Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ON-DEMAND DELIVERY OF AUDIO CONTENT
FOR USE WITH ENTERTAINMENT CREATIVES
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Patent Application
Serial No.
12/221,058, entitled "System And Method For Distributing Content For Use With
Entertainment Creatives Including Consumer Messaging," filed July 30, 2008,
which is a
continuation-in-part of U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 12/220,916,
entitled "System
and Method For Preemptive Brand Affinity Content Distribution", filed July 29,
2008.
[002] U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 12/220,916 is: a continuation-in-part
of U.S.
Patent Application Serial No. 12/144,194, entitled "System and Method for
Brand Affinity
Content Distribution and Optimization", filed June 23, 2008; claims priority
to U.S.
Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 61/065,297, entitled "System and
Method of
Assessing Qualitative and Quantitative Use of a Brand," filed February 7,
2008; and
claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 61/131,386,
entitled
"Apparatus, System and Method for a Brand Affinity Engine Using Positive and
Negative
Mentions", filed June 6, 2008.
[003] U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 12/144,194 is: a continuation-in-part
of U.S.
Patent Application Serial No. 11/981,646, entitled "Engine, System and Method
for
Generation of Brand Affinity Content", filed October 31, 2007; a continuation-
in-part of
U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 11/981,837, entitled "An Advertising
Request And
Rules-Based Content Provision Engine, System and Method", filed October 31,
2007; a
continuation-in-part of U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 12/072,692,
entitled "Engine,
System and Method For Generation of Brand Affinity Content, filed February 27,
2008;
and a continuation in part of U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 12/079,769,
entitled
"Engine, System and Method for Generation of Brand Affinity Content," filed
March 27,
2008.
[004] U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 11/981,837 claims priority to U.S.
Provisional
Application Serial No. 60/993,096, entitled "System and Method for Rule-Based
Generation of Brand Affinity Content," filed September 7, 2007, and is related
to U.S.
Patent Application Serial No. 11/981,646.
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[005] U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 12/079,769 is a continuation-in-part
of U.S.
Patent Application Serial No. 12/042,913, entitled "Engine, System and Method
for
Generation of Brand Affinity Content," filed March 5, 2008, which is also a
continuation-
in-part of U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 12/072,692.
[006] U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 12/072,692 is a continuation-in-part
of U.S.
Patent Application Serial No. 11/981,646.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[007] The present invention is directed to a creative generation engine and,
more
particularly, to an engine for on-demand generation and delivery of voice
asset-related
content, and a method of making and using the same.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[008] It is well understood that high impact advertising is that advertising
that best grabs
the attention of a target consumer. A target consumer is the ideal customer
for the
particular goods being advertised, from a socio-economic perspective, from a
morals and
values perspective, from an age or interest level perspective, or based on
other similar
factors.
[009] The impact on an ideal customer of any particular advertisement may be
improved
if an advertisement includes endorsements, sponsorships, or affiliations from
those
persons, entities, or the like from whom the ideal target consumer is most
likely, or highly
likely, to seek guidance, to identify with, and/or to generally empathize
with. More
specifically, a customer experiences the greatest impact from advertising, and
all aspects
of entertainment in general, that the customer can best relate to.
Consequently, factors that
will typically increase the impact of an asset for inclusion in any type of
creative, be it an
advertisement or entertainment, include the asset's perceived knowledge of
particular
goods or in a particular industry of interest to that customer, the fame or
popularity of the
asset as perceived by that customer, the respect typically accorded a
particular asset by
those similarly situated to that customer, the identification with the asset
by the target
customer, and other similar factors.
[00101 Consequently, the highest impact advertising time or block available
for sale will
generally be time that is associated, such as both within the advertisement
and within the
program with which the advertisement is associated, with an endorser or
entertainment
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most likely to have high impact on the ideal target customer. Similarly, the
most
expensive entertainment is that which is most likely to have the greatest
number of
customers interested in, or identifying with, that entertainment. However, the
existing art
makes little use of this reality.
100111 Thus, there exists a need for an engine, system and method that allows
for the
obtaining of an asset or assets, such as the provision of advertisements or
entertainment
having associated therewith the one or more assets, in order to generate the
aforementioned high-impact circumstances.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[00121 A method of creating and delivering an on-demand audio asset for
inclusion in a
creative is described. The method includes the steps of accessing, from a
first electrical
communication device, a central processing environment via a computerized
telecommunications network, then requesting at least one recording of at least
a portion of
an audio transmission generated from the first electrical communication
device, then
generating at least one audio asset, wherein the at least one audio asset
includes the at least
one recording of the at least a portion of the audio transmission, then adding
the at least
one audio asset to a pool of related assets stored in a vault that is
connected to the central
processing environment via the computerized telecommunications network, then
selecting,
from the pool of audio assets in the vault, the at least one generated audio
asset and at least
one other related asset from the pool of related assets to form a creative,
then requesting
delivery of the creative to a second electrical communication device, and
finally delivering
the creative to the second electrical communication device via the
computerized
telecommunications network.
