processor 330 extracts real data from the stored data by removing additional data added by each protocol stack. If the extracted real data has to be decoded, the main processor 330 loads and executes an appropriate decoding program from the ROM 322 to decode the real data. While the decoding program decodes the stored real data, its output is delivered to the video 308a and the audio processor 308b under the control of the main processor 330. If the extracted real data is not needed to decode, for example, it is text-typed data, it is delivered to the video processor 308a directly. After the above-explained operations are done, the web page from the server 100 is displayed onto a displaying machine connected to the STB 300a or 300b.

Owing to the above-explained data communication between the STB 300a or 300b and the advertising server 100, a user can send and receive data to/from the server 100, therefore, it is possible to conduct the aforementioned advertisement subscription with the STB 300a or 300b.

If all subscriber information is received from a subscriber and is registered as described above, the subscriber managing module 120 packs both the subscriber number of the registered subscriber and new registration notifying data, and sends the data pack to the advertisement processing server through the i/W module 110a and the link module 101a.

The data pack destined to the advertisement processing server is delivered to the controlling module 130 via the link

101b and the i/W module 110b. The controlling module 130 confirms that the delivered data pack is for new registration and then stores all information of the new subscriber in the advertisement database 117. The controlling module 130 also sends, together with the subscriber number, a command requesting transmission of advertising information to the advertisement managing module 111. Then, the advertisement managing module 111 sends the operating server, together with the subscriber number, all or a part of advertising information, namely, advertising data and view rewarding regulation thereof, etc. which are stored in the advertisement database 117, through the i/W module 110b. The advertising information delivered at this time may has a format of data frame as shown in Fig. 5.

The data frame format depicted illustratively in Fig. 5 is for the number of advertisement items = K and the size of K advertisement items = N. The advertisement view rewarding rate field of Fig. 5 will be described later in detail.

The reason a part of whole advertising information is sent is that the other advertising information entries are not targeted for this subscriber because age or residence is not matched.

For example, if there is a target advertising information entry in the advertisement database 117, it is determined whether or not that target advertising information entry is delivered to the registered subscriber based on the comparison of target information with subscription information. If it is determined that the registered subscriber is targeted by that entry, all data belonging to that entry is included in the data frame of Fig. 5, and if not, all data belonging to that entry is excluded in the data frame .

If subscription information of a registered subscriber is indicative of 'male', 'age=28' , 'residence = Yeoksam Dong, Kangnam Gu, Seoul', etc., advertising information entries not-targeted are naturally excluded in the data frame of Fig. 5, however, advertising information entries targeting the registered subscriber are included if the subscription information is matched with or covered by target sex, ages, and area of each entry.

Owing to this advertisement targeting, a business entity having small commercial area can advertise its business through a television media, too.

The data frame configured as Fig. 5 is delivered to the i/W module 110a of the operating server, the i/W module 110a recognizes, based on 'advertising information delivering' code written in the header, that received data frame is for delivering advertising information. Thus, the i/W module 110a stores all advertising information contained in the received data frame in the data storage module 107 and, at the same time it sends both the address of the stored advertising information and the subscriber number contained therein to the subscriber managing module 120. Then, the subscriber managing module 120 searches the subscriber database 109 for the received subscriber number. If it is discovered, the subscriber managing module 120 reads network address of an advertising terminal, namely, a STB from information linked with the discovered subscriber number, and sends the read network address to the call processing module 105 which will make a connection to an advertising terminal addressed by the network address as follows.

The call processing module 105 generates a connection requesting signal using the received network address, and transmits it to a network whose address scheme is matched with the received network address. For example, if the received network address is an IP address, the call processing module 105 sends a connection requesting packet to the data network 201 through the packet data module 103, and if it is a telephone number, the call processing module 105 transmits a call originating signal to the telephone network 200 through the network interfacing module 102. The connection requesting signal is delivered to the STB 300a or 300b through the data 201 or the telephone network 200. If the connection requesting signal is an IP-based signal, it is transmitted up to the line interface 311 of the STB 300b through a gateway (not shown) installed in a LAN, and if it is a telephone-number-based signal, the modem 12 receives and answers it and makes a signal transition on a connection line connected to the line interface 311 of the STB 300a. The line interface 311 analyzes the received packet or detects signal transition of the connection line to know that it is connected to the remote server. The connection setup to the remote server is notified the main processor 330.

