Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRESENTING SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
RELATED TO AN ADVERTISEMENT CONSUMED ON A DIFFERENT DEVICE
WITHIN A THRESHOLD TIME PERIOD OF AN END OF A CORRESPONDING
ADVERTISEMENT SLOT
Background
100011 Due to the plethora of media assets available to modern consumers,
content
providers have multiple advertising slots to fill with promotional content.
Because of the
large number of advertisements consumed by a user even during a single media
asset, it is
difficult for an advertiser to determine whether the user is interested in
their advertised
product(s) or the products of another advertiser. It is of value to
advertisers to understand
when users are engaged with an advertisement so that the advertiser can
provide additional
information that may facilitate the user purchasing product(s).
[0002] Some conventional systems display, while the advertisement is being
presented, a
prompt to a user to view information related the advertisement (e.g., a
promotion) overlaid on
the advertisement. However, in this approach, the supplemental information is
received
during the advertisement. Furthermore, displaying an overlay with supplemental
information
may interfere with a media asset that a user is watching, which may be
particularly
problematic in a multiple user environment where some users are uninterested
in the
advertisement. Many users may decide that an advertisement is interesting and
wish to learn
more about the product(s) that were advertised. Using conventional systems,
the user may
need to manually search for content associated with the advertisement he or
she has just
consumed (e.g., in a web browser).
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Summary
[0003] Accordingly, systems and methods are described herein for presenting
supplemental
information to a user that is related to an advertisement consumed by the user
that the user
found interesting. The systems and methods may determine that a user is
interested in
receiving supplemental information based on the user starting to use a device
within a
threshold time period from consuming the advertisement on a different device.
Specifically,
the system may determine that a user has started using a first device (e.g., a
mobile device)
within a period of time from the end of an advertisement that the user
consumed on a second
device (e.g., a television). The system may determine a threshold time period
based on the
length of the advertisement slot including the advertisement (e.g., the
threshold time period
may be 30 seconds if the length of the advertisement slot is 30 seconds).
Alternatively or
additionally, the system may determine a threshold time period based on
historical amounts
of time it has taken users to access supplemental information on their own
after consuming
the advertisement (e.g., if users access a webpage associated with the
advertisement five
minutes after the conclusion of a particular advertisement, the threshold time
period may be
five minutes). In response to determining that the user started using the
first device within
the threshold period of time from the end of the advertisement, the system may
present
supplemental information associated with the advertisement to the user. In
this way, the
system presents supplemental information associated with an advertisement to a
user after the
user consumes the advertisement and without explicitly prompting the user for
the
supplemental information. This enables the user to receive supplemental
information
efficiently by, for example, not having to type in a website URL or perform a
search on a
device, as the information is automatically presented.
[0004] In some aspects, a media guidance application may be configured to
present
supplemental information that is related to an advertisement consumed on a
device if the user
begins using a different device within a threshold time period of an
advertisement slot
corresponding to the advertisement slot (e.g., the length of the advertisement
slot).
Specifically, the media guidance application may detect that a user has
started using a first
device at a first time. For example, at the first time, the media guidance
application may
check the user's recent interactions with the first device to determine
whether the user has
just started using the device after a period of not using the device.
[0005] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect that the
user has
started using the first device based on whether the first device has recently
received a user
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input prior to the first time. Specifically, the media guidance application
may receive, at the
first device, a user input at the first time. For example, the media guidance
application may
detect that the user has input a command (e.g., a user has unlocked the screen
of the first
device) at the first time (e.g., 8:22pm). To determine whether the user was
already using the
first device or whether the user has started using the first device at the
first time, the media
guidance application may retrieve a second time corresponding to a most recent
user input
received prior to the first input.
[0006] The media guidance application, in order to determine whether the
previous user
input indicates that the user started to use the first device at the first
time or was already using
the first device, compares the first time with the second time that the
previous user input was
received. Specifically, the media guidance application may determine that a
difference
between the first time and the second time is greater than a threshold
difference. For
example, if the user sent an email ten seconds prior to the first time and the
threshold is five
minutes, then the media guidance application may determine that since the
previously
received user input was close in time to the first time it likely does not
indicate the user is
interested in the advertisement based on the threshold being greater than the
calculated
difference. The media guidance application may, in response to determining
that the
difference is greater than the threshold difference, determine that the user
has started using
the device. For example, if the previous user input was received 12 minutes
from the user
input at the first time and the threshold is five minutes, the media guidance
application may
determine that the user had stopped using the device and has now started using
the device,
which may be due to the user's interest in the advertisement.
[0007] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that
the
difference between the first time and the second time is greater than the
threshold difference
based on the average time between user inputs. Specifically, the media
guidance application
may retrieve a log of recent user inputs on the first device. For example, as
discussed above,
the media guidance application may retrieve a log of recent user inputs from
storage of the
first device. The media guidance application may determine, based on the log
of recent user
inputs, an average time between user inputs on the first device. For example,
the media
guidance application may iteratively determine differences between every user
input and a
next most recent user input in the log, or a subset within a threshold
timeframe (e.g., the last
two hours). As a specific example, if user inputs were received at 8:1 Opm,
8:20pm, and
8:22pm, the media guidance application may calculate the differences as two
minutes and ten
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minutes, respectively. The media guidance application may average the
differences by
dividing the total number of differences by the sum of the differences.
Continuing with the
previous example, if two minutes and ten minutes were calculated as the
differences, then the
average difference calculated by the media guidance application may be six
minutes.
[0008] The media guidance application may compare the difference between the
most
recent user input and the second most recent user input with the average
amount of time
between user inputs at the first device. Specifically, the media guidance
application may
compare the average time between user inputs with the difference between the
first time and
the second time. For example, the media guidance application may compare the
average time
(e.g., two minutes) between user inputs with the time between the two most
recent user inputs
(e.g., ten minutes) to determine which value is greater. The media guidance
application may
determine, based on comparing the average time between user inputs with the
difference, that
the average time between user inputs is less than the difference. For example,
the media
guidance application may determine that since the average time between user
inputs is two
minutes and the time between the two most recent user inputs (e.g., at the
first time and the
second time) is ten minutes, the user has started using the first device at
the first time. The
media guidance application may, based on determining that the average time
between user
inputs is less than the difference, determine that the difference between the
first time and the
second time is greater than the threshold difference. For example, since the
average time
between user inputs is less than the difference, the media guidance
application may determine
that the user started using the first device at the first time, and has not
been using the first
device.
[0009] The media guidance application may, based on detecting that the user
has started
using the first device at the first time, determine whether the user has
consumed an
.. advertisement on a second device within a threshold amount of time from
when the
advertisement slot associated with the advertisement ended. If the user has
consumed the
advertisement on the second device within the threshold amount of time, the
media guidance
application may present supplemental information to the user. Specifically,
the media
guidance application may search media asset consumption history associated
with the user for
an advertisement that the user consumed last. For example, the media guidance
application
may determine based on an associated time period during which the
advertisement was
consumed which advertisement the user consumed most recently (e.g., based on
comparison
with the first time when the user started using the first device). As a
specific example, the
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consumption history may store an indication that the user consumed an
advertisement with
identifier "Cola_ad_1" from 8:20pm to 8:21pm. If the current time is 8:22pm
and no
additional advertisements were consumed after "Cola_ad_1," then the media
guidance
application may determine it is the advertisement that the user consumed last.
100101 In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
advertisement that the user consumed last based on which advertisement was
consumed on a
second device that is closest to the current location of the first device.
Specifically, the media
guidance application may detect a device that is closest to the first device,
where the device is
one of a plurality of devices associated with the user. For example, the media
guidance
application may receive an indication that an identifier associated with the
user (e.g., a
parental control PIN and/or any other login that is specific to the user) has
been entered on a
second device. Based on receiving the indication that the identifier
associated with the user
has been entered on the second device, the media guidance application may
determine that
the second device is located closest to the first device that the user started
using at the first
time. Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application may
receive GPS
coordinates and/or an estimated distance from a wireless network hub (e.g., a
hotspot) based
on signal strength to determine a location of the first device and which other
devices are
nearby. In this way, the media guidance application may prevent the user from
receiving
supplemental information about advertisements he or she did not watch (e.g.,
if the user's
sister consumed an advertisement most recently on a television that is also
associated with the
user, the user may receive supplemental information about the advertisement
his sister
consumed which will likely not be of interest).
[0011] The media guidance application may determine a device identifier of the
device
closest to the first device. For example, the media guidance application may
retrieve an
identifier, which may be any combination of characters that uniquely
identifies the device
from other devices associated with the user (e.g., "Family Room STB"), of the
device
determine to be closest to the first device. The media guidance application
may retrieve,
using the device identifier for the device closest to the first device, device
media asset
consumption history associated with the user. For example, the media guidance
application
may filter the media asset consumption history (e.g., of media assets consumed
by the user on
multiple devices) based on the device each media asset was consumed on in
order to
determine the advertisement most recently consumed on the device determined to
be closest
to the user (e.g., media assets are grouped based on device identifiers where
the user
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consumed the media assets). The media guidance application may search the
device media
asset consumption history for the advertisement that the user consumed last.
Continuing with
the above example, the media guidance application may sort the advertisements
consumed by
the user on the device determined to be closest to the first device by time
and date. The
media guidance application may determine from the sorted device consumption
history which
advertisement that the user consumed last on the device closest to the first
device (e.g., based
on the time and date of a particular advertisement being closest to the
current time and date).
[0012] The media guidance application may retrieve, from the media asset
consumption
history associated with the user, a time period associated with the
advertisement that the user
consumed last. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve a
start value and/or
end value of the advertisement from the media asset consumption history. As a
specific
example, the media guidance application may retrieve two values from the media
asset
consumption history, indicating that from 8:21:20pm (hours:minutes:seconds) to
8:21:40pm
(hours:minutes:seconds) the user consumed the advertisement.
[0013] The media guidance application may search for an advertisement slot
associated
with the advertisement that the user consumed last. For example, the media
guidance
application may compare the time period of the advertisement that the user
consumed last
with an index of advertisement slots and advertisements that filled the slots.
The media
guidance application may retrieve metadata associated with the advertisement
(e.g., from a
media guidance data source or the media asset consumption history associated
with the user)
such as an identifier of the advertisement (e.g., "Budweiser_ad_1"), a source
from which the
user consumed the advertisement (e.g., "NBC"), and/or any other information
associated with
the advertisement that may enable the media guidance application to more
efficiently
determine the advertisement slot associated with the advertisement that the
user consumed
.. last.
[0014] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
advertisement slot associated with the advertisement that the user consumed
last from a
schedule data structure of advertisement slots (e.g., stored at a remote
server). Specifically,
the media guidance application may retrieve, from the media asset consumption
history
associated with the user, an identifier of a source associated with the
advertisement. For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve the identifier of the
source (e.g.,
"NBC") that aired the advertisement from a field of the media asset
consumption history
associated with the advertisement that the user most recently consumed. The
media guidance
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application may retrieve a schedule data structure for the source containing
the plurality of
advertisement slot time periods. The media guidance application may compare
the time
period associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last with each
of the
plurality of advertisement slot time periods stored in the schedule data
structure. For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve that a particular
advertisement slot was
scheduled on Monday, April 24, 2017 from 8:20pm to 8:23pm. Continuing with
this
example, the media guidance application may compare the retrieved time period
with the
time period associated with the advertisement to determine whether the
advertisement fits
within the time period associated with the advertisement slot. The media
guidance
.. application may determine, based on comparing the time period associated
with the
advertisement that the user consumed last with each of the plurality of
advertisement slot
time periods, that the time period associated with the advertisement that the
user consumed
last matches a stored advertisement slot time period. For example, if the
advertisement that
the user consumed last was presented on Monday, April 24, 2017 from 8:21pm to
8:22pm,
the media guidance application may determine that the advertisement is part of
an
advertisement slot scheduled for the same date from 8:20pm to 8:23pm. The
media guidance
application may retrieve, from a field of the schedule data structure
associated with the stored
advertisement slot time period, a corresponding identifier. For example, the
media guidance
application may retrieve an identifier of the advertisement slot, which may be
any
combination of characters that uniquely identifies the advertisement slot from
other
advertisement slots. The media guidance application may determine, based on
the
corresponding identifier, that the advertisement is associated with the
advertisement slot. For
example, the media guidance application may determine that the advertisement
is associated
with the advertisement slot identified by the retrieved identifier.
[0015] The media guidance application may retrieve a start time code and an
end time code
associated with the advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance
application may
retrieve an end time code (20:21:40:00) corresponding to (hour: minute :
second: frame)
when the advertisement time slot ended. Thus, the media guidance application
may retrieve
start and end time codes associated with the advertisement slot, indicating
that the
advertisement slot lasted from 8:21:00pm to 8:21:40pm.
[0016] The media guidance application may calculate a length of the
advertisement slot
based on a difference between the start time code and the end time code, and
an amount of
time starting from an endpoint of the advertisement slot to when the user
started using the
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first device. For example, the media guidance application may calculate and
store the length
of the advertisement slot by subtracting the end time code from the start time
code associated
with the advertisement slot. As a specific example, if the start time code is
(20:21:00:00) and
the end time code is (20:21:40:00), the media guidance application may
calculate that the
length of the advertisement slot is 40 seconds. For example, the media
guidance application
may calculate and store the amount of time by subtracting the first time from
the end time
code of the advertising slot. As a specific example, if the user started using
the first device at
(20:22:10:00) and the end time code is (20:21:40:00), then the media guidance
application
may calculate the amount of time as 30 seconds. In some embodiments, the end
time code of
the advertisement slot may not be the endpoint of the advertisement slot. For
example, the
media guidance application may add a small amount of time (e.g., ten seconds)
to account for
a transition element that leads back into the show provided as part of the
media asset by a
content source. In some embodiments, the frame may be included as part of the
length of the
advertisement, for example, the length of an advertisement may be 30 seconds
and ten
frames. In other embodiments, the frames may be converted to seconds based on
a frame rate
of the media asset, for example, ten frames at 20 frames per second is 0.5
seconds.
[0017] The media guidance application may compare the length of the
advertisement slot
with the amount of time starting from the endpoint of the advertisement slot
to when the user
started using the first device. For example, the media guidance application
may compare the
two calculated values to determine which is greater. In some embodiments the
media
guidance application may round the two values (e.g., to the nearest second)
for easier
comparison.
[0018] The media guidance application may determine, based on the comparing,
that the
user started using the first device within the amount of time from the
endpoint of the
advertisement slot that corresponds to a duration associated with the
advertisement slot. As a
specific example, if the amount of time from the endpoint of the advertisement
slot to when
the user began using the first device was calculated as 30 seconds and the
length of the
advertisement slot is 40 seconds, then the media guidance application may
determine that the
user started using the first device within the amount of time from the
endpoint of the
advertisement slot. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
determine
that the user started using the first device within the amount of time if the
amount of time is
within a tolerance factor of the duration. The tolerance factor may be
adjusted based on user
preferences or interaction history (e.g., stored in a profile associated with
the user). For
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example, if the user typically leaves his or her mobile phone in another room
when
consuming media assets, the user may desire a longer period of time to trigger
supplemental
information related to advertisements and the media guidance application may
store this
preference in a profile associated with the user.
[0019] Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application may
adjust the length
of the advertisement slot and/or the amount of time starting from the endpoint
of the
advertisement slot to when the user started using the first device based on
user interactions
after the end of the advertisement slot. For example, if the media guidance
application
determines that the user has paused the media asset within the length of the
advertisement
slot from the end of the advertisement slot, it may indicate that the user is
interested in
supplemental information associated with the advertisement that the user
consumed last and
the amount of time may be decreased (or tied to the playback position in the
media asset as
opposed to absolute time). Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance
application may
receive an indication that the user changed channels after the advertisement
slot concluded,
which may indicate that the user is not interested in obtaining supplemental
information
related to the advertisement. Accordingly, the amount of time starting from
the endpoint of
the advertisement slot to when the user started using the first device may be
increased.
[0020] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may adjust the
amount of
time from the endpoint of the advertisement slot to when the user started
using the first
device based on the user pausing the media asset on the second device.
Specifically, the
media guidance application may receive, from the second device, an indication
that a media
asset currently played on the second device has been paused for a second
duration. For
example, the media guidance application may receive an indication from the
second device
that the user has paused the media asset being consumed on the second device
and a time that
the second device received the pause request from the user. The media guidance
application
may determine whether the pause was related to the advertisement slot based on
the time
when it was received. Specifically, the media guidance application may
determine, based on
the received indication, that a start of the second duration is both (1) after
the end of the
advertisement and (2) before the amount of time from the endpoint of the
advertisement slot
that corresponds to the first duration. For example, the media guidance
application may
compare a time code associated with the time that the media asset was paused
(e.g., 8:22pm)
with the endpoint of the advertisement slot (e.g., 8:20pm) to determine
whether the pause
happened after the advertisement slot ended. The media guidance application
may also
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compare the time after the endpoint of the advertisement slot that corresponds
to the first
duration with the time that the media asset was paused. For example, the media
guidance
application may determine whether the media asset was paused after the
endpoint of the
advertisement, but before a duration (e.g., one minute) corresponding to the
length of the
advertisement slot. The media guidance application, in response to determining
that the start
of the second duration is both (1) after the end of the advertisement and (2)
before the amount
of time from the endpoint of the advertisement slot that corresponds to the
first duration, may
decrease the amount of time starting from the endpoint of the advertisement
slot to when the
user started using the first device by the second duration. For example, if
the media guidance
application determines that the media asset on the second device was paused
after the end of
the advertisement slot, but before a threshold amount of time after the
endpoint of the
advertisement slot, the media guidance application may determine there is a
high likelihood
that the user paused the media asset to obtain supplemental information
associated with the
advertisement slot. Continuing with this example, the media guidance
application may
accordingly decrease the amount of time starting from the endpoint by the
amount of time
that the media asset was paused to ensure that the threshold time does not
pass while the
media asset is paused.
[0021] The media guidance application may, in response to determining that the
user
started using the first device within the amount of time from the endpoint of
the
advertisement slot that is equal to the duration associated with the
advertisement slot, retrieve
supplemental information associated with one or more advertisements associated
with the
advertisement slot and generate the supplemental information for display. For
example, the
media guidance application may determine that since the user began using the
first device
within the amount of time from the end of the advertisement slot that is
shorter than the
length of the advertisement slot itself, supplemental information related to
an advertisement
should be presented to the user. Specifically, the media guidance application
may retrieve
supplemental information for one or more advertisements associated with the
advertisement
slot. For example, the media guidance application may determine that the
advertisement that
the user consumed most recently (e.g., "Budweiser_ad_1") matches an identifier
that is
associated with supplemental information. The media guidance application may
retrieve
supplemental information associated with the stored identifier. For example,
the media
guidance application may retrieve a pointer to a location in memory where the
supplemental
information is located and retrieve the supplemental information from that
location.
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100221 In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
location
of the second device in order to target supplemental information to the user
that is related to
an advertisement of the advertisement slot. Specifically, the media guidance
application may
retrieve a location of the second device from a profile associated with the
user, where the
location is from a plurality of locations that indicate an area in a home. For
example, the
media guidance application may retrieve the profile which includes identifiers
of devices
associated with the user each with at least one corresponding indication of a
location of the
device (e.g., "bedroom"). Continuing with this example, the media guidance
application may
retrieve a location from a field associated with the second device in the
profile. In some
embodiments, the locations may be locations in any building (e.g., an airport
or office
building) such that a user waiting for a flight at an airport consuming a
television monitor
may be able to obtain supplemental information related to an advertisement
that he or she has
consumed. The media guidance application may retrieve a plurality of
identifiers of
supplemental information associated with the one or more advertisements, where
each of the
plurality of identifiers is associated with one or more locations of the
plurality of locations.
For example, the media guidance application may retrieve identifiers of
locations of each of a
plurality of supplemental information.
[0023] The media guidance application may compare the location of the second
device with
each location associated with one of the retrieved plurality of identifiers of
supplemental
information. For example, the media guidance application may iteratively
compare the
location of the second device retrieved from the profile (e.g., "bedroom")
with locations
associated with supplemental information that is related to an advertisement
of the
advertisement slot. As a specific example, the media guidance application may
compare the
location of the second device, "bedroom," with the location associated with
supplemental
information related to a television discount that is associated with the
locations "bedroom"
and "living room" because user's most commonly use televisions in those rooms.
The media
guidance application may determine, based on comparing the location of the
second device
with each location associated with one of the retrieved plurality of
identifiers of supplemental
information, that the location matches a stored location. For example, the
media guidance
application may determine that all, or a threshold amount or percentage, of
characters
describing the location of the second device match characters describing the
location
associated with a particular supplemental information and thus the two
locations match. The
media guidance application may retrieve, from a field associated with the
stored location,
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corresponding supplemental information related to the location of the second
device. For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve a pointer to a location
in storage that
contains data for presenting a television discount that is associated with the
location of the
second device (e.g., "bedroom"). The media guidance application may retrieve
the
supplemental information from the location in storage.
[0024] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine which
supplemental information associated with advertisements in the advertisement
slot to display
based on user preferences. Specifically, the media guidance application may
determine that a
plurality of advertisements is associated with the advertisement slot. For
example, the media
guidance application may, based on a retrieved identifier associated with the
advertisement
slot that contains the advertisement that the user most recently consumed,
query a database
(e.g., either local in storage or at a remote server) to determine which, if
any, other
advertisements were presented during the advertisement slot. The media
guidance
application may retrieve, for each advertisement of the plurality of
advertisements, a product
type associated with the advertisement. For example, the media guidance
application may
retrieve, from a field of the database associated with each advertisement in
the advertisement
slot, an identifier of a product type. For example, the product type may be
any combination
of characters (e.g., a string) and describe a general category of the product
that was advertised
(e.g., such as "beer" or "organic food"). The media guidance application may
compare each
retrieved product type with user preferences stored in a profile associated
with the user. For
example, the media guidance application may compare the characters of each
user preference
in the profile associated with a product type with each product type
associated with an
advertisement in the advertisement slot. The user preferences may be explicit
indications of
products that the user enjoys (e.g., the user has indicated that they "love"
the product type
"beer"). Alternatively or additionally, the user preferences may be implicit
and based on user
purchasing history. For example, if the user often buys beer, they likely
enjoy and have a
preference for the product type, "beer".
[0025] The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing each
retrieved
product type with the user preferences, that a first user preference matches
the product type
associated with a first advertisement of the plurality of advertisements
(e.g., one of the
advertisements in the advertisement slot). For example, based on the
characters, "beer" of a
user preference matching the characters "beer" associated with a product type
of a particular
advertisement in the advertisement slot, the media guidance application may
determine that
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the user has a preference for the particular advertisement. The media guidance
application
may, in response to determining that the first user preference matches the
product type
associated with the first advertisement, retrieve supplemental information
associated with the
first advertisement. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve
a pointer to a
location in storage that contains supplemental information that is associated
with the
advertisement that is for the product type that matches the user preferences.
The media
guidance application may retrieve the supplemental information from the
location in storage.
[0026] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate a
display
enabling the user to select an advertisement of interest that aired during the
advertisement slot
in order to obtain appropriate supplemental information. Specifically, the
media guidance
application may determine that a plurality of advertisements is associated
with the
advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance application may, based on
a retrieved
identifier associated with the advertisement slot that contains the
advertisement that the user
most recently consumed, query a database to determine which, if any, other
advertisements
.. were presented during the advertisement slot. The media guidance
application may generate
for display a selectable indicator associated with each advertisement of the
plurality of
advertisements. For example, the media guidance application may generate for
display text,
graphics, or a combination as the indicator that describes each advertisement.
The indicators
may be displayed in a grid or a list and may be selectable, such that a user
is able to select an
.. indicator that he or she is interested in receiving supplemental
information for. As a specific
example, the indicators may be screenshots from each advertisement from the
advertisement
slot, or a graphic showing a product from each advertisement. The media
guidance
application may receive a user selection of a first selectable indicator
associated with a first
advertisement of the plurality of advertisements. For example, the media
guidance
.. application may receive a user selection of an indicator via a user input
interface such as a
touchscreen. The media guidance application may, in response to receiving the
user selection
of the first selectable indicator, retrieve supplemental information
associated with the first
advertisement.