[0013] A creative composition engine is also described. The engine includes a
central
processing environment that includes at least one processor, a digital
recorder and a digital
asset storage vault, wherein the digital recorder records at least a portion
of an audio
transmission from a first electrical communication device connected to the
central
processing environment via a computerized telecommunications network, for
inclusion
into a pool of related audio assets stored in the vault, and wherein the
central processing
environment generates a creative comprising the at least one recording and at
least one
other related asset from the pool for delivery to a second electrical
communication device.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0014] The present invention will be described hereinbelow in conjunction with
the
following figures, in which like numerals represent like items, and wherein:
Figure 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of aspects of the present
invention;
Figure 2 illustrates a consumer messaging system according to an aspect of the
present invention; and
Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrative of a method for generating an on-demand
audio asset for inclusion into a creative, according to an aspect of the
present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0015] It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the present
invention have
been simplified to illustrate elements that are relevant for a clear
understanding of the
present invention, while eliminating, for the purposes of clarity, many other
elements
found in typical computing engines, systems and methods. Those of ordinary
skill in the
art will recognize that other elements are desirable and/or required in order
to implement
the present invention. However, because such elements are well known in the
art, and
because they do not facilitate a better understanding of the present
invention, a discussion
of such elements is not provided herein.
[0016] As used herein, a "creative" is and includes, for example, an
advertisement, a form
of entertainment, or the like, and a creative may preferably be composed, for
example,
from one or more media assets of interest to the composer of the creative. The
media
assets typically include media assets that are, or are related to, other
assets, such as:
snippets of movies or television, or of celebrities in movies or television;
audio, video or
stills showing celebrities or sports figures; photos or video of well known
locales, animals,
etc.. In the instant invention, the media assets may be used exclusively to
generate the
composed creative, or the media assets may be added to other assets, or placed
with other
items in a per-existing template, to generate the composed creative.
[0017] It is generally accepted that a creative having the highest impact on
the desired
consumer base includes relationships, endorsements, sponsorships, or
affiliations from or
to those persons, entities, things, or the like to whom the targeted consumers
most relate,
such as based on the endorser's knowledge of particular goods or in a
particular industry
of interest to the subject consumer, the fame of an entertainment media asset
as understood
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by the subject consumer, the respect or desirability typically accorded a
particular asset,
and other similar factors. For example, the easiest manner in which to sell
advertising
time or blocks of advertising time is to relay to a particular advertiser that
the advertising
time purchased by that advertiser will be used in connection with an audio
visual work that
has an endorsement therein for that particular advertiser's brand of goods or
services, thus
implying that the advertiser's goods or services are already endorsed by the
composer of
the subject audio visual work. As used herein, such a relationship,
endorsement,
sponsorship, or affiliation with another asset within a creative may include
an assertion of
use of a particular good or service by an actor, actress, or subject in the
audio visual work,
reference to a need for a particular types of goods or services in the audio
visual work, or
an actual endorsement of the use of a product within the audio visual work,
for example.
[0018] An allowable relationship, endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation may
be limited
in certain ways, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such
limitations may
include: geographic limitations on the use of particular assets (for example,
endorsers are
more likely to endorse locally in various locales rather than nationally
endorse, in part
because national endorsements bring a single endorsement fee and generally
preclude the
repetitious collection of many smaller fees for many local endorsements), or
limits on the
use of certain assets with certain other assets ; or limitations on use in
particular creatives
or industries, such as wherein a different product, different service,
different industry, or
competitive entertainment is or may be endorsed, related, sponsored or
affiliated (such as
in a different geographical area) by the same asset relationship, endorser,
sponsor, or
affiliate; or limitations on relationships, endorsements, sponsorships, or
affiliations solely
to a particular field(s) or type(s) of product, service or entertainment. For
example, certain
media assets may be employed only with regard to certain offerings, such as
wherein
certain movie snippets are made available only to those composers who wish to
generate
creative showing their respective avatars in that/those movie snippets.
[0019] Further, asset relationships, endorsements, sponsorships, or
affiliations by
particular endorsers may be limited to products, brands or products or
services, types of
products or services, or the like which are approved by one or more entities
external from,
but affiliated with, the specific endorser. For example, the National Football
League may
allow for its players only to endorse certain products, brands of products,
types of
products, or the like, that are also endorsed by the NFL, or may only allow
use of video or
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audio related to NFL games or players only in certain circumstances, with
certain brands,
in certain advertisements, or in certain product offerings.
[00201 More specifically, as used herein, relationships, endorsements,
sponsorships, or
affiliations may include: endorsements or sponsorships, in which an individual
or a brand
may be used to market another product or service to improve the marketability
of that
other product or service; marketing partnerships, in which short term
relationships
between different products or services are employed to improve the marketing
of each
respective product or service; brand affinity, which is built around a long
term relationship
between different products or services such that, over time, consumers come to
accept an
affinity of one brand based on its typical placement with another brand in
another
industry; creative asset relationships, in which two or more creative assets
are, at some
point between inception and delivery, combined to generate a creative that is
saleable,
marketable, or an advertisement; and the like.
