SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING ADVERTISEMENTS ON TV
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system for displaying advertisements on TV. More specifically, the present invention relates to an intelligent advertisement logo outputting system in which advertisement letters and advertisement logos are always outputted independently on a part of the broadcasting picture, and if an advertisement broadcasting containing an ID and a data is inputted, then the outputting of the independent advertisement letters and logos is halted. Further, the present invention also relates to a signal insertion system for inserting ID and data into the advertisement broadcasting signals.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Television advertisements are shown to numerous people, and therefore, the advertising effect is very high. However, the advertising expense is too high, and therefore, small and medium scale industries cannot afford to utilize the television advertisements. In this situation, a sub-market of advertisements has been developed, and it is the OSD (on-screen display) advertisements. As a kind of such advertisements, an advertisement is displayed at the moment when the channel is shifted, and a TV having such a function has been developed. For this method, the relevant televisions are sold at much discounted
prices, so that many people could watch the advertisements. However, in this method, the advertising time is too short, and therefore, the advertising contents cannot be sufficiently passed to the watching people. Further, the advertisements are outputted when shifting the channels, and therefore, the people encounter an impediment in watching the TV. Accordingly, there has arisen a demand for a more rational and more effective advertising technique.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is intended to overcome the above described disadvantages of the conventional techniques.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for displaying advertisement logos on TV, in which an advertisement makes an appearance on a part of the TV screen all the time during the turn-on of the TV, thereby improving the advertising effects.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system for displaying advertisement logos on TV, in which the advertising contents can be easily replaced, and therefore, diversified advertisements can be shown at arbitrary times. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a system for displaying advertisement logos on TV, in which advertisement letters and advertisement logos can be outputted without impeding the regular advertisements of the broadcasting stations.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a system for displaying advertisement logos on TV, in which the watching people data
and the watching ratios for the advertisements of the broadcasting stations can be collected so as to know the advertising effects.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a system for inserting advertisement signals, in which characteristic ID and data are inserted into the advertisement composite video signals, and particular advertisements are recognized by the advertisement logo outputting system, thereby preventing any overlapping of the advertisements.
In achieving the above objects, the system for displaying the advertisement logos on TV according to the present invention includes: an A/D converter 201 for receiving composite video signals to convert them to digital signals; an automatic gain adjustor 202 for adjusting the gain/offset by utilizing the output signals of the A/D converter 201; a signal separator 203 for separating out brightness signals and color difference signals from the output signals of the A/D converter 201 in accordance with horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals; a digital filter 204; an SRAM 205 used as a frame buffer and for storing the vertical and horizontal signals and the brightness and color difference signals after separation of them; a vertical counter 206 for counting vertical digital signals from the output signals of the digital filter 204; a horizontal counter 207 for counting horizontal digital signals from the output signals of the digital filter 204; a converter 208 for converting an information of a color region from the output signals of the digital filter 204; a advertisement picture data storing part 210 for storing advertisement picture data; a micro-controller 209 for extracting ID and data by carrying out an analysis based on line numbers and vertical and horizontal timings by utilizing the output signals of the converter 208, and
for displaying the advertisement logos and letters of the advertisement picture data storing part 210 onto a screen of TV; and an interface part 211 coupled to a TV-exclusive OSD, for displaying the advertisement logos of the advertisement picture data storing part 210 onto the screen of TV in accordance with the output signals of the micro-controller 209.
The signal inserting system according to the present invention includes: a signal converter/separator 101 for receiving composite video signals to separate them into color signals (R.G.B), brightness signals, vertical synchronizing signals and horizontal synchronizing signals and to convert them; a micro-controller 103 for storing the font and graphic data, and for outputting ID and data in accordance with horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals of the signal converter/separator 101; a frame counter 104 for counting the number of frames by referring to the output signals of the micro-controller 103; a counted data display 105 for receiving the counted data from the frame counter 104 to display it; a switch 106 for inputting ID and data to discriminate an OSD control picture from the general advertisement pictures and to discriminate respective advertisements; a data display 107 for displaying the inputted data value by referring to the switch 106; a mixer 102 for synthesizing the color signals (R.G.B) outputted from the micro-controller 103 and the signal converter/separator 101; and a signal converter 108 for converting the output signals of the mixer 102 into the ID/data-containing composite video signals.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above objects and other advantages of the present invent ion' i 11 become more apparent by describing in detail the preferred embodiment of the present invention with reference to the attached drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the constitution of the ID/data inserting system according to the present invention;
FIG.2A is a block diagram showing the constitution of the advertisement logo displaying system according to the present invention; FIG. 2B illustrates the coupling between the advertisement logo displaying system and the OSD part of TV;
FIG.3 is a block diagram showing a package status of the advertisement logo display system of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 illustrates the wave patterns of the signals generated at particular parts of FIGs. 1 to 3;
FIG.5 illustrates in an enlarged scale the wave pattern of the signals generated at a particular part of FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a frontal view of TV showing the insertion of the package of FIG. 3; and FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the operation of the advertisement logo display system according to the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Now the present invention will be described in detail referring to the attached drawings.