Then, the main processor 330 executes the advertising and viewing management program stored in the ROM 322. The advertising and viewing management program creates a message to notify the remote server 100 of an advertising information waiting state, adds protocol header data to the created message, stores the header added message in the buffer 313, and requests the accessing unit 312 to transmit the stored message. The waiting state notifying message is sent to the call processor 105 of the operating server 100 through the network. At this message delivery process, the protocol header data added to the message is removed by the network interfacing module 102 and the packet data module 103, so that the call processing module 105 receives only real response message. Then, the call processing module 105 notifies the subscriber managing module 120 of receipt of response message. The subscriber managing module 120 deletes the code and the subscriber number in the data frame of Fig. 5, which has been temporally stored in the data storage module 107, and it requests the application protocol module 104 to transmit the data frame. The application protocol module 104 transmits all advertising information entries contained in the data frame to the connected STB 300a or 300b in accordance with a file transfer protocol (FTP) .

The main processor 330 of the STB 300a or 300b executes a client FTP which will extract real data from data packets carrying a file received in the buffer 313 while excluding additional data appended by the server FTP, and it stores the extracted real data in the N/V memory 331. If the size of entire received advertising information is not equal to the size indicating value 'N' , retransmission is requested to the remote server 100 and the data frame is received again.

Another advertising information receiving method may be conducted as follows.

After a user is subscribed with the STB, he or she requests a menu screen and then selects a menu item of 'advertising information download' in the received menu screen to request download of the entire advertising information. In this method, network address of the subscriber's STB is not read by the server 100, instead, the subscriber managing module 120 requests transmission of advertising information while sending just-registered subscriber number to the advertisement processing server. Accordingly, entire advertising information is transmitted to the advertising terminal having been connected now.

Fig. 6 shows illustrative advertising information stored in the memory 331 of the STB. The start address 'ptrO' to store the advertising information from is pre-defined in the advertising and viewing management program.

The advertising information of Fig. 6 consists of advertising data and advertisement view rewarding rate which is a regulation on how score or pecuniary profit should be rewarded for a subscriber's intentional viewing of an advertisement item. In the example of Fig. 6, a subscriber is rewarded 70 points whenever he or she views an advertisement item of ID = '12345678' and title = 'Coca Cola' and the rewarding points are subtracted by 10 every 10 viewing times. For another advertisement item of ID = '12345801' and title = 'MbyN' , a subscriber is rewarded 40 points each time he or she views it and there is no limit to cut down the rewarding point. Besides the examples shown in Fig. 6, there can be various rewarding regulations. One of them is to set a maximum bound of accumulated rewarding score.- This regulation can prevent advertisement cost from being increased greatly because advertisement cost would be unpredictable if there is an unexpected error in the regulation or subscribers view advertising contents with great passion. In the illustrative advertising information of Fig. 6, score notation is instanced to reward subscriber's view of advertising contents, however, money notation, for example, 'US dollar' is preferable to show how much a subscriber is rewarded because it is more temptable to view advertising contents. The field of 'the number of view times' in the advertisement view rewarding rate of Fig. 6 is provided not by the advertising server 100. It is written by the STB 300a or 300b after the STB 300a or 300b stores the received data frame of Fig. 5. This field is necessary for calculating rewarding score and its initial value is set to zero. This field is incremented by 1 whenever a subscriber views corresponding advertising data. Therefore, if this field is not zero as shown in Fig. 6, it means that a subscriber has viewed corresponding advertising data as many times as the field value indicates. In the meantime, the advertisement managing module 111 of the advertising server 100 stores each ID and each advertising start date of advertisement information entries delivered to the STB successfully in the advertisement database 117 in connection with corresponding subscriber number. Therefore, if an advertisement entry which has new ID or newly changed contents, whose advertising start date will be later than old one, is inputted through the input module 113, it is possible to distinguish subscribers whom the inputted advertisement entry should be distributed to. After one or more new advertisment items or advertisment items of new contents have been stored, only changed contents or new advertisement items are delivered to the distinguished subscribers when transmission is requested or at a preset interval, for example, every a week.