[00211 At present, there is a need for a platform or engine to allow for the
composition of
a creative employing one or more assets in any of the above circumstances,
wherein the
asset(s) relate to, for example, a specific individual, a specific entity, an
affinity brand, a
marketing partner, a sponsor, a well known media asset, such as a movie or
television
show, or the like. In the present invention, a creative engine 10, such as
that illustrated in
Figure 1, may include a vault 12 that provides media assets 14 and integration
of media
assets, in one or more instances without need of involving the media assets
for permission,
a recommendation engine 20 that may, by creative, by market, by brand
affinity, by user
request, or otherwise match media assets from the vault with a request for a
creative 22,
and a delivery engine 26 capable of integrating the requested creative 22 and
the one or
more media asset 14 from the vault 12. The delivery engine may, for example,
be apart
from the vault and recommendation engine, either in control, in software, in
location, and
the like, and may allow for pre-binding, binding at request, or late stage
binding of the
creative 22 and media asset 16, and delivery of the creative 22 bound with the
dynamic
media asset 16 from the vault to an advertiser, an advertising server, an
entertainment
customer/purchaser, or the like. As such, the delivery engine may generate the
mash up of
the creative and the media asset(s), or may receive the mash up for delivery.
Creative
requests 22 may be made via an "wizard" using templates, as will be apparent
to those
skilled in the art.
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[0022] The vault captures certain media assets, and/or information related
thereto, in a
common location, such as a common database, such as, for example, all major
league
baseball past and present players, including statistics, video, and pictures
of those players
affiliated with the names of those players, in addition to any endorsement
limitations on
those players. The vault may likewise include media assets that may be
associated with
audio-visual works. The vault may include video, audio, photographs, text and
text/SMS
messages, symbols, emblems, taglines, pictures, video, press releases,
publications, web
links, web links to external content, and media capable of re-purposing (such
as an athlete
running in front of a blue screen, wherein the athlete may be re-purposed by
the placement
of a background over the blue screen), and voice.
[0023] At least one of the vault and the recommendation engine may also
include one or
more rules associated with each of the media assets, such as exclusions,
inclusions, or
preferences 50 for the use of the media asset or particular items of
information associated
with the media asset in the vault. Such inclusions, exclusions, or preferences
may include
geographic limitations on certain information items or endorsements, product
limitations,
preferred partners or products or product types for endorsement, preferred or
allowed uses,
etc. Exclusions may, of course, be necessary if the requested creative
conflicts with other
legalities, such as a pre-existing endorsement agreement for the requested
brand with a
competitor, or the like.
[0024] Further, media assets in the vault may be marked with different payment
schema
52 based on the requester of the media asset, the request itself, the creative
into which the
requested asset will be incorporated, the requested overall creative including
the asset, or
the ultimate use or market for the creative created, for example. For example,
in the event
the creative requester is a school, or a student at a school, and the
requested creative is not
an advertisement or like endeavor to sell anything, media assets may be made
available for
use for free. Such exceptions may be made, with regard to payment, with regard
to any
level of payment variation as between any number of different user and/or use
types, such
as non-profit, for-profit, individual, corporate, in-home, in-business,
advertisement,
entertainment, and the like. Additionally, for example, icons of a favorite
football player
may be requested by a non-profit individual for at-home use, to be overlayed
over a live
football program then on that individual's television, at no charge, or
minimal charge to
that individual. Likewise, assets may be provided to allow a user to create a
widget, or
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like entertainment item, wherein the user, or a user avatar, is placed into a
well-known
audio or video environment, or wherein the user, or the user avatar, is placed
into a video
game, or classic video game, for example, and such situations may allow for a
variable
charge to be levied on the user based on the media asset requested by the
user, the use of
the ultimate creative including the requested media asset, the identity of the
requesting
party, or the like.
[0025] The recommendation engine 20 may assess, based on numerous factors
including
external factors, the media assets that are most sensible, or that are
available, for a
particular requested creative. For example, such a recommendation engine may
gauge
proper matches by assessing inclusion and exclusion rules based on the
aforementioned
factors in the vault, such as geography, but additionally can use stored or
external
information and/or variable factoring to do associations for any two media
assets, such as
association between two different brands (such as wherein brand associations
already
exhibiting brand affinity would have the highest percentage association, and
brands which
would make the most sensible association would also exhibit higher percentage
matching
for brand association), or to do matching of a media asset based on the target
consumers or
creative requester of the requested creative.
[0026] For example, a "profile" 60 may be developed in the vault for a
particular asset.
Such a profile may include any of a myriad of information, both stored in the
vault and/or
having external references outside the vault from within the vault. For
example, in the
event the requested creative is an advertisement, the profile may include but
not limited to
psychological profiles of typical users of a brand that is the profiled asset
(which may
include values, motivations, wants, and needs of brand users, and which may be
assessed
based on inferences from on-line, credit card, or television use by those
users, for
example), brand profiles of that asset including target customers, target
affiliate profiles
(which may include reasons for desired affiliation, such as sharing marketing
costs,
increasing brand recognition in certain geographies or fields of use,
distribution channel
access, expedited market entry, or improved brand perception, for example),
and the like,
and such profiles may be used as media assets by the recommendation engine in
order to
develop a best match.