In the advertisement logo display system of the present invention, the advertising contents of the advertisement logo display system of the present invention are displayed on TV, but if an advertisement of the broadcasting station with an ID/data is inputted, then the system of the present invention recognizes it. Then the display of the advertisement letters or logos is halted to display the advertisement of the broadcasting station. Accordingly, the advertisements according to the present invention give a high advertising effect, and any overlapping with the advertisements of the broadcasting stations can be avoided. Thus if an advertisement without an ID/data is inputted, the advertisement logos and letters according to the present invention are displayed.
In carrying out the description of the system of the present invention, first the procedure of inserting an ID/data into an advertisement of the broadcasting station will be described. Then there will be described about the constitution and operation of the advertisement logo display system which is installed in a TV, for outputting the advertisement letters and logos. Then the advantage of packaging the advertisement logo display system will be described.
The advertisement letters and logos are an advertising picture with diversified colors and complicated designs. These letters and logos are not displayed during the broadcasting of the general advertisements, but are continuously displayed during the regular broadcasting programs such as dramas, shows, recreations, news and the like. Examples of advertisement
letters and logos are illustrated in FIG.6, and this will be described later. Further, as an auxiliary feature, the present invention can insert ID/data to the general advertisement broadcasting, and therefore, not only the broadcasting advertisements can be detected, but also can collect the people' s watch data, so that the information on the watch ratio and the advertising effect can be furnished to the advertisement owners.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the signal inserting system by which the ID/data are inserted into the original advertisement video signals. For example, the ID may be a symbol for discriminating the advertisement broadcast, and is used for the following purposes. That is, if an advertising broadcast is inputted into the advertisement logo display system of the present invention, then the system recognizes it as an advertising broadcast, and halts the display of the advertisement logos. That is, this is done by utilizing the ID. The data indicates the broadcasting station, the advertisement owner, and the advertisement contents. Of course, the ID and the data should contain different details. Further, in the present invention, particular ID and data are inserted into a particular part of the screen (after scanning line No. 21) so as to avoid any overlapping with the general advertisement broadcast, and therefore, any conflict with the owner of the general advertisement can be avoided.
As shown in the drawing, the signal inserting system according to the present invention includes: a signal converter/separator 101 for receiving composite video signals to separate them into color signals (R.G.B), brightness signals, vertical synchronizing signals and horizontal
synchronizing signals and to convert them; a micro-controller 103 for storing the font and graphic data, and for outputting the ID and data in accordance with horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals of the signal converter/separator 101; a frame counter 104 for counting the number of frames by referring to the output signals of the micro-controller 103; a counted data display 105 for receiving the counted data from the frame counter 104 to display it; a switch 106 for inputting the ID and data to discriminate an OSD control picture from the general advertisement pictures and to discriminate respective advertisements! a data display 107 for displaying the inputted data valueby referring to the switch 106; a mixer 102 for synthesizing the color signals
(R.G.B) outputted from the micro-controller 103 and the signal converter/separator 101; and a signal converter 108 for converting of the output signals of the mixer 102 into the ID/data-containing composite video signals.
An advertising videotape for broadcasting is prepared by an advertisement company, then a recorded version of it is reproduced by a video editor 109, and then, composite video signals are outputted. The composite video signals are outputted from a video lineout (not illustrated) at a reproduction command. The outputting status is illustrated in FIG. 4, and only the odd fields are displayed because the even fields are overlapped with the odd fields.
The composite video signals are reproduced in a sequence as shown in FIG. 4. The portion of the line No. 1~20 is not displayed on the TV screen, and this region is reserved for the teletext or the closed caption broadcasting. Accordingly, this region is not used, but the displaying screen portion is utilized to insert the ID/data in the present invention.
Under this condition, the ID/data cannot be directly inserted into the composite video signals, and therefore, the composite video signals are sent to the micro-controller. Then the micro-controller separates the composite video signals into red signals, green signals, blue signals, vertical synchronizing signals and horizontal synchronizing signals. Then the micro-controller carries out a control such that the vertical synchronizing signals and the horizontal synchronizing signals obtained therefrom are outputted in a form of OSD automatically in accordance with the timings. Then the micro-controller 103 inputs an ID of one byte (8 bits) into the OSD bitmap data memory region (display character RAM or display ROM), and then, inputs a data into the desired coordinate region of the TV screen (such as horizontal position register/counter, vertical position.register/counter, counter recording address and address buffer selector). Then the micro-controller 103 designates the desired color to a control register. In FIGs.4 and 5, there are illustrated the ID, the data, and the color information thus set. Here, the screen position is line No. 21, and the color is a green dot (1 bit).
