JPH05284437A - Commercial advertising method and commercial advertisement generator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To transmit a commercial advertisement to consumers at low cost by storing data, showing the commercial advertisement and selectively converting them into video signals. CONSTITUTION: A read only memory(ROM) 12 for storing the data expressing various advertisements is connected through a data bus 14 to a micro-controller 16. This microcontroller 16 is linked with a program, stored in a program memory 18, and which one of the various advertisements and the time to display it are determined. Namely, the address designation of the ROM 12 is performed under the control of the microcontroller 16, and a suitable graphic image showing address designated data is generated inside the ROM 12. Then, the output of graphics and memory controller 20 is supplied through a data bus to a pallet controller 22 to generate the RGB video signals of specified advertisement, and a switch 24 selectively supplies the advertising video signals to a picture tube for a prescribed time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a method and apparatus for serving commercial advertisements to television receivers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various television broadcasting networks use televised entertainment.
Is being broadcast to consumers free of charge. This is economically feasible by including advertising associated with televised entertainment. Based on the number of viewers of a particular televised program, advertisers pay different rates for their ads. These charges also depend on the length of each advertisement, that is, the number of broadcasts and the number of days (weeks, months) that the advertiser desires to broadcast the advertisement.

[0003]

However, this advertising method is very costly. For example,
A one-minute advertisement during a Super Bowl broadcast may be higher than one million dollars.

The present invention seeks to provide a method and apparatus for delivering commercial advertisements to consumers at a very low cost for advertisers.

[0005]

This object can be achieved by locally generating advertisements on the television receiver. In particular, the method according to the invention comprises the step of locally storing in the television receiver data indicating a commercial advertisement; the step of selectively converting the data into a video signal; the video signal for a predetermined period of time. Is selectively switched to the display of the television receiver.

An apparatus according to the invention for implementing the method comprises storage means for storing data indicating the commercial advertisement; conversion means for converting the stored data into a video signal for display. A control means coupled to the storage means for selectively supplying the data to the conversion means; and a switching means for switching the video signal to a display of the television receiver for a predetermined period. The switching means is controlled by the control means.

By paying advertising fees in the device, the advertiser may own the advertisement that was encoded and stored in the read-only memory when manufacturing the television receiver. This ROM is attached to the television receiver which contains the device of the invention. The advertiser's advertisement is then displayed on the screen of the television receiver at various times when the consumer is watching the television receiver. The display of advertisements can be time-dependent. That is, advertisements can be generated at regular time intervals. Alternatively, the advertisement can be generated by the operation of the control function of the television receiver such as turning on the power or changing the channel. Advertising, known
It can be a static image that appears on the screen in a manner similar to an on-screen "channel number display, a banner across the bottom of the screen, etc., or a dynamic image that occurs in a similar manner. If so, the device of the present invention may cycle to the next advertisement each time it is displayed.

The present invention may also update the contents of the ad memory so that new ads can be stored at a later time. Data indicating these new advertisements are provided to the television receiver via telephone lines, cable television services, broadcast data services, and the like.

As an additional benefit to the consumer, the device of the present invention also includes the ability for certain users to store programmable information, and may display personal information such as birthday announcements. it can.

In order to ensure that paid advertisements are actually being displayed periodically on the television receiver, the device of the present invention has been adjusted by the consumer or other unlicensed service person. In some cases, a circuit may be provided for stopping the operation of the television receiver.

[0011]

1 is a block diagram showing an example of the present invention incorporated in a standard television receiver. In particular, the television receiver comprises a conventional receiver circuit 10 including a tuner, audio processing circuit and video processing circuit. A conventional receiver circuit 10 is a video signal (RGB for color) supplied to a picture tube (not shown) of a display.
) Supply.

The circuit of the first example according to the present invention is a read-only memory in which data representing various advertisements is stored.
It has (ROM) 12. The ROM 12 is connected to the microcontroller 16 by the data bus 14. The microcontroller 16 is coupled to a program stored in a program memory 18 which is coupled to it via a data bus 14 to determine which of the various advertisements should be displayed and when. Because of this, graphics & memory controller 20
Is coupled to the microcontroller 16 and the ROM 12 to address the ROM 12 under the control of the microcontroller 16 and to generate an appropriate graphic image showing the data addressed in the ROM 12. The output of the graphics & memory controller 20 is
It is supplied to the palette controller 22 (in the case of color) via the data bus 14 to generate the RGB video signal of the specific advertisement. The RGB output of palette controller 22 is provided to a first set of inputs of switch 24. Also switch
24 is from the conventional receiver circuit 10 in the second input set
Receive RGB video signals. Under the control of the microcontroller 16, the switch 24 selectively provides an advertising video signal to the picture tube for a predetermined time.

