MXPA99005800A - Set top device for targeted electronic insertion of indicia into video - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of anonymous targeted insertion of indicia into video broadcasts. Individual televisions or other video reception devices are associated with set-top boxes that monitor the usage and viewing habits of the television set or other video reception device. A viewer profile derived from data acquired from said monitoring is created wherein the viewer profile indicates certain characteristics about the viewer. This profile is transmitted to a centralized database, said centralized database being an intermediate link between the origin of the video broadcast and the end viewer. The purpose of the database is to link specificinsertable indicia with matching specific viewer profiles. The insertable indicia are encoded directly into the broadcast video and re-broadcast to the end viewer where the set-top box decodes the broadcast video and performs insertion of the indicia. Thus, the system and method allow advertisers to target specific ads or indicia to specific viewing profiles.

Description

SUPERIOR DEVICE FOR ELECTRONIC INSERTION DIRECTED FROM SIGNALS TO VIDEO BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to superior video receiving devices, and in particular, improves them to allow the insertion of directed signals within the video. 2. Description of Related Art Electronic devices for the insertion of images into live video signals, such as those described in U.S. Patent No. 5,264,933 to Rosser, et al., And U.S. Patent No. 5,491,517 to Kreitman, et al., have been developed and used commercially for the purpose of inserting advertisements and other signals within video sequences, including live broadcasts of sporting events. These devices are capable of incorporating logos and other signals seamlessly and realistically into the original video in real time, even as the original scene is enlarged, framed or otherwise altered in size or perspective.

The insertion in live video signals requires several steps. The video of the event must be recognized, tracked and adjusted for the perspective of the potential insert and the occluder objects before the actual insertion. In the systems presented in U.S. Patent No. 5,264,933 to Rosser, et al., And U.S. Patent No. 5,491,517 to Rrietman, et al., It is assumed that the transmitter would carry out the entire process, including recognition, tracing, creating an occlusion mask, hatching inserts to correspond correctly with the current image and mixing correctly the original video, the urged insert and the occlusion mask.

In U.S. Patent No. 5,543,856 to Rosser, et al., A Live Video Insertion System (LVIS) divided into two functional parts is described, with a "master" ascending portion carrying out the recognition and generation of the occlusion mask, and that sends this information down, along with several control parameters, to a less computationally inferior part (slave), able to warp inserts to correspond correctly with the current image, and mix correctly the original video, the urduced insert and the occlusion mask.

A number of current currents in television, video and computer technology make it feasible and economically possible for a "slave" LVIS unit to be included within future higher units. One current is towards the sending of compressed video signals directly to the home. Compression is driven by limited availability of transmission bandwidth, especially satellite-based transmissions. To decompress compressed video, users require a superior device that has sufficient computing power and memory. These higher devices are required to run decompression algorithms in real time. Memory and computing power could also be used to make the upper device act as a "slave" downstream part of an LVIS system.

A second stream is to decrease the price of memory and computing power to increase the ability of a personal computer to process information video bandwidths.

A third current is the movement of telephone companies and other providers of cable networks for networks of higher bandwidths. There is also the possibility that the World Wide Web (WWW), or some similar computer network, could become a means of exchanging data or transmitting high quality video information on a large scale. The compressed video, still necessary to traverse networks with limited bandwidths, is decompressed by the personal computer that receives the data. The power to process the video from the personal computer may be sufficient to also be used as the section (slave) of an LVIS system.

Still another stream is inclined towards sending digital television signals directly to the home. The foregoing means that the television set itself will be a digital processor, powerful enough to be programmed and used to warp images and the other processes required for a lower slave unit of an LVIS system.

In all these scenarios, the significant point, as far as this invention is concerned, is that the upper device, the last link in the video transmission chain, has significant computing power and memory. When said computing power and memory is sufficient for the viewer's upper device to act as the lower or "slave" section of an LVTS system, a very interesting possibility arises - the possibility of directing advertising within a mass medium. In particular, it makes more selective the projection of the possible advertising, particularly the insertions, on television and other video transmissions.

To understand the benefits of the selective screening of television and video audiences, which is the subject of this application, it is useful to understand the concepts of targeted advertising.

The most penetrating, and accurate, methods of selective or targeted advertising is direct mail (also known as junk mail) that uses mail to deliver material to selected audiences. The starting point for the directed mail is a database of addresses. These databases can also be correlated with so-called profile factors, or personal information, which belongs to the residents of each of these addresses. These profile factors are typically age, income, family composition, number of children and ages, type of car, type of room, zip code and various demographic, psychographic and lifestyle information. While more of these profile factors contain the database, it is more useful to direct advertising. The database is scrutinized by a computer to generate a list of addresses of candidates whose profile factors correspond to a subset of the advertiser. The advertiser believes that customers whose factor profile falls within this chosen subset will be more sensitive to buying the product that the advertiser sells, so that by sending only these people, the advertiser (or customer) can reach the entire audience that is highly predisposed to buy the product, with the minimum of expenses.

