U.S. patent application number 11/144143 was filed with the patent office on 2005-10-06 for systems and methods for characterizing television preference over a wireless network.
This patent application is currently assigned to Nokia Corporation. Invention is credited to Rautila, Heikki, Rissanen, Jussi, Tanskanen, Erikki.
Application Number | 20050223409 11/144143 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 24454945 |
Filed Date | 2005-10-06 |
United States Patent
Application |
20050223409 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Rautila, Heikki ; et
al. |
October 6, 2005 |
Systems and methods for characterizing television preference over a
wireless network
Abstract
A system for interacting with viewers of television programming
includes a television set and a network terminal for each such
user. The terminals are connected by the network to an interactive
server which maintains a first database of persistent information
for each user and a second database of current preference
information for each user. The current preference information
includes registrations of users as viewing particular programs or
as participating in certain activities chronicled in television
programs, such as lotteries, polls, and product promotions.
According to information in the first and second databases and
according to current user requests, the interactive server forwards
information to users' terminals, modifies content of all television
programming, or modifies content of television programming targeted
to certain users or groups of users for selection by those users'
cable or satellite set-top boxes.
Inventors: |
Rautila, Heikki; (Espoo,
FI) ; Rissanen, Jussi; (Helsinki, FI) ;
Tanskanen, Erikki; (Vantaa, FI) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Michael C. Stuart, Esq.
Cohen, Pontani, Lieberman & Pavane
551 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1210
New York
NY
10176
US
|
Assignee: |
Nokia Corporation
|
Family ID: |
24454945 |
Appl. No.: |
11/144143 |
Filed: |
June 3, 2005 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11144143 |
Jun 3, 2005 |
|
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09612870 |
Jul 10, 2000 |
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6918131 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
725/113 ;
348/E7.071; 725/105; 725/109; 725/112; 725/32; 725/34 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 21/25891 20130101;
H04N 21/44222 20130101; A63F 2003/083 20130101; H04N 21/6131
20130101; H04N 7/17318 20130101; G06Q 30/02 20130101; H04N 21/41407
20130101; H04N 21/4758 20130101; A63F 2300/407 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
725/113 ;
725/105; 725/032; 725/034; 725/109; 725/112 |
International
Class: |
H04N 007/173; H04N
007/10; H04N 007/025 |
Claims
1.-16. (canceled)
17. A method for implementing television viewer polling, comprising
the steps of: transmitting a television signal from an interactive
server to television sets of viewers; registering, by a viewer, a
desire to participate in a poll related to a particular program by
sending a registration message from a terminal of the viewer to the
interactive server using a communication network; adding, by the
interactive server, a message to the television signal, the message
being displayed in the television sets with the particular program
and indicating information related to the poll; answering, by the
viewer, the poll and sending the polling answer from the terminal
to the interactive server; and tabulating the results of the poll
at the interactive server.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of sending,
from the interactive server to the terminal of the viewer, a choice
display message indicating a menu of polling choices, wherein said
step of answering said poll comprises selecting, by the viewer, one
of the polling choices and sending the selected polling choice to
the interactive server;
19. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of
maintaining, in associated with the interactive server, a first
database of viewer information for each viewer including at least
one of identification, address information, financial information,
general preference information, and demographic information.
20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of
maintaining a second database of registration information for each
viewer including registration information indicating current
activity and current preference information.
21. The method of claim 19, wherein said registration message sent
in said step of registering comprises an identification of the
viewer, said interactive server determining the viewer information
from the first database based on the identification.
22. The method of claim 20, wherein an indication of the
registration of the viewer as a poll participant is removed from
the second database after the poll is completed.
23. The method of claim 20, wherein and indication of the
registration of the viewer as a poll participant is maintained for
a time period after the poll is completed for allowing poll
participants to view the results of the poll.
24. The method of claim 17, wherein the message added to the
television signal includes a legend indicating that actual voting
has commenced.
25. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of
transmitting a sales offer related to the particular program to a
viewer terminal.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein the sales offer is based on the
demographic information of the viewer associated with the viewer
terminal.
27. The method of claim 25, wherein the sales offer relates to one
of clothing worn by a character in the particular program or an
item being used by the character in the particular program.
28. The method of claim 17, further comprising the steps of:
entering remarks about the particular program, by the viewer, on
the viewer's terminal; and receiving the remarks at the interactive
server and forwarding the remarks to viewer terminals of other
viewers registered as viewing the particular program, thereby
facilitating chatting among members of a community.