In the condition that the advertising information of Fig. 6 has been stored in the memory 331 of the STB 300a or 300b as^' explained above, a subscriber can view an advertisement item stored in the memory 331 in the middle of watching a television program. This operation will be described in detail.

First, the subscriber selects a desirable channel or program through an input means 321. The front-end processor 320 controls the tuner 301 to tune a channel group including the selected channel or program and, at the same time, it commands the program selector 304 to choose only data stream packets whose program identification (PID) is allocated to the selected channel or program. The PID for each channel or program is known beforehand through program management table (PMT) received before.

After selection and control, the tuner 301 converts RF-signal band corresponding to the selected channel group to an I/F signal which will be converted to a baseband signal by the I/F converter 302 and then to digital stream packets by the demodulator 303 in turn. The program selector 304 extracts stream packets whose PID is matched with the selected channel or program and applies the extracted packets to an input terminal of the path switch 305.

The path switch 305 selects the input terminal connected to the program selector 304 in television signal receiving mode, and selects the other input terminal from the main processor 330 in web-surfing or advertisement viewing mode. If the STB is in television signal receiving mode at present, the later parser 306 receives stream packets of a television program, extracts real data from the stream packets, collects the real data into MPEG-formatted video and audio packs which are applied to the video 307a and audio decoder 307b, respectively. Each decoder 307a or 307b decodes the input MPEG-formatted data to video or audio signal which will be presented through a screen or a speaker. While watching a selected channel or program, the subscriber requests 'advertisement view' through the input means such as a remote controller. Then, the front-end processor 320 receives the request of advertisement view and it notifies the main processor 330 of the request. The main processor 330 executes the advertising and viewing management program stored in the ROM 322, and the advertising and viewing management program commands the path switch 305 to select the other input terminal.

After that, the main processor 330 reads the number K of advertisement items from the advertising information like as Fig. 6 stored from the start address 'ptrO' of the memory 331, and then reads all advertisement view rewarding rates and current view times for K advertisement items. Then, it determines display priorities based on the read information and allocates sequence number to each advertisement item in accordance with the determined priorities. In addition, the main processor 330 composes a menu page with allocated item numbers and the advertising information, and outputs it to the video processor 308a. As a result, an advertisement item list is displayed onto a television screen. Fig. 7 shows an example of a menu list outputted when an advertisement view is requested from a user.

In the menu screen of Fig. 7, the rewarding point for 'Coca

Cola' item is specified to not 70 but 60 because a subscriber has already viewed 12 times so that it is subtracted by 10 points due to regulation of 10-point subtraction every 10 viewing times. This means that 60 points are added to the acquired score if he or she views same advertisement item now.

In the meantime, if an advertisement item whose rewarding point is 0 is discovered while the main processor 330 checks the acquired scores for all advertisement items to determine their display priorities, that item will be positioned at the last. However, that item is useless from a subscriber's standpoint, thus, it is preferable to exclude such items in the menu page of Fig. 6 for more convenient menu selection.

When the main processor 330 composes the menu page like as Fig. 7, it composes the menu page including a part of entire advertisement items and explanatory caption for each item .if all items are not included in one page. In this case, the next (or previous) icon is provided in the menu page, thus, if this icon is selected through the input means 321, the front-end processor 320 composes the next (or previous) page and outputs it to the video processor 308a.

When composing the menu page like as Fig. 7, the main processor 330 places an advertisement item of greater rewarding points at upper side. According to this menu item placing scheme, an advertiser can place his or her advertisement item at the upper end or top if he or she defines view rewarding regulation as high rewarding score for several viewing times, which is suitable for achieving effectiveness of advertisement within short time.