[0027] As an additional example with regard to advertising, polling may
provide for local
or national focus and be maintained in the vault as an associated media asset
with a
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particular brand, and best matches for certain brands may be selected
according to such
polling results. For example, a "flashy" sports personality may be a best
match for a brand
offering in Los Angeles, but a different athlete's endorsement might be
preferably to sell
that brand in the mid-west. Such information, including "who's hot", or where
a brand is
"hot", may be associated with the media assets regarding that brand in the
vault, and may
be thus used by the recommendation engine to do matching.
[0028] Similarly with regard to non-advertising embodiments, the vault of the
present
invention may include assets uniquely associated with particular
users/consumers. For
example, a user may enter an avatar to the vault as a media asset to be
associated with,
and/or form part of, the user's profile. Additionally, the user need not
incorporate an
externally created avatar in the instant invention, but rather may create an
avatar using the
present invention as a media asset for inclusion in the vault. Similarly, the
user may use
tools provided in the present invention to create or upload a variety of media
assets, such
as widgets, personal audio, photos, text messages, and/or videos, to the vault
in the present
invention for use as media assets in generating a creative in union with other
vault assets.
Needless to say, such "personal" vault assets may have access limited by the
uploading or
creating user, wherein such access may be limited to the creator, or to a
circle or parties or
entities authorized by the creator, or to all individual users of the vault,
or to all corporate
users of the vault, or to all non-profit users of the vault, etc.
[0029] Thus, in the aforementioned exemplary embodiment, the present invention
may
allow for the creation of avatars. Such avatars may be used with other media
assets
within, or accessible to, the vault, as creatives, or may constitute
purchaseable creatives in
their own right, for example. For example, a user of the system may create an
avatar for
him/herself, and/or may create an avatar incorporating or based on a brand or
personality.
In the latter exemplary embodiment, for example, the subject brand or
personality may
allow to be resident in the vault a series of authorized media assets that may
be used by
users to generate creatives constituting, at least in part, the aforementioned
avatar(s) The
avatars may thus be used, such as in conjunction with other assets or
associative asset
information in the vault, in the furtherance of brand recognition for the
creation of brand
affinity with the subject brand or personality. Needless to say, a user may
request a
creative that is a composition including multiple assets in the form of
avatars, or like
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assets, such as wherein the user's avatar is shown in an entertaining video
meeting up
with, and marrying, an avatar of Brad Pitt, for example.
[0030] Although an avatar may be generated using software in various ways, as
will be
understood by those skilled in the art, in one such methodology the user may
upload one
or more images into the vault as an asset(s) for use/manipulation, such as
use/manipulation
in generating a creative for purchase in the form of an avatar. The images may
be
uploaded from an existing photograph, for example, or may be imported from a
camera or
a video camera attached to, or accessible via, a user interface, or through
other electronic
media. Once such images are uploaded, the user may for example, crop portions
of the
photographs to be used as to create the avatar. The avatar portion may
include, for
example, a particular portion of a face within the uploaded images and/or the
body and
face from the uploaded images. The images may also be cropped to capture only
those
portions relevant to the avatar of interest in the requested creative. Once
the cropped
portions of the uploaded images are selected, an avatar creation engine may
process the
images and create an avatar based on the selected portion of the uploaded
image.
[0031] For example, the present invention may, via software, use the multiple
available
cropped images to generate a three dimensional estimate of certain points of
interest on the
cropped images to allow for preparation of the avatar. Such points of interest
may include,
for example, certain facial contours, wherein such points of interest may be
calculated
relative to other points of interests, such as other facial feature. Needless
to say, the
availability of multiple images, likely at at least slightly different angles,
improves the
availability of relative calculations of facial or other relative points of
interest, although
the present invention may be similarly employed with the uploading of only a
single
image.
[0032] In an exemplary embodiment, the most prominent point, such as the tip
of the nose,
may be selected, and the position of the tip of the nose versus some
predetermined number
of other points of interest, such as five other points of interest, may then
be assessed, such
as by using a mathematical relation between the points of interest assessed as
among the
multiple uploaded, cropped images. Thereby, in this exemplary embodiment, the
mathematical relation between multiple points of interest allows for the
generation of a
three dimensional avatar model in accordance with the proportions of the
user's real
physical facial features. Needless to say, certain facial features may be
added or modified,
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either upon generation of such an avatar or thereafter. For example, upon
review of a
generated avatar, a user may decide that she wishes her eyes to be wider, or
may select a
blue color for her eyes. The avatar so generated may then be animated in any
way desired
by the composer, including for use in requested creatives with other available
or allowable
media assets in the vault, such as well known movie scenes, television shows,
video
games, music videos, virtual worlds, or still photos, for example.