The use of these databases has three problems. The first is that they are effective only for mail. The more effective the mass medium, especially television, can not be directed with anything similar to the same geographical precision because of the nature of the transmission. The second is the problem of trying to keep the databases updated. The typical data sources used to complete these databases, such as census information, licensed professional databases, credit card transactions, guarantee cards, reverse directories and consumer surveys, can be months, and more typically years, outdated. Even good databases only guarantee 80-90% delivery capacity - that is, 10-20% of the addresses are no longer valid. The existence of such centralized databases worries many people because of potential potential abuses by agencies, which include but are not limited to government agencies, which have authorized or unauthorized access to the databases, and also to their potential use by part of criminals to plan thefts, schemes of fraud and other illicit uses.

The top down version of LVIS solves these three problems. First, it brings the power of direct marketing to video, particularly the mass commercial medium of television. Moreover, you can do this in a way that avoids the need for centralized databases, with your privacy concerns and lack of topicality. The proposed directional mechanism of this application, Directional Anonymous Profiles, effectively addresses profile factors of viewers without making them publicly available in a way that ensures that profile factors are close to 100% current.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention comprises at the same time a method and an apparatus for acting as a Live Video Insertion System (LVIS), dividing it into two separate parts, with an ascending "master" part making the recognition and generation of the occlusion mask, and that sends this information down, along with several control parameters, to a part less involved in the "slave" computing aspect, capable of warping inserts to correspond correctly with the current image, and mix correctly the original video, the warped insert and the occlusion mask, where the descending section is part of a superior device in a spectator's home.

Due to the position of the upper device in the viewer's television set, it becomes possible to narrow the selection of the video inserts to a single home, which is a single person or even a particular television set within a home. The narrow selection could be implemented as the television or video equivalent of direct mail, in which a database scrutinized by central computer is used to select the viewers whose profile factors correspond to a subset chosen by the advertiser. For example, the geographical position of the superior devices could be made extremely local by GPS devices in the upper device which could also serve as a protection mechanism against theft, or by telephone numbers of coupled modems or postcodes or postal homes that are stored in the upper device, possibly as part of the delivery of the product warranty. However, the availability of significant memory and computing power in the superior device opens the door to a much more exciting possibility, which we call Directed Anonymous Profiles (ATP).

Anonymous Directed Profiles do not require a centralized database of all potential clients. Instead, there is a recorder or monitor for the viewer's use, located in the viewer's position, and an interpreter or keyboard for the viewer's use, provided with the transmission. The recorder or monitor for the viewer's use is a system that monitors television usage patterns and stores a constantly updated version of a usage profile. The upper device is an ideal place to place a monitor for the user's use. In a simple way, the monitor for the viewer's use could easily classify programs (or channels) and record a mobile vision profile of viewing habits, which includes the type of programs viewed, the time of day and the day of the week in that you see the program and the duration of the vision. More complex user-use models may also include unseen programs, intensity of vision (ie, volume adjustments), patterns of changes (ie, which video fragments capture the attention of a channel changer, even during a short time) and other more subtle aspects of the viewer's interaction with the medium.

An interpreter for the viewer's use is a key that translates the user's profile of use to a set of profile factors related to the viewing pattern. The interpreter for the viewer's use could be generated statistically by having a sample of households with known profile factors, who have their vision habits monitored by a central system. By choosing households scientifically shown so that each household in the television viewing population has a known selection option, the results obtained from the sample can be projected with confidence to a larger television viewing audience. The sample size required for the survey depends on the necessary trust. A moderate sample size is sufficient for most needs. For example, national surveys, such as those carried out by well-known Gallup or Harris organizations, generally use samples of around 1,500 people to reflect national attitudes and opinions within an accuracy of ± 4%. A sample of this size produces accurate calculations even for a country as large as the United States with a population of more than 250 million people.

In one use of the invention, a transmission station would establish a continuous survey of a few thousand households of known profile factors for each region of significant transmission. These surveys would be used to generate cross-correlations between user profiles of the viewer and profile factors of the viewer. Advertisers who want to have their ads targeted to viewers with a particular subset of profile factors would be able to use cross-correlations to translate their viewer profile requests into a user profile request request. The transmitter would then send the required viewer user profiles as part of the transmission in, for example, the vertical flashing interval (VBI) along with the insertion of advertisements also in the VBI, over a number of fields, if necessary. In the viewer's superior, the device would see what insertion is related to the user profile of the local viewer, and insert it appropriately.