When an item number for one advertisement item is chosen through the input means 321 after the menu page is outputted, the main processor 330 examines the advertisement rewarding rate for the selected item, reads the memory zone pointed by an address in the field 'advertising data address/size' of the selected item by the size indicated by that field, and sends the read data to the path switch 305 sequentially. For example, if a subscriber selects the 3rd item in the menu page of Fig. 7, the address 'addr k' is read from the advertisement item of ID=12345801 first, and then MPEG-formatted data whose size is 'Nk' is read out from the address 'addr k' . The read data is sent to the path switch 305 sequentially. The main processor 330 also outputs a message describing rewarding point acquiring condition before the selected advertising data is presented. The message may be like "You should enter a specific button within 30-second interval to acquire point or money to be given to you every advertisement view". The message may be outputted in text or voice through the video processor 308a or the audio processor 308b. There may be various rewarding point acquiring conditions besides the above one.

The advertising data is processed same as a television program, namely, data separating, decoding, and video/audio signal conversion are performed with the advertising data, so that advertising contents are presented on a television set.

The moment the advertising data is outputted, the main processor 330 commands the timer 323 to start to count elapsing time, and keeps checking whether a pre-defined confirming button or an advertisement viewing stop button is entered through the front-end processor 320. The press of the pre-defined confirming button is regarded as subscriber's still viewing the outputted advertisement contents. 'Power-off, 'Menu', and 'Return (to television program) ' button is regarded as the advertisement viewing stop button.

While checking, if the confirming button is entered, the elapsed time counted by the timer 323 is memorized. This operation keeps going on until the advertisement viewing stop button is entered. If the advertisement viewing stop button is entered, the main processor 330 examines the memorized elapsed time lengths. If the elapsed time lengths are within the pre-defined 30 seconds, the main processor 330 considers that the subscriber is viewing the outputted advertisement continuously, therefore, it adds the rewarding points for that advertisement to the present acquired score which is stored in the memory 331. If the elapsed time lengths are not within the 30 seconds, the rewarding points are not given to the subscriber. The reason why rewarding point acquiring condition is needed is to prevent from advertising expense being paid if a subscriber does not view advertising contents after he or she has advertising data outputted.

For example, If the elapsed time lengths are 25 and 23 because the confirming button is entered at 25 and 48 which are measured from the advertising start time of the 'MbyN' advertisement item, all the time lengths are within 30 seconds because running time of the 'MbyN' advertisement item is 53 seconds, thus the rewarding points are given to the subscriber. However, if the confirming button is entered only once at 18, the time length from entering of the confirming button to end of advertising data presentation is 35 seconds which is out of 30 seconds, therefore, the rewarding points are not granted to the subscriber. Accordingly, this rewarding point acquiring condition makes it possible to cost an advertiser as much as subscribers view his or her advertising contents.

To eliminate subscriber's inconvenience of measuring elapsing time, the main processor 330 reads the elapsed time from the timer 323 and overlays it with advertising moving pictures by outputting it to the video processor 308a. The time to display for a subscriber's convenience may be reset whenever the confirming button is entered.

If the display of the selected advertisement item is ended, the main processor 330 outputs next advertisement item, and it also gives the subscriber the rewarding points specified for the next item if the rewarding point acquiring condition is satisfied. The main processor 330 may repeat displaying of current advertising item instead of advancing to next item even if current item display is ended. While repeating, the rewarding points are given again to the subscriber if the rewarding point acquiring condition is satisfied again.

The rewarding point acquiring condition may be changed for viewer's convenience. That is, the interval condition of the confirming button may be lengthened to 60 seconds, however, this length is likely to be longer than conventional advertisement running time. Therefore, a new rewarding point giving scheme is necessary. The instance of the new scheme is as follows.