[0033] By way of further example, if the uploaded portion includes only the
face of the
target avatar, the software of the present invention may further allow the
user to add
various aspects of the avatar body, face and/or accessories, including but not
limited to
hair, hats, tee shirts, pants, shoes, and the like. More specifically, the
avatar produced may
be created in at least two forms, such as the general facial area of the user,
and/or the face
and a body portion. As discussed hereinabove, an avatar may also be imported
into the
present invention from a third party source, wherein such avatar may already
be
developed. By way of example, the person who has created an avatar in an
existing social
network to represent herself may import that avatar into the vault of the
present invention.
[0034] An avatar imported or otherwise created in the vault may be further
manipulated
and/or otherwise be incorporated with other media assets from the vault, as
discussed
hereinthroughout. Such manipulations may include, for example, changing the
color, size
and shape of aspects of the avatar or, for example, creating a sketch look,
hazed look, a
blocked face look, or the like for the avatar. Of course, some variations,
modifications, or
incorporations may be precluded or not compatible in accordance with the
aforementioned
rule set governing the use of media assets.
[0035] As discussed hereinabove, the present invention may include one or more
vaults
which may contain various creatives and/or media assets, whether or not
generated by the
present invention or downloaded or otherwise obtained from external locations
or from
third parties. Such media may include for example, movies, television shows or
famous
sporting events, by way of non- limiting example. As mentioned hereinabove,
the present
invention may allow for the interaction between such vaulted media assets and
at least one
avatar in a requested creative. More specifically, such interaction, for
example, may
include the super-imposing of the avatar into a particular piece of vaulted
media asset. By
way of example, an avatar created in accordance with the present invention may
be
uploaded into an episode of "Friends." In this case, for example, the avatar
may be super-
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imposed within the television show as an inert object, have interaction with
the scene, or
interact directly with the characters of the show.
[0036] By way of further non-limiting example, an avatar consisting of just
facial features
may be super-imposed on a media asset available within the vault. More
specifically, for
example, the vault media may contain a still photo or video of Tug McGraw
during the
1980 baseball World Series throwing the last pitch to win the only World
Series in the
history of the Philadelphia Phillies. The user may then insert his or her
facial avatar onto
the body of Tug McGraw in the photo or video, thereby creating a new video
showing the
avatar winning the 1980 World Series. Of course, such a requested creative
might make
for a good gift, such as after incorporation of such an avatar into the 1980
World Series,
wherein the avatar corresponds to a son or daughter, for delivery as an online
"birthday
card" or birthday email to that son or daughter.
[0037] The vault may also contain media specifically designed for use with
avatars,
whether created or imported by the user. Such media may include, for example,
generic
video of reality upon which an avatar may be inserted or, by way of further
example, a
cartoon depiction of life events. Although innumerable examples exist, the
present
invention allows for the interaction of avatars with such media assets,
whether or not the
media assets and/or the avatars originate at the vault of the present
invention.
[0038] In yet further exemplary embodiments, avatars and avatar interactive
media may
be saved by the user to the vault, uploaded or downloaded locally, or accessed
through or
as part of a widget, among myriad other examples. Such a widget may take the
form of an
access key which, for a fee, would allow for the display or downloading of the
avatar or
avatar interactive media as a creative to a desktop, for example. For example,
an episode
of "Friends" that includes an avatar as one of the characters in a coffee shop
may be
shown on the webpage of the user who is the subject of the avatar on the
social network
page of that user through the use of a widget. Access in this fashion may be
charged as a
one time fee, or may be time based, or per diem or periodically based, for
example. Such
a creative may also be accessed, for example, by mail order DVD or on-demand
cable
services, among many other access methodologies, for example.
[0039] Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a standard for telephone
messaging
systems that allows sending messages that include multimedia objects (images,
audio,
video, rich text), as well as text, such as in Short Message Service (SMS).
MMS and SMS
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are used herein to refer to all similar text, data and multimedia systems
known to those
skilled in the art. MMS is typically deployed in cellular networks, along with
other
messaging systems like SMS, Mobile Instant Messaging and Mobile E-mail. The
principal standardization effort for MMS is done by 3GPP, 3GPP2 and Open
Mobile
Alliance (OMA).
[0040] Text messaging, such as MMS/SMS, is used by people to send short
messages
usually from person-to-person. Picture messaging has become more and more
popular
now that cell phones often have built in or attachable cameras to enable
people to send
picture messaging back and forth. Picture messaging is made possible through
the MMS
system via its support of all kinds of photos, graphics, animation, as well as
video and
audio clips. Thus, in the exemplary embodiments herein, MMS and like systems
allow the
sending and receiving of any type of multimedia messages. Further, such
systems have
been designed to work with mobile packet data services such as GPRS and
lx/EVDO.
[0041] MMS-enabled mobile phones may thus enable subscribers to compose and
send
messages with one or more multimedia parts. Multimedia parts may include text,
images,
audio and video. These content types should conform to the MMS or similar
Standards.