29. A system for implementing a television viewer poll, comprising:
a television transmitter arranged and dimensioned for broadcasting
a program to a plurality of television sets associated with a
plurality of viewers; an interactive server connected to said
television transmitter for forwarding a television signal of the
program to the television transmitter and connected to
communication network for communicating with viewer terminals of
viewers associated with respective television sets, said
interactive server comprising means for conducting a poll related
to the program, including means for receiving registration messages
from terminals of participating viewers desiring to participate in
the poll, sending a message with the television signal so that the
message is displayed on the television sets with the program and
indicates information related to the polls, and receiving results
of the poll from the terminals of participating viewers and
tabulating the results of the poll at the interactive server.
30. The system of claim 29, wherein said interactive server further
comprises means for sending a choice display message indicating
polling choices to the terminals of the participating viewers, said
means for receiving results comprises receiving a selected polling
choice from the terminals of participating viewers.
31. The system of claim 29, further comprising a first database
including viewer information for each viewer of a plurality of
viewers, the information including at least one of identification,
address information, financial information, general preference
information, and demographic information.
32. The system of claim 29, further comprising a second database
including registration information for each of the participating
viewers including registration information indicating current
activity and current preference information.
33. The system of claim 32, wherein the registration messages
received from the terminals of the participating viewers each
comprise an identification of the respective participating viewer,
said interactive server comprising means for determining the viewer
information of the participating viewer from the first database
based on the identification.
34. The system of claim 29, wherein the message added to the
television signal includes a legend indicating that actual voting
has commenced.
35. The system of claim 31, wherein said interactive server further
comprises means for transmitting a sales offer related to the
particular program to the terminal of a participating viewer.
36. The system of claim 35, wherein the sales offer is based on the
demographic information of the participating viewer.
37. The system of claim 35, wherein the sales offer relates to one
of clothing worn by a character in the particular program or an
item being used by the character in the particular program.
38. The system of claim 29, wherein said interactive server further
comprises means for receiving remarks from a terminal of a
participating viewer and forwarding the remarks to terminals of
other participating viewers registered as viewing the particular
program, thereby facilitating chatting among members of a
community.
39. An interactive server connected to a television transmitter for
forwarding a television signal of the program to the television
transmitter and connected to communication network for
communicating with viewer terminals of viewers associated with
respective television sets receiving the program, said interactive
server comprising means for conducting a poll related to the
program, including means for receiving registration messages from
terminals of participating viewers desiring to participate in the
poll, sending a message with the television signal so that the
message is displayed on the television sets with the program and
indicates information related to the polls, and receiving results
of the poll from the terminals of the participating viewers and
tabulating the results of the poll at the interactive server.
40. The interactive server of claim 39, further comprising means
for sending a choice display message indicating polling choices to
the terminals of the participating viewers,
41. The interactive server of claim 39, further comprising a first
database including viewer information for each viewer of a
plurality of viewers, the information including at least one of
identification, address information, financial information, general
preference information, and demographic information.
42. The interactive server of claim 41, further comprising a second
database including registration information for each of the
participating viewers including registration information indicating
current activity and current preference information.
43. The interactive server of claim 41, wherein the registration
messages received from the terminals of the participating viewers
each comprise an identification of the respective participating
viewer, said interactive server comprising means for determining
the viewer information of the participating viewer from the first
database based on the identification.
44. The interactive server of claim 39, wherein the message added
to the television signal includes a legend indicating that actual
voting has commenced.
45. The interactive server of claim 40, further comprising means
for transmitting a sales offer related to the particular program to
a terminal of a participating viewer.
46. The interactive server of claim 45, wherein the sales offer is
based on the demographic information of the participating
viewer.
47. The interactive server of claim 45, wherein the sales offer
relates to one of clothing worn by a character in the particular
program or an item being used by the character in the particular
program.
48. The interactive server of claim 39, further comprising means
for receiving remarks from a terminal of a participating viewer and
forwarding the remarks to terminals of other participating viewers
registered as viewing the particular program, thereby facilitating
chatting among members of a community.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] This invention relates generally to systems and methods for
characterizing television preferences over a computer network. More
specifically, the invention relates to characterizing television
preferences over the Internet using a wireless device.
[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0004] Wireless communication devices are fast becoming the
communications media of choice for transporting data, and
communicating data between users of the devices. Many types of
wireless devices are currently being used such as cellular phones,
wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop
computers and other devices with small displays which display text
and icons to users of the devices. The strong push in current
wireless technology development is to use wireless devices for
varied applications and which allow users of such devices to
seamlessly integrate events and needs in their lives while
maintaining adequate communication power to receive and transmit
all of the data and information which has an impact on them.