When an advertisement item is selected by a user, the selected item and next items are outputted sequentially. While advertisement items are outputted in turn, the main processor 330 checks whether the time difference between previous and current press of the confirming button is within 60 seconds, and it gives the subscriber the rewarding points for an advertisement item which has ended within the time difference if the difference is within 60 seconds, however it does not give if not within 60 seconds. The confirming button pressed time, of which interval is out of 60 seconds, is only regarded as a starting time for calculating a new interval of a next press of the confirming button.

For example of Fig. 7, if advertisement items are presented from the first one and if the confirming button is pressed at 55, 105, 162, 220, 321, 378,..., no rewarding points are given at 55 because there is no advertisement item ended until then, however, 100 points for 'LG Electronics Inc.' advertisement item are granted to the subscriber at 105 because the advertising contents of 'LG Electronics Inc.' has ended at that time. And, there is no additional item ended before 162 and 220, respectively, and the items of 'Coca Cola' and 'MbyN' have ended at 321, however, the interval from 321 to 220 is 101 which is out of 60 seconds, thus the rewarding points for the two items are not given to the subscriber. At 378 pressed time, 35 points of 'Enpedia wanting competent persons' are granted because the press at 378 has an 57-second interval from the one at 321 and the advertisement item 'Enpedia wanting competent persons' has ended within the interval.

In the meantime, the advertising data may be JPEG-formatted pictures, banner, audio data instead of MPEG-formatted moving pictures as shown in Fig. 6.

The main processor 330 also collects information of advertisement items and each view time thereof if the rewarding point acquiring condition for that advertisement item is satisfied, and stores the collected data in the memory 331 as a view history.

Fig. 8 shows an example of the view history. In the example of Fig. 8, an element of the history is created whenever the rewarding point acquiring condition is met for an advertisement item, and an element is composed of a viewed advertisement ID, rewarded points, and date and time to have viewed at. The rewarded points are what is granted at the current view in accordance with the view rewarding regulation specified for the corresponding advertisement item. In the example of Fig.8, even though same advertisement item is viewed (Wl and W2) , the element W2 has smaller acquired points by 10 than the one Wl because the element W2 is created at over 10 view times.

The date and time to have viewed is obtained from the RTC 324 under control of the main processor 330. And, total view count is incremented by 1, namely, from 'nnn' to 'nnn'+l, whenever one history element is created. This count functions as a pointer indicating where to write a new history element because the element size is fixed. In the condition that the view history like as Fig.8 is stored in the memory 331, if current date furnished by the RTC 324 is a pre-defined report day, for example, the last day every month, the main processor 331 examines the view history stored in the memory 331 and summarizes it. Namely, it calculates total view times and score sum for each advertisement item and appends all of date and time to have viewed at to the calculated view times and points, so that a reporting data frame is formed. Both of the subscriber number stored in the memory 331 and total view times for all advertisement items are then prepositioned to the reporting data frame which is stored in the buffer 313. The reporting data frame in the buffer 313 is then delivered to the application protocol module 104 of the advertising server 100 through the FTP executed by the main processor 330 and the contents of the reporting data frame are also sent to the settling module 112 via the pair of i/W modules 110a and 110b.

Fig. 9 shows an example of the reporting data frame. The settling module 112 stores first the view history of a subscriber contained in the reporting data frame of Fig. 9 in the advertisement database 117, and then, it derives necessary statistical data and settles the score acquired by the subscriber.

In the meantime, if the advertising server 100 acknowledges an arrival of the reporting data frame, the main processor 330 deletes the view history stored in the memory 331 to prevent double claim of the acquired score.

While the main processor 330 summarizes the view history, if an advertisement item specifies a maximum bound (not shown in Fig. 6) and a score sum acquired for the advertisement item exceeds the maximum bound, it writes the maximum bound instead of the acquired score sum in the reporting data frame. Such an advertisement item is also removed in the advertising information of Fig.6 because viewing of the advertisement item is not rewarded any more. Therefore, unfair benefits of an advertiser are prevented.

The determination of whether an acquired score exceeds a maximum bound can be conducted not in the final summarizing operation but in an interim stage. Namely, the main processor 330 sums acquired points temporally whenever a history element is added as shown in Fig. 8, compares the temporally-summed points with the maximum bound, and deletes the advertisement item in the advertising information if its summed score acquired until now is above the maximum bound.