[0027] The media guidance application may generate for display the
supplemental
information. The supplemental information may be text, graphics, video, or any
other visual
depiction of information related to the advertisement. As another example, the
supplemental
information may be related to a promotion, sale, coupon, discount, newly
available product,
or any other information the advertiser wishes to inform the user about to
entice him or her to
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purchase a good or a service. As another example, the media guidance
application may
generate the supplemental information automatically upon detecting that the
user has started
using the first device (e.g., as an overlay or popup). The media guidance
application may,
alternatively or additionally, prompt the user prior to presenting the
supplemental
information. In response to receiving a user selection to display the
supplemental
information, the media guidance application may generate the retrieved
supplemental
information for display.
[0028] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may configure an
application
on the first device to generate for display the retrieved supplemental
information when the
application is accessed. Specifically, the media guidance application may
retrieve the
supplemental information in response to the user starting to use the first
device, but generate
for display that supplemental information responsive to another user input
(e.g., launching the
application). For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information in response to the user unlocking the first device and may use the
information to
configure a homepage or a start page of a web browser application. Continuing
with this
example, when the user selects the web browser application with another user
input, the user
is presented with the supplemental information (e.g., the browser loads the
start page or the
homepage). It should be noted that in some embodiments, if the user doesn't
access the
application within a threshold amount of time (e.g., the threshold discussed
above), the media
guidance application may reconfigure the application to not present the
supplemental
information.
[0029] In some embodiments, the selection of a web browser application or
other
application may itself be the indication that the user has started using the
first device.
Specifically, upon receiving a selection of an application by the user, the
media guidance
application may retrieve supplemental information related to an advertisement
that a user
recently consumed and configure the application to generate the supplemental
information for
display. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information in response to the user selecting a web browser application on the
first device
and may use the information to configure a homepage or a start page of the web
browser
application. Continuing with this example, the web browser application may
present the
supplemental information in a banner advertisement on a start page or the
homepage of the
web browser application.
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[0030] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine on
which
device to generate for display supplemental information based on user
preferences.
Specifically, the media guidance application may determine a type of the
supplemental
information. For example, the type may be a movie, text article, graphic(s) or
any other
category of information that can be presented to a user. The media guidance
application may
determine the type of a particular retrieved supplemental information from a
stored string in a
header of the retrieved supplemental information identifying the type (e.g.,
type = `movie').
The media guidance application may compare the type of the supplemental
information with
user preferences stored in a profile associated with the user, where the user
preferences
identify devices to display types of supplemental information on. For example,
the media
guidance application may retrieve preferences of the user for different types
of supplemental
information and determine whether a retrieved preference matches the type of
the presently
retrieved supplemental information. The media guidance application may
determine, based
on comparing the type of the supplemental information with the user
preferences, that the
type of the supplemental information matches a first stored user preference
associated with
displaying supplemental information on the second device. For example, the
media guidance
application may determine that the type of the supplemental information,
"movie," matches a
user preference for displaying a "movie" on the second device (as opposed to
on the first
device, which may be more difficult for the user to see the supplemental
information due to a
smaller display size). The media guidance application may, in response to
determining that
the type of the supplemental information matches the first stored user
preference, transmit an
instruction to the second device to display the supplemental information. For
example, the
media guidance application may transmit the supplemental information and an
instruction to
the second device to generate the supplemental information for display.
[0031] In some aspects, the media guidance application may be configured to
present
supplemental information that is related to an advertisement consumed on a
device if the user
begins using a different device within a threshold time period of the end an
advertisement
based on the average amount of time users have historically taken to access
supplemental
information manually (e.g., by typing in a website URL after consuming an
advertisement).
Specifically, the media guidance application may detect that a user has
started using a first
device at a first time. For example, at the first time, the media guidance
application may
analyze the user's recent interactions with the first device to determine
whether the user has
just started using the device after a period of not using the device.
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[0032] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect that the
user has
started using the first device based on whether the first device has recently
received a user
input prior to the first time. Specifically, the media guidance application
may receive, at the
first device, a user input at the first time. For example, the media guidance
application may
detect that the user has input a command (e.g., a user has unlocked the screen
of the first
device) at the first time (e.g., 8:22pm). To determine whether the user was
already using the
first device or whether the user has started using the first device at the
first time, the media
guidance application may retrieve a second time corresponding to a most recent
user input
received prior to the first input.
[0033] The media guidance application, in order to determine whether the
previous user
input indicates that the user started to use the first device at the first
time or was already using
the first device, compares the first time with the second time that the
previous user input was
received. Specifically, the media guidance application may determine that a
difference
between the first time and the second time is greater than a threshold
difference. For
example, if the user sent an email ten seconds prior to the first time and the
threshold is five
minutes, then the media guidance application may determine that since the
previously
received user input was close in time to the first time it likely does not
indicate the user is
interested in the advertisement based on the threshold being greater than the
calculated
difference. The media guidance application may, in response to determining
that the
difference is greater than the threshold difference, determine that the user
has started using
the device. For example, if the previous user input was received 12 minutes
from the user
input at the first time and the threshold is five minutes, the media guidance
application may
determine that the user had stopped using the device and has now started using
the device,
which may be due to the user's interest in the advertisement.
[0034] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that
the
difference between the first time and the second time is greater than the
threshold difference
based on the average time between user inputs. Specifically, the media
guidance application
may retrieve a log of recent user inputs on the first device. For example, as
discussed above,
the media guidance application may retrieve a log of recent user inputs from
storage of the
first device. The media guidance application may determine, based on the log
of recent user
inputs, an average time between user inputs on the first device. For example,
the media
guidance application may iteratively determine differences between every user
input and a
next most recent user input in the log, or a subset within a threshold
timeframe (e.g., the last
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two hours). As a specific example, if user inputs were received at 8:1 Opm,
8:20pm, and
8:22pm, the media guidance application may calculate the differences as two
minutes and ten
minutes, respectively. The media guidance application may average the
differences by
dividing the total number of differences by the sum of the differences.
Continuing with the
previous example, if two minutes and ten minutes were calculated as the
differences, then the
average difference calculated by the media guidance application may be six
minutes.
[0035] The media guidance application may compare the difference between the
most
recent user input and the second most recent user input with the average
amount of time
between user inputs at the first device. Specifically, the media guidance
application may
compare the average time between user inputs with the difference between the
first time and
the second time. For example, the media guidance application may compare the
average time
(e.g., two minutes) between user inputs with the time between the two most
recent user inputs
(e.g., ten minutes) to determine which value is greater. The media guidance
application may
determine, based on comparing the average time between user inputs with the
difference, that
the average time between user inputs is less than the difference. For example,
the media
guidance application may determine that since the average time between user
inputs is two
minutes and the time between the two most recent user inputs (e.g., at the
first time and the
second time) is ten minutes, the user has started using the first device at
the first time. The
media guidance application may, based on determining that the average time
between user
inputs is less than the difference, determine that the difference between the
first time and the
second time is greater than the threshold difference. For example, since the
average time
between user inputs is less than the difference, the media guidance
application may determine
that the user started using the first device at the first time, and has not
been using the first
device.
[0036] The media guidance application may, based on detecting that the user
has started
using the first device at the first time, determine whether the user has
consumed an
advertisement on a second device within a threshold amount of time from when
the
advertisement ended. If the user has consumed the advertisement on the second
device
within the threshold amount of time, the media guidance application may
present
supplemental information to the user. Specifically, the media guidance
application may
search media asset consumption history associated with the user for an
advertisement that the
user consumed last. For example, the media guidance application may determine
based on an
associated time period during which the advertisement was consumed which
advertisement
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the user consumed most recently (e.g., based on comparison with the first time
when the user
started using the first device). As a specific example, the consumption
history may store an
indication that the user consumed an advertisement with identifier "Cola_ad_1"
from 8:20pm
to 8:21pm. If the current time is 8:22pm and no additional advertisements were
consumed
after "Cola_ad_1," then the media guidance application may determine it is the
advertisement
that the user consumed last.
[0037] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
advertisement that the user consumed last based on which advertisement was
consumed on a
second device that is closest to the current location of the first device.
Specifically, the media
guidance application may detect a device that is closest to the first device,
where the device is
one of a plurality of devices associated with the user. For example, the media
guidance
application may receive an indication that an identifier associated with the
user (e.g., a
parental control PIN and/or any other login that is specific to the user) has
been entered on a
second device. Based on receiving the indication that the identifier
associated with the user
has been entered on the second device, the media guidance application may
determine that
the second device is located closest to the first device that the user started
using at the first
time. Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application may
receive GPS
coordinates and/or an estimated distance from a wireless network hub (e.g., a
hotspot) based
on signal strength to determine a location of the first device and which other
devices are
nearby. In this way, the media guidance application may prevent the user from
receiving
supplemental information about advertisements he or she did not watch (e.g.,
if the user's
sister consumed an advertisement most recently on a television that is also
associated with the
user, the user may receive supplemental information about the advertisement
his sister
consumed which will likely not be of interest).
[0038] The media guidance application may determine a device identifier of the
device
closest to the first device. For example, the media guidance application may
retrieve an
identifier, which may be any combination of characters that uniquely
identifies the device
from other devices associated with the user (e.g., "Family Room STB"), of the
device
determine to be closest to the first device. The media guidance application
may retrieve,
using the device identifier for the device closest to the first device, device
media asset
consumption history associated with the user. For example, the media guidance
application
may filter the media asset consumption history (e.g., of media assets consumed
by the user on
multiple devices) based on the device each media asset was consumed on in
order to
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determine the advertisement most recently consumed on the device determined to
be closest
to the user (e.g., media assets are grouped based on device identifiers where
the user
consumed the media assets). The media guidance application may search the
device media
asset consumption history for the advertisement that the user consumed last.
Continuing with
the above example, the media guidance application may sort the advertisements
consumed by
the user on the device determined to be closest to the first device by time
and date. The
media guidance application may determine from the sorted device consumption
history which
advertisement that the user consumed last on the device closest to the first
device (e.g., based
on the time and date of a particular advertisement being closest to the
current time and date).
[0039] The media guidance application may retrieve metadata associated with
the
advertisement. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve
metadata
associated with an advertisement locally from storage or a remote server. The
metadata may
be any data related to the advertisement that describes content associated
with the
advertisement. For example, if the advertisement is for a new book, the
metadata may
include the author of the article, genre (e.g., Non-fiction), and/or
publisher.
[0040] The media guidance application may determine, based on the metadata
associated
with the advertisement, that the advertisement is part of a group of similar
advertisements.
For example, the media guidance application may compare the metadata
associated with the
advertisement with metadata associated with each group of similar
advertisements stored in
the advertising database to determine which group of similar advertisements
the
advertisement belongs to. As a specific example, if the advertisement is for a
brand of beer,
the media guidance application may determine that it belongs to a group of
similar
advertisements for "beer."
[0041] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine a
group of
similar advertisements that the advertisement that the user consumed last is
part of by
comparing metadata. Specifically, the media guidance application may retrieve
metadata
associated with a plurality of groups of similar advertisements, where each
group of similar
advertisements includes advertisements that share one or more characteristics.
For example,
the media guidance application may retrieve identifiers of an actor, product
type, company
name, or any other suitable metadata that is used to characterize a group of
similar
advertisements, for each group of similar advertisements. As a specific
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve metadata "Tom Hanks" for a particular group
of similar
advertisements that all include the actor Tom Hanks. The media guidance
application may
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compare the metadata associated with the advertisement with the metadata
associated with
each of the plurality of groups of similar advertisements. For example, the
media guidance
application may compare each retrieved piece of metadata associated with the
advertisement
that the user consumed last with the metadata associated with each group of
similar
advertisements by comparing the characters of the metadata. For example, the
media
guidance application may compare characters "Tom Hanks," who is an actor
associated with
the advertisement that the user consumed last, with characters "Tom Cruise,"
an actor
associated with a particular group of similar advertisements.
[0042] The media guidance application may, based on comparing the metadata
associated
with the advertisement with the metadata associated with one of the plurality
of groups of
similar advertisements, determine that the advertisement is part of the group
of similar
advertisements. For example, the media guidance application may determine a
match
between metadata of the advertisement that the user consumed last and the
metadata of the
group of similar advertisements if every character matches between a
particular piece of
metadata (e.g., for an actor). In some embodiments, all the metadata
associated with the
advertisement that the user consumed last must match the metadata of the group
of similar
advertisements for a match to be determined. In some embodiments, if a
threshold amount of
the metadata matches, a match may be determined. If the media guidance
application
determines that the metadata matches between the advertisement that the user
consumed last
.. and a particular group of similar advertisements, the media guidance
application may
determine that the advertisement that the user consumed last is part of the
group of similar
advertisements.
[0043] The media guidance application may retrieve interaction histories for a
plurality of
users who consumed advertisements in the group of similar advertisements. For
example, the
media guidance application may retrieve multiple interaction histories where
each interaction
history indicates that the associated user consumed an advertisement of the
group of similar
advertisements. As a specific example, the interaction history may aggregate
times and
actions taken by a specific user from different sources, for example, a web
browsing history
and a television viewing history. In this way, the media guidance application
may use the
interaction history to determine an amount of time that a user took between
consuming an
advertisement and accessing supplemental information manually (e.g., by typing
in the URL
of a particular webpage into a web browser at a given time), as discussed
further below.
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[0044] The media guidance application may determine which interaction
histories to
retrieve based on comparing identifiers of similar advertisements from the
group of similar
advertisements with identifiers stored in the interaction histories. For
example, one of the
interaction histories may contain an identifier of an advertisement of the
group of
advertisements that was consumed (e.g., "Cola_ad_1") from a particular source
(e.g., "CW")
at a particular time (e.g., 8-8:30pm on 1/1/2017). Continuing with this
example, the media
guidance application may determine to retrieve the interaction history based
on the
interaction history including the identifier of the advertisement of the group
of
advertisements. The media guidance application may retrieve all, or a subset
of, interaction
histories where a user has consumed an advertisement that is part of the group
of similar
advertisements. In some embodiments, the interaction history is anonymous with
no
identifying information associated with the user stored in the interaction
history. In other
embodiments, as discussed below, the interaction history includes a
demographic profile,
which enables the media guidance application to select interaction histories
of users that are
similar to the user for a potentially more accurate determination of the
threshold amount of
time.
[0045] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a
portion of the
available interaction histories of users based on whether demographic profiles
of the users
associated with the interaction histories match a demographic profile of the
user.
Specifically, the media guidance application may determine, based on data
stored in a user
profile of the user, a demographic profile of the user. For example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve a demographic profile associated with the user stored
in local
storage or at a remote server. The demographic profile may contain information
regarding
the age, ethnicity, location, gender, or any other general feature of the user
that allows the full
identity of the user to remain anonymous. The media guidance application may
retrieve
demographic profiles associated with users who consumed advertisements in the
group of
similar advertisements. For example, the media guidance application may
retrieve
demographic profiles from the interaction histories (e.g., from one or more
fields in the
interaction history) or from a separate location.
[0046] The media guidance application may compare the demographic profile of
the user
with a demographic profile corresponding to each user of the users who
consumed
advertisements in the group of similar advertisements. For example, the media
guidance
application may compare each characteristic of the demographic profile of the
user (e.g., age)
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with the corresponding characteristic (e.g., age) of each demographic profile
associated with
one of the users who consumed advertisements in the group of similar
advertisements. The
media guidance application may, based on comparing the demographic profile of
the user
with the demographic profile corresponding to each user who consumed
advertisements in
the group of similar advertisements, determine that a portion of demographic
profiles
corresponding to the plurality of users matches the demographic profile of the
user. For
example, the media guidance application may determine that the demographic
profile of the
user matches a demographic profile of one of the users that consumed
advertisements of the
group of similar advertisements if every characteristic in both profiles
match. As another
example, the media guidance application may determine that the demographic
profile of the
user matches a demographic profile of one of the users that consumed
advertisements of the
group of similar advertisements if a threshold amount of characteristics in
both profiles match
(e.g., five out often).
[0047] The media guidance application may retrieve, based on determining that
the portion
of demographic profiles corresponding to the plurality of users matches the
demographic
profile of the user, interaction histories for the plurality of users. For
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve the interaction history associated with each
user where the
demographic profile associated with the interaction history matches the
demographic profile
of the user. In this way, the media guidance application may calculate the
threshold amount
of time that it takes users to access supplemental information by filtering
out users that are
not similar to the user (e.g., if the user is young, the longer amount of time
an older individual
takes to access supplemental information related to an advertisement would
skew the
threshold).
[0048] The media guidance application may determine, from the interaction
histories,
lengths of time that other users previously took to access supplemental
information associated
with an advertisement after consuming the advertisement. Specifically, the
media guidance
application may determine, based on the retrieved interaction histories, a
plurality of
durations, where each duration of the plurality of durations is a length of
time between a time
when a user of the plurality of users finished consuming one of the
advertisements in the
group to when the user of the plurality of users accessed corresponding
supplemental
information. For example, the media guidance application may search each
retrieved
interaction history for an identifier of a similar advertisement from the
group of similar
advertisements. The media guidance application may determine whether the user
accessed
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supplemental information associated with the similar advertisement. For
example, the media
guidance application may determine that an advertisement for an above ground
pool was
consumed by the user and ended at 8:20pm on a particular day and that at
8:22pm (two
minutes later) on the same day the user visited www.abovegroundpools .com.
Continuing
with this example, the media guidance application may determine that the user
accessed
supplemental information two minutes after consuming the advertisement based
on retrieving
the values from the interaction history.
[0049] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
plurality
of durations by calculating a length of time between the time when each user
of the plurality
of users finished consuming one of the advertisements and when the user
started consuming
supplemental information. Specifically, the media guidance application may
retrieve an end
time when each user of the plurality of users finished consuming one of the
advertisements in
the group of advertisements from each retrieved interaction history. For
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve from a field of the interaction history for
a given user that
the user consumed an advertisement that is part of the group of similar
advertisements at
8:20pm on a particular day. Continuing with the previous example, the media
guidance
application may determine that the advertisement is part of the group of
similar
advertisements based on comparing a stored identifier of the advertisement
with identifiers
associated with advertisements of the group of similar advertisements. The
media guidance
application may retrieve a start time from each retrieved interaction history
when
supplemental information associated with the advertisement in the group of
similar
advertisements was accessed by each user. For example, when the media guidance
application determines a time that the user consumed an advertisement of the
group of similar
advertisements in the interaction history, the media guidance application may
search the
interaction history for later times when the user may have accessed
supplemental
information. For example, if the media guidance application determines that a
particular
piece of supplemental information is related to the advertisement, the media
guidance
application may retrieve from a field of the interaction history for the user
that the user
accessed supplemental information at a given time, such as 8:22pm.
[0050] The media guidance application may calculate the length of time between
the time
when the user of the plurality of users finished consuming one of the
advertisements in the
group to when the user of the plurality of users accessed the corresponding
supplemental
information based on the start time and the end time from each retrieved
interaction history.
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For example, the media guidance application may determine a difference between
the two
values (e.g., the difference between 8:20pm and 8:22pm is two minutes) as the
length of time
after the end of the advertisement that the user of the plurality of users
accessed supplemental
information. The media guidance application may determine the plurality of
durations based
on the calculated length of time from each retrieved interaction history. For
example, the
media guidance application may, for each interaction history where a user did
consume an
advertisement of the group of similar advertisements and later consumed
supplemental
information associated with the advertisement, store the length of time in a
list or other
suitable data structure. The media guidance application may optionally modify
the value
stored based on how closely the demographic profile of the user associated
with the retrieved
interaction history matches the demographic profile of the user (e.g., weight
the values added
to the list). For example, the media guidance application may store a value
for a weight with
each duration and utilize weighted averaging to calculate the threshold amount
of time. As a
specific example, a higher value for the weight way be stored if more
characteristics of a
particular demographic profile match the demographic profile of the user.
[0051] The media guidance application may calculate a threshold amount of time
associated with the advertisement based on the plurality of durations. For
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve the durations calculated based on the
interaction histories
and average the durations. As a specific example, if the durations are one,
two, and three
minutes, the media guidance application may calculate two minutes as the
threshold amount
of time. The media guidance application may optionally weight particular
durations higher
than others, based on a type of supplemental information accessed. For
example, the media
guidance application may determine that a user who accesses a website
associated with a
company whose product was featured in an advertisement should be weighted more
highly
than if the user accessed the website associated with a competitor company
selling a similar
product.
[0052] The media guidance application may calculate an amount of time starting
from an
endpoint of the advertisement to when the user started using the first device.
For example,
the media guidance application may calculate and store the amount of time by
subtracting the
first time from an end time code of the advertisement. As a specific example,
if the user
started using the first device at (20:22:10) and the end time code is
(20:21:40), then the media
guidance application may calculate the amount of time as 30 seconds. In some
embodiments,
the end time code of the advertisement may not be the endpoint of the
advertisement. For
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example, the media guidance application may add a small amount of time (e.g.,
ten seconds)
to account for a transition element that leads back into the media asset
provided as part of the
media asset by a content source.
[0053] The media guidance application may compare the threshold amount of time
with the
amount of time starting from the endpoint of the advertisement to when the
user started using
the first device. For example, the media guidance application may compare the
two
calculated values to determine which is greater. In some embodiments the media
guidance
application may round the two values (e.g., to the nearest second) for easier
comparison.
[0054] The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing the
threshold
amount of time with the amount of time starting from the endpoint of the
advertisement to
when the user started using the first device, that the user started using the
first device within
the threshold amount of time from the endpoint of the advertisement. For
example, if the
amount of time from the endpoint of the advertisement to when the user began
using the first
device was calculated as 30 seconds and the threshold amount of time was
calculated to be 40
seconds based on the interaction histories of users that consumed similar
advertisements as
described above, then the media guidance application may determine that the
user started
using the first device within the amount of time from the endpoint of the
advertisement slot.
In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that the
user started
using the first device within the amount of time if the amount of time is
within a tolerance
factor of the duration. For example, the user may be slow to start using a
mobile phone after
the conclusion of the advertisement if he or she is interested in an
advertisement (e.g.,
because the user always keeps their mobile phone in a different room when
watching
television) and may want the threshold time to be increased.
[0055] The media guidance application may, in response to determining that the
user
started using the first device within the threshold amount of time from the
endpoint of the
advertisement, retrieve supplemental information associated with the
advertisement that the
user consumed last and generate the supplemental information for display. For
example, the
media guidance application may determine that since the user began using the
first device
within the calculated threshold amount of time from the end of the
advertisement,
supplemental information related to the advertisement should be presented to
the user.
Specifically, the media guidance application may retrieve supplemental
information for the
advertisement that the user consumed last. For example, the media guidance
application may
determine that the advertisement that the user consumed most recently (e.g.,
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"Budweiser_ad_1") matches an identifier associated with supplemental
information. The
media guidance application may retrieve supplemental information associated
with the stored
identifier.
[0056] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
location
of the second device in order to target supplemental information to the user
that is related to
an advertisement that the user consumed last. Specifically, the media guidance
application
may retrieve a location of the second device from a profile associated with
the user, where
the location is from a plurality of locations that indicate an area in a home.
For example, the
media guidance application may retrieve the profile which includes identifiers
of devices
associated with the user each with at least one corresponding indication of a
location of the
device (e.g., "bedroom"). Continuing with this example, the media guidance
application may
retrieve a location corresponding to the second device from a field associated
with the second
device in the profile. The locations may, alternatively or additionally, be
locations in any
building (e.g., an airport or office building) such that a user waiting for a
flight at an airport
consuming a television monitor may be able to obtain supplemental information
related to an
advertisement that he or she has consumed. The media guidance application may
retrieve a
plurality of identifiers of supplemental information associated with the one
or more
advertisements, where each of the plurality of identifiers is associated with
one or more
locations of the plurality of locations. For example, the media guidance
application may
retrieve identifiers of locations of each of a plurality of supplemental
information.
[0057] The media guidance application may compare the location of the second
device with
each location associated with one of the retrieved plurality of identifiers of
supplemental
information. For example, the media guidance application may iteratively
compare the
location of the second device retrieved from the profile (e.g., "bedroom")
with locations
associated with supplemental information that is related to an advertisement
of the
advertisement. As a specific example, the media guidance application may
compare the
location of the second device, "bedroom," to the location associated with
supplemental
information related to a television discount that is associated with the
locations "bedroom"
and "living room". The media guidance application may determine, based on
comparing the
location of the second device with each location associated with one of the
retrieved plurality
of identifiers of supplemental information, that the location matches a stored
location. For
example, the media guidance application may determine that all, or a threshold
amount or
percentage, of characters describing the location of the second device match
characters
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describing the location associated with a particular supplemental information
and thus the
two locations match. The media guidance application may retrieve, from a field
associated
with the stored location, corresponding supplemental information related to
the location of
the second device. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve a
pointer to a
location in storage that contains the supplemental information that is
associated with the
location of the second device. The media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information from the location in storage.