For example, in a widely viewed event, such as the Super Bowl, a car company may choose to present different models, depending on the demographic or psychographic profile of the family, based on their vision habits. As a simple example, a family with a vision profile that includes meaningful vision of programs for children is assumed to have children and may be taught ads for a mini van, while a family with a profile that includes significant vision of programs for outdoor sports you can be shown an advertisement for a sport utility vehicle made by the same company.

There could also be a "written" dimension to the vision that provides the viewer with the opportunity to choose extra specific profile factors. For example, viewers who are looking for a car can add this fact to their viewer profile to deliberately request car ads. It may also be possible to specify price ranges and other relevant parameters.

In another example of the invention, the inserts could appear as border advertisements that surround, or partially surround, one or more of the video windows, or could be a separate window, which can change position, size, shape and orientation on the screen as a means to increase the impact of the ad.

In a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, the upper device could be used not only for advertisements in programs, as made possible by the LVIS system, but could use one or more secondary video channels, possibly compressed as a source of alternative advertisements for show up in conventional commercial breaks. These interprogram announcements, usually coupled with events in the program, could also be in appropriate cuts coupled to the action of the viewer, as when the viewer turns on the television first, changes channels, switches off the device or alters the viewing parameters, such as It is the volume.

In yet another additional issue, in which television is also connected to a computer network, such as the World Wide Web (WWW), the vision profile could be extended to even the browser profile, related to web sites frequently visited or other requested services. In addition, the inserted advertising could be web site addresses or other forms of links to more information, or more publicity, related to the advertised product.

Much of the technology needed to implement the monitor for the viewer's use, necessary for the Anonymous Directed Profile, could also be used to provide "smart" television sets, which would favorably impact the economy of the invention's implementation by allowing the manufacturers of superior devices or distributors thereof absorb a substantial part of the cost of the superior device for the end user. For example, an intelligent television set, when turned on, would not only be in the channel it was on when it was turned off. Depending on the time and day of the week, it would light up on the channel indicated as most likely by the viewer's usage profile, no matter where it was when it was turned off. Smart TV can also be used to provide user-customized inserts, especially those similar to those used by broadcasters to display baseball or soccer statistics. The extra channels and tuners needed for the network to offer alternative and complete video to its advertisers, could also be used to have multiple windows, that is, image in improved image. Multiple windows would also allow the ability to turn on with more attractive predetermined features. The warping needed for the downloadable LVIS slave system could be used to make one or more of these windows changeable in size, expandable (for people who want to examine some detail of the video) and even rotating (for people who want to lie down and have the video of side too). Write-able digital video discs, or some other high-capacity random access memory, could be used by advertisers to store full video for insertion at the appropriate time. These devices can also provide viewers with their own instant replay feature, automatically storing the last five minutes of the program being watched. This feature would also make the expansion capacity more attractive, especially for sports fans, for example, who may wish to return and see some aspect of the game such as a ball falling near a line in detail. The devices that can be written on also act as a note to take pieces of video that they want to see later or want to show someone else; or as a more conventional video recorder, These additional features can also be used as startups to display live or fixed video ads, either before or after using the feature, or as a limiting ad while using the feature, or as a live video insertion in Some recognized part of the video.

In addition to processing the insertion information from a pattern recognition version of an LVIS system, the descending part of the upper device of the LVIS system could take the insertion information from camera sensors, including the types of systems developed for the systems. Virtual studios, or could be taking information from gaming applications for multiple users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing an LVIS system divided into an ascending "master" and a "slave system" descending, where: A) Video production unit; B) Interpreter of camera data; C) Recognition unit; D) Tracking unit; E) Occlusion mask unit; F) Coding unit; G) Upward live video insertion system; H) Site of the central study; I) Decompression media; J) Control devices; K) Upper device; L) Memory device; M) Viewer profile; N) LVIS descending; O) Video screen; P) Decompression medium; Q) Control devices; R) Upper device; S) Memory device; T) Perifl of spectator; U) LVIS descending; V) Logo B; W) Video screen.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram, showing details of the end user's upper device, augmented to enable it to play as the downlink slave of an LVIS system, where: A) Video transmitted; B) Remote control of the spectator; C) Television of the spectator; D) Tuner; E) Decompress; F) Channel 3 modulator; G) Clock; H) Baseband video; I) Line of delay; J) MUX; K) Vertical flicker interval decoder; L) Model information; M) Urdir; N) Occlusion mask; O) Type of program; P) Spectator use profile required; Q) Video insertion; R) User use profile; S) Match profile; T) Text data; U) Text to video.