The report of view history stored in the memory 331 can be automatically conducted at pre-determined date by the STB 300a or 300b. However, this report scheme may cause heavy concurrent accesses to the advertising server 100. Therefore, it is preferable for the advertising server 100 to gather stored view history from all STBs one by one by making connection to each STB using a terminal address contained in subscriber information.

The settling module 112 of the advertising server 100 reads out final view history for each subscriber stored in the advertisement database 117 periodically, for example, every month, and it computes rewarding money to pay each subscriber and derives statistical data such as advertisement view features according to age and job, based on the read final view history. When to start the computation and derivation is determined by the controlling module 130 which keeps checking current date and time provided by the RTC 115.

The settling module 112 receives registered subscriber information from the subscriber managing module 120 through i/W modules 110a and 110b, and computes total money to pay each subscriber by multiplying by money per point the total acquired score contained in the subscriber's view history received like as Fig. 9. After computation of total money to pay, the settling module 112 composes a settling request message shown in Fig. 10. The settling request message consists of the computed total money to pay and the account information of the subscriber identified from the received subscriber information.

In addition, the settling request message also includes a 'money settle' code and account information in its header. The 'money settle' code is used by the i/W module 110a in determining which module it is assigned to. When the settling request message of Fig. 10 is delivered to the operating server, it is sent to the supervising module 108 which deletes the 'money settle' code in the header and prepositions a 'cable transfer service request' code, which is pre-defined between servers, to the header. The settling request message with the 'cable transfer service request' code is then transmitted to the external financial settling server 40 through the network interfacing module 102. The financial settling server 40 conducts cable transfer transaction of the transfer requested money from a pre-specified account to subscriber' s account based on the received settling request message, and reports transfer result to the supervising module 108 which passes it to the settling module 112 through the pair of i/W modules 110a and 110b. The settling module 112 examines the received transfer result, and deletes in the advertisement database 117 the view history for a subscriber whose bank account money is successfully transferred to.

In addition, the settling module 112 derives, from the received view history of all subscribers and the registered subscription information, statistical data such as advertisement item preference in accordance with residence, age, and job, viewing time zone for each advertisement item, etc., and it prints out the derived statistical data or provides it as an electronic file if needed.

In the above embodiments, rewarding points are given to a subscriber if his or her viewing an advertisement item satisfies the rewarding point acquiring condition, and summed score for the subscriber is informed the advertising server 100. However, various modified embodiments are also possible, which are mentioned below.

The STB 300a or 300b keeps checking whether or not a subscriber presses the confirming button within the given interval while an advertisement item is being presented. If the subscriber does not satisfy the button entering interval, the STB 300a or 300b records IDs and view time lengths of advertisement items for which the button entering intervals are met prior to this interval failure.

Supposed that advertisement items of Fig. 7 are outputted sequentially from the first and the confirming button is entered at 55, 105, 162, 220, 321, 378, 430, 499,... on the condition of the button entering interval = 60 seconds, the entering at 321 becomes out of 60-second interval for the first time. Therefore, the advertisement items of 'LG Electronics Inc.' and 'Coca Cola' , which have been outputted prior to the confirming button entering at 220 seconds, are recorded in the memory 331 with each view time length. Each view time length is 96 and 124, not full time 132 seconds, respectively, because valid total view time is 220 seconds.

The button entering interval is violated at 499 again, so that view time length is recorded for the advertisement item outputted within the interval from 321 to 430. The recorded view time lengths collected as above are delivered to the advertising server 100 periodically or on request. To reduce data size to transmit, the view time lengths may be summed for each same advertisement item, if then, one view time length for one item is included in the data. If view time length data for each advertisement item is received, the settling module 112 of the advertising server 100 calculates money to pay by multiplying the viewing time length by money per unit time, for example, 1 second, and settles the calculated money through an electronic financial process. The above embodiment of advertising apparatus and method is described for a STB capable of receiving a television broadcast signal, however basic principle and spirits of the present invention can be applied to a personal computer, which conducts most functions through software, without technical difficulties and effortful modification.