[0058] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may select
supplemental
information associated with an advertisement in the group of advertisements if
there is not
supplemental information available for the advertisement most recently
consumed by the
user. Specifically, the media guidance application may determine that no
supplemental
information is associated with the advertisement. For example, the media
guidance
application may compare an identifier of the advertisement that was most
recently consumed
by the user with a plurality of identifiers associated with supplemental
information in a
database (e.g., stored locally in storage or at a remote server) and determine
that none of the
supplemental information in the database is associated with the advertisement.
The media
guidance application may compare the metadata associated with the
advertisement with
metadata associated with each advertisement in the group of similar
advertisements. For
example, the media guidance application may compare each piece of metadata
associated
with the advertisement that the user consumed last with the metadata
associated with each
advertisement in the group of similar advertisements by comparing the
characters of the
metadata. As a specific example, the media guidance application may compare
characters
"Tom Hanks," who is an actor associated with the advertisement that the user
consumed last,
with characters "Tom Cruise," an actor associated with another advertisement
in the group of
similar advertisements.
[0059] The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing the
metadata
associated with the advertisement with metadata associated with each
advertisement in the
group of similar advertisements, that the metadata associated with the
advertisement matches
the metadata associated with a first similar advertisement. For example, the
media guidance
application may determine a match between metadata of the advertisement that
the user
consumed last and the metadata of a different advertisement in the group of
similar
advertisements if every character matches between a particular piece of
metadata (e.g., for an
actor). In some embodiments, all the metadata associated with the
advertisement that the user
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consumed last must match the metadata of the different advertisement for a
match to be
determined. In some embodiments, if a threshold amount of the metadata
matches, a match
may be determined. The media guidance application may, in response to
determining that the
metadata associated with the advertisement matches the metadata associated
with a first
similar advertisement, retrieve supplemental information associated with the
first similar
advertisement in the group of similar advertisements. For example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve the supplemental information associated with the
first similar
advertisement from storage or a remote server.
[0060] The media guidance application may generate for display the
supplemental
information. The supplemental information may be text, graphics, video, or any
other visual
depiction of information related to the advertisement. As another example, the
supplemental
information may be related to a promotion, sale, coupon, discount, newly
available product,
or any other information the advertiser wishes to inform the user about to
entice him or her to
purchase a good or service. As another example, the media guidance application
may
generate the supplemental information automatically upon detecting that the
user has started
using the first device (e.g., as an overlay or popup). The media guidance
application may,
alternatively or additionally, prompt the user prior to presenting the
supplemental
information. In response to receiving a user selection to display the
supplemental
information, the media guidance application may generate the retrieved
supplemental
information for display.
[0061] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may configure an
application
on the first device to generate for display the retrieved supplemental
information when the
application is accessed. Specifically, the media guidance application may
retrieve the
supplemental information in response to the user starting to use the first
device, but generate
for display that supplemental information responsive to another user input
(e.g., launching the
application). For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information in response to the user unlocking the first device and may use the
information to
configure a homepage or a start page of a web browser application. Continuing
with this
example, when the user selects the web browser application with another user
input, the user
is presented with the supplemental information (e.g., the browser loads the
start page or the
homepage). It should be noted that in some embodiments, if the user doesn't
access the
application within a threshold amount of time (e.g., the threshold discussed
above), the media
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guidance application may reconfigure the application to not present the
supplemental
information.
[0062] In some embodiments, the selection of a web browser application or
other
application may itself be the indication that the user has started using the
first device.
Specifically, upon receiving a selection of an application by the user, the
media guidance
application may retrieve supplemental information related to an advertisement
that a user
recently consumed and configure the application to generate the supplemental
information for
display. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information in response to the user selecting a web browser application on the
first device
and may use the information to configure a homepage or a start page of the web
browser
application. Continuing with this example, the web browser application may
present the
supplemental information in a banner advertisement on a start page or the
homepage of the
web browser application.
[0063] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine on
which
device to generate for display supplemental information based on user
preferences.
Specifically, the media guidance application may determine a type of the
supplemental
information. For example, the type may be a movie, text article, graphic(s) or
any other
category of information that can be presented to a user. The media guidance
application may
determine the type of a particular retrieved supplemental information from a
stored string in a
header of the retrieved supplemental information identifying the type (e.g.,
type = `movie').
The media guidance application may compare the type of the supplemental
information with
user preferences stored in a profile associated with the user, where the user
preferences
identify devices to display types of supplemental information on. For example,
the media
guidance application may retrieve preferences of the user for different types
of supplemental
information and determine whether a retrieved preference matches the type of
the presently
retrieved supplemental information. The media guidance application may
determine, based
on comparing the type of the supplemental information with the user
preferences, that the
type of the supplemental information matches a first stored user preference
associated with
displaying supplemental information on the second device. For example, the
media guidance
application may determine that the type of the supplemental information,
"movie," matches a
user preference for displaying a "movie" on the second device (as opposed to
on the first
device, which may have a smaller display size and be more difficult to consume
the
supplemental information). The media guidance application may, in response to
determining
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that the type of the supplemental information matches the first stored user
preference,
transmit an instruction to the second device to display the supplemental
information. For
example, the media guidance application may send the supplemental information
and an
instruction to the second device to generate the supplemental information for
display.
[0064] It should be noted the systems and/or methods described above may be
applied to,
or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/or apparatuses.
Brief Description of the Drawings
[0065] The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will be
apparent upon
consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with
the
accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts
throughout, and
in which:
[0066] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display presenting an
advertisement to a
user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0067] FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of a device presenting
supplemental
information to a user related to an advertisement consumed on another device,
in accordance
with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0068] FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example of a display screen for use in
accessing media
content in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0069] FIG. 4 shows another illustrative example of a display screen for use
in accessing
media content in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0070] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device in
accordance
with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0071] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordance
with some
embodiments of the disclosure;
[0072] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for presenting
supplemental information
associated with an advertisement to a user, in accordance with some
embodiments of the
disclosure;
100731 FIG. 8 is another flowchart of illustrative actions for presenting
supplemental
information associated with an advertisement to a user, in accordance with
some
embodiments of the disclosure;
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[0074] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for calculating a length
of an
advertisement slot that includes an advertisement that a user most recently
consumed, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0075] FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for determining whether
to present
supplemental information to a user, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure;
[0076] FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for retrieving
supplemental information
based on user preferences, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure
[0077] FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for presenting
supplemental information
associated with an advertisement to a user based on user interaction
histories, in accordance
with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0078] FIG. 13 is another flowchart of illustrative actions for presenting
supplemental
information associated with an advertisement to a user based on user
interaction histories, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0079] FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for determining a
plurality of interaction
histories to retrieve based on advertisements that were consumed by users
associated with the
interaction histories, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0080] FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for calculating a
threshold amount of
time based on durations calculated from interaction histories, in accordance
with some
embodiments of the disclosure; and
[0081] FIG. 16 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for determining
supplemental
information to retrieve, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure.
Detailed Description
[0082] Systems and methods are described for presenting supplemental
information to a
user that is related to an advertisement consumed by the user that the user
found interesting.
The systems and methods may determine that a user is interested in receiving
supplemental
information based on the user starting to use a device within a threshold time
period from
consuming the advertisement on a different device. Specifically, the system
may determine
that a user has started using a first device (e.g., a mobile device) within a
period of time from
the end of an advertisement that the user consumed on a second device (e.g., a
television).
The system may determine a threshold time period based on the length of the
advertisement
including the advertisement (e.g., the threshold time period may be 30 seconds
if the length
of the advertisement is 30 seconds). Alternatively or additionally, the system
may determine
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a threshold time period based on historical amounts of time it has taken users
to access
supplemental information on their own after consuming the advertisement (e.g.,
if users
access a webpage associated with the advertisement five minutes after the
conclusion of a
particular advertisement, the threshold time period may be five minutes). In
response to
determining that the user started using the first device within the threshold
period of time
from the end of the advertisement, the system may present supplemental
information
associated with the advertisement on the first device. In this way, the system
presents
supplemental information associated with an advertisement to a user after the
user consumes
the advertisement and without explicitly prompting the user for the
supplemental information.
This enables the user to receive supplemental information efficiently by, for
example, not
having to type in a website URL or perform a search on a device, as the
information is
automatically presented.
[0083] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display presenting an
advertisement to a
user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, in
panel 100,
user equipment 102 may generate for display advertisement 104, which is
consumed by user
106. In panel 100, mobile device 108 is not being used by user 106. For
example, mobile
device 108 may be displaying a lock screen, may have the display turned off,
may be
powered off entirely, or otherwise not in use by user 106.
[0084] FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of a device presenting
supplemental
information to a user related to an advertisement consumed on another device,
in accordance
with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, panel 200 occurs some
time after
panel 100 (FIG. 1) when advertisement 104 has concluded. For example, in panel
200, user
equipment 102 may generate for display media asset 202. In panel 200, user 106
has begun
using mobile device 108, which is presenting supplemental information 204
associated with
advertisement 104. Mobile device 108 may present supplemental information 204
based on
user106 starting to use mobile device 108 within a threshold period of time
from the
conclusion of advertisement 104. In some embodiments, the threshold period of
time may be
based on the length of the advertisement and/or an advertisement slot
associated with the
advertisement. In other embodiments, the threshold period of time may be based
on the
amount of time other users who have consumed similar advertisements have taken
to access
supplemental information manually (e.g., in a web browser).
[0085] In some embodiments, a media guidance application may be configured to
present
supplemental information that is related to an advertisement consumed on a
device if the user
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begins using a different device within a threshold time period of an
advertisement slot (e.g.,
the length of the advertisement slot). Specifically, the media guidance
application may detect
that a user (e.g., user 106) has started using a first device (e.g., mobile
device 108) at a first
time. For example, at the first time, the media guidance application may query
the user's
recent interactions with the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) to
determine whether the
user (e.g., user 106) has just started using the device after a period of not
using the device
(e.g., mobile device 108 was not in use when advertisement 104 was presented).
As a
specific example, the media guidance application may retrieve an activity log
associated with
the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) to determine whether the user has
just started using
the device. The activity log may be structured as a table or other suitable
data structure
containing times that various commands were received. For example, the
activity log may
contain an indication that the most recent time that an application was opened
was one hour
ago. Alternatively or additionally, the activity log may include device
states. For example,
the activity log may include an indication that the device screen was locked
one hour ago. In
some embodiments, the devices states may be stored locally in storage of
either the first
device (e.g., mobile device 108) or the second device (e.g., user equipment
102), or remotely
at a server. As another example, the activity log may include an indication
that the device
was powered off until the first time (e.g., the time stamp when the user
started using the first
device) and/or in a standby mode. Alternatively or additionally, the media
guidance
application may retrieve a messaging history (e.g., if the first device is a
mobile device). For
example, the media guidance application may determine that the user (e.g.,
user 106) has not
sent a text message in an hour.
[0086] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare recent
user
interactions with the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) with a rule-set
to determine
whether the user has started using the first device. For example, if a rule in
the rule-set
indicates that a period of non-use of more than ten minutes constitutes the
user not
continually using the device, the media guidance application may determine
that since the
device was powered off for one hour before the user turned the first device
(e.g., mobile
device 108) on at the first time (e.g., the time stamp when the user started
using the first
device) that the user (e.g., user 106) has started using the device at the
first time.
[0087] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect that the
user has
started using the first device based on whether the first device has recently
received a user
input prior to the first time. Specifically, the media guidance application
may receive, at the
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first device (e.g., mobile device 108), a user input (e.g., from user 106) at
the first time. For
example, the media guidance application may detect that the user has input a
command (e.g.,
user 106 has unlocked the screen of the mobile device 108) at the first time
(e.g., 8:22pm).
To determine whether the user (e.g., user 106) was already using the first
device (e.g., mobile
device 108) or whether the user has started using the first device at the
first time, the media
guidance application may retrieve a second time corresponding to a most recent
user input
received prior to the first input. For example, the media guidance application
may retrieve a
log of user commands received at particular times stored in storage of the
first device (e.g.,
mobile device 158). The log may be structured as a table where each row
contains an
identifier of an input received from the user and a time at which it was
received. As a
specific example, the media guidance application may determine that the most
recent
command was at 8:10pm and was a user input to lock the screen of the first
device.
[0088] The media guidance application, in order to determine whether the
previous user
input indicates that the user started to use the first device (e.g., mobile
device 158) at the first
time or was already using the first device, may compare the first time with
the second time
that the previous user input was received. Specifically, the media guidance
application may
determine that a difference between the first time and the second time is
greater than a
threshold difference. For example, the media guidance application may
calculate a difference
(e.g., 12 minutes) between the first time (e.g., 8:22pm) and the second time
(e.g., 8:10pm).
The media guidance application may compare the calculated difference (e.g., 12
minutes) to a
threshold time indicating whether the user (e.g., user 106) is currently using
the first device
(e.g., mobile device 108) or has just started using it. For example, if the
user sent an email
ten seconds prior to the first time using the first device (e.g., mobile
device 108) and the
threshold is five minutes, then the media guidance application may determine
that because
.. the previously received user input was so close to the first time it likely
does not indicate the
user (e.g., user 106) is interested in the advertisement based on the
threshold being greater
than the calculated difference. The media guidance application may, in
response to
determining that the difference is greater than the threshold difference,
determine that the
user has started using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). For
example, if the previous
user input was received 12 minutes from the user input at the first time and
the threshold is
five minutes, the media guidance application may determine that the user
(e.g., user 106) had
stopped using the device and has now started using the device (e.g., mobile
device 108),
which may be due to the user's interest in the advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104).
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[0089] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that
the
difference between the first time and the second time is greater than the
threshold difference
based on the average time between user inputs. Specifically, the media
guidance application
may retrieve a log of recent user inputs on the first device (e.g., mobile
device 108). For
example, as discussed above, the media guidance application may retrieve a log
of recent user
inputs from storage of the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). The log may
be structured
as a table where each row contains an identifier of an input received from the
user (e.g., user
106) and a time at which it was received. The media guidance application may
determine,
based on the log of recent user inputs, an average time between user inputs on
the first device
(e.g., mobile device 108). For example, the media guidance application may
execute a
program script utilizing a for-loop to retrieve a user input (e.g., from a row
in a table
corresponding to the log) and determine a difference in time with the next
most recent user
input. As a specific example, if user inputs were received at 8:10pm, 8:20pm,
and 8:22pm,
the media guidance application may calculate the differences as two minutes
and ten minutes,
respectively. The media guidance application may iteratively determine
differences between
every user input and a next most recent user input in the log, or a subset
within a threshold
timeframe (e.g., the last two hours). The media guidance application may
average the
differences by dividing the total number of differences calculated by the sum
of the
differences. For example, if two minutes and ten minutes were calculated as
the differences,
then the average difference calculated by the media guidance application may
be six minutes.
[0090] The media guidance application may compare the average time between
user inputs
with the difference between the first time and the second time. For example,
the media
guidance application may compare the average time (e.g., two minutes) between
user inputs
with the time between the two most recent user inputs (e.g., ten minutes) to
determine which
value is greater. The media guidance application may scale the average time by
a factor in
order to increase the probability that the user (e.g., user 106) was not using
the device (e.g.,
mobile device 108) at the first time and thus began using the first device
responsive to seeing
the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104). The media guidance application
may determine,
based on comparing the average time between user inputs with the difference,
that the
average time between user inputs is less than the difference. For example, the
media
guidance application may determine that since the average time between user
inputs is two
minutes and the time between the two most recent user inputs (e.g., at the
first time and the
second time) is ten minutes, the user has started using the first device at
the first time. The
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media guidance application may, based on determining that the average time
between user
inputs is less than the difference, determine that the difference between the
first time and the
second time is greater than the threshold difference. For example, since the
average time
between user inputs is less than the difference, the media guidance
application may determine
that the user (e.g., user 106) started using the first device (e.g., mobile
device 108) at the first
time, as opposed to already using the first device.
[0091] The media guidance application may, based on detecting that the user
has started
using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) at the first time, determine
whether the user
has consumed an advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) on a second device
(e.g., a display
coupled to user equipment 102) within a threshold amount of time from when the
advertisement slot associated with the advertisement ended. If the user has
consumed the
advertisement on the second device within the threshold amount of time, the
media guidance
application may present supplemental information to the user. Specifically,
the media
guidance application may search media asset consumption history associated
with the user
(e.g., user 106) for an advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that the user
consumed last.
For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the media asset
consumption
history associated with the user (e.g., user 106) from local storage of either
the first or second
device (e.g., mobile device 108 or user equipment 102), or from a remote
server. The
consumption history may be structured as a table, array, or any other suitable
data structure
for storing times and identifiers of media assets consumed by a user (e.g.,
user 106). The
consumption history may include times that the user consumed media assets
(e.g., media
asset 202), an identifier of the media asset consumed, and an identifier of a
device (e.g., user
equipment 102) on which the media asset was generated for display. For
example, the media
guidance application may, as is discussed further below, determine that a
given user (e.g.,
user 106) is associated with multiple devices in a home that were concurrently
generating
media assets for display and determine which one was being used by the user
(e.g., based on
the user logging on to the device or GPS coordinates) to determine a media
asset that the user
consumed most recently.
[0092] The consumption history may include identifiers of advertisements
(e.g., an
identifier of advertisement 104) that were consumed during a media asset
(e.g., media asset
202) consumed by the user (e.g., user 106). The media guidance application may
determine
based on an associated time period during which the advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104)
was consumed which advertisement the user (e.g., user 106) consumed most
recently (e.g.,
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based on comparison with the first time when the user started using the first
device).
Alternatively or additionally, the consumption history may only identify times
that a user
(e.g., user 106) consumed a specific media asset (e.g., media asset 202) and
another database
may be necessary to determine which advertisements were generated during that
media asset.
For example, the consumption history may store an indication that the user
consumed a
media asset (e.g., media asset 202) with identifier "The Good Place" from 8pm
to 8:22pm.
The media guidance application may access a headend server or other media
guidance
database storing indications which advertisements (e.g., advertisement 104)
were presented
from 8pm to 8:22pm for the media asset (e.g., media asset 202) with the
identifier "The Good
Place." The media guidance application may determine which advertisement
(e.g.,
advertisement 104) was generated for display closest to 8:22pm that the user
(e.g., user 106)
completely consumed as the advertisement that the user consumed last.
[0093] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
advertisement that the user consumed last based on which advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement
104) was consumed on a second device (e.g., user equipment 102) that is
closest to the
current location of the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). Specifically,
the media
guidance application may detect a device that is closest to the first device
(e.g., mobile device
108), where the device is one of a plurality of devices associated with the
user. For example,
the media guidance application may receive an indication that an identifier
associated with
the user (e.g., a parental control PIN and/or any other login that is specific
to user 106) has
been entered on a second device (e.g., user equipment 102). The media guidance
application
may receive the indication from the second device (e.g., user equipment 102),
or from a
remote server. Based on receiving the indication that the identifier
associated with the user
has been entered on the second device (e.g., user equipment 102), the media
guidance
application may determine that the second device is located closest to the
first device that the
user started using at the first time. Alternatively or additionally, the media
guidance
application may determine the device that is closest to the first device
(e.g., mobile device
108) based on comparing coordinates associated with the first device with
coordinates
associated with a plurality of devices associated with the user. For example,
the media
guidance application may access a profile associated with the user and
determine GPS
coordinates of a device located in a summer home of the user (e.g., user 106)
and a device
located in the user's main home. The media guidance application may compare
GPS
coordinates from the first device (e.g., a mobile phone) with the coordinates
in the profile to
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determine which location the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) is in and
thus which
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) was most recently consumed by the user
(e.g., user
106). In this way, the media guidance application may prevent the user (e.g.,
user 106) from
receiving supplemental information about advertisements he or she did not
watch (e.g., if the
user's sister consumed an advertisement most recently on a television that is
also associated
with the user, the user may receive supplemental information about the
advertisement his
sister consumed which will likely not be of interest).
[0094] The media guidance application may determine a device identifier of the
device
closest to the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). For example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve an identifier, which may be any combination of
characters that
uniquely identifies the device from other devices associated with the user
(e.g., "Family
Room STB"), of the device (e.g., user equipment 102) determine to be closest
to the first
device (e.g., mobile device 108). The media guidance application may retrieve,
using the
device identifier for the device closest to the first device, device media
asset consumption
history associated with the user. For example, the media guidance application
may filter the
media asset consumption history based on the device it was consumed on to
determine the
advertisement most recently consumed on the device (e.g., user equipment 102)
determined
to be closest to the user. The media guidance application may search the
device media asset
consumption history for the advertisement that the user consumed last. For
example, the
media guidance application may sort the advertisements consumed by the user
(e.g., user
106) on the device (e.g., user equipment 102) determined to be closest to the
first device (e.g.,
mobile device 108) by time and date, using a bubble sort, merge sort, or other
algorithm. The
media guidance application may determine from the sorted device consumption
history which
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that the user consumed last on the
device closest to
the first device.
[0095] The media guidance application may retrieve, from the media asset
consumption
history associated with the user, a time period associated with the
advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104) that the user consumed last. For example, the media
guidance application
may execute a database query language script, such as Structured Query
Language
(hereinafter "SQL"), to retrieve data from a particular field associated with
the advertisement
(e.g., advertisement 104) that the user consumed last in the media asset
consumption history.
The media guidance application may retrieve a start value and/or end value of
the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) from the media asset consumption
history. For
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example, the media guidance application may retrieve two values from the media
asset
consumption history, indicating that from 8:21:20pm to 8:21:40pm the user
(e.g., user 106)
consumed the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104).
[0096] The media guidance application may search for an advertisement slot
associated
with the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that the user consumed last.
For example,
the advertisement slot may include only the advertisement (e.g., advertisement
104), or may
include more than one advertisement that was displayed contiguous to the
advertisement that
the user consumed last. For example, the media guidance application may
compare the time
period of the advertisement that the user consumed last with an index of
advertisement slots
and advertisements that filled the slots at a headend server or other remote
server. The media
guidance application may determine (e.g., from a media guidance data source or
the media
asset consumption history associated with the user) an identifier of the
advertisement (e.g.,
"Budweiser_ad_1"), a source from which the user consumed the advertisement
(e.g.,
"NBC"), and/or any other information associated with the advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement
104) that may allow the media guidance application to more efficiently
determine the
advertisement slot that the user consumed with the advertisement.
[0097] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
advertisement slot associated with the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104)
that the user
consumed last from a schedule data structure of advertisement slots (e.g.,
stored at a remote
.. server). Specifically, the media guidance application may retrieve, from
the media asset
consumption history associated with the user (e.g., user 106), an identifier
of a source
associated with the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104). For example, the
media
guidance application may retrieve the identifier of the source that aired the
advertisement
(e.g., advertisement 104) from a field of the media asset consumption history
associated with
the advertisement that the user most recently consumed. The identifier may be
any
combination of characters, such as "NBC." The media guidance application may
retrieve a
schedule data structure for the source containing the plurality of
advertisement slot time
periods. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the schedule
data
structure for the source (e.g., NBC) from local memory or a remote server. The
schedule data
structure may be structured as a table, where each row corresponds to an
advertisement slot
and each field in the row includes information associated with the
advertisement slot, such as
a time period associated with the advertisement slot and identifiers of
advertisements that are
part of the advertisement slot.