Figure 3 shows an example of a viewer use profile, illustrated as a bar chart, where: A) Average viewing time (Moving average during the last 30 days); B) Categories of programs (may include type and time of day it was seen); C) Movies; D) Series; E) Caricatures; F) News; G) Drama; H) Dramatic series; I) Sports; J) Programs for children; K) Game programs; L) Religious programs; M) Crime programs; N) Music programs; O) Dialog programs; P) Information program; Q) Comedy; R) Infomercials; S) Entertainment programs; T) Action programs; U) Science fiction; V) Science; W) Purchasing services; X) Health programs; Y) Mystery programs; Z) Western programs; AA) Education; AB) Variety of comedy.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram, showing details of an alternative instance of the end user's superior device, augmented to enable it to play as the slave descendant of an LVIS system and act as a smart television, where: A) Internet / Telephone; B) Cable; C) Transmission; D) Satellite; E) Modem; F) cable modem; G) Tuner; H) Decoder; I) Data router; J) Text to video / audio; K) Audio / video router; L) Video / audio storage; M) unzip video / audio; N) video / audio mixer; O) Occlusion mask generator; P) Warper; Q) Channel 3 modulator; R) Interpret; S) Data storage; T) Central controller; U) Storage of the viewer's use profile; V) Position information; W) Clock; X) Viewer control interface; Y) End-user television set; Z) Remote control of the viewer.

Figure 5 is a table showing types of television programming and the percentage of total air time of each type in a position in the United States in a given week in 1986.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREDILECT JEMPLAR During the course of this description, similar numbers will be used to identify similar elements according to the different figures illustrating the invention.

In the preferred example of the present invention, a video transmission, which can, for example, be a live television broadcast of an event played on a court 10, is captured for remote viewing by the television cameras 12, and is composed in a program to be seen within a standard video production unit 14, which can be a television production truck or a video studio, equipped with well-known video production equipment. After being composed in a program, the video is fed through the front end of an Insertion System.

Live Video (LVTS) 16. This front end of LVIS 16 performs the initial recognition functions using the recognition unit 18, tracking using the tracking unit 20 and production of the occlusion mask using the production unit of occlusion mask 22, as presented in detail in U.S. Patent Nos. 5,264,933 and 5,543,856, as well as the copending patent applications: serial number 08 / 563,598 filed on November 28, 1996, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INSERTING STATIC AND DYNAMIC IMAGES IN A LIVE VIDEO TRANSMISSION "; serial number 08 / 580,892 filed on December 29, 1995 entitled "METHOD FOR TRACKING SCENIC MOVEMENT FOR LIVE VIDEO INSERTION SYSTEMS"; serial number 08 / 662,089 filed on June 12, 1996 entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REAL-TIME INSERTIONS TO VIDEO USING ADAPTIVE OCCLUSION WITH A SYNTHETIC COMMON REFERENCE IMAGE"; and serial number 60 / 031,883 filed on November 27, 1996 entitled "TRACE OF CAMERAS USING PERSONAL AND CHOSEN IMAGE TEXTURE TEMPLATES", the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The recognition and tracking parameters can also be provided by sensors 13 coupled to the camera itself, and can be interpreted by an interpreter of camera data 15, as used by some virtual reality study systems, and as presented in FIG. detail in the provisional application in the United States serial number 60 / 038,143 filed on November 27, 1996, entitled "INSERTING IMAGES IN VIDEO CURRENTS USING A COMBINATION OF PHYSICAL SENSORS AND RECOGNITION OF PATTERNS"; whose teachings are included here as a reference.

However, unlike the systems presented in U.S. Patent No. 5,264,933, the front end of the LVIS 16 system does not use this information to join the insert with the live video. In its place a coding unit 24 inserts the information obtained by the other parts of the front end LVTS 16 in the vertical flicker interval of the video or other appropriate crop as it is, but not limited to, an auxiliary audio channel. In addition, the coding unit 24 can also insert all or part of a graphic or video for insertion 26, a program category code 27 or one or more authorization keys or user profiles 28. The foregoing can be done in any amount of video fields; a user authorization key (as presented in the United States Patent Number ,543,856) and one or more keys of the profile of use of the viewer 120. The output of the coding unit 24 can be a standard video signal which can be the well-known standard NTSC or PAL television signals with extra information encoded in, for example , the vertical flicker interval or otherwise an unused audio channel or may be a compressed video signal.