For example a phone can send an MPEG4 video in AVI format. Mobile phones with
multimedia capabilities, such as with built-in MP3 players, are very likely to
include an
MMS messaging client-a software program that interacts with the mobile
subscriber to
compose, address, send, receive, and view MMS messages. MMS and/or an MMS
client
may thus be used by various companies to suit different solutions. For
example, using a
Mobile Photo Sharing Platform called Mobshare, sports photos are broadcasted
to
thousands of fans directly on their mobile phones.
[0042] MMS and like or associated types of consumer messaging may be provided
through the system of the present invention. For example, voice profiles may
be included
with the vaulted assets of the present invention, such as to provide a
celebrity wishing a
happy birthday to a friend. The celebrities' voices may be modified to
pronounce almost
anything based on the base voice profile, such as the name of the person to
whom the
aforementioned birthday wish is sent, as will be understood by those skilled
in the art.
Such a modification may also be performed using names selectable from a list,
such as
numerous available names previously pronounced by the celebrity and made
available via
a drop down menu or search, for example. As would be understood to those
possessing an
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ordinary skill in the pertinent arts, other greetings may also be sent, such
as teasing or bad
wishes, for example. Limitations may be included within the system to prevent
the use of
explicit wishes, either favorable or unfavorable, and may also be used to
limit the use of
certain celebrities with certain wishes via the aforementioned vault rules,
for example.
Such disassociation of celebrities with wishes/causes/holidays may be provided
to prevent
abuse of an consumer messaging, to prevent the injury to the celebrity persona
and name,
and/or to prevent support of causes or brands contrary to those generally
supported by that
celebrity. ]Needless to say, this exemplary embodiment is readily modifiable
to likewise
employ celebrity or famous video, avatars or pictures, for example.
[0043] As contemplated herein, voice profiles, and all voice or audio assets
associated
with a celebrity or other individual or character, may be generated by direct
recording of
entire messages, portions of messages, or may be constructed via a voice
snippet database,
or may further be synthesized voice data.
[0044] For example, in the creation of a voice snippet portfolio, a text
selection system as
understood by those skilled in the art may analyze text from a variety of
sources and
assemble an optimal text set that may then be read by the celebrity. The text
selection
system may further incorporate existing assets to more efficiently determine
what textual
material has already been recorded, and thereby eliminate redundant, unwanted
or
undesired voice snippet data by not pursuing such data. The celebrity's speech
may then
be labeled according to the text to be read and the individual voice assets
may then be
extracted from the recorded speech for use in constructing a recorded snippet
asset
database. These assets may further be associated with text-to-speech
synthesizers, as
described herein.
[0045] The text selection system may analyze any source of text that is
readable or
transmittable by computer over a network. Thus, the networked system as
contemplated
herein may be used to identify and download text from any source within the
vault or
externally, including electronic dictionaries, digitized works of literature,
technical reports
and the like.
[0046] Text may be run through a text parser or similar program that breaks
the text into
individual syllables, words and/or phrases. The text parser may further
examine any
whitespace between words and the punctuation to identify individual words and
phrases
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within input text. As may be understood by those skilled in the art, the text
parser may
further include a set of grammatical rules to identify phrases based on parts
of speech.
[0047] After all parsing is completed, the text may be run through a word
analysis
program that may employ a lexicon, word decomposition algorithm, or the like,
to break
up all words and phrases into their constituent phonemes. For example, the
word
decomposition algorithm may examine individual letters in each word and phrase
to
identify vowels and consonants. Likewise, the word analysis program may
consider not
only a single letter but also its neighboring letters to determine what the
correct phoneme
assignment should be. Because there may be variation in the pronunciation of
words
based on the location of those words in a sentence, the system may selectively
exclude
those words from being used to develop an optimal text set. For example, flags
associated
with certain words and phrases may be inserted into the resulting analysis
based on the
context of where that word or phrase appears in the any sentence, such that
flagged voice
data may be excluded, or alternatively, used for special purposes.
[0048] Once the phonemes have been extracted from the words and phrases, they
may be
sent to a sound analysis program to identify the constituent sound units found
within the
generated phonemes. The sound analysis program may use phoneme information to
identify all individual sound units. If a synthesizer is to be used, the
ultimate constitution
of the sound units may depend on the nature of the synthesizer. For example,
the
synthesizer may use syllables, demi-syllables, pairs of half syllables, or the
like.
Otherwise, the sound analysis program may take the phonemes and identify how
they may
be grouped into the sound units of choice. In doing so, the sound analysis
program may
further keep track of the context of the sound units. That is, the sound
analysis program
may identify not only the sound unit, but also its neighboring sound units. As
explained
above, this may allow the system to flag text where particular sound units may
vary by the
pronunciation effects of their neighboring sound units. Thus, all sound units
associated
with a celebrity profile may be stored in the vault so that a record of
phonetically
important neighboring sound units is maintained.