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[0098] The media guidance application may compare the time period associated
with the
advertisement that the user consumed last with each of the plurality of
advertisement slot
time periods stored in the schedule data structure. For example, the media
guidance
application may execute a program script utilizing a for-loop to iteratively
compare the time
period associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last (e.g.,
advertisement 104)
with each of the advertisement slot time periods stored in the schedule data
structure. For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve that a particular
advertisement slot was
scheduled on Monday, April 24, 2017 from 8:20pm to 8:23pm. The media guidance
application may compare the retrieved time period with the time period
associated with the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) to determine whether the advertisement
fits within
the time period associated with the advertisement slot. The media guidance
application may
determine, based on comparing the time period associated with the
advertisement that the
user consumed last (e.g., advertisement 104) with each of the plurality of
advertisement slot
time periods, that the time period associated with the advertisement that the
user consumed
last matches a stored advertisement slot time period. For example, if the
advertisement that
the user consumed last (e.g., advertisement 104) was on Monday, April 24, 2017
from
8:21pm to 8:22pm, the media guidance application may determine that the
advertisement is
part of an advertisement slot scheduled for the same date from 8:20pm to
8:23pm. The media
guidance application may retrieve, from a field of the schedule data structure
associated with
the stored advertisement slot time period, a corresponding identifier. For
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve an identifier of the advertisement slot,
which may be any
combination of characters that uniquely identifies the advertisement slot from
other
advertisement slots from the same source. The media guidance application may
determine,
based on the corresponding identifier, that the advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104) is
associated with the advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance
application may
determine that the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) is associated with
the
advertisement slot identified by the retrieved identifier. The media guidance
application may
use the identifier of the advertisement slot to determine other advertisements
that were part of
the advertisement slot and/or to retrieve supplemental information relevant to
advertisements
that are part of the advertisement slot, as described further below.
[0099] The media guidance application may retrieve a start time code and an
end time code
associated with the advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance
application may
execute a database query language script, such as SQL, to retrieve data from
fields containing
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a start time code and an end time code associated with the advertisement slot
containing the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that the user consumed last. For
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve the end time code (20:21:40:00)
corresponding to (hour:
minute: second: frame) when the advertisement time slot ended. For example,
the media
guidance application may retrieve start and end time codes associated with the
advertisement
slot, indicating that the advertisement slot lasted from 8:21:00pm to
8:21:40pm. The media
guidance application may retrieve the time codes from local storage and/or a
remote server.
101001 The media guidance application may calculate a length of the
advertisement slot
based on a difference between the start time code and the end time code, and
an amount of
time starting from an endpoint of the advertisement slot to when the user
started using the
first device. For example, the media guidance application may initialize and
store variables
for both the length of the advertisement slot (e.g., which includes
advertisement 104) and the
amount of time starting from the endpoint of the advertisement slot to when
the user started
using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). For example, the media
guidance application
may calculate and store the length of the advertisement slot by subtracting
the end time code
from the start time code associated with the advertisement slot. As a specific
example, if the
start time code is (20:21:00:00) and the end time code is (20:21:40:00), the
media guidance
application may calculate that the length of the advertisement slot is 40
seconds. For
example, the media guidance application may calculate and store the amount of
time by
subtracting the first time from the end time code of the advertising slot. As
a specific
example, if the user (e.g., user 106) started using the first device at
(20:22:10:00) and the end
time code is (20:21:40:00), then the media guidance application may calculate
the amount of
time as 30 seconds. In some embodiments, the end time code of the
advertisement slot may
not be the endpoint of the advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance
application
may add a small amount of time (e.g., ten seconds) to account for a transition
element that
leads back into the media asset (e.g., media asset 202) provided as part of
the media asset by
a content source.
[0101] The media guidance application may compare the length of the
advertisement slot
with the amount of time starting from the endpoint of the advertisement slot
to when the user
(e.g., user 106) started using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). For
example, the
media guidance application may compare the two calculated values to determine
which is
greater. In some embodiments the media guidance application may round the two
values
(e.g., to the nearest second) for easier comparison.
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[0102] The media guidance application may determine, based on the comparing,
that the
user (e.g., user 106) started using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108)
within the amount
of time from the endpoint of the advertisement slot that corresponds to a
duration associated
with the advertisement slot. As a specific example, if the amount of time from
the endpoint
of the advertisement slot to when the user began using the first device (e.g.,
mobile device
108) was calculated as 30 seconds and the length of the advertisement slot is
40 seconds, then
the media guidance application may determine that the user started using the
first device
within the amount of time from the endpoint of the advertisement slot. In some
embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that the user (e.g.,
user 106)
started using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) within the amount of
time if the
amount of time is within a tolerance factor of the duration. The tolerance
factor may be
adjusted based on user preferences or interaction history (e.g., stored in a
profile associated
with the user). For example, the user (e.g., user 106) may be slow to start
using a mobile
phone after the conclusion of the advertisement if he or she is interested in
an advertisement
(e.g., advertisement 104) and may want the amount of time to be longer. The
media guidance
application may store a tolerance factor and multiply the length of the
advertisement segment
by the factor. For example, if the advertisement segment is 30 seconds and the
tolerance
factor is 1.2, then the effective length of time used for the purposes of
determining whether
the user began using the first device within the amount of time is 36 seconds.
101031 Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application may
adjust the length
of the advertisement slot and/or the amount of time starting from the endpoint
of the
advertisement slot to when the user (e.g., user 106) started using the first
device (e.g., mobile
device 108) based on user interactions after the end of the advertisement
slot. For example, if
the media guidance application determines that the user (e.g., user 106) has
paused the media
asset (e.g., media asset 202) within the length of the advertisement slot from
the end of the
advertisement slot, it may indicate that the user is interested in
supplemental information
associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last and the amount
of time may be
decreased (or tied to the playback position in the media asset as opposed to
absolute time).
Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application may receive an
indication that
the user (e.g., user 106) changed channels after the advertisement slot
concluded which may
indicate that the user is not interested in obtaining supplemental information
related to the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) and the amount of time starting from
the endpoint of
the advertisement slot to when the user started using the first device may be
increased.
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[0104] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may adjust the
amount of
time from the endpoint of the advertisement slot to when the user (e.g., user
106) started
using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) based on the user pausing the
media asset on
the second device (e.g., user equipment 102). Specifically, the media guidance
application
may receive, from the second device (e.g., user equipment 102), an indication
that a media
asset (e.g., media asset 202) currently played on the second device has been
paused for a
second duration. For example, the media guidance application may receive a
data packet
from the second device (e.g., user equipment 102) that indicates the user has
paused the
media asset being consumed on the second device and a time that the second
device received
.. the pause request from the user (e.g., user 106). The media guidance
application may
determine whether the pause was related to the advertisement slot based on the
time when it
was received. Specifically, the media guidance application may determine,
based on the
received indication, that a start of the second duration is both (1) after the
end of the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) and (2) before the amount of time from
the endpoint
of the advertisement slot that corresponds to the first duration. For example,
the media
guidance application may compare a time code in the data packet received from
the second
device (e.g., user equipment 102) corresponding to the time that the media
asset (e.g., media
asset 202) was paused (e.g., 8:22pm) with the endpoint of the advertisement
slot (e.g.,
8:20pm) to determine whether the pause happened after the advertisement slot
ended. The
.. media guidance application may also compare the time after the endpoint of
the
advertisement slot that corresponds to the first duration with the time that
the media asset
(e.g., media asset 202) was paused. For example, the media guidance
application may
determine whether the media asset (e.g., media asset 202) was paused before
the length of the
advertisement slot after the endpoint of the advertisement. The media guidance
application
may, in response to determining that the start of the second duration is both
(1) after the end
of the advertisement and (2) before the amount of time from the endpoint of
the
advertisement slot that corresponds to the first duration, decrease the amount
of time starting
from the endpoint of the advertisement slot to when the user started using the
first device by
the second duration. For example, if the media guidance application determines
that the
media asset (e.g., media asset 202) on the second device (e.g., user equipment
102) was
paused after the end of the advertisement slot, but before a threshold amount
of time after the
endpoint of the advertisement slot, the media guidance application may
determine there is a
high likelihood that the user (e.g., user 106) paused the media asset (e.g.,
media asset 202) to
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obtain supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204)
associated with the
advertisement slot. The media guidance application may accordingly decrease
the amount of
time starting from the endpoint by the amount of time that the media asset
(e.g., media asset
202) was paused to ensure that the threshold time does not pass while the
media asset is
paused.
[0105] The media guidance application may, in response to determining that the
user
started using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) within the amount of
time from the
endpoint of the advertisement slot that is equal to the duration associated
with the
advertisement slot, retrieve supplemental information associated with one or
more
advertisements associated with the advertisement slot and generate the
supplemental
information for display. For example, the media guidance application may
determine that
since the user began using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) within
the amount of time
from the end of the advertisement slot that is shorter than the length of the
advertisement slot
itself, supplemental information related to an advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104) should
be presented to the user. Specifically, the media guidance application may
retrieve
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) for one or more
advertisements associated with the advertisement slot. For example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve the supplemental information from storage or a remote
server. The
media guidance application may determine a location of the supplemental
information (e.g.,
supplemental information 204) to retrieve based on an index data structure.
For example, the
media guidance application may compare an identifier of one or more
advertisements in the
advertisement slot (e.g., retrieved from the media consumption history or a
headend server)
with stored identifiers associated with supplemental information (e.g.,
supplemental
information 204). For example, the media guidance application may determine
that the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that the user consumed most recently
(e.g.,
"Budweiser_ad_1") matches an identifier stored in the index data structure.
The media
guidance application may retrieve supplemental information (e.g., supplemental
information
204) associated with the stored identifier. For example, the media guidance
application may
retrieve a pointer to a location in memory where the supplemental information
is located and
retrieve the supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204)
from that
location.
[0106] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
location
of the second device (e.g., user equipment 102) in order to target
supplemental information
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(e.g., supplemental information 204) related to an advertisement of the
advertisement slot to
the user. Specifically, the media guidance application may retrieve a location
of the second
device (e.g., user equipment 102) from a profile associated with the user
(e.g., user 106),
where the location is from a plurality of locations that indicate an area in a
home. For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve the profile from local
storage (e.g., of
the first device) or from a remote server. The profile may include a table or
other suitable
data structure with identifiers of devices associated with the user (e.g.,
user 106), each with at
least one corresponding indication of a location of the device (e.g.,
bedroom). The media
guidance application may retrieve a location corresponding to the second
device (e.g., user
equipment 102) from a field associated with the second device in the profile.
The locations
may, alternatively or additionally, be locations in any building (e.g., an
airport or office
building) such that a user waiting for a flight at an airport consuming a
television monitor
may be able to obtain supplemental information related to an advertisement
that he or she has
consumed. The media guidance application may retrieve a plurality of
identifiers of
supplemental information associated with the one or more advertisements, where
each of the
plurality of identifiers is associated with one or more locations of the
plurality of locations.
For example, the media guidance application may retrieve an index data
structure including
identifiers of supplemental information (e.g., which may be any combination of
characters
that describe the supplemental information). The data structure further may
include both a
pointer to a location in storage containing the supplemental information
(e.g., supplemental
information 204), as well as a location in a home that the supplemental
information is
relevant to.
[0107] The media guidance application may compare the location of the second
device
(e.g., user equipment 102) with each location associated with one of the
retrieved plurality of
identifiers of supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204).
For example,
the media guidance application may iteratively compare the location of the
second device
(e.g., user equipment 102) retrieved from the profile (e.g., "bedroom") with
locations
associated with supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204)
that is related
to an advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) of the advertisement slot. As a
specific
example, the media guidance application may compare the location of the second
device
(e.g., user equipment 102), "bedroom," to the location associated with
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) related to a television
discount that is
associated with the locations "bedroom" and "living room". The media guidance
application
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may determine, based on comparing the location of the second device (e.g.,
user equipment
102) with each location associated with one of the retrieved plurality of
identifiers of
supplemental information, that the location matches a stored location. For
example, the
media guidance application may determine that all, or a threshold amount or
percentage, of
characters describing the location of the second device (e.g., user equipment
102) match
characters describing the location associated with particular supplemental
information (e.g.,
supplemental information 204) and thus the two locations match. The media
guidance
application may retrieve, from a field associated with the stored location,
corresponding
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) related to the
location of the
second device (e.g., user equipment 102). For example, the media guidance
application may
retrieve a pointer to a location in storage that contains the supplemental
information (e.g.,
supplemental information 204) that is associated with the location of the
second device. The
media guidance application may retrieve the supplemental information (e.g.,
supplemental
information 204) from the location in storage.
[0108] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine which
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) associated with
advertisements in the advertisement slot to display based on user preferences
of the user (e.g.,
user 106). Specifically, the media guidance application may determine that a
plurality of
advertisements is associated with the advertisement slot. For example, the
media guidance
application may, based on a retrieved identifier associated with the
advertisement slot that
contains the advertisement that the user most recently consumed, query a
database (e.g.,
either local in storage or at a remote server) to determine which, if any,
other advertisements
were part of the advertisement slot. The media guidance application may
retrieve, for each
advertisement of the plurality of advertisements, a product type associated
with the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104). For example, the media guidance
application may
retrieve, from a field of the database associated with each advertisement in
the advertisement
slot, an identifier of a product type. For example, the product type may be
any combination
of characters (e.g., a string) and describes a general category of the product
that was
advertised, such as "beer" or "organic food". The media guidance application
may compare
each retrieved product type with user preferences stored in a profile
associated with the user
(e.g., user 106). For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the
profile from
local storage (e.g., of the first device) or from a remote server. The media
guidance
application may compare the characters of each user preference in the profile
for a product
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type to each product type associated with an advertisement in the
advertisement slot. The
user preferences may be explicit indications of products that the user (e.g.,
user 106) enjoys
(e.g., the user has indicated that they "love" the product type "beer").
Alternatively or
additionally, the user preferences may be implicit and based on user
purchasing history. For
example, if the user (e.g., user 106) often buys beer, they likely enjoy and
have a preference
for the product type, "beer".
[0109] The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing each
retrieved
product type with the user preferences, that a first user preference matches
the product type
associated with a first advertisement of the plurality of advertisements. For
example, based
on the characters, "beer" of a user preference matching the characters "beer"
associated with
a product type of a particular advertisement in the advertisement slot, the
media guidance
application may determine that the user (e.g., user 106) has a preference for
the particular
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104). The media guidance application may,
in response to
determining that the first user preference matches the product type associated
with the first
advertisement, retrieve supplemental information associated with the first
advertisement. For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve a pointer to a location
in storage that
contains supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) that is
associated
with the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that is for the product type
that matches the
user preferences. The media guidance application may retrieve the supplemental
information
(e.g., supplemental information 204) from the location in storage.
[0110] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate a
display
enabling the user (e.g., user 106) to select which advertisement that aired
during the
advertisement slot the user is interested in obtaining supplemental
information for.
Specifically, the media guidance application may determine that a plurality of
advertisements
is associated with the advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance
application may,
based on a retrieved identifier associated with the advertisement slot that
contains the
advertisement that the user most recently consumed (e.g., advertisement 104),
query a
database (e.g., either local in storage or at a remote server) to determine
which, if any, other
advertisements were part of the advertisement slot. The media guidance
application may
generate for display a selectable indicator associated with each advertisement
of the plurality
of advertisements. For example, the media guidance application may generate
for display
text, graphics, or a combination as the indicator that describes each
advertisement. The
indicators may be displayed in a grid or a list and may be selectable, such
that a user can
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select an indicator that he or she is interested in receiving supplemental
information for. As a
specific example, the indicators may be screenshots from each advertisement
from the
advertisement slot, or a graphic showing a product from each advertisement.
The media
guidance application may receive a user selection of a first selectable
indicator associated
with a first advertisement of the plurality of advertisements. For example,
the media
guidance application may receive a user selection of an indicator via a user
input interface
such as a touchscreen. The media guidance application may, in response to
receiving the user
selection of the first selectable indicator, retrieve supplemental information
(e.g.,
supplemental information 204) associated with the first advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement
104). For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) associated with the first
advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104) from storage or a remote server.
[0111] The media guidance application may generate for display the
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204). The supplemental information
may be
text, graphics, video, or any other visual depiction of information related to
the advertisement
(e.g., advertisement 104). As another example, the supplemental information
may be related
to a promotion, sale, coupon, discount, newly available product, or any other
information the
advertiser wishes to inform the user about to entice him or her to purchase a
good or service.
For example, the media guidance application may generate the supplemental
information
automatically upon detecting that the user has started using the first device
(e.g., as an
overlay or popup). The media guidance application may, alternatively or
additionally,
prompt the user (e.g., user 106) prior to presenting the supplemental
information regarding
whether they want to receive supplemental information (e.g., supplemental
information 204).
In response to receiving a user selection to display the supplemental
information, the media
guidance application may generate the retrieved supplemental information for
display. In
some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a plurality of
supplemental
information related to one or more of the advertisements associated with the
advertisement
slot. The media guidance application may present the supplemental information
over fixed
time intervals (e.g., each piece of supplemental information is displayed for
five seconds and
then the next is automatically displayed) and/or prompt the user for which
specific
supplemental information to display (e.g., generate for display selectable
options to display
different types of supplemental information, such as a movie trailer or a
textual synopsis).
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[0112] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may configure an
application
(e.g., a web browser) on the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) to
generate for display the
retrieved supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) when
the application
is accessed. Specifically, the media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information (e.g., a link to a promotion related to an advertisement that the
user consumed) in
response to the user (e.g., user 106) starting to use the first device (e.g.,
mobile device 108),
but generate for display that supplemental information responsive to another
user input (e.g.,
launching the application). For example, the media guidance application may
retrieve the
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) in response to
the user (e.g.,
user 106) unlocking the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) and may use the
information to
configure a homepage or a start page of a web browser application. Continuing
with this
example, when the user (e.g., user 106) selects the web browser application
with another user
input, the user is presented with the supplemental information (e.g., the
browser loads the
start page or the homepage). It should be noted that in some embodiments, if
the user doesn't
access the application within a threshold amount of time (e.g., the threshold
discussed above),
the media guidance application may reconfigure the application to not present
the
supplemental information.
[0113] In some embodiments, the selection of a web browser application or
other
application may itself be the indication that the user (e.g., user 106) has
started using the first
device (e.g., mobile device 108). Specifically, upon receiving a selection of
an application by
the user (e.g., user 106), the media guidance application may retrieve
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) related to an advertisement
that a user
recently consumed and configure the application to generate the supplemental
information for
display. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) in response to the user
(e.g., user 106)
selecting a web browser application on the first device (e.g., mobile device
108) and may use
the information to configure a homepage or a start page of the web browser
application.
Continuing with this example, the web browser application may present the
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) in a banner advertisement on
a start page or
the homepage of the web browser application.
[0114] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine on
which
device (e.g., mobile device 108) to generate for display supplemental
information (e.g.,
supplemental information 204) based on user preferences. Specifically, the
media guidance
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application may determine a type of the supplemental information (e.g.,
supplemental
information 204). For example, the type may be a movie, text article,
graphic(s) or any other
category of information that can be presented to a user. The media guidance
application may
determine the type of a particular retrieved supplemental information (e.g.,
supplemental
information 204) from a stored string in a header of the retrieved
supplemental information
identifying the type (e.g., type = `movie'). The media guidance application
may compare the
type of the supplemental information with user preferences stored in a profile
associated with
the user (e.g., user 106), where the user preferences identify devices to
display types of
supplemental information on. For example, the media guidance application may
retrieve the
profile associated with the user (e.g., user 106) from local storage (e.g., of
mobile device 108)
or from a remote server. The media guidance application may retrieve
preferences for
different types of supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information
204) and
determine whether a retrieved preference matches the type of the presently
retrieved
supplemental information. The media guidance application may determine, based
on
comparing the type of the supplemental information with the user preferences,
that the type
of the supplemental information matches a first stored user preference
associated with
displaying supplemental information on the second device. For example, the
media guidance
application may determine that the type of the supplemental information (e.g.,
supplemental
information 204), "movie," matches a user preference for displaying a "movie"
on the second
device (e.g., on user equipment 102, as opposed to on mobile device 108, which
may have a
smaller display size and be more difficult to consume the supplemental
information). The
media guidance application may, in response to determining that the type of
the supplemental
information matches the first stored user preference, transmit an instruction
to the second
device (e.g., user equipment 102) to display the supplemental information. For
example, the
media guidance application may send a data packet to the second device (e.g.,
user equipment
102) including the supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information
204) and an
instruction to generate the supplemental information for display.
[0115] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be configured
to present
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) that is related
to an
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) consumed on a device if the user
(e.g., user 106)
begins using a different device within a threshold time period of an
advertisement based on
the average amount of time users have historically taken to access
supplemental information
manually (e.g., by typing in a website URL after consuming an advertisement).
Specifically,
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the media guidance application may detect that a user (e.g., user 106) has
started using a first
device (e.g., mobile device 108) at a first time. For example, at the first
time, the media
guidance application may check the user's recent interactions with the first
device (e.g.,
mobile device 108) to determine whether the user (e.g., user 106) has just
started using the
device after a period of not using the device (e.g., mobile device 108 was not
in use when
advertisement 104 was presented). As a specific example, the media guidance
application
may retrieve an activity log associated with the first device (e.g., mobile
device 108) to
determine whether the user has just started using the device. The activity log
may be
structured as a table or other suitable data structure containing times that
various processes
were executed in response to user input. For example, the activity log may
contain an
indication that the most recent time that an application was opened was one
hour ago.
Alternatively or additionally, the activity log may include device states. For
example, the
activity log may include an indication that the device screen was locked one
hour ago. As
another example, the activity log may include an indication that the device
was powered off
until the first time and/or in a standby mode. Alternatively or additionally,
the media
guidance application may retrieve a messaging history (e.g., if the first
device is a mobile
device). For example, the media guidance application may determine that the
user (e.g., user
106) has not sent a text message in an hour.
[0116] The media guidance application may compare recent user interactions
with the first
device (e.g., mobile device 108) with a rule-set to determine whether the user
has started
using the first device. For example, if a rule in the rule-set indicates that
a period of non-use
of more than ten minutes constitutes the user not continually using the
device, the media
guidance application may determine that since the device was powered off for
one hour
before the user turned the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) on at the
first time that the
user (e.g., user 106) has started using the device at the first time.
[0117] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect that the
user has
started using the first device based on whether the first device has recently
received a user
input prior to the first time. Specifically, the media guidance application
may receive, at the
first device (e.g., mobile device 108), a user input (e.g., from user 106) at
the first time. For
example, the media guidance application may detect that the user has input a
command (e.g.,
user 106 has unlocked the screen of the mobile device 108) at the first time
(e.g., 8:22pm).
To determine whether the user (e.g., user 106) was already using the first
device (e.g., mobile
device 108) or whether the user has started using the first device at the
first time, the media
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guidance application may retrieve a second time corresponding to a most recent
user input
received prior to the first input. For example, the media guidance application
may retrieve a
log of user commands received at particular times stored in storage of the
first device (e.g.,
mobile device 158). The log may be structured as a table where each row
contains an
identifier of an input received from the user and a time at which it was
received. As a
specific example, the media guidance application may determine that the most
recent
command was at 8:10pm and was a user input to lock the screen of the first
device.
[0118] The media guidance application, in order to determine whether the
previous user
input indicates that the user started to use the first device (e.g., mobile
device 158) at the first
time or was already using the first device, compares the first time with the
second time that
the previous user input was received. Specifically, the media guidance
application may
determine that a difference between the first time and the second time is
greater than a
threshold difference. For example, the media guidance application may
calculate a difference
(e.g., 12 minutes) between the first time (e.g., 8:22pm) and the second time
(e.g., 8:10pm).
The media guidance application may compare the calculated difference (e.g., 12
minutes) to a
threshold time indicating whether the user (e.g., user 106) is currently using
the first device
(e.g., mobile device 108) or has just started using it. For example, if the
user sent an email
ten seconds prior to the first time using the first device (e.g., mobile
device 108) and the
threshold is five minutes, then the media guidance application may determine
that because
the previously received user input was so close to the first time it likely
does not indicate the
user (e.g., user 106) is interested in the advertisement based on the
threshold being greater
than the calculated difference. The media guidance application may, in
response to
determining that the difference is greater than the threshold difference,
determine that the
user has started using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). For
example, if the previous
user input was received 12 minutes from the user input at the first time and
the threshold is
five minutes, the media guidance application may determine that the user
(e.g., user 106) had
stopped using the device and has now started using the device (e.g., mobile
device 108),
which may be due to the user's interest in the advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104).