The signal produced by the front end of LVIS 16 is sent via appropriate means 30, which can be satellite link, or line of telephone companies, etc. to a central study site 34 for as much processing as possible before it is relayed to a wider audience, which may be the general public. The central facilities 34 may be responsible for the insertion of any or all of the graphics or video for subsequent insertion by the downstream part of the LVTS system 46, a user authorization key, one or more keys of the user's profile of use and a program category code, all for use in the downstream part of the LVTS 46 system. The central study site 34 would also be responsible for providing conventional video advertising that can also be directed using the Directed Profile methodology.

Anonymous of this request. After the appropriate alterations made by the central study site 34, the signal is distributed via appropriate distribution means 40 and 42 which may be a satellite distribution system, a cable network, a land transmission system, computer networks or another appropriate means for transferring video or television signals to the end user.

The end user has an appropriate receiving device 42, which may be a cable connection, a conventional aerial television antenna or a satellite antenna, a telephone company line or other appropriate means for receiving video or television signals. After reception, the signal is fed to an upper device 44 before reaching the end user's video display screen 56 which may be a television screen, a computer monitor or other appropriate display means. The user of the upper device may have appropriate means to decompress 52 signals as well as other appropriate control devices 54 that can perform various functions that make the superior device desirable to the end user, such as, but not limited to, personalized advertisements. , automatic selection of channels or on and increase or resize of the viewing window. The upper device 44 of the preferred specimen has, as a minimum, the components of a descending LVES 46 system, with the ability to strip, interpret and use the information mixed with the video signal by means of the ascending LVIS 16 system. In particular, the descending unit 46 is capable of using the information generated by the recognition unit 18, the tracking unit 20, the occlusion mask production unit 22 to perform the seamless insertion of fixed, animated and live video signals into the video stream in a way that can make the inserted signals appear to the end user as if they were part of the original scene 10.

The upper device 44 of the preferred specimen is also capable of stripping, interpreting and using any graphics or video, a user authorization key, one or more keys of the viewer's usage profile 120 and a program category code, each of which may have been coupled to the video stream by the coding unit 24 or by the facilities of the central study site 34. In particular, by comparing the keys of the profile of use of the viewer 200 with the usage profile of the local viewer 50 , the different inserts 58 and 60 can be made in video viewing devices of different end users 56. The different inserts can be stored permanently in the memory device 55, or they can be downloaded during or before the transmission of the Live video transmission in which they are inserted.

The upper end user device 44 of the preferred example is illustrated in greater detail in the schematic drawing of Figure 2. The input data stream 70, which may be the transmitted video or other appropriate means for transmitting video to an end user, which includes but is not limited to, analog or digital television transmissions, or MPEG2 or other compressed video, is typically received via a selection device 72, which may be, but is not limited to, a standard television tuner. The function of the selection device 72 is to discriminate between the variety of different video programs or data streams that are distributed in the same channel as in different bandwidths, or that derive from different positions in a network. In the preferred example, the selection device 72 is monitored by a user profile generator 74, which also has access to the current time and date via a clock 76 and to the program type of the program type indicator 78, which it has been supplied with this information by means of the vertical blink interval decoder 80. The function of the usage profile generator 74 is to construct a history of the use of video vision. The vision pattern, which may include the type of program, the nature of the program being observed, the time of day the program is viewed, the day of the week in which the program is viewed, the duration of the program's vision and any other Relevant information related to the program can be used to predict, within acceptable margins of error, the so-called profile factors that direct marketing advertisers obtain from demographic and psychographic databases.

The profile factors could be determined up to different degrees of accuracy from different amounts of data. For example, a vision profile that only took into account the time of day, the day of the week, the vision time, the duration of the vision, including the channel change patterns - that is, all the data that they do not require labeling of programs or channels - it would reveal enough about the viewer but leave substantial margin for errors. For example, a patron who had weekday vision from 6:30 A.M. until 8:00 A.M. but nothing again until 7:00 P.M. until 11:00 P.M. and nothing on Saturdays until after 10:00 A.M., would indicate a house without children, all the members of it work. While this is a useful conclusion, and that can be used up to a degree of direction, it does not necessarily give any indication of, for example, the actual size of the family you see, or the sex of those who make up the family. By including monitoring of what types of program are observed, a considerably greater analysis is possible, with a good probability of being able to predict such important profile factors as sex, age and income.