The vertical synchronizing signals and the horizontal synchronizing signals are the signals for completely achieving a correspondence between the analysis scanning of the camera and the assembly scanning of the receiving set, so that the receiving set (TV) can reproduce the same pictures as those of the transmitting side. Therefore, at the receiving end, the frequency and the starting point (phase) of the vertical and horizontal scanning need be corresponded, while at the transmitting end, the vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals are added for the correspondence at the receiving end.
Reference code 104 indicates the frame counter. A frame refers to a completed image which is sent to the scanning line. The number of the frames is counted by the signals from the micro-controller 103, so that information on the starting and ending points of the advertisement is sent to the editor or operator, thereby helping them in inputting the data.
Further, the counter data display 105 displays the frame value of the frame counter 104 onto an LCD monitor or other display means visually.
Further, the key switch 106 is for discriminating the OSD -controlled picture from the general advertisement pictures so as to discriminate the advertisements.
Further, the data display 107 is for displaying the values from the key switch 106 onto an LCD monitor or other display means.
The signals which have been designated in the above described manner are synthesized by the mixer 102, and then, are inputted into the signal converter 108. The signal converter 108 converts the inputted signals into composite video signals to be recorded at a VCR. Thus an edited version is prepared in which the ID and data have been inserted into the advertisement broadcasting file. If this edited advertisement version is received to a TV set in which the system of the present invention has been installed, then the advertisement letters and logos disappear, and the edited advertisement version is displayed.
FIG.2A is a block diagram showing the constitution of the advertisement logo display system according to the present invention, in which the advertisement logos or letters are turned off or turned on upon receiving or ending an edited advertisement version. As shown in this drawing, the system
includes •" a video decoder/sealer 200, a micro-controller 209, an interface part 211, and an advertisement picture data storing part 210.
The video sealer 200 receives the edited composite video signals to process them in such a manner that the micro-controller 209 can extract the ID/data from the signals.
The micro-controller 209 extracts the advertisement logos from the advertising picture data storing part 210, and carries out the on/off controls on the advertisement letters and logos by referring to the extracted ID/data.
Further, the micro-controller 209 counts the number of the advertisement watches by referring to the ID/data.
The interface part 211 serves the role of electrically connecting the OSD of the advertisement logo display system to the OSD of TV. The interface part 211 includes an RGB interface and a blanking interface.
The advertising picture data storing part 210 consists of a memory chip, and stores the data of the advertisement letters and logos which are displayed on a part of the TV screen. The advertising picture data storing part 210 can be constructed with a large-scale memory chip, so that the data can be externally used.
The advertising picture data storing part 210 can be constructed with a fresh type memory, so that updated advertisement data can be received from an external apparatus (computer or other terminals) through a serial port, and that the micro-controller 209 can store the received data into the advertising picture data storing part 210. This is very useful in the case where the advertisement logo display system of the present invention is constructed in an OSD board package form.
Referring to FIG. 2A, the video decoder/sealer 200 includes: an A/D converter 201 for receiving the composite video signals to convert them to digital signals! an automatic gain adjustor 202 for adjusting the gain/offset by utilizing the output signals of the A/D converter 201; a signal separator 203 for separating the brightness signals and the color difference signals from the output signals of the A/D converter 201 in accordance with the horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals! a digital filter 204; an SRAM 205 used as a frame buffer and for storing the vertical and horizontal signals and the brightness and color difference signals after separation of them; a vertical counter 206 for counting the vertical digital signals from the output signals of the digital filter 204; a horizontal counter 207 for counting the horizontal digital signals from the output signals of the digital filter 204; and a converter 208 for converting an information of a color region from the output signals of the digital filter 204. Now the operations of the above elements will be described.
If the edited composite video signals are inputted, then the A/D converter 201 converts them into digital signals. Then the signal separator 203 separates the output digital signals of the A/D converter 210 into the brightness signals and the color difference signals in accordance with the timings of the synchronizing signals. The separated signals are treated by the vertical and horizontal counters 206 and 207. Then the color region information converter 208 converts the signals as to their color information. Then the converted signals are inputted into the micro-controller 209. The micro-controller 209 extracts the ID/data from the inputted signals to utilize them in carrying out the controls.