[0119] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that
the
difference between the first time and the second time is greater than the
threshold difference
based on the average time between user inputs. Specifically, the media
guidance application
may retrieve a log of recent user inputs on the first device (e.g., mobile
device 108). For
example, as discussed above, the media guidance application may retrieve a log
of recent user
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inputs from storage of the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). The log may
be structured
as a table where each row contains an identifier of an input received from the
user (e.g., user
106) and a time at which it was received. The media guidance application may
determine,
based on the log of recent user inputs, an average time between user inputs on
the first device
(e.g., mobile device 108). For example, the media guidance application may
execute a
program script utilizing a for-loop to retrieve a user input (e.g., from a row
in a table
corresponding to the log) and determine a difference in time with the next
most recent user
input. As a specific example, if user inputs were received at 8:10pm, 8:20pm,
and 8:22pm,
the media guidance application may calculate the differences as two minutes
and ten minutes,
respectively. The media guidance application may iteratively determine
differences between
every user input and a next most recent user input in the log, or a subset
within a threshold
timeframe (e.g., the last two hours). The media guidance application may
average the
differences by dividing the total number of differences calculated by the sum
of the
differences. For example, if two minutes and ten minutes were calculated as
the differences,
.. then the average difference calculated by the media guidance application
may be six minutes.
[0120] The media guidance application may compare the average time between
user inputs
with the difference between the first time and the second time. For example,
the media
guidance application may compare the average time (e.g., two minutes) between
user inputs
with the time between the two most recent user inputs (e.g., ten minutes) to
determine which
value is greater. The media guidance application may scale the average time by
a factor in
order to increase the probability the user (e.g., user 106) was not using the
device (e.g.,
mobile device 108) at the first time and thus began using the first device
responsive to seeing
the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104). The media guidance application
may determine,
based on comparing the average time between user inputs with the difference,
that the
average time between user inputs is less than the difference. For example, the
media
guidance application may determine that since the average time between user
inputs is two
minutes and the time between the two most recent user inputs (e.g., at the
first time and the
second time) is ten minutes, the user has started using the first device at
the first time. The
media guidance application may, based on determining that the average time
between user
inputs is less than the difference, determine that the difference between the
first time and the
second time is greater than the threshold difference. For example, since the
average time
between user inputs is less than the difference, the media guidance
application may determine
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that the user (e.g., user 106) started using the first device (e.g., mobile
device 108) at the first
time, as opposed to already using the first device.
[0121] The media guidance application may, based on detecting that the user
has started
using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) at the first time, determine
whether the user
has consumed an advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) on a second device
(e.g., a display
coupled to user equipment 102) within a threshold amount of time from when the
advertisement ended. If the user has consumed the advertisement on the second
device
within the threshold amount of time, the media guidance application may
present
supplemental information to the user. Specifically, the media guidance
application may
search media asset consumption history associated with the user (e.g., user
106) for an
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that the user consumed last. For
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve the media asset consumption history
associated with the
user (e.g., user 106) from local storage of either the first or second device
(e.g., mobile device
108 or user equipment 102), or from a remote server. The consumption history
may be
.. structured as a table, array, or any other suitable data structure for
storing times and
identifiers of media assets consumed by a user (e.g., user 106). The
consumption history may
include times that the user consumed media assets (e.g., media asset 202), an
identifier of the
media asset consumed, and an identifier of a device (e.g., user equipment 102)
on which the
media asset was generated for display. For example, the media guidance
application may, as
is discussed further below, determine that a given user (e.g., user 106) is
associated with
multiple devices in a home that were concurrently generating media assets for
display and
determine which one was being used by the user (e.g., based on the user
logging on to the
device or UPS coordinates) to determine a media asset that the user consumed
most recently.
[0122] The consumption history may include identifiers of advertisements
(e.g., an
identifier of advertisement 104) that were consumed during a media asset
(e.g., media asset
202) consumed by the user (e.g., user 106). The media guidance application may
determine
based on an associated time period during which the advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104)
was consumed which advertisement the user (e.g., user 106) consumed most
recently (e.g.,
based on comparison with the first time when the user started using the first
device).
Alternatively or additionally, the consumption history may only identify times
that a user
(e.g., user 106) consumed a specific media asset (e.g., media asset 202) and
another database
may be necessary to determine which advertisements were generated during that
media asset.
For example, the consumption history may store an indication that the user
consumed a
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media asset (e.g., media asset 202) with identifier "The Good Place" from 8pm
to 8:22pm.
The media guidance application may access a headend server or other media
guidance
database storing indications which advertisements (e.g., advertisement 104)
were presented
from 8pm to 8:22pm for the media asset (e.g., media asset 202) with the
identifier "The Good
Place." The media guidance application may determine which advertisement
(e.g.,
advertisement 104) was generated for display closest to 8:22pm that the user
(e.g., user 106)
completely consumed as the advertisement that the user consumed last.
[0123] In some embodiments, the media guidance application determines the
advertisement
that the user consumed last based on which advertisement (e.g., advertisement
104) was
consumed on a second device (e.g., user equipment 102) that is closest to the
current location
of the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). Specifically, the media
guidance application
may detect a device that is closest to the first device (e.g., mobile device
108), where the
device is one of a plurality of devices associated with the user. For example,
the media
guidance application may receive an indication that an identifier associated
with the user
.. (e.g., a parental control PIN and/or any other login that is specific to
user 106) has been
entered on a second device (e.g., user equipment 102). The media guidance
application may
receive the indication from the second device (e.g., user equipment 102), or
from a remote
server. Based on receiving the indication that the identifier associated with
the user has been
entered on the second device (e.g., user equipment 102), the media guidance
application may
determine that the second device is located closest to the first device that
the user started
using at the first time. Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance
application may
determine the device that is closest to the first device (e.g., mobile device
108) based on
comparing coordinates associated with the first device with coordinates
associated with a
plurality of devices associated with the user. For example, the media guidance
application
may access a profile associated with the user and determine GPS coordinates of
a device
located in a summer home of the user (e.g., user 106) and a device located in
the user's main
home. The media guidance application may compare GPS coordinates from the
first device
(e.g., a mobile phone) with the coordinates in the profile to determine which
location the first
device (e.g., mobile device 108) is in and thus which advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104)
was most recently consumed by the user (e.g., user 106). In this way, the
media guidance
application may prevent the user (e.g., user 106) from receiving supplemental
information
about advertisements he or she did not watch (e.g., if the user's sister
consumed an
advertisement most recently on a television that is also associated with the
user, the user may
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receive supplemental information about the advertisement his sister consumed
which will
likely not be of interest).
[0124] The media guidance application may determine a device identifier of the
device
closest to the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). For example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve an identifier, which may be any combination of
characters that
uniquely identifies the device from other devices associated with the user
(e.g., "Family
Room STB"), of the device (e.g., user equipment 102) determine to be closest
to the first
device (e.g., mobile device 108). The media guidance application may retrieve,
using the
device identifier for the device closest to the first device, device media
asset consumption
history associated with the user. For example, the media guidance application
may filter the
media asset consumption history based on the device it was consumed on to
determine the
advertisement most recently consumed on the device (e.g., user equipment 102)
determined
to be closest to the user. The media guidance application may search the
device media asset
consumption history for the advertisement that the user consumed last. For
example, the
media guidance application may sort the advertisements consumed by the user
(e.g., user
106) on the device (e.g., user equipment 102) determined to be closest to the
first device (e.g.,
mobile device 108) by time and date, using a bubble sort, merge sort, or other
algorithm. The
media guidance application may determine from the sorted device consumption
history which
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that the user consumed last on the
device closest to
the first device.
[0125] The media guidance application may retrieve metadata associated with
the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104). For example, the media guidance
application may
retrieve metadata associated with an advertisement locally from storage or a
remote server.
The metadata may be any data related to the advertisement (e.g., advertisement
104) that
describes content associated with the advertisement. For example, if the
advertisement is for
a new book, the metadata may include the author of the article, genre (e.g.,
Non-fiction),
and/or publisher.
[0126] The media guidance application may determine, based on the metadata
associated
with the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104), that the advertisement is
part of a group of
similar advertisements. For example, the media guidance application may access
an
advertising database (either locally in storage or at a remote server) that
includes a plurality
of data structures that each includes a plurality of identifiers of
advertisements that are
similar, as well as metadata that is common to the similar advertisements. The
data structures
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may be linked via an index data structure (e.g., via pointers). The media
guidance application
may compare the metadata associated with the advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104) with
metadata associated with each group of similar advertisements stored in the
advertising
database to determine which group of similar advertisements the advertisement
belongs to.
For example, if the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) is for a brand of
beer, the media
guidance application may determine that the advertisement belongs to a group
of similar
advertisements for "beer."
[0127] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
group of
similar advertisements that the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that
the user
consumed last is a part of based on comparing metadata. Specifically, the
media guidance
application may retrieve metadata associated with a plurality of groups of
similar
advertisements, where each group of similar advertisements includes
advertisements that
share one or more characteristics. For example, the media guidance application
may retrieve
identifiers of an actor, product type, company name, or any other metadata
that is used to
characterize a group of similar advertisements, for each group of similar
advertisements. As
an example, the media guidance application may retrieve metadata "Tom Hanks"
for a
particular group of similar advertisements that all include the actor Tom
Hanks. The media
guidance application may compare the metadata associated with the
advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104) with the metadata associated with each of the plurality of
groups of
similar advertisements. For example, the media guidance application may
compare each
retrieved piece of metadata associated with the advertisement that the user
consumed last
with the metadata associated with each group of similar advertisements by
comparing the
characters of the metadata. For example, the media guidance application may
compare
characters "Tom Hanks," who is an actor associated with the advertisement that
the user
consumed last, with characters "Tom Cruise," an actor associated with a
particular group of
similar advertisements.
[0128] The media guidance application may, based on comparing the metadata
associated
with the advertisement with the metadata associated with one of the plurality
of groups of
similar advertisements, determine that the advertisement (e.g., advertisement
104) is part of
the group of similar advertisements. For example, the media guidance
application may
determine a match between metadata of the advertisement that the user consumed
last (e.g.,
advertisement 104) and the metadata of the group of similar advertisements if
every character
matches between a particular piece of metadata (e.g., for an actor). In some
embodiments, all
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the metadata associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last
(e.g.,
advertisement 104) must match the metadata of the group of similar
advertisements for a
match to be determined. In other embodiments, if a threshold amount of the
metadata
matches, a match may be determined. If the media guidance application
determines that the
metadata matches between the advertisement that the user consumed last (e.g.,
advertisement
104) and a particular group of similar advertisements, the media guidance
application may
determine that the advertisement that the user consumed last is part of the
group of similar
advertisements.
[0129] The media guidance application may retrieve interaction histories for a
plurality of
users who consumed advertisements in the group of similar advertisements. For
example, the
media guidance application may access a database containing interaction
histories associated
with a plurality of users (e.g., which may be stored locally or at a remote
server). For
example, each interaction history may be structured as a table or other
suitable data structure,
where each row in the table contains an identifier of an action taken by a
specific user. The
.. interaction history may aggregate times and actions taken by a specific
user from different
sources, for example, a web browsing history and a television viewing history.
In this way,
the media guidance application may use the interaction history to determine an
amount of
time that a user took between consuming an advertisement (e.g., advertisement
104) and
accessing supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204)
manually (e.g., by
typing in the URL of a particular webpage into a web browser at a given time).
[0130] The media guidance application may determine which interaction
histories to
retrieve based on comparing identifiers of similar advertisements from the
group of similar
advertisements with identifiers stored in the interaction histories. For
example, the
interaction histories may contain an identifier of a media asset (e.g., media
asset 202) that
was consumed (e.g., "Friends, Season 3 Episode") from a particular source
(e.g., "CW") at a
particular time (e.g., 8-8:30pm on 1/1/2017). The media guidance application
may access
another data structure associated with the source from local storage or a
remote server to
determine which advertisements were displayed during the media asset.
Alternatively or
additionally, the identifiers of advertisements may be stored in the
interaction history and the
media guidance application may retrieve and compare the identifiers with the
identifiers of
similar advertisements without the need to access another data structure. The
media guidance
application may retrieve all, or a subset of, interaction histories where an
associated user has
consumed an advertisement that is part of the group of similar advertisements.
Alternatively
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or additionally, the media guidance application may retrieve all stored user
interaction
histories, or a subset, without determining whether a similar advertisement
was consumed by
a user associated with each interaction history. In some embodiments, the
interaction history
is anonymous with no identifying information associated with the user stored
in the
interaction history. In other embodiments, as discussed below, the interaction
history
includes a demographic profile, which enables the media guidance application
to select
interaction histories of users that are similar to the user (e.g., user 106)
for a potentially better
estimation of the threshold amount of time.
[0131] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a
portion of the
available interaction histories of users based on whether demographic profiles
of the users
match a demographic profile of the user (e.g., user 106). Specifically, the
media guidance
application may determine, based on data stored in a user profile of the user,
a demographic
profile of the user. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve
a demographic
profile associated with the user (e.g., user 106) stored in local storage or
at a remote server.
The demographic profile may contain information regarding the age, ethnicity,
location,
gender, or any other general feature of the user that allows the full identity
of the user to
remain anonymous. The media guidance application may retrieve demographic
profiles
associated with users who consumed advertisements in the group of similar
advertisements.
For example, the media guidance application may retrieve demographic profiles
from the
interaction histories (e.g., from one or more fields in the interaction
history) or from a
separate location. For example, each demographic profile retrieved by the
media guidance
application may be related to an interaction history of a user that consumed
one of the
advertisements of the group of similar advertisements that the advertisement
most recently
consumed by the user belongs to. The demographic profiles may be linked to an
interaction
history associated with the user such that the media guidance application may
retrieve an
interaction history where the associated demographic profile matches a profile
of the user.
The demographic profiles may contain information regarding the age, ethnicity,
location,
gender, or any other general feature of the users that allows the full
identity of the users to
remain anonymous.
[0132] The media guidance application may compare the demographic profile of
the user
(e.g., user 106) with a demographic profile corresponding to each user of the
users who
consumed advertisements in the group of similar advertisements. For example,
the media
guidance application may compare each characteristic of the demographic
profile of the user
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(e.g., age) with the corresponding characteristic (e.g., age) of each
demographic profile
associated with one of the users who consumed advertisements in the group of
similar
advertisements. The media guidance application may, based on comparing the
demographic
profile of the user with the demographic profile corresponding to each user
who consumed
advertisements in the group of similar advertisements, determine that a
portion of
demographic profiles corresponding to the plurality of users matches the
demographic profile
of the user. For example, the media guidance application may determine that
the
demographic profile of the user matches a demographic profile of one of the
users that
consumed advertisements of the group of similar advertisements if the every
characteristic in
both profiles match. Alternatively, the media guidance application may
determine that the
demographic profile of the user matches a demographic profile of one of the
users that
consumed advertisements of the group of similar advertisements if a threshold
amount of the
characteristics in the demographic profiles match.
[0133] The media guidance application may retrieve, based on determining that
the portion
of demographic profiles corresponding to the plurality of users matches the
demographic
profile of the user, interaction histories for the plurality of users. For
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve the interaction history associated with each
user where the
demographic profile of the user of the users who consumed advertisements in
the group of
similar advertisements matches the demographic profile of the user (e.g., user
106). In this
way, the media guidance application may calculate an estimation of the
threshold amount of
time that it takes users to access supplemental information by filtering out
users that are not
similar to the user (e.g., if the user is young, the longer amount of time an
older individual
takes to access supplemental information related to an advertisement would
skew the
threshold).
[0134] The media guidance application may determine, based on the retrieved
interaction
histories, a plurality of durations, where each duration of the plurality of
durations is a length
of time between a time when a user of the plurality of users finished
consuming one of the
advertisements in the group to when the user of the plurality of users
accessed corresponding
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204). For example,
the media
guidance application may search each retrieved interaction history for an
identifier of a
similar advertisement from the group of similar advertisements. The media
guidance
application may determine whether the user accessed supplemental information
associated
with the similar advertisement. For example, the media guidance application
may determine
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that an advertisement for an above ground pool was consumed by the user and
ended at
8:20pm on a particular day and that at 8:22pm (two minutes later) on the same
day the user
visited www.abovegroundpools.com. The media guidance application may determine
that
the user accessed supplemental information two minutes after consuming the
advertisement
based on retrieving the values from the interaction history.
[0135] The media guidance application may determine whether a user action
stored in the
interaction history with a corresponding time that is after the user finished
consuming the
similar advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) represents the user accessing
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) based on a rule-set. For
example, the media
guidance application may store, in the same or another data structure,
keywords, metadata, or
other identifying features and/or bibliographic information associated with
the similar
advertisement. The media guidance application may, after determining that a
user consumed
an advertisement that is part of the group of similar advertisements based on
an identifier of
the advertisement being present in the interaction history, search for the
keywords, metadata,
or other identifying features associated with the advertisement at later times
in the interaction
history. If the user never consumed supplemental information (e.g., no actions
after the user
finished consuming the advertisement relate to accessing associated
supplemental
information), then the media guidance application may continue checking the
interaction
history and/or other interaction histories for another advertisement of the
group of similar
advertisements. However, if the media guidance application does determine that
supplemental information was consumed at a time after the end of the
advertisement, the
media guidance application may store the amount of time later that the
information was
consumed (e.g., one of the plurality of durations) in a list, array, or other
suitable data
structure. The media guidance application may iteratively retrieve and compare
actions
stored in the interaction history with identifiers of advertisements of the
group until every
retrieved interaction history has been analyzed to determine whether
supplemental
information was accessed by a respective user after consuming an advertisement
of the group
of similar advertisements. In some embodiments, if the media guidance
application
determines that the amount of time later that the supplemental information was
consumed
(e.g., one of the plurality of durations) after the end of an advertisement
was greater than a
threshold amount of time (e.g., one day), the accessing of supplemental
information was not
tied to the advertisement and should not be used in determining the threshold
amount of time.
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[0136] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
plurality
of durations by calculating a length of time between the time when each user
of the plurality
of users finished consuming one of the advertisements (e.g., advertisement
104) and when the
user started consuming supplemental information (e.g., supplemental
information 204).
Specifically, the media guidance application may retrieve an end time when
each user of the
plurality of users finished consuming one of the advertisements in the group
of
advertisements from each retrieved interaction history. For example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve from a field of the interaction history for a given
user that the user
consumed an advertisement that is part of the group of similar advertisements
at 8:20pm on a
particular day. The media guidance application may determine that the
advertisement is part
of the group of similar advertisements based on comparing a stored identifier
of the
advertisement with identifiers associated with advertisements of the group of
similar
advertisements. The media guidance application may retrieve a start time from
each retrieved
interaction history when supplemental information associated with the
advertisement in the
group of similar advertisements was accessed by each user. For example, when
the media
guidance application determines a time that the user consumed an advertisement
of the group
of similar advertisements in the interaction history, the media guidance
application may
search the interaction history for later times when the user may have accessed
supplemental
information. For example, as discussed above, the media guidance application
may
determine whether supplemental information accessed by a user at a time after
the end of the
advertisement is associated with the advertisement. For example, if the media
guidance
application determines that a particular piece of supplemental information is
related to the
advertisement, the media guidance application may retrieve from a field of the
interaction
history for the user that the user accessed supplemental information at
8:22pm.
[0137] The media guidance application may calculate the length of time between
the time
when the user of the plurality of users finished consuming one of the
advertisements (e.g.,
advertisement 104) in the group to when the user of the plurality of users
accessed the
corresponding supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204)
based on the
start time and the end time from each retrieved interaction history. For
example, the media
guidance application may determine a difference between the two values (e.g.,
the difference
between 8:20pm and 8:22pm is two minutes) as the length of time after the end
of the
advertisement that the user of the plurality of users accessed supplemental
information. The
media guidance application may determine the plurality of durations based on
the calculated
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length of time from each retrieved interaction history. For example, the media
guidance
application may execute a program script to iteratively retrieve and compare
values stored in
each retrieved interaction history and determine whether a user who consumed
an
advertisement of the group of similar advertisements later consumed
supplemental
information associated with the advertisement. The media guidance application
may, for
each interaction history where a user did consume an advertisement of the
group of similar
advertisements and later consumed supplemental information associated with the
advertisement, store the length of time in a list or other suitable data
structure. The media
guidance application may optionally modify the value stored based on how
closely the
demographic profile of the user associated with the retrieved interaction
history matches the
demographic profile of user 106 (e.g., weight the values added to the list).
[0138] The media guidance application may calculate a threshold amount of time
associated with the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) based on the
plurality of
durations. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve a stored
list, array, or
other data structure that contains the plurality of durations and average the
values stored in
the list, array, or other data structure. The media guidance application may
store the
calculated average of the retrieved values as the threshold amount of time.
The media
guidance application may optionally weight particular durations higher than
others, based on
a type of supplemental information accessed. For example, the media guidance
application
may determine that a user who accesses a website associated with a company
whose product
was feature in an advertisement should be weighted more than if the user
accessed the
website associated with a competitor company selling a similar product.
[0139] The media guidance application may calculate an amount of time starting
from an
endpoint of the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) to when the user
(e.g., user 106)
started using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). For example, the
media guidance
application may initialize and store a variable for the amount of time
starting from the
endpoint of the advertisement to when the user started using the first device
(e.g., mobile
device 108). Continuing with this example, the media guidance application may
calculate
and store the amount of time by subtracting the first time from an end time
code of the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104). As a specific example, if the user
started using the
first device at (20:22:10:00) and the end time code is (20:21:40:00), then the
media guidance
application may calculate the amount of time as 30 seconds. In some
embodiments, the end
time code of the advertisement may not be the endpoint of the advertisement.
For example,
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the media guidance application may add a small amount of time (e.g., ten
seconds) to account
for a transition element that leads back into the media asset (e.g., media
asset 202) provided
as part of the media asset by a content source.
[0140] The media guidance application may compare the threshold amount of time
with the
amount of time starting from the endpoint of the advertisement to when the
user started using
the first device (e.g., mobile device 108). For example, the media guidance
application may
compare the two calculated values to determine which is greater. In some
embodiments the
media guidance application may round the two values (e.g., to the nearest
second) for easier
comparison.
[0141] The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing the
threshold
amount of time with the amount of time starting from the endpoint of the
advertisement to
when the user started using the first device, that the user started using the
first device (e.g.,
mobile device 108) within the threshold amount of time from the endpoint of
the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104). For example, if the amount of time
from the
endpoint of the advertisement (e.g., mobile device 108) to when the user began
using the first
device was calculated as 30 seconds and the threshold amount of time was
calculated to be 40
seconds based on the interaction histories of users that consumed similar
advertisements as
described above, then the media guidance application may determine that the
user (e.g., user
106) started using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) within the
amount of time from
the endpoint of the advertisement. In some embodiments, the media guidance
application
may determine that the user started using the first device within the amount
of time if the
amount of time is within a tolerance factor of the duration. The tolerance
factor may be
adjusted based on user preferences or interaction history (e.g., stored in a
profile associated
with the user). For example, the user may be slow to start using a mobile
phone after the
conclusion of the advertisement if he or she is interested in an advertisement
(e.g., because
the user always keeps their mobile phone in a different room when watching
television) and
may want the threshold time to be increased. The media guidance application
may store a
tolerance factor and multiply the length of the advertisement segment by the
factor. For
example, if the calculated threshold amount of time is 30 seconds and the
tolerance factor is
1.2, then the effective threshold amount of time used for the purposes of
determining whether
the user began using the first device within the threshold amount of time is
36 seconds.
[0142] The media guidance application may, in response to determining that the
user (e.g.,
user 106) started using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) within the
threshold amount
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of time from the endpoint of the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104),
retrieve
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) associated with
the
advertisement that the user consumed last and generate the supplemental
information for
display. For example, the media guidance application may determine that since
the user (e.g.,
user 106) began using the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) within the
calculated
threshold amount of time from the end of the advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104),
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) related to the
advertisement
should be presented to the user. Specifically, the media guidance application
may retrieve
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) for the
advertisement that the
user consumed last. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve
the
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) from storage or
a remote
server. The media guidance application may determine a location of the
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) to retrieve based on an index
data structure.
For example, the media guidance application may compare an identifier of the
advertisement
with stored identifiers associated with supplemental information (e.g.,
supplemental
information 204). As a specific example, the media guidance application may
determine that
the advertisement that the user consumed most recently (e.g.,
"Budweiser_ad_1") matches an
identifier stored in the index data structure. The media guidance application
may retrieve
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) associated with
the stored
identifier. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve a pointer
to a location
in memory where the supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information
204) is
located and retrieve the supplemental information from that location.