In the preferred issue, the interpretation of the viewer's usage profiles, that is, the cross-correlation between the viewer's usage profile and the spectator profile factors that we have termed as the key to the viewer's usage profile, would be established using Well-known survey sampling techniques, and practiced by companies such as the well-known Gallup or Harris organizations. The key to the viewer's profile of use could be generated by having a sample of households, or known profile factors, who have vision habits automatically monitored by a central system, which can be a computer linked to the superior device of the viewers through a modem and telephone link, or other appropriate technology. When choosing households, it shows scientifically that each of the households in the population that watches television or video has a known option of choice, the results obtained from the sampling can be projected with confidence to the public that watches television or video.

The accuracy and importance of the key of the user's usage profile will depend on the data used, and how it is used, to obtain the usage profile of the viewer 120. A diagrammatic view of a viewer's usage profile is illustrated as a graph of bars in Figure 3. The horizontal axis 122 is used to represent the category of the program, and the vertical axis 126 is used to represent a measure of the intensity of vision related to each program category. A simple form of that measure of vision duration of a program category. A typical entry can be represented as a bath 124. In a simple example, the categories of the programs would include the time of day and the day of the week.

The above requires a codified form of the type of program transmitted by the transmitters, preferably in the vertical flicker interval, although it may exist or be encoded in an extra audio channel, or in the video itself, or in some fields extra or backup in, for example, the title, or the introduction sequence, or in the credits. The type of program can be encoded in the video itself as an insert or some alteration to an insert. In a digital transmission, it can be encoded as at least a less significant data pattern, as it becomes common in digital image authentication schemes. Typical types of programs may include specific sports (soccer, baseball, basketball, etc.), each of which may have subcategories, such as major leagues, minor leagues, news, current affairs, movies (with subcategories).

Richard F. Taflinger, Professor at the Edward R. Munow School of Communication, from the State University of Washington in "Sitcom: What it is and how it works", lists twenty-six different primary types of television programs. Figure 5 shows a list of all these twenty-six types and the percentage in which each of them is available in a television broadcast in a given week in 1986 from an area covered by seven program providers. Professor Taflinger also notes that the average family in 1992 watched television seven hours and seventeen minutes a day, or more than 50 hours a week, more than the average work per week. Television is obviously an important component of American life, and because of the diversity of available programming and the time spent watching it, television viewing patterns can be a very powerful tool in determining the demographic and psychographic composition of television. family that observes. Program types can be subdivided. An important subdivision could be if a program is repeated or not, and if yes, how recent.

The vertical axis 126 of the use profile of the exemplary viewer 120 would record the vision intensity experience related to each of the program categories represented by the horizontal axis 122. A simple measure of the intensity of vision is the time spent watching that category of particular program. The above can be represented as total accumulated time, the total time of the past month, or some average moving time. Additional factors, such as, but not limited to, the volume, increases in volume, if the television was already on in the channel, if the viewer started watching the program late, or if the viewer left the program early, it could be used to Weigh the observed time to more satisfactorily generate a composite merit function or calculation of the intensity of the vision experience related to each of the program categories. In the preferred issue, the intensity of vision related to each of the program categories is simply not weighed, the average time per week invested in seeing that category, with a weight function that gives the current unit weight per week, and then systematically reduces the weight of the previous weeks. A simple way to do the above is to add the previous average of each program category to the total of the current week for each program category and divide by two. Many other algorithms can be unrolled to achieve a similar result.

In the preferred issue, after leaving the tuner 72, the signal goes to the decoder, which, if necessary, makes any decompression as it is, but without limitations, the well-known MPEG2 decompression. The output is a baee 84 video signal, which is divided in two, one copy of the signal goes on the delay line 86, and the other part to the vertical blink interval decoder 80. The function of the interval decoder vertical flashing 80 is to extract the information that was placed there before either by the front end of the LVTS 16 or at the central study site 34. In particular, the decoder of the vertical blink interval 80 extracts model information 88, the occlusion mask 87, the images or videos to be inserted 90 and auxiliary text information 92 related to the insertion, the required spectator profiles 94 related to the different insertion videos 90 and the different texts 92.

For example, one use may be to have a single video insert 90 of a product, but with a number of different texts 92. The default text may be in English, but for viewer use profiles 74 that show use of ethnic channels In particular, since the channels are in Spanish, the text can be in Spanish. Matching a viewer usage profile 74 of the current top device 44 and the required user usage profile 94 is done by means of profile equalizer 96 which chooses the required text data 92 to feed the text to video converters 98. The profile equalizer 96 also selects which of the stored video inserts 90 is fed to the warping unit 100. The warping unit 100 takes the appropriate model information 88 and uses it to warp the video of the appropriate text 98 and the appropriate video insertion. 90 within the appropriate pose required to make the insert behave as if it were part of the natural scene.