FIG.2B illustrates the coupling between the interface part 211 and the OSD display part of TV;
As shown in this drawing, the internal OSD of the conventional TV is constituted as follows. That is, a buffer circuit TR is formed at the end, and a load resistor of the buffering semiconductor device is externally attached and wired, so that the resistance value can be selected in accordance with the required impedance and power of the downstream position.
On the other hand, in the present invention, the load resistor is connected to the interface part 211, and is installed within the package as shown in FIG.3, so that it can be used for the on/off control of the TV screen. In other words, if the load resistance is absent, then the TV pictures are not outputted. On the other hand, if the package is inserted, the pictures are outputted in the normal manner. Again, if the package is detached, the pictures are not outputted, and therefore, watching of TV becomes impossible. FIG.3 il lustrates the advertisement logo display system of the present invention, which is manufactured in the form of an OSD board package. This can be detachably installed on TV, and therefore, the TV pictures can be turned on or off.
Referring to FIG. 3, the Package includes: the video decoder/sealer 200, the micro-controller 209, the advertising picture data storing part 210, a power supply part 213, the interface part 211 and an EEP-R0M 212. The video decoder/sealer 200, the micro-controller 209, the advertising picture data storing part 210 and the interface part 211 are connected to the power source of the TV to receive the power from it. FIG. 6 is a frontal view of a TV in which a slot is formed on the front of it , for detachably installing the package.
When the package is inserted, the electrical connections are done as shown in FIG. 3.
Meanwhile, the blanking signals and the RGB signals of the TV are connected to the interface part 211, the composite video signals are connected to the video decoder/sealer 200, and the vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals of the TV OSD are inputted into the micro-controller 209. Further, the micro-controller 209 is provided with transmission/reception terminals RXD and TXD which are used for carrying out transmissions and receptions to and from an external apparatus. The memory part 212 which consists of an EEP-R0M stores the data under the control of the micro-controller 209. That is, the data which has been stored in the EEP-R0M 212 (a non-volatile memory) is read by the micro-controller 209, so that data information exchanges can be possible with an external apparatus (such as PC or other terminals) through an external serial communication port.
That is, as described referring to FIG. 2 above, the ID/data which are contained in the edited composite video signals are read and stored, so that the read data can be used for surveying the TV watch ratios and for the advertisement effects for different broadcasting stations. Of course, by using the counted value (the read value), other statistical results can also be extracted.
For the case where the advertisement package of FIG. 3 is applied, the operation of the advertisement logo displaying system according to the present invention will be described referring to FIG.7. In this context, except the insertion and extraction in the form of a package, the operation is same as
the case where it is installed within the TV, and therefore, a description of it will be skipped.
First, the TV power is turned on, and then, the package is inserted into the TV. If the package is inserted, then the TV which did not display the pictures begins to display the broadcast. Then the user can select the desired channel to watch the desired program such as news, shows, dramas, recreatioin programs and the like.
Under this condition, when the incoming composite video signals are received into the advertisement logo display system of the present invention, a judgment is made as to whether the ID/data are contained in the composite video signals of the broadcast. If the ID/data are not found, it is judged that it is not an advertisement broadcasting. Accordingly, the advertisement logo display system of the present invention outputs the relevant advertisement letters or logos to carry out the advertisement. The package and the advertisement contents are illustrated in FIG. 6.
If an advertisement broadcast is inputted, and if the ID/data are found in it, then the advertisement logo display system halts the current outputting of the advertisement logos, and outputs the newly incoming normal advertisement pictures, so that the normal broadcasting can be done. If the advertisement broadcast is completed, then the system of the present invention recognizes the absence of the ID/data, and therefore, outputs again the advertisement logos to display them on a part of the TV screen.
In the case where the advertisement logo display system is formed into a package, the advertisement contents of the advertising picture data storing part can be easily updated through the external serial communication port,
this being an advantage. Further, the TV watch-ratio-related data which is stored in the EEP-ROM 212 can be easily extracted to use them.
In the above described method, it was assumed that the ID/data were inserted into the advertisement broadcasting, but this can also be applied to the general broadcasting programs so as to use it in surveying the broadcast watch ratios and the like.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY
According to the present invention as described above, the advertisement logos are displayed on a part of the TV screen when the TV is turned on, and therefore, the advertising effects are high. Further, the advertisement contents can be easily replaced, and therefore, diversified advertisements can be provided any time. Further, the advertisement logos can be displayed without impeding the normal advertisement broadcasting. Further, the TV program watch ratio data can be collected to survey the watch ratios and the advertisement effects. Further, the ID/data are inserted into the normal advertisement broadcasting, and therefore, the advertisement logos cannot be overlapped with the normal advertisement broadcasting.