[0143] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the
location
of the second device (e.g., user equipment 102) in order to target
supplemental information
(e.g., supplemental information 204) related to an advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104) to
the user (e.g., user 106). Specifically, the media guidance application may
retrieve a location
of the second device from a profile associated with the user, where the
location is from a
plurality of locations that indicate an area in a home. For example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve the profile from local storage (e.g., of the first
device) or from a
remote server. The profile may include a table or other suitable data
structure with identifiers
of devices (e.g., user equipment 102 and mobile device 108) associated with
the user (e.g.,
user 106) each with at least one corresponding indication of a location of the
device (e.g.,
bedroom). The media guidance application may retrieve a location corresponding
to the
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second device (e.g., user equipment 102) from a field associated with the
second device in the
profile. The locations may, alternatively or additionally, be locations in any
building (e.g., an
airport or office building) such that a user waiting for a flight at an
airport consuming a
television monitor may be able to obtain supplemental information related to
an
advertisement that he or she has consumed. The media guidance application may
retrieve a
plurality of identifiers of supplemental information (e.g., supplemental
information 204)
associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last, where each of
the plurality of
identifiers is associated with one or more locations of the plurality of
locations. For example,
the media guidance application may retrieve an index data structure including
identifiers of
supplemental information (e.g., which may be any combination of characters
that describe the
supplemental information). The data structure further may include both a
pointer to a
location in storage containing the supplemental information (e.g.,
supplemental information
204), as well as a location in a home that the supplemental information is
relevant to.
[0144] The media guidance application may compare the location of the second
device
(e.g., user equipment 102) with each location associated with one of the
retrieved plurality of
identifiers of supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204).
For example,
the media guidance application may iteratively compare the location of the
second device
retrieved from the profile (e.g., "bedroom") with locations associated with
supplemental
information that is related to the advertisement. As a specific example, the
media guidance
application may compare the location of the second device, "bedroom," to the
location
associated with supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204)
related to a
television discount that is associated with the locations "bedroom" and
"living room". The
media guidance application may determine, based on comparing the location of
the second
device with each location associated with one of the retrieved plurality of
identifiers of
supplemental information, that the location matches a stored location. For
example, the
media guidance application may determine that all, or a threshold amount or
percentage, of
characters describing the location of the second device (e.g. user equipment
102) match
characters describing the location associated with a particular supplemental
information (e.g.,
supplemental information 204) and thus the two locations match. The media
guidance
application may retrieve, from a field associated with the stored location,
corresponding
supplemental information related to the location of the second device. For
example, the
media guidance application may retrieve a pointer to a location in storage
that contains the
supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) that is
associated with the
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location of the second device. The media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information from the location in storage.
[0145] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may select
supplemental
information associated with an advertisement (e.g., different from
advertisement 104) in the
group of advertisements if there is not supplemental information available for
the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) most recently consumed by the user.
Specifically,
the media guidance application may determine that no supplemental information
is associated
with the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104). For example, the media
guidance
application may compare an identifier of the advertisement that was most
recently consumed
by the user with a plurality of identifiers associated with supplemental
information in a
database (e.g., stored locally in storage or at a remote server) and determine
that none of the
supplemental information in the database is associated with the advertisement
(e.g.,
advertisement 104). The media guidance application may compare the metadata
associated
with the advertisement with metadata associated with each advertisement in the
group of
similar advertisements. For example, the media guidance application may
compare each
piece of metadata associated with the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104)
that the user
consumed last with the metadata associated with each advertisement in the
group of similar
advertisements by comparing the characters of the metadata. For example, the
media
guidance application may compare characters "Tom Hanks," who is an actor
associated with
the advertisement that the user consumed last, with characters "Tom Cruise,"
an actor
associated with another advertisement in the group of similar advertisements.
[0146] The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing the
metadata
associated with the advertisement with metadata associated with each
advertisement in the
group of similar advertisements, that the metadata associated with the
advertisement (e.g.,
advertisement 104) matches the metadata associated with a first similar
advertisement. For
example, the media guidance application may determine a match between metadata
of the
advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that the user consumed last and the
metadata of a
different advertisement in the group of similar advertisements if every
character matches
between a particular piece of metadata (e.g., for an actor). In some
embodiments, all the
metadata associated with the advertisement (e.g., advertisement 104) that the
user consumed
last must match the metadata of the different advertisement for a match to be
determined. In
other embodiments, if a threshold amount of the metadata matches, a match may
be
determined. The media guidance application may, in response to determining
that the
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metadata associated with the advertisement matches the metadata associated
with a first
similar advertisement, retrieve supplemental information associated with the
first similar
advertisement in the group of similar advertisements. For example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve the supplemental information associated with the
first similar
advertisement from storage or a remote server.
[0147] The media guidance application may generate for display the
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204). The supplemental information
may be
text, graphics, video, or any other visual depiction of information related to
the advertisement
(e.g., advertisement 104). As another example, the supplemental information
may be related
to a promotion, sale, coupon, discount, newly available product, or any other
information the
advertiser wishes to inform the user about to entice him or her to purchase a
good or service.
For example, the media guidance application may generate the supplemental
information
automatically upon detecting that the user has started using the first device
(e.g., as an
overlay or popup). The media guidance application may, alternatively or
additionally,
prompt the user (e.g., user 106) prior to presenting the supplemental
information regarding
whether they want to receive supplemental information (e.g., supplemental
information 204).
In response to receiving a user selection to display the supplemental
information, the media
guidance application may generate the retrieved supplemental information for
display. In
some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a plurality of
supplemental
information related to one or more of the advertisements associated with the
advertisement
slot. The media guidance application may present the supplemental information
over fixed
time intervals (e.g., each piece of supplemental information is displayed for
five seconds and
then the next is automatically displayed) and/or prompt the user for which
specific
supplemental information to display (e.g., generate for display selectable
options to display
different types of supplemental information, such as a movie trailer or a
textual synopsis).
[0148] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may configure an
application
(e.g., a web browser) on the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) to
generate for display the
retrieved supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) when
the application
is accessed. Specifically, the media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information (e.g., a link to a promotion related to an advertisement that the
user consumed) in
response to the user (e.g., user 106) starting to use the first device (e.g.,
mobile device 108),
but generate for display that supplemental information responsive to another
user input (e.g.,
launching the application). For example, the media guidance application may
retrieve the
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supplemental information (e.g., supplemental information 204) in response to
the user (e.g.,
user 106) unlocking the first device (e.g., mobile device 108) and may use the
information to
configure a homepage or a start page of a web browser application. Continuing
with this
example, when the user (e.g., user 106) selects the web browser application
with another user
input, the user is presented with the supplemental information (e.g., the
browser loads the
start page or the homepage). It should be noted that in some embodiments, if
the user doesn't
access the application within a threshold amount of time (e.g., the threshold
discussed above),
the media guidance application may reconfigure the application to not present
the
supplemental information.
[0149] In some embodiments, the selection of a web browser application or
other
application may itself be the indication that the user (e.g., user 106) has
started using the first
device (e.g., mobile device 108). Specifically, upon receiving a selection of
an application by
the user (e.g., user 106), the media guidance application may retrieve
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) related to an advertisement
that a user
recently consumed and configure the application to generate the supplemental
information for
display. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) in response to the user
(e.g., user 106)
selecting a web browser application on the first device (e.g., mobile device
108) and may use
the information to configure a homepage or a start page of the web browser
application.
.. Continuing with this example, the web browser application may present the
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) in a banner advertisement on
a start page or
the homepage of the web browser application.
[0150] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine on
which
device (e.g., user equipment 102 or mobile device 108) to generate for display
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) based on user preferences.
Specifically, the
media guidance application may determine a type of the supplemental
information (e.g.,
supplemental information 204). For example, the type may be a movie, text
article,
graphic(s) or any other category of information that can be presented to a
user. The media
guidance application may determine the type of a particular retrieved
supplemental
.. information (e.g., supplemental information 204) from a stored string in a
header of the
retrieved supplemental information identifying the type (e.g., type =
`movie'). The media
guidance application may compare the type of the supplemental information with
user
preferences stored in a profile associated with the user (e.g., user 106),
where the user
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preferences identify devices to display types of supplemental information on.
For example,
the media guidance application may retrieve the profile associated with the
user (e.g., user
106) from local storage (e.g., of mobile device 108) or from a remote server.
The media
guidance application may retrieve preferences for different types of
supplemental information
(e.g., supplemental information 204) and determine whether a retrieved
preference matches
the type of the presently retrieved supplemental information. The media
guidance application
may determine, based on comparing the type of the supplemental information
with the user
preferences, that the type of the supplemental information matches a first
stored user
preference associated with displaying supplemental information on the second
device. For
example, the media guidance application may determine that the type of the
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204), "movie," matches a user
preference for
displaying a "movie" on the second device (e.g., on user equipment 102, as
opposed to on
mobile device 108, which may have a smaller display size and be more difficult
to consume
the supplemental information). The media guidance application may, in response
to
determining that the type of the supplemental information matches the first
stored user
preference, transmit an instruction to the second device (e.g., user equipment
102) to display
the supplemental information. For example, the media guidance application may
send a data
packet to the second device (e.g., user equipment 102) including the
supplemental
information (e.g., supplemental information 204) and an instruction to
generate the
supplemental information for display.
[0151] The amount of content available to users in any given content delivery
system can
be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form of media guidance
through an
interface that allows users to efficiently navigate content selections and
easily identify
content that they may desire. An application that provides such guidance is
referred to herein
as an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a media guidance
application or a
guidance application.
[0152] Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms
depending on the
content for which they provide guidance. One typical type of media guidance
application is
an interactive television program guide. Interactive television program guides
(sometimes
referred to as electronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications
that, among
other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many types of content
or media assets.
Interactive media guidance applications may generate graphical user interface
screens that
enable a user to navigate among, locate and select content. As referred to
herein, the terms
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"media asset" and "content" should be understood to mean an electronically
consumable user
asset, such as television programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-
demand
programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g.,
streaming content,
downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content
information, pictures,
rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic
books, blogs, chat
sessions, social media, applications, games, and/or any other media or
multimedia and/or
combination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users to navigate
among and
locate content. As referred to herein, the term "multimedia" should be
understood to mean
content that utilizes at least two different content forms described above,
for example, text,
audio, images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,
played,
displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also be part of a
live performance.
[0153] The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performing
any of the
embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computer readable media.
Computer
readable media includes any media capable of storing data. The computer
readable media
may be transitory, including, but not limited to, propagating electrical or
electromagnetic
signals, or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile and
non-volatile
computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USB
drive, DVD, CD,
media cards, register memory, processor caches, Random Access Memory ("RAM"),
etc.
[0154] With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speed
wireless
networks, users are accessing media on user equipment devices on which they
traditionally
did not. As referred to herein, the phrase "user equipment device," "user
equipment," "user
device," "electronic device," "electronic equipment," "media equipment
device," or "media
device" should be understood to mean any device for accessing the content
described above,
such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-top box, an integrated receiver
decoder (IRD) for
handling satellite television, a digital storage device, a digital media
receiver (DMR), a digital
media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, a
connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, a BLU-RAY recorder, a
personal
computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a WebTV box, a personal
computer
television (PC/TV), a PC media server, a PC media center, a hand-held
computer, a stationary
telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a portable
video player, a
portable music player, a portable gaming machine, a smart phone, or any other
television
equipment, computing equipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the
same. In
some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screen and
a rear
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facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angled screens. In some
embodiments, the
user equipment device may have a front facing camera and/or a rear facing
camera. On these
user equipment devices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the
same content
available through a television. Consequently, media guidance may be available
on these
devices, as well. The guidance provided may be for content available only
through a
television, for content available only through one or more of other types of
user equipment
devices, or for content available both through a television and one or more of
the other types
of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may be provided as
on-line
applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone applications or
clients on user
equipment devices. Various devices and platforms that may implement media
guidance
applications are described in more detail below.
[0155] One of the functions of the media guidance application is to provide
media guidance
data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase "media guidance data" or
"guidance data"
should be understood to mean any data related to content or data used in
operating the
guidance application. For example, the guidance data may include program
information,
guidance application settings, user preferences, user profile information,
media listings,
media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels, titles,
descriptions,
ratings information (e.g., parental control ratings, critic's ratings, etc.),
genre or category
information, actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers'
logos, etc.), media
format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D, etc.), on-demand
information, blogs,
websites, and any other type of guidance data that is helpful for a user to
navigate among and
locate desired content selections.
[0156] FIGS. 3-4 show illustrative display screens that may be used to provide
media
guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 3-4 may be implemented on
any suitable
user equipment device or platform. While the displays of FIGS. 3-4 are
illustrated as full
screen displays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over content
being displayed. A
user may indicate a desire to access content information by selecting a
selectable option
provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon,
a hyperlink, etc.)
or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or
other user input
interface or device. In response to the user's indication, the media guidance
application may
provide a display screen with media guidance data organized in one of several
ways, such as
by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, by content
type, by category
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(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories of programming), or
other
predefined, user-defined, or other organization criteria.
[0157] FIG. 3 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 300
arranged by time and
channel that also enables access to different types of content in a single
display. Display 300
may include grid 302 with: (1) a column of channel/content type identifiers
304, where each
channel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column) identifies a
different channel or
content type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers 306, where each time
identifier
(which is a cell in the row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 302
also includes
cells of program listings, such as program listing 308, where each listing
provides the title of
-- the program provided on the listing's associated channel and time. With a
user input device, a
user can select program listings by moving highlight region 310. Information
relating to the
program listing selected by highlight region 310 may be provided in program
information
region 312. Region 312 may include, for example, the program title, the
program
description, the time the program is provided (if applicable), the channel the
program is on (if
-- applicable), the program's rating, and other desired information.
[0158] In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., content
that is
scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipment devices at a
predetermined time
and is provided according to a schedule), the media guidance application also
provides access
to non-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipment device
at any time
and is not provided according to a schedule). Non-linear programming may
include content
from different content sources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD),
Internet content
(e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content
(e.g., content stored
on any user equipment device described above or other storage device), or
other time-
independent content. On-demand content may include movies or any other content
provided
by a particular content provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing "The Sopranos"
and "Curb
Your Enthusiasm"). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time Warner
Company L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM are
trademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content may include web
events,
such as a chat session or Webcast, or content available on-demand as streaming
content or
downloadable content through an Internet web site or other Internet access
(e.g. FTP).
[0159] Grid 302 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programming
including
on-demand listing 314, recorded content listing 316, and Internet content
listing 318. A
display combining media guidance data for content from different types of
content sources is
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sometimes referred to as a "mixed-media" display. Various permutations of the
types of
media guidance data that may be displayed that are different than display 300
may be based
on user selection or guidance application definition (e.g., a display of only
recorded and
broadcast listings, only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As
illustrated, listings 314,
316, and 318 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayed in grid 302
to indicate
that selection of these listings may provide access to a display dedicated to
on-demand
listings, recorded listings, or Internet listings, respectively. In some
embodiments, listings for
these content types may be included directly in grid 302. Additional media
guidance data
may be displayed in response to the user selecting one of the navigational
icons 320.
(Pressing an arrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a
similar manner as
selecting navigational icons 320.)
[0160] Display 300 may also include video region 322, and options region 326.
Video
region 322 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs that are
currently available,
will be available, or were available to the user. The content of video region
322 may
correspond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed in grid
302. Grid
displays including a video region are sometimes referred to as picture-in-
guide (PIG)
displays. PIG displays and their functionalities are described in greater
detail in Satterfield et
al. U.S. Patent No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Patent
No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference
herein in
their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other media guidance
application display
screens of the embodiments described herein.
[0161] Options region 326 may allow the user to access different types of
content, media
guidance application displays, and/or media guidance application features.
Options region
326 may be part of display 300 (and other display screens described herein),
or may be
invoked by a user by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or
assignable
button on a user input device. The selectable options within options region
326 may concern
features related to program listings in grid 302 or may include options
available from a main
menu display. Features related to program listings may include searching for
other air times
or ways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling series recording
of a program,
setting program and/or channel as a favorite, purchasing a program, or other
features.
Options available from a main menu display may include search options, VOD
options,
parental control options, Internet options, cloud-based options, device
synchronization
options, second screen device options, options to access various types of
media guidance data
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displays, options to subscribe to a premium service, options to edit a user's
profile, options to
access a browse overlay, or other options.
[0162] The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user's
preferences.
A personalized media guidance application allows a user to customize displays
and features
to create a personalized "experience" with the media guidance application.
This personalized
experience may be created by allowing a user to input these customizations
and/or by the
media guidance application monitoring user activity to determine various user
preferences.
Users may access their personalized guidance application by logging in or
otherwise
identifying themselves to the guidance application. Customization of the media
guidance
application may be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations
may include
varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays, font size of
text, etc.), aspects
of content listings displayed (e.g., only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-
specified
broadcast channels based on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the
display of channels,
recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g., recording or
series recordings
for particular users, recording quality, etc.), parental control settings,
customized presentation
of Internet content (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,
electronically delivered
articles, etc.) and other desired customizations.
[0163] The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profile
information or may automatically compile user profile information. The media
guidance
application may, for example, monitor the content the user accesses and/or
other interactions
the user may have with the guidance application. Additionally, the media
guidance
application may obtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to
a particular user
(e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the user accesses, such as
www.Tivo.com, from
other media guidance applications the user accesses, from other interactive
applications the
user accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/or
obtain
information about the user from other sources that the media guidance
application may
access. As a result, a user can be provided with a unified guidance
application experience
across the user's different user equipment devices. This type of user
experience is described
in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 6. Additional personalized
media guidance
application features are described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S.
Patent Application
Publication No. 2005/0251827, filed July 11,2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Patent
No. 7,165,098,
issued January 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication
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No. 2002/0174430, filed February 21, 2002, which are hereby incorporated by
reference
herein in their entireties.
[0164] Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown in
FIG. 4.
Video mosaic display 400 includes selectable options 402 for content
information organized
based on content type, genre, and/or other organization criteria. In display
400, television
listings option 404 is selected, thus providing listings 406, 408, 410, and
412 as broadcast
program listings. In display 400 the listings may provide graphical images
including cover
art, still images from the content, video clip previews, live video from the
content, or other
types of content that indicate to a user the content being described by the
media guidance data
in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also be accompanied by text
to provide
further information about the content associated with the listing. For
example, listing 408
may include more than one portion, including media portion 414 and text
portion 416. Media
portion 414 and/or text portion 416 may be selectable to view content in full-
screen or to
view information related to the content displayed in media portion 414 (e.g.,
to view listings
for the channel that the video is displayed on).
[0165] The listings in display 400 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 406
is larger than
listings 408, 410, and 412), but if desired, all the listings may be the same
size. Listings may
be of different sizes or graphically accentuated to indicate degrees of
interest to the user or to
emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider or based on user
preferences.
Various systems and methods for graphically accentuating content listings are
discussed in,
for example, Yates, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885,
filed November
12, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
[0166] Users may access content and the media guidance application (and its
display
screens described above and below) from one or more of their user equipment
devices.
FIG. 5 shows a generalized embodiment of illustrative user equipment device
500. More
specific implementations of user equipment devices are discussed below in
connection with
FIG. 6. User equipment device 500 may receive content and data via
input/output
(hereinafter "I/0") path 502. I/O path 502 may provide content (e.g.,
broadcast
programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, content available over a
local area
network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), and/or other content) and data to
control
circuitry 504, which includes processing circuitry 506 and storage 508.
Control circuitry 504
may be used to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable data
using I/O path
502. I/0 path 502 may connect control circuitry 504 (and specifically
processing circuitry
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506) to one or more communications paths (described below). I/O functions may
be
provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a
single path in
FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.
[0167] Control circuitry 504 may be based on any suitable processing circuitry
such as
processing circuitry 506. As referred to herein, processing circuitry should
be understood to
mean circuitry based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital
signal
processors, programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays
(FPGAs),
application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may include a
multi-core processor
(e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or any suitable number of cores) or
supercomputer. In
some embodiments, processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple
separate
processors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same type of
processing units
(e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multiple different processors (e.g.,
an Intel Core i5
processor and an Intel Core i7 processor). In some embodiments, control
circuitry 504
executes instructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,
storage 508).
.. Specifically, control circuitry 504 may be instructed by the media guidance
application to
perform the functions discussed above and below. For example, the media
guidance
application may provide instructions to control circuitry 504 to generate the
media guidance
displays. In some implementations, any action performed by control circuitry
504 may be
based on instructions received from the media guidance application.
[0168] In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 504 may include
communications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidance
application server or
other networks or servers. The instructions for carrying out the above
mentioned
functionality may be stored on the guidance application server. Communications
circuitry
may include a cable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN)
modem, a digital
subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card, or a wireless
modem for
communications with other equipment, or any other suitable communications
circuitry. Such
communications may involve the Internet or any other suitable communications
networks or
paths (which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 6). In
addition,
communications circuitry may include circuitry that enables peer-to-peer
communication of
user equipment devices, or communication of user equipment devices in
locations remote
from each other (described in more detail below).
[0169] Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 508 that
is part of
control circuitry 504. As referred to herein, the phrase "electronic storage
device" or "storage
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device" should be understood to mean any device for storing electronic data,
computer
software, or firmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard
drives,
optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)
recorders, BLU-RAY
disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders, digital video recorders (DVR,
sometimes
called a personal video recorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum
storage devices,
gaming consoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable
storage devices,
and/or any combination of the same. Storage 508 may be used to store various
types of
content described herein as well as media guidance data described above.
Nonvolatile
memory may also be used (e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other
instructions). Cloud-
based storage, described in relation to FIG. 6, may be used to supplement
storage 508 or
instead of storage 508.
[0170] Control circuitry 504 may include video generating circuitry and tuning
circuitry,
such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2 decoders or other
digital decoding
circuitry, high-definition tuners, or any other suitable tuning or video
circuits or combinations
of such circuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air,
analog, or digital
signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided. Control circuitry
504 may also
include scaler circuitry for upconverting and downconverting content into the
preferred
output format of the user equipment 500. Circuitry 504 may also include
digital-to-analog
converter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry for converting
between digital
and analog signals. The tuning and encoding circuitry may be used by the user
equipment
device to receive and to display, to play, or to record content. The tuning
and encoding
circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitry described
herein, including
for example, the tuning, video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting,
decrypting, scaler,
and analog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running on one
or more
general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may be provided to
handle
simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and record functions, picture-in-
picture (PIP)
functions, multiple-tuner recording, etc.). If storage 508 is provided as a
separate device
from user equipment 500, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multiple
tuners) may
be associated with storage 508.
[0171] A user may send instructions to control circuitry 504 using user input
interface 510.
User input interface 510 may be any suitable user interface, such as a remote
control, mouse,
trackball, keypad, keyboard, touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick,
voice recognition
interface, or other user input interfaces. Display 512 may be provided as a
stand-alone device
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or integrated with other elements of user equipment device 500. For example,
display 512
may be a touchscreen or touch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user
input interface
510 may be integrated with or combined with display 512. Display 512 may be
one or more
of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD) for a mobile
device, amorphous
silicon display, low temperature poly silicon display, electronic ink display,
electrophoretic
display, active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic
display, cathode ray tube
display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescent display, plasma
display panel, high-
performance addressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-
emitting diode
display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,
carbon
nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulator display, or any
other suitable
equipment for displaying visual images. In some embodiments, display 512 may
be HDTV-
capable. In some embodiments, display 512 may be a 3D display, and the
interactive media
guidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. A video
card or
graphics card may generate the output to the display 512. The video card may
offer various
functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-
2/MPEG-4
decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors. The video
card may be any
processing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry 504. The
video card may
be integrated with the control circuitry 504. Speakers 514 may be provided as
integrated with
other elements of user equipment device 500 or may be stand-alone units. The
audio
component of videos and other content displayed on display 512 may be played
through
speakers 514. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to a receiver
(not shown),
which processes and outputs the audio via speakers 514.
[0172] The guidance application may be implemented using any suitable
architecture. For
example, it may be a stand-alone application wholly-implemented on user
equipment device
500. In such an approach, instructions of the application are stored locally
(e.g., in storage
508), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodic basis
(e.g., from an out-
of-band feed, from an Internet resource, or using another suitable approach).