The occlusion mask 87 is also fed to the warper 89 which uses the model information to warp the occlusion mask within the proper pose of the final video. The mixing unit 102 then combines the warped occlusion mask, the warped insertion video and the text-video with baseband video 84 that has been deployed by the delay line 86 during the time taken to decode and warp images in its site. The composite output of the mixing device 102, which is a video signal with an insert in its site is fed to a channel modulator 104, which converts the video into baseband to the form expected by the chosen channel of a standard NTSC television set, as is customary. Obviously similar arrangements can be made for other television formats, as it is but without limitations, the well-known PAL, SECAM, digital and HDTV, and other channels of the television receiver. The resulting signal is then sent to the television set of the end user 106 to be seen by the end user.

In normal operation the viewer interacts with his television set via the remote control device 71, or another device controlled by the similar viewer as e, but without limitations, buttons or switches in the viewer's apparatus or the upper device. The operations of the spectator turning the device on or off; the selection of channels; adjustment of parameters including, but not limited to, the volume, brightness, contrast, etc. and other viewer usage options are handled by the viewer control interface 148, which may be a graphical user interface displayed in television or video display of the viewer. The viewer requests are passed to the central controller 146, which is typically a programmed microprocessor, as is well known in the art of coupled control technology.

One of the functions of the central controller is to carry out the spectator's instructions by making the appropriate connections between all the appropriate modules within the upper device. The above includes the selection of the modem, cable modem, tuner or decoder as the primary receiving device; establishing said primary receiver device to the appropriate channel, bandwidth or address to receive the data or the program requested by the user; and using data and video routers to direct television video, audio and data signals via appropriate storage and processing devices, including but not limited to, the video and audio storage unit 152, the unit decompression 154, the video and audio mixer 156, the occlusion mask generator 158, the warping machine 160 and the channel modulator 162, so that the viewer finishes with the information requested, which may be a television program, or text or language of creation of hyper texts (HTML) or virtual reality modeling language (VRML) or another acceptable protocol, of the global network, or some combination of said sources, deployed in the appropriate manner in its final vision device 106, which may be a television or a computer monitor or other appropriate means for displaying video or television information .

In addition, the central controller 146 monitors the viewer's options by monitoring the devices of the download or interpretation either a modem 138, a cable modem 140, a television tuner 142 or a satellite decoder 144, and use the features or mode of these devices, together with the data of the clock 174, the position information unit 172, the user control interface 148 and the information obtained from the interpreter 164, to construct a usage profile of the viewer 120 and store it in the profile store Use of the viewer 170. The usage profile of the viewer 120 stored in the viewer's usage profile store 170 is a measure of the temporal pattern and the intensity of vision related to each of the program categories available to the viewer and discernible by the central controller 146. Typically the categories of the programs would consist of a list or vector of attributes, wherein the Attributes may include, but are not limited to, the time of day, the day of the week, the month of the year, day of the year, type of program, channel, transmitter of the video that is viewed, sponsors of viewed material, if the program is repeated, when the program was made, where the program was made, the producer of the program, the main actors of the program, the director of the program or any other relevant information.

In still another additional example of the invention, the store of the user profile of the viewer 170 can be totally, or partially, placed inside the remote control of the viewer 71, or another related device that the viewer uses to access and control the content that reaches to the deployment of the end user or the television set. This related control device, includes, but is not limited to, handheld computers, personal computers, joysticks, network browsers and other equipment and computer program modules that can be used to control data. In addition, the use or vision profile 120 stored in the viewer's usage profile is linked by access number, or other appropriate means of identification, and it is provided to a person or individual device, or module, so that the profiles can be build and store for individuals or device individuals or computer program modules. In addition, an individual device or computer program can build and store viewer use profiles 120 for a number of different individuals, who can be identified by name, password, number or other appropriate means of identification, including but not limited to, means biometrics such as the signature, fingerprint or retina pattern.

