Systems and methods for assessing viewer interest in content and advertisements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10034051-B2
Application number	US-201615262849-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 12, 2016
Priority date	Jul 27, 2012
Publication date	Jul 24, 2018
Grant date	Jul 24, 2018

Abstract

A method for assessing viewer interest in content and advertisements may include receiving an indication regarding a content playback mode change (e.g., a change from a skip or fast-forward mode to a pause or rewind mode) occurring during playing of a media content segment such as a television program or movie. The method then proceeds to associate the playback mode change with a sub-segment of the television program, such as an advertisement or commercial, and a level of interest of a user in the advertisement or commercial is determined based on the associated content playback mode change. An item, such as an advertisement or promotional offer can be selected to be presented to the user based on the determined level of interest of the user in the advertisement or commercial. Systems for assessing viewer interest in content and advertisements include devices and components configured to perform or enable such methods.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by at least one computer processor, an indication regarding a content playback mode change occurring during playing of a media content segment;
associating, by at least one computer processor, the content playback mode change with a sub-segment of the media content segment, wherein the associating the content playback mode change with a sub-segment of the media content segment includes:
receiving, by at least one computer processor, an indication that the sub-segment of the media content segment is being played or being skipped through by use of stored metadata associated with the media content segment;
receiving, by at least one computer processor, an indication that the content playback mode change caused one or more of the following to occur: frames of the sub-segment of the media content segment to be played more than once before the entire media content segment was finished being played and frames of the sub-segment of the media content segment to be played more than once within a determined timeframe; and
associating, by at least one computer processor, the content playback mode change with the sub-segment of the media content segment based on what the received indication that the content playback mode change caused had indicated, wherein the associating the content playback mode change with the sub-segment of the media content segment further includes:
recording a first offset relative to a beginning of the media content segment at which the content playback mode change occurred;
determining a second offset relative to a beginning of the media content segment at which the sub-segment starts or ends;
correlating the first offset and the second offset; and
associating the content playback mode change with the sub-segment of the media content segment based on the correlation; and

assigning, by at least one computer processor, a level of interest of a user in the sub-segment of the media content segment based on the associated content playback mode change.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving, associating and assigning the level of interest is performed by a receiving device that is configured to perform the playing of the media content segment.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving the indication regarding the content playback mode includes receiving the indication regarding the content playback mode change from a receiving device that is configured to perform the playing of the media content segment, and the associating and determining is performed by one or more computer systems remote from the receiving device that is configured to perform the playing of the media content segment.

4. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
a memory coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
receive an indication regarding a content playback mode change occurring during playing of a media content segment;
associate the content playback mode change with a sub-segment of the media content segment, wherein the at least one processor is configured to associate the content playback mode change with a sub-segment of the media content segment by at least being configured to:
receive an indication that the sub-segment of the media content segment is being played or being skipped through by use of stored metadata associated with the media content segment;
receive an indication that the content playback mode change caused one or more of the following to occur: frames of the sub-segment of the media content segment to be played more than once before the entire media content segment was finished being played and frames of the sub-segment of the media content segment to be played more than once within a determined timeframe; and
associate the content playback mode change with the sub-segment of the media content segment based on what the received indication that the content playback mode change caused had indicated, wherein the at least one processor is configured further to associate the content playback mode change with a sub-segment of the media content segment by at least being further configured to:
record a first offset relative to a beginning of the media content segment at which the content playback mode change occurred;
determine a second offset relative to a beginning of the media content segment at which the sub-segment starts or ends;
correlate the first offset and the second offset; and
associate the content playback mode change with the sub-segment of the media content segment based on the correlation; and

assign a level of interest of a user in the sub-segment of the media content segment based on the associated content playback mode change.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the at least one processor is of a receiving device that is configured to perform the playing of the media content segment.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the indication regarding the content playback mode change is received from from a receiving device that is configured to perform the playing of the media content segment, and the at least one processor is of a one or more computer systems remote from the receiving device that is configured to perform the playing of the media content segment.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructions thereon, that when executed by a computer processor, cause the following method to be performed:
receiving an association between a content playback mode change and a sub-segment of a media content segment played by a user, the association based on an indication that the content playback mode change caused one or more of the following to occur: frames of the sub-segment of the media content segment to be played more than once before the entire media content segment was finished being played and frames of the sub-segment of the media content segment to be played more than once within a determined timeframe, wherein the association between the content playback mode change and the sub-segment of the media content segment played by the user is performed by at least:
recording a first offset relative to a beginning of the media content segment at which the content playback mode change occurred;
determining a second offset relative to a beginning of the media content segment at which the sub-segment starts or ends;
correlating the first offset and the second offset; and
associating the content playback mode change with a sub-segment of the media content segment based on the correlation;

assigning a level of interest of the user in the sub-segment of the media content segment based on the received association between the content playback mode change and the sub-segment; and
selecting an item to present to the user based on the determined level of interest of the user in the sub-segment of the media content segment.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 wherein the selected item is one or more of: an advertisement, a program, a product offer, an electronic program guide configuration, a Web page, an email, a text message, a promotion, a coupon, a phone call, a product offer, a service offer, a digital video segment, and an audio segment.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 wherein the assigning a level of interest of the user in the sub-segment of the media content segment comprises:
determining a positive level of interest of the user in the sub-segment of the media content segment if the received association between the content playback mode change and the sub-segment indicates the user attempted to view the sub-segment of the media content segment i

Assignees

• Dish Tech Llc

Inventors

• Card Ii John

Classifications

• H04N21/47217

  for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks (specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312) · CPC title

• H04N21/8456

  by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments · CPC title

• H04N21/812

  involving advertisement data (advertising per se G06Q30/02) · CPC title

• H04N21/251

  Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies (details of learning user preferences for the retrieval of video data in a video database G06F16/739; computer systems using learning methods G06N3/08) · CPC title

• H04N21/252

  Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data · CPC title