Control
circuitry 504 may retrieve instructions of the application from storage 508
and process the
instructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based on the
processed
instructions, control circuitry 504 may determine what action to perform when
input is
received from input interface 510. For example, movement of a cursor on a
display up/down
may be indicated by the processed instructions when input interface 510
indicates that an
up/down button was selected.
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[0173] In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-server
based
application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented on user
equipment device 500
is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests to a server remote to the user
equipment device
500. In one example of a client-server based guidance application, control
circuitry 504 runs
a web browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. For
example, the
remote server may store the instructions for the application in a storage
device. The remote
server may process the stored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control
circuitry 504) and
generate the displays discussed above and below. The client device may receive
the displays
generated by the remote server and may display the content of the displays
locally on
equipment device 500. This way, the processing of the instructions is
performed remotely by
the server while the resulting displays are provided locally on equipment
device 500.
Equipment device 500 may receive inputs from the user via input interface 510
and transmit
those inputs to the remote server for processing and generating the
corresponding displays.
For example, equipment device 500 may transmit a communication to the remote
server
indicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 510. The
remote server
may process instructions in accordance with that input and generate a display
of the
application corresponding to the input (e.g., a display that moves a cursor
up/down). The
generated display is then transmitted to equipment device 500 for presentation
to the user.
[0174] In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded and
interpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (run by
control circuitry
504). In some embodiments, the guidance application may be encoded in the ETV
Binary
Interchange Format (EBIF), received by control circuitry 504 as part of a
suitable feed, and
interpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 504. For example, the
guidance
application may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, the guidance
application
may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files that are received and run by a
local virtual
machine or other suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 504. In
some of such
embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital media encoding
schemes), the
guidance application may be, for example, encoded and transmitted in an MPEG-2
object
carousel with the MPEG audio and video packets of a program.
[0175] User equipment device 500 of FIG. 5 can be implemented in system 600 of
FIG. 6
as user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, wireless user
communications device 606, or any other type of user equipment suitable for
accessing
content, such as a non-portable gaming machine. For simplicity, these devices
may be
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referred to herein collectively as user equipment or user equipment devices,
and may be
substantially similar to user equipment devices described above. User
equipment devices, on
which a media guidance application may be implemented, may function as a
standalone
device or may be part of a network of devices. Various network configurations
of devices
may be implemented and are discussed in more detail below.
[0176] A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system features
described
above in connection with FIG. 5 may not be classified solely as user
television equipment
602, user computer equipment 604, or a wireless user communications device
606. For
example, user television equipment 602 may, like some user computer equipment
604, be
Internet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while user computer
equipment 604
may, like some television equipment 602, include a tuner allowing for access
to television
programming. The media guidance application may have the same layout on
various
different types of user equipment or may be tailored to the display
capabilities of the user
equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 604, the guidance
application may be
provided as a web site accessed by a web browser. In another example, the
guidance
application may be scaled down for wireless user communications devices 606.
[0177] In system 600, there is typically more than one of each type of user
equipment
device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the
drawing. In
addition, each user may utilize more than one type of user equipment device
and also more
than one of each type of user equipment device.
[0178] In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user television
equipment 602,
user computer equipment 604, wireless user communications device 606) may be
referred to
as a "second screen device." For example, a second screen device may
supplement content
presented on a first user equipment device. The content presented on the
second screen
device may be any suitable content that supplements the content presented on
the first device.
In some embodiments, the second screen device provides an interface for
adjusting settings
and display preferences of the first device. In some embodiments, the second
screen device
is configured for interacting with other second screen devices or for
interacting with a social
network. The second screen device can be located in the same room as the first
device, a
different room from the first device but in the same house or building, or in
a different
building from the first device.
[0179] The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent media
guidance
application settings across in-home devices and remote devices. Settings
include those
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described herein, as well as channel and program favorites, programming
preferences that the
guidance application utilizes to make programming recommendations, display
preferences,
and other desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channel
as a favorite on,
for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on their personal computer at their
office, the same
channel would appear as a favorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user
television
equipment and user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices,
if desired.
Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can change the guidance
experience
on another user equipment device, regardless of whether they are the same or a
different type
of user equipment device. In addition, the changes made may be based on
settings input by a
user, as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.
[0180] The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network
614.
Namely, user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, and
wireless user
communications device 606 are coupled to communications network 614 via
communications
paths 608, 610, and 612, respectively. Communications network 614 may be one
or more
networks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data
network (e.g.,
a 4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, or
other types of
communications network or combinations of communications networks. Paths 608,
610, and
612 may separately or together include one or more communications paths, such
as, a satellite
path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path that supports Internet
communications (e.g.,
IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals),
or any other
suitable wired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths.
Path 612 is
drawn with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in
FIG. 6 it is a
wireless path and paths 608 and 610 are drawn as solid lines to indicate they
are wired paths
(although these paths may be wireless paths, if desired). Communications with
the user
equipment devices may be provided by one or more of these communications
paths, but are
shown as a single path in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.
[0181] Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipment
devices,
these devices may communicate directly with each other via communication
paths, such as
those described above in connection with paths 608, 610, and 612, as well as
other short-
range point-to-point communication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394
cables, wireless
paths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or other short-range
communication via
wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is a certification mark owned by Bluetooth
SIG,
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INC. The user equipment devices may also communicate with each other directly
through an
indirect path via communications network 614.
[0182] System 600 includes content source 616 and media guidance data source
618
coupled to communications network 614 via communication paths 620 and 622,
respectively.
Paths 620 and 622 may include any of the communication paths described above
in
connection with paths 608, 610, and 612. Communications with the content
source 616 and
media guidance data source 618 may be exchanged over one or more
communications paths,
but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the
drawing. In addition,
there may be more than one of each of content source 616 and media guidance
data source
618, but only one of each is shown in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the
drawing. (The
different types of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired,
content source 616
and media guidance data source 618 may be integrated as one source device.
Although
communications between sources 616 and 618 with user equipment devices 602,
604, and
606 are shown as through communications network 614, in some embodiments,
sources 616
and 618 may communicate directly with user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606
via
communication paths (not shown) such as those described above in connection
with
paths 608, 610, and 612.
[0183] Content source 616 may include one or more types of content
distribution
equipment including a television distribution facility, cable system headend,
satellite
distribution facility, programming sources (e.g., television broadcasters,
such as NBC, ABC,
HBO, etc.), intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet
providers, on-demand
media servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned by the
National
Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by the American
Broadcasting
Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by the Home Box Office, Inc.
Content
source 616 may be the originator of content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a
Webcast
provider, etc.) or may not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand
content provider,
an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs for downloading, etc.).
Content source
616 may include cable sources, satellite providers, on-demand providers,
Internet providers,
over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Content source
616 may also
include a remote media server used to store different types of content
(including video
content selected by a user), in a location remote from any of the user
equipment devices.
Systems and methods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely
stored content to
user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connection with Ellis et
al., U.S. Patent
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No. 7,761,892, issued July 20, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference
herein in its
entirety.
[0184] Media guidance data source 618 may provide media guidance data, such as
the
media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may be provided to
the user
equipment devices using any suitable approach. In some embodiments, the
guidance
application may be a stand-alone interactive television program guide that
receives program
guide data via a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Program
schedule data and
other guidance data may be provided to the user equipment on a television
channel sideband,
using an in-band digital signal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by
any other suitable
data transmission technique. Program schedule data and other media guidance
data may be
provided to user equipment on multiple analog or digital television channels.
[0185] In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 618
may be
provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. For example, a
user equipment
device may pull media guidance data from a server, or a server may push media
guidance
data to a user equipment device. In some embodiments, a guidance application
client
residing on the user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 618 to
obtain guidance data
when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of date or when the user
equipment device
receives a request from the user to receive data. Media guidance may be
provided to the user
equipment with any suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-
specified period of
time, a system-specified period of time, in response to a request from user
equipment, etc.).
Media guidance data source 618 may provide user equipment devices 602, 604,
and 606 the
media guidance application itself or software updates for the media guidance
application.
[0186] In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.
For
example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical user activity
information (e.g.,
what content the user typically watches, what times of day the user watches
content, whether
the user interacts with a social network, at what times the user interacts
with a social network
to post information, what types of content the user typically watches (e.g.,
pay TV or free
TV), mood, brain activity information, etc.). The media guidance data may also
include
subscription data. For example, the subscription data may identify to which
sources or
services a given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the given
user has
previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g., whether the user
subscribes to
premium channels, whether the user has added a premium level of services,
whether the user
has increased Internet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or the
subscription
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data may identify patterns of a given user for a period of more than one year.
The media
guidance data may include a model (e.g., a survivor model) used for generating
a score that
indicates a likelihood a given user will terminate access to a service/source.
For example, the
media guidance application may process the viewer data with the subscription
data using the
model to generate a value or score that indicates a likelihood of whether the
given user will
terminate access to a particular service or source. In particular, a higher
score may indicate a
higher level of confidence that the user will terminate access to a particular
service or source.
Based on the score, the media guidance application may generate promotions
that entice the
user to keep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one to
which the user
will likely terminate access.
[0187] Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone
applications
implemented on user equipment devices. For example, the media guidance
application may
be implemented as software or a set of executable instructions which may be
stored in storage
508, and executed by control circuitry 504 of a user equipment device 500. In
some
embodiments, media guidance applications may be client-server applications
where only a
client application resides on the user equipment device, and server
application resides on a
remote server. For example, media guidance applications may be implemented
partially as a
client application on control circuitry 504 of user equipment device 500 and
partially on a
remote server as a server application (e.g., media guidance data source 618)
running on
control circuitry of the remote server. When executed by control circuitry of
the remote
server (such as media guidance data source 618), the media guidance
application may instruct
the control circuitry to generate the guidance application displays and
transmit the generated
displays to the user equipment devices. The server application may instruct
the control
circuitry of the media guidance data source 618 to transmit data for storage
on the user
equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry of the
receiving user
equipment to generate the guidance application displays.
[0188] Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices
602, 604,
and 606 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT content delivery allows
Internet-enabled
user devices, including any user equipment device described above, to receive
content that is
transferred over the Internet, including any content described above, in
addition to content
received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content is delivered via an
Internet
connection provided by an Internet service provider (ISP), but a third party
distributes the
content. The ISP may not be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights,
or
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redistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets provided by
the OTT content
provider. Examples of OTT content providers include YOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and
HULU,
which provide audio and video via IP packets. Youtube is a trademark owned by
Google
Inc., Netflix is a trademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark
owned by Hulu,
LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively provide media
guidance data
described above. In addition to content and/or media guidance data, providers
of OTT
content can distribute media guidance applications (e.g., web-based
applications or cloud-
based applications), or the content can be displayed by media guidance
applications stored on
the user equipment device.
.. [0189] Media guidance system 600 is intended to illustrate a number of
approaches, or
network configurations, by which user equipment devices and sources of content
and
guidance data may communicate with each other for the purpose of accessing
content and
providing media guidance. The embodiments described herein may be applied in
any one or
a subset of these approaches, or in a system employing other approaches for
delivering
content and providing media guidance. The following four approaches provide
specific
illustrations of the generalized example of FIG. 6.
[0190] In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each other
within a
home network. User equipment devices can communicate with each other directly
via short-
range point-to-point communication schemes described above, via indirect paths
through a
hub or other similar device provided on a home network, or via communications
network
614. Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate different
user equipment
devices on the home network. As a result, it may be desirable for various
media guidance
information or settings to be communicated between the different user
equipment devices.
For example, it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media
guidance application
settings on different user equipment devices within a home network, as
described in greater
detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0251827, filed July
11,2005. Different
types of user equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with
each other to
transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content from user computer
equipment to
a portable video player or portable music player.
[0191] In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment
by which
they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, some users may
have home
networks that are accessed by in-home and mobile devices. Users may control in-
home
devices via a media guidance application implemented on a remote device. For
example,
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users may access an online media guidance application on a website via a
personal computer
at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA or web-enabled mobile
telephone. The user
may set various settings (e.g., recordings, reminders, or other settings) on
the online guidance
application to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guide may
control the user's
equipment directly, or by communicating with a media guidance application on
the user's in-
home equipment. Various systems and methods for user equipment devices
communicating,
where the user equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, is
discussed in, for
example, Ellis et al., U.S. Patent No. 8,046,801, issued October 25, 2011,
which is hereby
incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
.. [0192] In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and
outside a home can
use their media guidance application to communicate directly with content
source 616 to
access content. Specifically, within a home, users of user television
equipment 602 and user
computer equipment 604 may access the media guidance application to navigate
among and
locate desirable content. Users may also access the media guidance application
outside of the
home using wireless user communications devices 606 to navigate among and
locate
desirable content.
[0193] In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloud
computing
environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computing environment,
various types of
computing services for content sharing, storage or distribution (e.g., video
sharing sites or
social networking sites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible
computing and
storage resources, referred to as "the cloud." For example, the cloud can
include a collection
of server computing devices, which may be located centrally or at distributed
locations, that
provide cloud-based services to various types of users and devices connected
via a network
such as the Internet via communications network 614. These cloud resources may
include
one or more content sources 616 and one or more media guidance data sources
618. In
addition or in the alternative, the remote computing sites may include other
user equipment
devices, such as user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604,
and wireless
user communications device 606. For example, the other user equipment devices
may
provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamed video. In such
embodiments, user
equipment devices may operate in a peer-to-peer manner without communicating
with a
central server.
[0194] The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, content
sharing, or
social networking services, among other examples, as well as access to any
content described
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above, for user equipment devices. Services can be provided in the cloud
through cloud
computing service providers, or through other providers of online services.
For example, the
cloud-based services can include a content storage service, a content sharing
site, a social
networking site, or other services via which user-sourced content is
distributed for viewing by
others on connected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user
equipment device
to store content to the cloud and to receive content from the cloud rather
than storing content
locally and accessing locally-stored content.
[0195] A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,
digital cameras
with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, and handheld computing
devices, to record
content. The user can upload content to a content storage service on the cloud
either directly,
for example, from user computer equipment 604 or wireless user communications
device 606
having content capture feature. Alternatively, the user can first transfer the
content to a user
equipment device, such as user computer equipment 604. The user equipment
device storing
the content uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmission service
on
communications network 614. In some embodiments, the user equipment device
itself is a
cloud resource, and other user equipment devices can access the content
directly from the
user equipment device on which the user stored the content.
[0196] Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, for
example, a
web browser, a media guidance application, a desktop application, a mobile
application,
.. and/or any combination of access applications of the same. The user
equipment device may
be a cloud client that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or
the user
equipment device may have some functionality without access to cloud
resources. For
example, some applications running on the user equipment device may be cloud
applications,
i.e., applications delivered as a service over the Internet, while other
applications may be
stored and run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user
device may
receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. For example, a
user device
can stream audio from one cloud resource while downloading content from a
second cloud
resource. Or a user device can download content from multiple cloud resources
for more
efficient downloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use
cloud
resources for processing operations such as the processing operations
performed by
processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 5.
[0197] As referred herein, the term "in response to" refers to initiated as a
result of. For
example, a first action being performed in response to a second action may
include interstitial
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steps between the first action and the second action. As referred herein, the
term "directly in
response to" refers to caused by. For example, a first action being performed
directly in
response to a second action may not include interstitial steps between the
first action and the
second action.
[0198] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for presenting
supplemental information
associated with an advertisement to a user, in accordance with some
embodiments of the
disclosure. For example, a media guidance application implementing process 700
may be
executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5). It should be noted that process
700 or any step
thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in
FIGS. 5-6.
[0199] Process 700 begins with 702, where the media guidance application
detects (e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that a user has started using a first device.
For example, at the
first time, the media guidance application may check (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
the user's recent interactions with the first device (e.g., any of user
equipment described in
FIGS. 5-6) to determine whether the user has just started using the device
after a period of not
using the device.
[0200] Process 700 continues to 704, where the media guidance application
identifies (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an advertisement slot associated with one
or more
advertisements that the user has most recently consumed on a second device.
For example,
the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) based
on an associated time period during which the advertisement was consumed which
advertisement the user consumed most recently (e.g., based on comparison with
a first time
when the user started using the first device). As a specific example, the
consumption history
(e.g., which may be stored locally in storage 508 or remotely at media
guidance data source
618, accessible via communications network 614) may include a stored
indication that the
user consumed an advertisement with identifier "Cola_ad_1" from 8:20pm to
8:21pm. If the
current time is 8:22pm and no additional advertisements were consumed after
"Cola_ad_1,"
then the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry
504 (FIG. 5)) it
is the advertisement that the user consumed last. After determining the
advertisement that the
user consumed last, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via
control circuitry
504 (FIG. 5)) an advertisement slot that the advertisement is part of For
example, the media
guidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a
time period
associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last with a plurality
of time periods
associated with advertisement slots (e.g., from content source 616 (FIG. 6))
to determine an
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advertisement slot that includes the advertisement. In some embodiments, the
media
guidance application performs actions 704-708 responsive to the detection that
the user has
started using the first device at step 702.
[0201] Process 700 continues to 706, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the user started using the
first device within an
amount of time from an endpoint of the advertisement slot that corresponds to
a duration
associated with the advertisement slot. For example, if the amount of time
from the endpoint
of the advertisement slot to when the user began using the first device was
calculated as 30
seconds and the length of the advertisement slot is 40 seconds, then the media
guidance
application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the
user started using
the first device (e.g., any of user equipment discussed with respect to FIGS.
5-6) within the
amount of time from the endpoint of the advertisement slot. In some
embodiments, the
media guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) that the
user started using the first device within the amount of time if the amount of
time is within a
.. tolerance factor of the duration. The tolerance factor may be adjusted
based on user
preferences or interaction history (e.g., which may be stored locally in
storage 508 or
remotely at media guidance data source 618, accessible via communications
network 614).
[0202] Process 700 continues to 708, where the media guidance application
generates (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) for display (e.g., on display 512 (FIG.
5)) supplemental
information associated with the one or more advertisements associated with the
advertisement slot. For example, the supplemental information may be related
to a
promotion, sale, coupon, discount, newly available product, or any other
information the
advertiser wishes to inform the user about to entice him or her to purchase a
good or service.
As a specific example, the media guidance application may generate (e.g., via
control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) for display the supplemental information automatically
upon detecting
that the user has started using the first device (e.g., as an overlay or popup
on display 612
(FIG. 6)). The media guidance application may, alternatively or additionally,
prompt (e.g.,
on display 512 (FIG. 5)) the user prior to presenting the supplemental
information. In
response to receiving a user selection (e.g., via user input interface 510
(FIG. 5)) to display
the supplemental information, the media guidance application may generate
(e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) supplemental information for display.
[0203] FIG. 8 is another flowchart of illustrative actions for presenting
supplemental
information associated with an advertisement to a user, in accordance with
some
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embodiments of the disclosure. For example, a media guidance application
implementing
process 800 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5). It should be
noted that
process 800 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of
the devices
shown in FIGS. 5-6.
[0204] Process 800 begins with 802, where the media guidance application
detects (e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that a user has started using a first device.
For example, at the
first time, the media guidance application may check (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
the user's recent interactions with the first device (e.g., any of user
equipment described in
FIGS. 5-6) to determine whether the user has just started using the device
after a period of not
using the device.
[0205] Process 800 continues to 804, where the media guidance application
searches (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) media asset consumption history associated
with the user
for an advertisement that the user consumed last. For example, the media
guidance
application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) based on
an associated
time period during which the advertisement was consumed which advertisement
the user
consumed most recently (e.g., based on comparison with the first time when the
user started
using the first device). As a specific example, the consumption history (e.g.,
which may be
stored locally in storage 508 or remotely at media guidance data source 618,
accessible via
communications network 614) may include a stored indication that the user
consumed an
advertisement with identifier "Cola_ad_1" from 8:20pm to 8:21pm. If the
current time is
8:22pm and no additional advertisements were consumed after "Cola_ad_1," then
the media
guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
it is the
advertisement that the user consumed last. In some embodiments, the media
guidance
application performs (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) actions 804-
820 responsive to
the detection that the user has started using the first device at step 802.
[0206] Process 800 continues to 806, where the media guidance application
retrieves (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), from the media asset consumption history
associated with
the user, a time period associated with the advertisement that the user
consumed last. For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) a start value and/or end value of the advertisement from the media asset
consumption
history (e.g., which may be stored locally in storage 508 or remotely at media
guidance data
source 618, accessible via communications network 614). As a specific example,
the media
guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
two values from
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the media asset consumption history, indicating that from 8:21:20pm to
8:21:40pm the user
consumed the advertisement.
[0207] Process 800 continues to 808, where the media guidance application
searches (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) for an advertisement slot associated with
the advertisement
that the user consumed last. For example, the media guidance application may
compare (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the time period of the advertisement that
the user
consumed last with an index of advertisement slots and advertisements that
filled the slots
(e.g., which may be stored locally in storage 508 or remotely at media
guidance data source
618, accessible via communications network 614). The media guidance
application may
retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) metadata associated with
the advertisement
(e.g., from media guidance data source 618 or the media asset consumption
history associated
with the user) such as an identifier of the advertisement (e.g.,
"Budweiser_ad_1"), a source
from which the user consumed the advertisement (e.g., content source 616 (FIG.
6)), and/or
any other information associated with the advertisement that may allow the
media guidance
application to more efficiently determine the advertisement slot that the user
consumed with
the advertisement.
[0208] Process 800 continues to 810, where the media guidance application
retrieves (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a start time code and an end time code
associated with the
advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve
(e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an end time code (20:21:40:00) corresponding
to (hour:
minute: second: frame) when the advertisement time slot ended. For example,
the media
guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
start and end time
codes associated with the advertisement slot, indicating that the
advertisement slot lasted
from 8:21:00pm to 8:21:40pm.
[0209] Process 800 continues to 812, where the media guidance application
calculates (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a length of the advertisement slot based
on a difference
between the start time code and the end time code, and an amount of time
starting from an
endpoint of the advertisement slot to when the user started using the first
device. For
example, the media guidance application may calculate (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) and store (e.g., locally in storage 508 or remotely at media guidance data
source 618,
accessible via communications network 614) the length of the advertisement
slot by
subtracting the end time code from the start time code associated with the
advertisement slot.
As a specific example, if the start time code is (20:21:00:00) and the end
time code is
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(20:21:40:00), the media guidance application may calculate (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) that the length of the advertisement slot is 40 seconds. For
example, the media
guidance application may calculate (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
and store (e.g.,
locally in storage 508 or remotely at media guidance data source 618,
accessible via
communications network 614) the amount of time by subtracting the first time
from the end
time code of the advertising slot. As a specific example, if the user started
using the first
device at (20:22:10:00) and the end time code is (20:21:40:00), then the media
guidance
application may calculate (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the
amount of time as 30
seconds. In some embodiments, the end time code of the advertisement slot may
not be the
endpoint of the advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance
application may add
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a small amount of time (e.g., ten
seconds) to account
for a transition element that leads back into the show provided as part of the
media asset by a
content source (e.g., content source 616 (FIG. 6)).
[0210] Process 800 continues to 814, where the media guidance application
compares (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the length of the advertisement slot with
the amount of
time starting from the endpoint of the advertisement slot to when the user
started using the
first device. For example, the media guidance application may compare (e.g.,
via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the two calculated values to determine which is
greater. In some
embodiments the media guidance application may round (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) the two values (e.g., to the nearest second) for easier comparison.
[0211] Process 800 continues to 816, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), based on the comparing at 814,
that the user started
using the first device within the amount of time from the endpoint of the
advertisement slot
that corresponds to a duration associated with the advertisement slot. For
example, if the
amount of time from the endpoint of the advertisement slot to when the user
began using the
first device was calculated as 30 seconds and the length of the advertisement
slot is 40
seconds, then the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) that the user started using the first device (e.g., any of user
equipment discussed
with respect to FIGS. 5-6) within the amount of time from the endpoint of the
advertisement
slot. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine (e.g.,
via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the user started using the first device within
the amount of time if
the amount of time is within a tolerance factor of the duration. The tolerance
factor may be
adjusted based on user preferences or interaction history (e.g., which may be
stored locally in
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storage 508 or remotely at media guidance data source 618, accessible via
communications
network 614).
[0212] Process 800 continues to 818, where the media guidance application
retrieves (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) supplemental information for one or more
advertisements
associated with the advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance
application may
determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the advertisement
that the user
consumed most recently (e.g., "Budweiser_ad_1") matches an identifier that is
associated
with supplemental information. The media guidance application may retrieve
(e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) supplemental information associated with the
stored identifier.