It should be understood that the apparatus and method of operation taught herein are illustrative of the invention. The modifications are easily devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (17)

1. CLAIMS: 1. A superior device for sending and receiving data related to television or video vision in which a video signal that has been transmitted via a video distribution mechanism is received by said device and is modified before being viewed at use automatically chosen signals or video sequences, said device comprises: local means for the user to monitor the use of a device to watch television or video; local means for the user to automatically create a viewer profile based on the cumulative data acquired by said monitoring means; local means for the user to store said viewer profile in said device; remote means for the user to translate the demographic requirements into corresponding ranges of viewer profiles; remote means for the user to create a table that relates said ranges of viewer profiles to said signals or video sequences; remote means for the user to encode said table for transmission in said video distribution mechanism; local means for the user to receive and decode said video signal and receive, decode and store said table; local means for the user to compare the locally stored viewer profile with the ranges of viewer profiles in said stored table to determine the corresponding video signals or sequences; and means for inserting said signals or video sequences directly into said video signal to be viewed on said device for watching television or video.
2. 2. The upper device of Claim 1 further comprising: remote means for the user to encode the data corresponding to where and when to insert said signals or video sequences for transmission in said video distribution mechanism; local means for the user to receive and decode said data corresponding to where and when to insert said signals or video sequences; and said insertion means further comprise the use of said data to determine where and when to insert said signals or video sequences into said video signal.
3. 3. The upper device of Claim 2 wherein said cumulative data acquired by said monitoring means is weighed as to how recently they were collected.
4. 4. The upper device of Claim 4 further comprising: means for sampling a statistically representative subset of viewers to create statistical correlations between the viewer's demographics and said viewer profile ranges.
5. 5. The upper device of Claim 4 wherein said monitoring means monitors the time of day, the day of the week, the duration of viewing time per channel, the tuned channel, the type of program viewed and the channel change patterns. .
6. 6. The upper device of Claim 5 wherein said viewer profile includes information about the viewer derived from the monitoring means, said information designed to predict the age, sex, family size, hobbies and interests of the viewer.
7. 7. The upper device of Claim 6 wherein the statistical connection between the viewer's demographics and said ranges of viewer profiles are used so that the specific video sequences or signals are directed anonymously to the demographic of specific viewers.
8. 8. The upper device of Claim 7 wherein the insertable signals and the data belonging to said insertable signals are encoded within the vertical flashing range, an auxiliary audio channel, in the video itself, or in some other channel or separate field .
9. 9. The upper device of Claim 7 wherein a viewer can interactively amend, change, add or alter the viewer profile primarily for the purpose of requesting specific signals.
10. 10. The upper device of Claim 7 wherein the video signal may be a compressed video signal that is decompressed by said upper device, or an analog or digital television transmission.
11. 11. The upper device of Claim 7 wherein said means for receiving includes a coaxial cable connection, television aerial connection, satellite transmission connection or telephone connection.
12. 12. The upper device of Claim 7 wherein the television can be replaced with a computer or any other video receiving device.
13. 13. The upper device of Claim 12 wherein said signals include links to Internet sites.
14. 14. A method for anonymously directed insertion of signals or sequences chosen within a video transmission comprising the steps: a. monitoring the use and viewing habits of a viewer of a television set or other video receiving device via a superior device located in the television set or other video receiving device; b. create a local viewer profile in said device derived from the data acquired from said monitoring step, said viewer profile indicates certain characteristics of the viewer; c. join specific insertable signals with specific viewer profiles; d. coding the insertable signals as well as the data pertaining to the placement, shape, size and perspective of the signals directly in the video transmission; and. employing said locally stored viewer profile to decide which insertable video signals or sequences are inserted based on the viewer profiles encoded in said video transmission; and f. making said upper device decode the transmitted video and carry out the insertion of the signals.
15. 15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the steps of: g. Sample a statistically representative subset of viewers to create statistical connections between the viewer's demographics and the local viewer profile.
16. 16. The upper device of Claim 1 wherein said inserted signals are interactive links for network addresses, the contents of which can be accessed via the video distribution medium or a related data network and displayed on said television or device to view video as part of said modified video signal or as a hypertext page.
17. 17. The upper device of Claim 1 wherein the means for automatically creating a viewer profile further comprises an analysis of the user's accesses to network sites or the types of network sites when exploring the World Wide Web or another computer network. EXTRACT OF THE INVENTION A method for anonymously directed insertion of signals in video transmissions. Individual televisions or other video reception devices are related to overhead boxes that monitor the use and viewing habits of the television set or other video receiving device. A viewer profile derived from data acquired from said monitoring is created where the profile of the viewer indicates certain characteristics about the viewer. This profile is transmitted to a centralized database, said centralized database is an intermediate link between the origin of the video transmission and the final viewer. The purpose of the database is to link specific insertable signals with specific spectator profiles with respect. The insertable signals are encoded directly into the transmitted video and retransmitted to the final viewer where the upper box decodes the transmitted video and carries out the insertion of the signal. Thus, the system and the method allow advertisers to direct advertisements or specific signals to specific viewer profiles.