In this application to a personal computer, if a personal computer equips with a peripheral broadcast receiving card, it would be totally same with the STB of Fig. 2 in entire functions, and if it does not equip with the card, it conducts same advertisement providing function and view managing function with the STB of Fig. 2.

Claims

C L A I M S

1. An advertising apparatus, comprising: an interfacing unit sending/receiving data to/from an advertising server through a network; an input receiver receiving a signal inputted from a user; a timer counting time; a storage unit storing advertising information received through said interfacing unit; an outputting unit presenting the advertising information stored in said storage unit in video signal based on the signal through said input receiver; a detector detecting whether or not a specific signal is inputted through said input receiver while the advertising information is presented in video, and reading a specific signal entered time from said timer; and a controller extracting and recording a point allocated for the advertising information outputted by said outputting unit from the advertising information stored in said storage unit based on the read specific signal entered time, and sending the recorded point to the advertising server through said interfacing unit.

2. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein the received advertising information consists of advertising data to present to the user, and a view rewarding regulation specifying how to give rewarding points for viewing the advertising data.

3. The apparatus set forth in claim 2, wherein the advertising data is composed of moving pictures, still picture, banner or audio data.

4. The apparatus set forth in claim 2, wherein the view rewarding regulation specifies that the rewarding points to give should be decremented as the number of advertisement view times is increased.

5. The apparatus set forth in claim 2, wherein the view rewarding regulation specifies that the rewarding points should be not given any more if a summed rewarding points exceed a maximum bound.

6. The apparatus set forth in claim 5, wherein said controller deletes the advertising information if the rewarding points summed for the advertising information exceed the maximum bound.

7. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein said outputting unit composes a displaying list of advertisement items included in the advertising information and presents the list in video signal when an advertisement view is requested through said input receiver.

8. The apparatus set forth in claim 7, wherein said outputting unit determines display priorities among the advertisement items on the composed list based on magnitude of rewarding points of each advertisement item.

9. The apparatus set forth in claim 7, wherein said outputting unit decodes the advertising data of an advertisement item selected in the list through said input receiver to present the advertising data in video.

10. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein said controller extracts and records the point allocated for the advertising information which has ended before a time when a present specific signal is entered, if time differences between the read specific signal entered times are within a predetermined interval.

11. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein said controller stores the allocated point in connection with advertisement item identifying information, and sends a collection of the points and the advertisement item identifying information thereof to the advertising server after adding a subscriber identifying information to the collection.

12. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, further comprising: a signal receiver receiving a television signal; a data extractor extracting data belonging to a selected program from the received television signal; a decoder presenting the extracted data in video; and a path selector selecting data stored in said storage unit or the extracted data from said data extractor based on a user' s selection through said input receiver, and outputting the selected data to said decoder.

13. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, further comprising a web connecting means conducting an Internet browsing function, sending/receiving data to/from a remote server through said interfacing unit, and presenting visual pictures by sending the data to said outputting unit.

14. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein said outputting unit further outputs information on time elapsed in said timer while the advertising information is presented in video.

15. The apparatus set forth in claim 14, wherein said outputting unit resets the time elapsed in said timer whenever the advertising information presented in video is changed.

16. An advertising apparatus, comprising: an interfacing unit sending/receiving data to/from an advertising server through a network; an input receiver receiving a signal inputted from a user; a timer counting time; a storage unit storing advertising information received through said interfacing unit; an outputting unit presenting the advertising information stored in said storage unit in video signal based on the signal through said input receiver; a detector detecting whether or not a specific signal is inputted through said input receiver while the advertising information is presented in video, and reading a specific signal entered time from said timer; and a controller recording, based on the read specific signal entered time, a view time length for the advertising information having been outputted by said outputting unit, together with information identifying the outputted advertising information, and sending the recorded view time length to the advertising server through said interfacing unit.