[0049] The sound analysis program may further incorporate a set of exclusion
rules
whereby certain sound units are excluded from contributing to the final text
database. The
exclusion rules may rely on the flagging function as described above, and thus
may avoid
words or phrases that lie at certain locations within the sentence. Exclusion
rules may also
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reject accented syllables, as such syllables tend to provide lower quality
sound units for
use with text-to-speech synthesizers.
[00501 In addition to generating text for celebrities to read aloud, the
present invention
may also be used to process prerecorded voice data that is accompanied by a
corresponding text. For example, a prepared speech, or books-on-tape
recordings may be
used as source material of both the recorded speech information and the
corresponding
text associated with that speech. As contemplated herein, the best or most
reliable
examples of this recorded speech may be used, and gaps or holes in the voice
asset
portfolio may be identified and filled as described herein. Upon finalized
creation of all
textual information, recordings of all such text may be made as is understood
by those
skilled in the art, and those digitized or recorded voice assets may be stored
in the vault for
any such use as contemplated herein. Preferably, these created audio assets
are pooled
with or otherwise associated with related assets for that celebrity, such that
the
recommendation engine described herein may efficiently select those assets
required in the
generation of any particular requested creative.
[00511 In another embodiment, synthesizers may be used to generate voice
snippet data
for a celebrity voice asset portfolio. Synthesis may be based on the stringing
together of
segments of recorded speech, to produce natural-sounding voice data. For
example, unit
selection synthesis may use those voice assets associated with a celebrity
voice portfolio,
such that the desired target utterance is created by determining the best
chain of candidate
assets (such as phrases, words, syllables or phonemes) from the portfolio.
Such a process
is typically achieved via use of a weighted decision tree mechanism, as may be
understood
by those skilled in the art. Any text selected for a celebrity to read may be
used with a
synthesizer to adapt to the voice quality and characteristic particular to
that celebrity.
Likewise, and without limitation, the present invention may utilize any voice
asset created
and stored by the present invention, and may utilize such voice assets in any
synthesis
process, such as diphone synthesis, domain-specific synthesis, formant or
rules based
synthesis, articulatory sysnthesis, hidden Markov model synthesis and sinewave
synthesis,
for example, as may be understood by those skilled in the art.
[00521 As contemplated herein, voice data, incorporating full or partial
length recordings,
voice snippets and/or synthesized voice data, may be duplicated and digitized
by system
processors and may be placed into packets for transmission over the network,
and likewise
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stored as accessible assets in the vault. The assets may then be available for
playback via
devices as described herein.
[00531 Further, simplistically, voice data in the vault for a given celebrity
may include a
full script, read by a celebrity, such as outright endorsing a certain
product, or such as
endorsing a type of product but not a specific brand. In the latter instance,
the voice script
may then be used in conjunction with a -separate reference to a certain brand,
or in
conjunction with a synthesized vocalization of the specific brand as discussed
hereinabove.
[00541 Referring now to Figure 2, there is shown a consumer messaging system
according
to an aspect of the present invention. As may be seen in Figure 2, there is a
first device, a
second device, and the recommendation engine, vault, content and delivery
discussed
hereinthroughout. While the discussion herein will focus on an example wherein
the
consumer messaging occurs from one-to-one, separate examples of one-to-many
may also
be included. As shown in Figure 2, the first device, such as a cellular phone,
pager,
personal computing device, or the like, is directed to send a consumer message
to a second
device, such as a cellular phone, pager, personal computing device, or the
like. In this
scenario, the user of the first device may want to deliver to the user of the
second device a
happy birthday message from Madonna, for example. According to an aspect of
the
present invention, the first device couples to the recommendation engine with
a request for
a happy birthday message from Madonna. The recommendation engine, as described
herein throughout, interacts with the vault and content to recommend a happy
birthday
message that meets the desired criteria. This message may include Madonna's
voice
modified to say the second user's name to be included within the birthday
wish. Once
recommended and selected, the birthday wish may be delivered to the second
device using
the consumer messaging and/or network of or associated with the present
invention. The
system of the present invention may employ pre-binding, late binding and
sponsoring
page/content dynamically delivered in delivery/creating the happy birthday
wish.
[0055] In light of these examples relating to Figure 2, such embodiments of
the present
invention effectively provide a centralized on-demand recording and playback
mechanism
that may be incorporated into or run seamlessly with the recommendation engine
and its
respective hardware and network. In this way, the on-demand recording and
playback
mechanism may also utilize all features of the aforementioned system described
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hereinthoughout, including use of a MMS or otherwise in conjunction with any
public
switched telephone network and private branch exchange. In other embodiments,
the
recording mechanism may operate via the communication device, such as a mobile
phone
or a VoIP enabled phone. In these embodiments, the recorded and digitized
asset may
simply be transmitted to system servers for further processing and storage in
the vault.
For example, a VoIP recording phone may perform an on-demand recording
function to
process and send all voice data to the system servers without going through a
centrally
located exchange device. The recording phone may also obtain call control
information
without involving a centrally located exchange device.