[0005] The Internet has also fast become the communications medium
of choice for transporting many forms of data, including wireless
data, throughout the world. Due to its far-reaching connectivity,
the Internet is particularly well-suited to transport an
individual's data concerning personal preferences for parameters
associated with different systems. In particular, most people have
particular preferences for television programming, advertising and
other content. There does not exist today a system or method for
setting such preferences with a wireless device through the
Internet. Such systems and methods would greatly simplify and
enhance a user's television viewing habits and make it extremely
easy for such habits to be influenced, categorized and exploited by
advertisers or other purveyors of television information.
[0006] There thus exists a need for methods and systems for
characterizing television information related to a user's
preferences for programming, advertising and other content. Such
systems and methods should be seamlessly integrable with the
Internet and usable with existing wireless devices. Moreover,
information generated by setting television preferences should be
formatted so it can be made available to advertisers, programmers
and other providers of television content.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] The present invention characterizes television preferences
of an individual using a wireless device which is in communication
with a computer network. Preferably, the computer network is the
Internet, but the invention may be implemented on any form of
computer network such as a local area network (LAN) or wide area
network (WAN).
[0008] In a preferred embodiment, users equipped with television
sets and communication terminals communicate via the Internet with
an interactive server that is provided with a television signal.
The interactive server maintains a first database containing
persistent information regarding each user. The user communicates,
through a terminal, current preferences to a second data base in
the interactive server such as television program favorites,
advertising favorites, hobbies, interests and other specific
television preferences which can be characterized by the
interactive server. The interactive server is operable to modify
television programming being transmitted to the users. In
accordance with the first and second databases and with current
user requests, the interactive server sends information to users'
terminals and modifies television programming. Modification of
television programming may consist of modifying the contents of a
channel for all users, or appending content to a channel for
selective presentation by users' set-top boxes to certain
users.
[0009] These and other features of the present invention will
become apparent from the following detailed description considered
in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be
understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for
purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of
the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended
claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals identify
similar elements throughout the several views:
[0011] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for characterizing a
user's television preferences with a wireless device over the
Internet;
[0012] FIG. 2 is a high-level flow diagram depicting a typical
scenario in which the system of FIG. 1 is deployed to effect
interaction of a television viewer with television content.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0013] Referring now to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a system for
setting a user's television programming preferences is depicted. It
will be appreciated that the present invention is applicable to
customizing other media content such as radio, jukeboxes, movies
and other media. For convenience throughout, the media will be
referred to as television content, programming, or signals.
[0014] There is a plurality of users, each equipped with a terminal
10 and a television set 80. (The dotted lines from XX-1 to XX-n
connote plurality of an unspecified (open-ended) number.) The
terminals 10 may be any devices capable of communicating via the
Internet. Thus they may be personal computers (PCs) or they may be
devices such as wireless telephones, personal data assistants
(PDAs), palmtop computers, etc. It is likely that new types of
terminal devices will be devised in the future that will be usable
as terminals in conjunction with the present invention. Each of
terminals 10 can communicate with the Internet 30, typically though
not necessarily through telephone network 20 which may include the
PSTN, the wireless telephone network, ISDN lines, DSL lines, etc.
The terminals 10 may communicate with the Internet 30
bidirectionally. (In FIG. 1, interconnecting lines without
arrowheads are bidirectional.)
[0015] Each user also has a television set 80. Television sets may
receive television signals in a variety of ways, such as broadcast,
cable, or satellite. A television set equipped to receive cable or
satellite signals typically has associated with it a set-top box
84, which, as is known in the art, can interact with the incoming
signal for channel selection and the like. Typically, each
television set 80 has provision to display supplementary material
(i.e., material in addition to the normal programming on a channel)
in a small window 82, such that the normal programming is
substantially visible while supplementary material is displayed in
the window 82. Alternatively, supplementary material may be
displayed superimposed on the normal programming, in the manner of
movie subtitles.
[0016] Users at terminals 10 communicate via the Internet with
interactive server (IS) 40. Associated with IS 40 are databases 42
for storing user account information and 44 for storing user
registration information. Generally, account information includes
persistent information such as a user's name, sex, age/date of
birth, address, credit card numbers, general likes and dislikes,
hobbies, and so forth, while registration information includes
volatile information such as that the user is currently viewing a
particular program, that she wishes to participate in a current
poll or special offer mentioned on a television program, or the
like.
[0017] IS 40 receives TV programming 50, which IS 40 will forward
for transmission to television sets 80. As will be discussed below,
the TV programming 50 may be modified or augmented prior to such
forwarding in accordance with the present invention.