17. The apparatus set forth in claim 16, wherein said controller records the view time length for the advertising information having been outputted before a previous specific signal satisfying a predetermined interval is entered, if a time difference from the previous to a current specific signal entered times is out of the predetermined interval.

18. An advertisement providing apparatus, comprising: a communicating unit communicating data with a user's terminal through a network; a storage unit storing advertising data, a view rewarding regulation specifying how to give rewarding points for viewing the advertising data, and advertisement target information specifying a target group to advertise; a subscriber managing unit receiving subscription information from the user through said communicating unit, storing and managing the subscription information; a controlling unit determining one or more subscriber's terminals to send the advertising data and the view rewarding regulation to based on both the subscription information stored in said subscriber managing unit and the advertisement target information stored in said storage unit, and sending the determined subscriber's terminals the advertising data and the view rewarding regulation; and a settling unit calculating rewarding money to pay each subscriber based on advertisement view history received through said communicating unit, and deriving statistical data about view features according to an area or time zone from the received history.

19. The apparatus set forth in claim 18, wherein said controlling unit determines based on the subscription information whether a subscriber' s residence belongs to a target ^■ area specified by the advertisement target information, and sends the advertising data and the view rewarding regulation to the subscriber's terminal based on the determination result.

20. The apparatus set forth in claim 18, wherein said controlling unit stores, for a subscriber to whom the advertising data and the view rewarding regulation are sent, identifying information and advertising start date of the sent advertising data, examines whether there is an advertisement item of a new identifying information or of latest advertising start date, and sends the subscriber's terminal the new or updated advertisement item if any.

21. The apparatus set forth in claim 18, wherein said settling unit receives the advertisement view history after requesting the subscriber' s terminal to send the advertisement view history.

22. The apparatus set forth in claim 18, wherein said settling unit extracts bank account information from the subscription information, and requests an external server to transfer rewarding money to the extracted bank account to settle the rewarding money for subscriber's advertisement view.

23. An advertising method, comprising the steps of: sending an advertising terminal advertising information stored in an advertising server through a network, said advertising information including advertising data and a view rewarding regulation specifying how to reward for subscriber's advertisement view, said advertising terminal being selected among a plurality of advertising terminals based on advertisement target information stored in said advertising server; receiving and storing the advertising information through the network, and checking whether an advertisement view is requested from a user; extracting advertising data from said stored advertising information if requested, and presenting the extracted advertising data in video and/or audio by decoding it; checking continuously whether a specific button is entered from the user while said presentation is progressing, and determining whether or not the button entering satisfies a preset condition, if entered; giving and recording rewarding points in accordance with the view rewarding regulation associated with the advertising data being presented, based on the determination result; transmitting all recorded points granted according to repetition of said checking and said giving step to said advertising server through the network, together with subscriber identifying information; and calculating rewarding money to pay corresponding subscriber based on said all points and the subscriber identifying information.

24. The method set forth in claim 23, wherein access information to the advertising terminal is obtained from subscription information which is registered in said advertising server by a user beforehand through said advertising terminal or an other-typed data terminal.

25. The method set forth in claim 23, wherein said extracted advertising data is presented in video and/or audio by an external television set connected to said advertising terminal.

26. The method set forth in claim 23, wherein said receiving and storing step demodulates a received television broadcast program to output moving picture data until an advertisement view request signal is entered.

27. The method set forth in claim 23, wherein said checking and said giving and recording step are conducted repeatedly until stop of current advertisement view is requested from the user.

28. The method set forth in claim 27, wherein said stop of current advertisement view is a request of power-off, menu, or return to a television program.

29. The method set forth in claim 23, wherein said extracting step displays a list of all advertising information and presents the advertising data in video and/or audio sequentially from an advertising information item selected in the list.

30. The method set forth in claim 23, -further comprising the step of extracting bank account information from subscription information pre-registered in said advertising server, and requesting an external server to transfer rewarding money to the extracted bank account to pay for subscriber's advertisement view.