In the above arrangement, the microcontroller 16 causes the advertisement to be displayed sequentially at regular time intervals.
For this reason, the microcontroller 16
It has a calendar. Alternatively, however, an advertisement is preferably displayed each time the control function of the television receiver is addressed.

The television receiver in the second example according to the present invention comprises a receiver controller 26 which incorporates at least a power-on switch, channel up & down control and volume control. Utilizing these predetermined control functions, the receiver controller 26 performs the desired functions and sends control signals to the microcontroller 16
To display which control functions are active. At this time, the microcontroller 16 displays any advertisement for a predetermined period.

In a third example according to the invention, the ability to update advertisements is provided. The device comprises a programmable read only memory (PROM) 28. PROM 28 is also coupled to data bus 14. Graphic update interface
30 is also coupled to the data bus 14 and, under the control of the microcontroller 16 and receiver controller 26, supplies the PROM 28 with updated data to be written. The graphic update interface 30 includes a data input terminal 32, a telephone line,
Receiving data updates provided via a data port of a television receiver connected to a cable television service or a broadcast data service.

In a fourth example according to the present invention, a variety of consumer programmable additional benefits associated with advertising, such as birthday or anniversary announcements, holiday greetings, seasonal notes, etc. Information can be provided to consumers. As shown, a random access memory (RAM) 34 is connected to the data bus 14 to store this consumer programmable information. In response to on-screen instructions by receiver controller 26 and microcontroller 16, the consumer is instructed to enter the appropriate information stored in RAM 34 via receiver controller 26. After this, the microcontroller 16 reads ROM1
2 and / or display this information along with the PROM28 advertisement.

In order to ensure that the pay advertisement is actually displayed, the circuit according to the invention comprises a protection circuit 36,
Detects if the device is not being adjusted by the consumer or an unauthorized service person. If the protection circuit 36 detects that an adjustment has been made, a signal is sent to the receiver controller 26 to disable the television receiver until an authorized serviceman resets the system.

Finally, the device according to the invention comprises an auditing function, which makes it possible to log in the memory for the actual display of the advertisement. Therefore, the microcontroller 16 supplies this data to the RAM 34 so that its contents can be queried later.

The display of the advertisement can be in any suitable form. Particularly, for example, when the power is turned on, the advertisement can be displayed on the entire screen for a predetermined period as shown in FIG. 2A. Figure 2B when the channel change function is selected
If possible, ads can be inserted small along the on-screen channel display, as shown in.
Alternatively, the advertisement may be displayed as a banner along the bottom or top of the display screen (Figure 2C).
And Figure 2D). If your television has PIP functionality, you can display the picture you are looking at as a PIP and display the ad on a full screen (see Figure 2E).

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed herein, and various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary representation of a television receiver showing various methods of displaying advertisements.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Receiver circuit 12 ROM 14 Data bus 16 Micro controller 18 Program memory 20 Graphic & memory controller 22 Palette controller 24 Switch 26 Receiver controller 28 PROM 30 Graphic update interface 32 Data input terminal 34 RAM 36 Protection circuit

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Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A device in a television receiver for locally generating a commercial advertisement for display, the device comprising: storage means for storing data indicative of the commercial advertisement; Conversion means for converting the stored data into a video signal for display; control means for coupling with the storage means and selectively supplying the data to the conversion means; the video signal for a predetermined period of time And a switching means for switching the display to the display of the television receiver, and the switching means is controlled by the control means. 2. The commercial advertisement generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the commercial advertisement generating apparatus further comprises update means for updating the data stored in the storage means. 3. The commercial advertisement generating device further comprises:
Detecting means for detecting whether or not the commercial advertisement generating device is disconnected from the television receiver; connecting with the television receiver, responding to the detecting means, and operating the television receiver. The commercial advertisement generating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a disabling means for disabling the advertisement. 4. The television receiver comprises a control switch; and the commercial advertisement generating device further comprises switch operation detection means for detecting operation of the control switch; and the control means comprises the control. The display of the video signal corresponding to a commercial advertisement selected from among the commercial advertisements is performed in response to a detected operation of a switch.
The commercial advertisement generating device described in. 5. A step of locally storing data indicating a commercial advertisement in the television receiver; a step of selectively converting the data into a video signal; a step of converting the video signal to the television for a predetermined period of time. And a step of selectively switching to the display of the television receiver. 6. The advertisement method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of periodically updating the data and displaying another commercial advertisement. 7. A portion of the displayed picture is displayed by the step of selectively switching the video signal,
The advertisement method according to claim 5, wherein the commercial advertisements are effectively overlapped. 8. The advertisement method according to claim 5, wherein the superposition is performed when a predetermined control switch of the television receiver is operating. 9. The advertisement method according to claim 5, wherein the commercial advertisement is composed of a moving image. 10. The advertising method according to claim 5, wherein the video signal is selectively switched to the display at regular time intervals.