Methods for serving interactive content to a user

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9852759-B2
Application number	US-201615217879-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 22, 2016
Priority date	Oct 25, 2014
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

One variation of a method for serving interactive content to a user includes, at a visual element inserted into a document accessed by a computing device: loading a first frame from a digital video; in response to a scroll-down event that moves the visual element upward from a bottom of a window rendered on the computing device toward a top of the window, seeking from the first frame through a subset of frames in the digital video in a first direction at a rate corresponding to a scroll rate of the scroll-down event, the subset of frames spanning a duration of the digital video corresponding to a length of the scroll-down event; and, in response to termination of the scroll-down event with the visual element remaining in view within the window, playing the digital video forward from a last frame in the subset of frames in the digital video.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for serving an interactive advertisement to a user, the method comprising:
at an initial time, at a computer system affiliated with an advertising platform:
selecting a subset of frames from a digital video, the subset of frames comprising digital advertising content and ordered according to the digital video;
compiling the subset of frames into a single static image file;

at a visual element inserted into a webpage accessed within a web-browser executed by a computing device associated with the user and distinct from the computer system, modifying a rate of rendering frames in the visual element according to rate of scroll events by:
at a first time, in response to a first scroll-down event that moves the visual element into view at a bottom of a window rendered on a display of the computing device, displaying a first region of the single static image file in the visual element, the first region of the single static image file corresponding to a first frame in the subset of frames;
at a second time succeeding the first time, displaying a second region of the single static image file in the visual element in response to a second scroll-down event that moves the visual element to a second position above the bottom of the window, the second region of the single static image file corresponding to a second frame succeeding the first frame, a timestamp of the second frame in the digital video offset from a timestamp of the first frame in the digital video proportional to a first distance between the second position and the bottom of the window;
at a third time succeeding the second time, displaying a last region of the single static image file in the visual element in response to a third scroll-down event that moves the visual element to a top of the window, the last region of the single static image file corresponding to a last frame succeeding the second frame, a timestamp of the third frame in the digital video offset from the timestamp of the second frame proportional to a second distance between the third position and the second position;
at a fourth time succeeding the third time, displaying the second region of the single static image file in the visual element in response to a scroll-up event that moves the visual element to the second position of the window; and

classifying an engagement level of the user for the visual element based on the number of scroll events occurring within the web-browser while the visual element is contained within the window.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the subset of frames from the digital video comprises selecting a predefined number of frames, approximately equal to a number of frames in one second of playback of the digital video at a standard video frame rate, from the digital video.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the subset of frames from the digital video comprises:
rendering a representation of frames in the digital video spanning the duration of the digital video within a virtual portal; and
selecting the subset of frames distributed at uniform intervals across a section of the digital video between two markers positioned along the length of the representation of frames rendered within the virtual portal.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising updating the selection of the subset of frames from the digital video in response to manual relocation of one of the two markers relative to the representation of frames rendered within the virtual portal.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein compiling the subset of frames into the single static image file comprises generating the single static image file comprising the subset of frames adjoined in a single column in an order from bottom to top corresponding to an order of the subset of frames within the digital video.

6. The method of claim 5 ,
wherein inserting the first region of the single static image file corresponding to the first frame in the subset of frames into the visual element at the first time comprises positioning a mask area over the first region of the single static image file corresponding to a first range of positions of the visual element rendered proximal the bottom of the window;
wherein inserting the second region of the single static image file corresponding to the second frame in the subset of frames into the visual element at the second time comprises indexing the mask area over the second region of the single static image file corresponding to a second range of positions of the visual element above the first range of positions within the window, the second range of positions comprising the second position; and
wherein inserting the last region of the single static image file corresponding to the last frame in the subset of frames into the visual element at the third time comprises indexing the mask area over the last region of the single static image file corresponding to a third range of positions of the visual element above the second range of positions within the window, the third range of positions comprising the last position.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising, in response to the computing device accessing a document containing ad content:
loading the single static image file and the visual element onto the computing device; and
assigning one unique vertical position range of the visual element within the window to each discrete region in the single static image file corresponding to one frame in the subset of frames.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein assigning one unique vertical position range of the visual element within the window to each discrete region in the single static image file comprises:
resizing regions of the visual element, at a locked aspect ratio, to fill one of the height and the width of the visual element rendered within the window;
segmenting a height of the window less a height of the visual element into a number of discrete vertical position ranges equal to the number of frames in the set of frames; and
assigning each discrete vertical position range to one region of the single static image file corresponding to one frame in the set of frames.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein inserting the first region of the single static image file into the visual element at the first time, inserting the second region of the single static image file into the visual element at the second time, and inserting the last region of the single static image file into the visual element at the third time comprise: inserting the first region of the single static image file into the visual element, inserting the second region of the single static image file into the visual element, and inserting the last region of the single static image file into the visual element in response to the first, second, and third scroll-down events comprising a continuous scroll-down input into the computing device from the first time to the third time.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to a web browser, executing on the computing device, accessing a web page calling ad content;
loading the single static image file and the visual element into the web browser responsive to the webpage containing content spanning a height greater than a height of the visual element; and
inserting the visual element into the web page below the top of the webpage and above the bottom of the webpage.

11. The method of claim 1 :
further comprising accessing a video advertisement from a database;
wherein selecting the subset of frames from the digital video comprises selecting the subset frames from the digital video, each frame in the subset of frame comprising a digital advertisement;
and
where

Assignees

• Yieldmo Inc

Inventors

• Doherty Connor Francis
• Goligorsky David Michael
• Sprockett Shawn
• Wu Eric (Ge)
• Bao Yiming
• Silvernight Firecrow

Classifications

• H04N21/431

  Generation of visual interfaces {for content selection or interaction}; Content or additional data rendering · CPC title

• G11B27/031

  Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals · CPC title

• H04N21/812

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

• G06Q30/02

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title

• G06F3/0485

  Scrolling or panning · CPC title