[0056] As shown in Figure 3, the present invention also includes a method 300
of creating
and delivering an on-demand audio asset for inclusion into a creative. For
example,
method 300 beginning at step 310, which involves accessing a central
processing
environment (e.g. a server or set of servers,) from a first communication
device (e.g. a cell
phone, pda, laptop, etc.) through a computerized telecommunications network.
Next, at
step 320, a request is made for a recording of at least a portion of the audio
transmission
generated from the first communication device. Next, at step 330, at least one
audio asset
is generated from the recording of the audio transmission. At step 340, the
audio asset is
added to a pool of assets stored in the vault, which is connected to the
central processing
environment via the telecommunications network. Related assets may be, for
example,
additional audio assets from the same celebrity. At step 350, the generated
audio asset and
at least one other related asset from the pool of related assets is selected
for inclusion into
a creative. Next, at step 360, a request is made to deliver the creative to a
second
communication device. The second communication device may alternatively be the
same
as the first communication device, but naturally this must be subsequent to
the earlier steps
of method 300, and therefore must be a different point in time from which the
first
communication device is being used in a prior step of method 300. Lastly, at
step 370, the
creative is delivered to the second communication device via the
telecommunications
network.
[0057] In one exemplary embodiment, and in light of Figure 3, a voice
recording may be
performed as follows. After a voice session is established, the user may
request that a
recording begin. Initiation of the recording function may occur at any time
during the
voice session, such that the entire session may be recorded, or only portions
of the session
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may be recorded. Recording sessions may also be intermittent, such that
recording may
occur multiple times during a single voice session. Initiation of recording
may be made by
the originator of the voice session, by another party to the voice session or
by another
party having access to the voice session data, or by a computing terminal also
having
access to the voice session data. Voice data may be packetized by the phone
and sent to
system servers to tentatively hold the stored information. Other forms of data
transfer are
also contemplated herein, such as all those that are commonly used by those
skilled in the
art, such as frames, raw data, or tokens, for example. At any time during the
voice session
and up until the session is terminated, the user of the phone may request that
the recorded
information of the voice session be saved for later use by the system, by
initiating a save
request. To initiate the save request, the user may only need to push a
predetermined
button on the phone, provide a voice command to save, or utilize other user
interfaces to
send the save request. Alternatively, a second party, who may also be actively
on the voice
session, or is otherwise provided access to the voice session data, may
initiate the save
request. Since packets are used as a transport means for information exchange,
it should
be understood by those skilled in the art that all other suitably enabled
phones may send a
signal to request a conversation session to be saved. It should also be
understood that the
user of the recording system may be a computer terminal that can communicate
with the
original phone of the voice session that is being recorded. Upon receiving the
instruction,
the server may store all or any portion of the held voice data in the vault
for future
retrieval and transmission, and for inclusion into a requested creative, and
described
above. If a save request is never initiated before the end of the voice
session, the voice
data tentatively stored by the server may be deleted when the voice session
ends.
Alternatively, the system may initiate a message to the original phone user or
any other
interested party to confirm that a save request was not made, and provide any
number of
additional opportunities for subsequent saving. In this manner, regardless of
when the
save request is initiated, the entire communication of the voice session is
available for
playback. In further embodiments, two or more people may record peer-to-peer
conversation with or without involving a centrally located exchange. The
present
invention as described above thus provides an improved method for allowing all
or
portions of a voice session, and other streams of analog or digital data to be
recorded when
a triggering event to record the data is initiated during the transmission.
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[0058] Effectively, the aforementioned method 300 is performed by a creative
composition engine, which forms part of the engine as shown in Figure 1 and
described
herein. The engine may thus include a central processing environment that
includes at
least one processor, a digital recorder and a digital asset storage vault,
wherein the digital
recorder records at least a portion of an audio transmission from a first
electrical
communication device connected to the central processing environment via a
computerized telecommunications network, for inclusion into a pool of related
audio
assets stored in the vault, and wherein the central processing environment
generates a
creative comprising the at least one recording and at least one other related
asset from the
pool for delivery to a second electrical communication device.
[0059] Further, the present invention may also be used to deliver pictures
and/or movies,
for example, as referenced hereinabove. In such a configuration the present
system may
be able to send a message to a up and coming baseball player by integrating
that up and
coming baseball player into his favorite movie, Field of Dreams. Using this
technique, a
picture or multiple pictures of the up and coming baseball player may be added
into the
motion picture Field of Dreams and then delivered to the device of the up and
coming
baseball player.
[0060] As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the engines of the
present invention
may draw on any number of communication access points and media sources,
including
wired and wireless, radio and cable, telephone, television and internet,
personal electronic
devices, satellite, databases, data files, and the like, in order to increase
media asset
content in the vault, contribute media asset content to the vault, and to best
allow for
recommendations and delivery.
[0061] Although the invention has been described and pictured in an exemplary
form with
a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present
disclosure of the
exemplary form has been made by way of example, and that numerous changes in
the
details of construction and combination and arrangement of parts and steps may
be made
without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in
the claims
hereinafter.