[0018] IS 40 also receives customizing information 60, which may
include advertisements, announcements of polls and candidate lists
for polls, product information, special offers, lottery statistics,
lottery results, etc. As a design choice, customizing information
60 may be provided to IS 40 directly from some source proximate to
IS 40, remotely via the Internet (as from a remote web server) or
any combination of the two.
[0019] Several scenarios will now be discussed in which the present
invention enables users, by registering with IS 40 through their
terminals 10, to exert some control over what appears on their TV
sets 80.
[0020] Simpler scenarios involve those of TV sets 80 that receive
TV programming via broadcast; these TV sets must display everything
contained in the received signal on a selected channel, as opposed
to those of TV sets 80 that receive satellite or cable signals and
process them in a set-top box 84 which allows selections to be
culled from the received signal on a selected channel.
[0021] A user watching via broadcast a particular program, here
called Program-A by way of reference, can use her terminal 10
communicate to IS 40 that she is watching Program-A. She is said to
have "registered" as watching Program-A. Some identification
contained in the message from terminal 10, such as a wireless phone
number or an email address, identifies her account in database 42,
from which demographic information (e.g., her sex and age) are
extracted. (In an alternative embodiment, such demographic
information may be part of the message sent from terminal 10,
perhaps from a template stored therein.) The registration
(including demographics) is stored in registration database 44. It
is a design choice when to remove registration entries from
registration database 44; for example a registration stating that a
user is watching a particular program can be removed when that
program is over; a registration stating that a user wishes to
participate in a poll may be removed when the poll is completed,
plus some predetermined time during which participants may review
poll results.
[0022] Periodically, a function in IS 40 reviews registrations 44
to deduce demographic patterns. For example, it may be found that
more females aged 17 to 30 are watching Program-A than any other
single demographic group. IS 40 might then elect to replace the
advertisements contained on the corresponding channel in TV
programming 50 with advertisements more appropriate to females aged
17 to 30. These other more appropriate advertisements would have
been obtained by IS 40 as part of customizing information 60. Thus,
everyone watching Program-A, regardless of whether receiving it via
broadcast, cable, or satellite, will see the substituted
advertisements in lieu of those provided in the TV programming 50
stream.
[0023] Another scenario within the capabilities of broadcast TV
reception is illustrated in FIG. 2. Line A indicates that a user is
watching a particular program (again called Program-A). Line B
indicates that at the same time the user's terminal 10 is
displaying a menu, one of the selections on which is "VOTE". In
Program-A it is announced that viewers will be polled for their
views on some topic presented in Program-A. The user may register
to vote in the poll. At some time later (allowing time for all who
wish to register to do so) IS 40 adds content to the TV programming
to cause each user's TV set to display in a small window (while
Program-A remains substantially visible) a legend indicating that
actual voting has commenced, as indicated in line C of FIG. 2. (All
viewers via broadcast of Program-A see this, regardless of whether
they have registered to vote.) The length of time the legend is
left on is a design choice. Only those who have registered to vote
(determined by polling the voting registrations in registrations
database 42) receive a voting menu on their terminals 10 from IS 40
via Internet 30, as indicated on line D of FIG. 2. The user makes a
selection and sends IS 40 a message containing the selection. After
a reasonable period of time for voting to take place, (optionally
announced by legends added to the TV programming, e.g., "VOTING
ENDS IN n MINUTES") IS 40 can check to see that no user has voted
more than once, and then tabulate the results. The results are then
sent to TV sets 80 (seen by everyone watching Program-A) and to the
terminals 10 of only those users who registered to vote, as shown
lines E and F respectively of FIG. 2.
[0024] A scenario that can have different results according to
whether a user is receiving TV via broadcast or through a set-top
box from cable or satellite is now addressed. A user is watching a
particular program (Program-B), and registers as watching
Program-B. She may be interested in a product that is advertised
during Program-B, and may make an entry via her terminal 10
requesting further information about the product. One simple
response would be to obtain the user's email or postal mail
address, perhaps from accounts database 42, and to mail the user
more information about the product. Providing additional
information immediately via the user's TV set 80 is not feasible if
the user is receiving via broadcast, because the additional
information appended to the broadcast TV signal would be seen by
all viewers of Program-B. But if the user is receiving via cable or
satellite through a set-top box 84 it may be possible (according to
the specifics of the cable or satellite transmission method, as is
known in the television arts) to append the additional information
to the television signal in such a manner that only the intended
user's set-top box extracts it from the signal and displays it to
the user. Or if several users have requested additional information
on the same advertised product, they may receive it for viewing
simultaneously while users who have not requested it do not see
it.
[0025] The ability of set-top box 84 to extract signals for
particular users can be used with the present invention for
tailoring advertisements to demographic groups of users. While the
basic set of advertising on a channel can be according to the
dominant demographic group of viewers as discussed above, user
account data 42 and user registration data 44 are interrogated to
determine other significant areas of interest among users, and
advertisements or special offers targeted accordingly to specific
groups are appended to the signal with sufficient destination
information that set-top boxes 84 show the alternative
advertisements or special offers to target users.
[0026] While an advertisement, product information, a special
offer, or the like is being presented to a user, the user could
enter a BUY indication on her terminal 10. IS 40 determines what
product the user was viewing at the time (different users could be
seeing different products). IS 40 retrieves the user's shipping
information and credit card number from accounts database 42 and
arranges to ship the advertised or offered item to the user.
[0027] Customizing information 60 may introduce special offers in
conjunction with TV programming content as well as in conjunction
with advertising. For example, while registered to view a drama
program, a user receives from IS 40 a message on her terminal 10
(accompanied by an audible signal such as a beep to draw her
attention) that says, e.g., "BUY THE DRESS MELANIE IS WEARING--ONLY
$99" (where Melanie is one of the characters in the drama
program).
[0028] Lotteries provide another area of application for the
present invention. A user signifies on her terminal 10 that she
wishes to participate in a lottery (perhaps in response to
advertisements or prompts for the lottery included in television
programming). If participation in more than one lottery is
possible, IS 40 sends a menu back to the user's terminal 10 for
selection of one lottery. The user is then prompted to enter her
selection of lottery numbers.
[0029] The user's selection of lottery numbers is forwarded to IS
40, which registers the user as participating in registrations
database 44, and which determines the user's financial account
number from accounts database 42. Administration of the lottery
might be performed in IS 40, but more typically is performed in
some other web server (not shown) accessible through the Internet
30. IS 40 forwards the user's selected lottery numbers to the
lottery administration function, and sends a display message back
to the user's terminal 10 confirming participation in the lottery
and debiting of the user's account.
[0030] At a later time when the winning lottery numbers have been
selected, the winning numbers might appear appended to television
programming, and each user participating (as determined from
registrations database 44) receives from IS 40 on her terminal 10 a
message personalized according to her individual results (e.g.,
"YOU HAVE WON $50,000,000" or "TWO NUMBERS MATCH--NO WINNINGS",
etc.).
[0031] A user entering the lottery may send a request to see the
most commonly selected numbers. (Such a function might be a menu
item on the aforementioned display that is provided to prompt the
user to enter lottery numbers.) IS 40, upon receiving such a
request, interrogates the lottery administration function and
forwards a message for display on the terminals 10 of all users who
have requested to view the most-selected numbers. Such a display
might typically be in the form of a histogram, depicting a line
associated with each of several numbers, the relative line length
indicating the popularity of the number. If IS 40 detects that a
large number (i.e., above some predetermined threshold) of users
request to see the most commonly selected numbers, IS 40 will
append a display thereof to television programming.
[0032] The present invention permits chatting among members of a
community. For example, users registered as watching a particular
program may enter on their terminals 10 comments about the program.
These comments are forwarded by IS 40 for display on the terminals
10 of other users registered as watching that program, as
determined from registrations database 44. Also, IS 40 can cause
the comments to appear in the window 82 of TV set 80 of users
viewing the program through a suitable set-top box.
[0033] A user wishing to view television programming in a different
language can benefit from the present invention. Such a user
registers as watching the program, and requests subtitles in
another language. If such subtitles are not available, the user is
so informed. If they are available, IS 40 appends them to a
satellite or cable transmission of the program for extraction by
the user's set-top box 84 and subsequent display to the user on his
TV set 80. In the alternative, an audio soundtrack in the requested
language can be fed to the user's terminal 10. The user is billed
for this service through an account determined from accounts
database 42.
[0034] Thus, the inventive methods and systems provide a simple and
efficient mechanism for setting a user's preferences for viewing
television content. By using a wireless device and the Internet, a
quick modality for communicating preferences is accomplished and
standard equipment may be used to perform the required functions.
This allows the inventive methods and systems to be implemented
economically and with little development costs. Moreover,
customized or preferred services may be provided to the user by the
broadcaster in view of the preferences selected by the user. These
results have not heretofore been achieved in the art.
[0035] While there have been shown and described and pointed out
certain novel features of the present invention as applied to
preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those
skilled in the art that various omissions and substitutions and
changes in the methods and apparatus described herein, and in their
operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without
departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is
expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or
method steps which perform substantially the same function in
substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within
the scope of the invention. Substitutions of method steps and
elements from one described embodiment to another are also fully
intended and contemplated. It is the intention, therefore, to be
limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended
hereto.
* * * * *