For example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) a pointer to a location (e.g., locally in storage 508 or remotely at
media guidance
data source 618, accessible via communications network 614) where the
supplemental
information is located and retrieve the supplemental information from that
location.
[0213] Process 800 continues to 820, where the media guidance application
generates (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) for display (e.g., on display 512 (FIG.
5)) the supplemental
information. For example, the supplemental information may be related to a
promotion, sale,
coupon, discount, newly available product, or any other information the
advertiser wishes to
inform the user about to entice him or her to purchase a good or service. As a
specific
example, the media guidance application may generate (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) for display the supplemental information automatically upon detecting that
the user has
started using the first device (e.g., as an overlay or popup on display 612
(FIG. 6)). The
media guidance application may, alternatively or additionally, prompt (e.g.,
on display 512
(FIG. 5)) the user prior to presenting the supplemental information. In
response to receiving
a user selection (e.g., via user input interface 510 (FIG. 5)) to display the
supplemental
.. information, the media guidance application may generate (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) the retrieved supplemental information for display.
[0214] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for calculating a length
of an
advertisement slot that includes an advertisement that a user most recently
consumed, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, a media
guidance
application implementing process 900 may be executed by control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5). It
should be noted that process 900 or any step thereof could be performed on, or
provided by,
any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6.
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[0215] Process 900 begins with 902, where the media guidance application
compares (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) time stamps when each advertisement stored
in a media
asset consumption history was consumed by a user. For example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve and compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) time stamps
(e.g., time codes) stored in a data structure (e.g., which may be stored
locally in storage 508
or remotely at media guidance data source 618, accessible via communications
network 614)
associated with the user that indicate when the user consumed different
advertisements.
[0216] Process 900 continues to 904, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), based on the comparing, the
advertisement that the
user consumed last. For example, the media guidance application may determine
(e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) which of the stored time stamps is closest to
the current time.
As a specific example, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via
control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that, if the current time is 8:22pm on 1/1/2017 that,
out of an
advertisement consumed in 2016 and an advertisement consumed at 6:00pm on
1/1/2017, the
advertisement consumed at 6:00pm is the advertisement that the user consumed
last.
[0217] Process 900 continues to 906, where the media guidance application
retrieves (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a time period including a start time code
and an end time
code associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last and a
source that played
the advertisement that the user consumed last. For example, the media guidance
application
may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) from fields in a data
structure (e.g.,
which may be stored locally in storage 508 or remotely at media guidance data
source 618,
accessible via communications network 614) a start time code of the
advertisement, an end
time code, a source (e.g., content source 616 (FIG. 6)). As a specific
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
values from fields
in the data structure indicating that the advertisement that the user consumed
last began at
8:20pm, ended at 8:22pm, and was received from source "NBC."
[0218] Process 900 continues to 908, where the media guidance application
selects (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a previously unselected advertisement slot
from the source.
For example, the media guidance application may access (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) a server (e.g., media guidance data source 618 (FIG. 6)) that contains
data associated with
advertisement slots of a source that presented the advertisement that the user
consumed last to
the user. Continuing with this example, the media guidance application may
execute (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an instruction to iteratively retrieve
(e.g., by utilizing a for-
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loop) data associated with each advertisement slot to determine which
advertisement slot the
advertisement that the user consumed last was a part of.
[0219] Process 900 continues to 910, where the media guidance application
retrieves (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a start time code and an end time code
associated with the
advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance application may execute
(e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a database query language script (e.g., SQL)
to retrieve data
from a particular fields in a database (e.g., media guidance data source 618
(FIG. 6))
containing values for the start time code and the end time code associated
with a particular
advertisement slot. As a specific example, the media guidance application may
retrieve (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a start time code of 20:20:00:00 (8:20pm)
and an end time
code of 20:21:00:00 (8:21pm). In some embodiments, the date is embedded into
the time
code (e.g., the time code contains additional values for the date), while in
other embodiments,
the media guidance application may retrieve the date that the advertisement
slot was
presented by the source (e.g., content source 616 (FIG. 6)) from a separate
field.
[0220] Process 900 continues to 912, where the media guidance application
compares (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the start time code and the end time code
associated with
the advertisement that the user consumed last with the start time code and the
end time code
associated with the advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance
application may
compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the start time code
associated with the
advertisement that the user consumed last with the start time code of the
advertisement slot to
determine whether the advertisement that the user consumed began after the
beginning of the
advertisement slot. Similarly, the media guidance application may compare
(e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the end time code associated with the advertisement
that the user
consumed last with the end time code of the advertisement slot to determine
whether the
advertisement that the user consumed ended before the end of the advertisement
slot.
[0221] Process 900 continues to 914, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the start time code and the
end time code
associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last are within the
start time code
and the end time code associated with the advertisement slot. For example, the
media
guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
that the start
time code of the advertisement that the user consumed last (e.g., 8:22pm) is
after the start
time code of the advertisement slot (e.g., 8:20pm) and that the end time code
of the
advertisement that the user consumed last (e.g., 8:23pm) is before the end
time code of the
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advertisement slot (e.g., 8:25pm). If both conditions are true, the media
guidance application
may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the start time
code and the end
time code associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last are
within the start
time code and the end time code associated with the advertisement slot. In
some
embodiments, if the two start time codes or two end time codes are equal, the
media guidance
application may still determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
that the start time
code and the end time code associated with the advertisement that the user
consumed last are
within the start time code and the end time code associated with the
advertisement slot.
[0222] If, at 914, the media guidance application determines that the start
time code and the
end time code associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last
are not within
the start time code and the end time code associated with the advertisement
slot, process 900
returns to 908, where the media guidance application selects (e.g., via
control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) a previously unselected advertisement slot from the source. As
discussed above
with respect to action 908, the media guidance application may execute (e.g.,
via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an instruction to iteratively retrieve (e.g., by
utilizing a for-loop) data
associated with each advertisement slot to determine which advertisement slot
the
advertisement that the user consumed last was a part of If, at 914, the media
guidance
application determines that the start time code and the end time code
associated with the
advertisement that the user consumed last are within the start time code and
the end time code
associated with the advertisement slot, process 900 continues to 916, where
the media
guidance application calculates (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a
length of the
advertisement slot by subtracting the start time code from the end time code.
For example,
the media guidance application may subtract (e.g., via control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5))
corresponding values for the two time codes (e.g., the minutes value of the
start time code is
subtracted from the minutes value for the end time code and so on) to
determine a difference
time code which represents the length of the advertisement slot.
[0223] Process 900 continues to 918, where the media guidance application
stores (e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the length of the advertisement slot. For
example, the media
guidance application may store the length of the advertisement slot in local
storage (e.g.,
storage 508 (FIG. 5)), or at a remote server (e.g., media guidance data source
618 (FIG. 6)).
[0224] FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for determining whether
to present
supplemental information to a user, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure.
For example, a media guidance application implementing process 1000 may be
executed by
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control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5). It should be noted that process 1000 or any
step thereof could
be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6.
[0225] Process 1000 begins with 1002, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a length of an advertisement slot
and an amount of
time starting from an endpoint of the advertisement slot to when a user
started using a first
device. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via
control circuitry
504 (FIG. 5)) from local storage (e.g., storage 508 (FIG. 5)) or a remote
server (e.g., media
guidance data source 618 (FIG. 6)) values calculated for the length of the
advertisement slot
(e.g., as discussed above with respect to FIGS. 8-9) and the amount of time
(e.g., as discussed
above with respect to FIG. 9).
[0226] Process 1000 continues to 1004, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether a media asset was paused
both (1) after the
endpoint of the advertisement slot and (2) before the amount of time starting
from the
endpoint of the advertisement slot that corresponds to a duration associated
with the
advertisement slot. For example, the media guidance application may compare
(e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a time code associated with the time that the
media asset was
paused (e.g., 8:22pm) with the endpoint of the advertisement slot (e.g.,
8:20pm) to determine
whether the pause happened after the advertisement slot ended. The media
guidance
application may also compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the
time after the
endpoint of the advertisement slot that corresponds to the first duration with
the time that the
media asset was paused. For example, the media guidance application may
determine (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the media asset was paused before
the length of
the advertisement slot after the endpoint of the advertisement. Based on the
result of the two
comparisons, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
.. (FIG. 5)) whether the media asset was paused both (1) after the endpoint of
the advertisement
slot and (2) before the amount of time starting from the endpoint of the
advertisement slot
that corresponds to a duration associated with the advertisement slot.
[0227] If, at 1004, the media guidance application determines that the media
asset was
paused both (1) after the endpoint of the advertisement slot and (2) before
the amount of time
starting from the endpoint of the advertisement slot that corresponds to a
duration associated
with the advertisement slot, process 1000 continues to 1006, where the media
guidance
application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a pause
duration that the
media asset was paused. For example, the media guidance application may
receive an
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indication (e.g., a data packet) that the media asset was paused that includes
a value for a
duration (e.g., two minutes) that the media asset was paused.
[0228] Process 1000 continues to 1008, where the media guidance application
adjusts (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the amount of time based on the pause
duration. For
example, the media guidance application may adjust (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
the amount of time by adding the pause duration. Alternatively, the media
guidance
application may adjust (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the amount
of time by scaling
the pause duration (e.g., if the media asset was paused for two minutes and
the scaling factor
is 0.5, the amount of time may be adjusted by only one minute). Process 1000
then proceeds
to 1010.
[0229] If, at 1004, the media guidance application determines that the media
asset was not
paused both (1) after the endpoint of the advertisement slot and (2) before
the amount of time
starting from the endpoint of the advertisement slot that corresponds to a
duration associated
with the advertisement slot, process 1000 continues to 1010, where the media
guidance
application compares (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the length of
the advertisement
slot and the amount of time starting from an endpoint of the advertisement
slot to when a user
started using a first device. For example, if the media asset was not paused,
then the media
guidance application may determine that no adjustment to the amount of time is
needed and
can proceed to action 1010.
[0230] At 1010, the media guidance application compares (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) the length of the advertisement slot and the amount of time starting
from an
endpoint of the advertisement slot to when a user started using a first
device. For example,
the media guidance application may compare the two values (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) to determine which is greater. In some embodiments the media
guidance
application may round (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the two
values (e.g., to the
nearest second) for easier comparison.
[0231] Process 1000 continues to 1012, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the user started using the
first device within
the amount of time from the endpoint of the advertisement slot that
corresponds to the
duration associated with the advertisement slot. For example, if the amount of
time from the
endpoint of the advertisement slot to when the user began using the first
device was
calculated as 30 seconds and the length of the advertisement slot is 40
seconds, then the
media guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) that the
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user started using the first device within the amount of time from the
endpoint of the
advertisement slot. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
determine
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the user started using the
first device within the
amount of time if the amount of time is within a tolerance factor of the
duration. The
tolerance factor may be adjusted based on user preferences or interaction
history (e.g., stored
in a profile associated with the user).
[0232] If, at 1012, the media guidance application determines that the user
did start using
the first device within the amount of time from the endpoint of the
advertisement slot that
corresponds to the duration associated with the advertisement slot, process
1000 continues to
1014, where the media guidance application presents (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
supplemental information associated with the advertisement slot to the user.
For example, if
the user began using the first device 30 seconds after the end of the
advertisement slot and if
the duration associated with the advertisement slot is the length of the
advertisement slot and
is one minute, then the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via
control circuitry
.. 504 (FIG. 5)) that the user did start using the first device within the
amount of time.
Accordingly, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) corresponding supplemental information to present to the user, as
described with
respect to FIGS. 1, 8, and 10.
[0233] If, at 1012, the media guidance application determines that the user
did not start
using the first device within the amount of time from the endpoint of the
advertisement slot
that corresponds to the duration associated with the advertisement slot,
process 1000
continues to 1014, where the media guidance application refrains (e.g., via
control circuitry
504 (FIG. 5)) from presenting supplemental information associated with the
advertisement
slot to the user. For example, if the user began using the first device two
minutes after the
end of the advertisement slot and if the duration associated with the
advertisement slot is the
length of the advertisement slot and is one minute, then the media guidance
application may
determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the user did not
start using the first
device within the amount of time. Accordingly, the media guidance application
may refrain
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) from presenting supplemental
information to the user
.. as the user is likely not interested.
[0234] FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for retrieving
supplemental information
based on user preferences, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure. For
example, a media guidance application implementing process 1100 may be
executed by
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control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5). It should be noted that process 1100 or any
step thereof could
be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6.
[0235] Process 1100 begins with 1102, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) user preferences from a user
profile associated with
the user. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via
control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the user profile from local storage (e.g., storage 508
(FIG. 5)) or a
remote server (e.g., media guidance data source 618 (FIG. 6)). As a specific
example, the
media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) a user
preference of a user for the actor "Tom Hanks."
[0236] Process 1100 continues to 1104, where the media guidance application
selects (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a previously unselected advertisement. For
example, the
media guidance application may access (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) a server (e.g.,
media guidance data source 618 (FIG. 6)) that contains data associated with
advertisements
(e.g., advertisements that are part of an advertisement slot including the
advertisement that
the user consumed last). Continuing with this example, the media guidance
application may
execute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an instruction to
iteratively retrieve (e.g., by
utilizing a for-loop) data associated with each advertisement.
[0237] Process 1100 continues to 1106, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) attributes associated with the
selected advertisement.
For example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) attributes associated with advertisements from local storage (e.g.,
storage 508 (FIG.
5)) or a remote server (e.g., media guidance data source 618 (FIG. 6)). As a
specific
example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) that a particular advertisement includes the actor "Tom Hanks."
[0238] Process 1100 continues to 1108, where the media guidance application
compares
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the user preferences with the
attributes of the selected
advertisement. For example, the media guidance application may compare (e.g.,
via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the characters of each user preference in the profile
to attributes
associated with an advertisement (e.g., in the same advertisement slot as the
advertisement
that the user consumed last). As a specific example, the media guidance
application may
compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a user preference
indicating that he or she
"love" actor "Tom Welling" with an actor associated with an advertisement such
as "Tom
Hanks".
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[0239] Process 1100 continues to 1110, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an amount of the user preferences
that match the
attributes of the selected advertisement. For example, the media guidance
application may
determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the amount based on the
number of
attributes that match user preferences. As a specific example, a higher amount
may be
determined (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) by the media guidance
application for a
first advertisement than a second advertisement if the user has a preference
for both the
product type and actor in the first advertisement, as opposed to just the
product type in the
second advertisement.
[0240] Process 1100 continues to 1112, where the media guidance application
assigns (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the amount to the selected advertisement.
For example, the
media guidance application may store (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) a list or other
suitable data structure with identifiers of each selected advertisement and an
associated field
with the assigned amount. The media guidance application may use (e.g., via
control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the assigned amounts to rank the advertisements based
on their
similarity to user preferences (e.g., by utilizing a merge sort, bubble sort,
or other sorting
algorithm).
[0241] Process 1100 continues to 1114, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether there are any other
advertisements to
compare to user preferences. If, at 1114, the media guidance application
determines that
there are other advertisements to compare to user preferences, process 1100
continues to
1104, where the media guidance application selects (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a
previously unselected advertisement. As discussed above with respect to action
1104, the
media guidance application may execute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) an
instruction to iteratively retrieve (e.g., by utilizing a for-loop) data
associated with each
advertisement (e.g., of an advertisement slot) to determine which
advertisement most closely
matches the user preferences.
[0242] If, at 1114, the media guidance application determines that there are
not any other
advertisements to compare to user preferences, process 1100 continues to 1116,
where the
media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)), based on the
assigned amounts, the highest ranked advertisement. For example, the media
guidance
application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), from a
ranked list or
other data structure containing the assigned amounts, which assigned amount is
greatest. The
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media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) an identifier
of the advertisement associated with the greatest assigned amount as the
highest ranked
advertisement.
[0243] Process 1100 continues to 1118, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) supplemental information associated
with the highest
ranked advertisement to present to the user. For example, the media guidance
application
may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the highest
ranked advertisement
(e.g., "Budweiser_ad_1") matches an identifier that is associated with
supplemental
information. The media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) supplemental information associated with the stored identifier.
[0244] FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for presenting
supplemental information
associated with an advertisement to a user based on user interaction
histories, in accordance
with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, a media guidance
application
implementing process 1200 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5).
It should be
noted that process 1200 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided
by, any of the
devices shown in FIGS. 5-6.
[0245] Process 1200 begins with 1202, where the media guidance application
detects (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that a user has started using a first
device (e.g., any of user
equipment discussed with respect to FIGS. 5-6). For example, at the first
time, the media
guidance application may check (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the
user's recent
interactions with the first device (e.g., any of user equipment described in
FIGS. 5-6) to
determine whether the user has just started using the device after a period of
not using the
device.
[0246] Process 1200 continues to 1204, where the media guidance application
identifies
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an advertisement that the user has
most recently
consumed on a second device. For example, the media guidance application may
determine
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) based on an associated time period
during which the
advertisement was consumed which advertisement the user consumed most recently
(e.g.,
based on comparison with a first time when the user started using the first
device). As a
specific example, the consumption history (e.g., which may be stored locally
in storage 508
or remotely at media guidance data source 618, accessible via communications
network 614)
may include a stored indication that the user consumed an advertisement with
identifier
"Cola_ad_1" from 8:20pm to 8:21pm. If the current time is 8:22pm and no
additional
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advertisements were consumed after "Cola_ad_1," then the media guidance
application may
determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) it is the advertisement
that the user
consumed last. In some embodiments, the media guidance application performs
actions
1204-1208 responsive to the detection that the user has started using the
first device at step
1202.
[0247] Process 1200 continues to 1206, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the user started using the
first device within a
threshold amount of time from an endpoint of the advertisement, where the
threshold amount
of time is based on an amount of time viewers of the advertisement consumed by
the user
access supplemental information. For example, the media guidance application
may retrieve
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a plurality of interaction
histories (e.g., stored locally
in storage 508 or remotely at media guidance data source 618, accessible via
communications
network 614) associated with users who consumed similar advertisements to the
advertisement consumed last by the user. Continuing with this example, the
media guidance
application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a
duration after
consuming the similar advertisement that a user associated with one of the
interaction
histories accessed supplemental information associated with the similar
advertisements. The
media guidance application may iteratively determine (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
one or more duration from each of the interaction histories. The media
guidance application
may average (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the durations to
generate the threshold
amount of time. After determining the threshold amount of time, the media
guidance
application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the amount
of time that the
user started using the first device after the endpoint of the advertisement
with the threshold
amount of time. As a specific example, if the amount of time from the endpoint
of the
advertisement to when the user began using the first device was calculated as
30 seconds and
the threshold amount of time was calculated to be 40 seconds based on the
interaction
histories of users that consumed similar advertisements as described above,
then the media
guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
that the user
started using the first device within the amount of time from the endpoint of
the
advertisement slot.
[0248] Process 1200 continues to 1208, where the media guidance application
generates
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) for display (e.g., on display 512
(FIG. 5))
supplemental information associated with the advertisement. For example, the
supplemental
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information may be related to a promotion, sale, coupon, discount, newly
available product,
or any other information the advertiser wishes to inform the user about to
entice him or her to
purchase a good or service. As a specific example, the media guidance
application may
generate (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) for display the
supplemental information
automatically upon detecting that the user has started using the first device
(e.g., as an
overlay or popup on display 612 (FIG. 6)). The media guidance application may,
alternatively or additionally, prompt (e.g., on display 512 (FIG. 5)) the user
prior to
presenting the supplemental information. In response to receiving a user
selection (e.g., via
user input interface 510 (FIG. 5)) to display the supplemental information,
the media
guidance application may generate (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
supplemental
information for display.
[0249] FIG. 13 is another flowchart of illustrative actions for presenting
supplemental
information associated with an advertisement to a user based on user
interaction histories, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, a media
guidance
application implementing process 1300 may be executed by control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5). It
should be noted that process 1300 or any step thereof could be performed on,
or provided by,
any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6.
[0250] Process 1300 begins with 1302, where the media guidance application
detects (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that a user has started using a first
device (e.g., any of user
equipment discussed with respect to FIGS. 5-6). For example, at the first
time, the media
guidance application may check (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the
user's recent
interactions with the first device (e.g., any of user equipment described in
FIGS. 5-6) to
determine whether the user has just started using the device after a period of
not using the
device.
.. [0251] Process 1300 continues to 1304, where the media guidance application
searches
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) media asset consumption history
associated with the
user for an advertisement that the user consumed last. For example, the media
guidance
application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) based on
an associated
time period during which the advertisement was consumed which advertisement
the user
consumed most recently (e.g., based on comparison with the first time when the
user started
using the first device). As a specific example, the consumption history (e.g.,
which may be
stored locally in storage 508 or remotely at media guidance data source 618,
accessible via
communications network 614) may include a stored indication that the user
consumed an
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advertisement with identifier "Cola_ad_1" from 8:20pm to 8:21pm. If the
current time is
8:22pm and no additional advertisements were consumed after "Cola_ad_1," then
the media
guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
it is the
advertisement that the user consumed last. In some embodiments, the media
guidance
application performs (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) actions 1304-
1324 responsive to
the detection that the user has started using the first device at step 1302.
[0252] Process 1300 continues to 1306, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) metadata associated with the
advertisement. For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) metadata associated with an advertisement locally from storage (e.g.,
storage 508 (FIG.
5)) or a remote server (e.g., media guidance data source 618, accessible via
communications
network 614 (FIG. 6)). The metadata may be any data related to the
advertisement that
describes content associated with the advertisement. For example, if the
advertisement is for
a new book, the metadata may include the author of the article, genre (e.g.,
Non-fiction),
and/or publisher.
[0253] Process 1300 continues to 1308, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), based on the metadata associated
with the
advertisement, that the advertisement is part of a group of similar
advertisements. For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) identifiers of an actor, product type, company name, or any other metadata
that is used to
characterize a group of similar advertisements, for each group of similar
advertisements (e.g.,
which may be stored locally in storage 508 or remotely at media guidance data
source 618,
accessible via communications network 614). As a specific example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) metadata
"Tom Hanks" for a
particular group of similar advertisements that all include the actor Tom
Hanks. The media
guidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
the metadata
associated with the advertisement with the metadata associated with each of
the plurality of
groups of similar advertisements. For example, the media guidance application
may compare
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) each retrieved piece of metadata
associated with the
advertisement that the user consumed last with the metadata associated with
each group of
similar advertisements by comparing the characters of the metadata. For
example, the media
guidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
characters "Tom
Hanks," who is an actor associated with the advertisement that the user
consumed last, with
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characters "Tom Cruise," an actor associated with a particular group of
similar
advertisements. If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via
control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) a match between every character of metadata associated with a
particular attribute
of the advertisement most recently consumed by the user and a corresponding
attribute of the
group of similar advertisements, the media guidance application may determine
(e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the advertisement is part of the group of
similar
advertisements.
[0254] Process 1300 continues to 1310, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) interaction histories for a
plurality of users who
consumed advertisements in the group of similar advertisements. For example,
the media
guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
multiple
interaction histories where each interaction history indicates that the
associated user
consumed an advertisement of the group of similar advertisements (e.g., which
may be stored
locally in storage 508 or remotely at media guidance data source 618,
accessible via
communications network 614). As a specific example, each interaction history
may include
aggregated times and actions taken by a specific user from different sources,
for example, a
web browsing history and a television viewing history. In this way, the media
guidance
application may analyze (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) the
interaction histories to
determine an amount of time that an associated user took between consuming an
.. advertisement and accessing supplemental information manually (e.g., by
typing in the URL
of a particular webpage into a web browser at a given time), as described
further below with
respect to FIG. 14.
[0255] Process 1300 continues to 1312, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), based on the retrieved interaction
histories, a
plurality of durations, where each duration of the plurality of durations is a
length of time
between a time when a user of the plurality of users finished consuming one of
the
advertisements in the group to when the user of the plurality of users
accessed corresponding
supplemental content. For example, the media guidance application may search
(e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) each retrieved interaction history for an
identifier of a similar
advertisement from the group of similar advertisements. The media guidance
application
may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the user
accessed
supplemental information associated with the similar advertisement. For
example, the media
guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
that an
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advertisement for an above ground pool was consumed by the user and ended at
8:20pm on a
particular day and that at 8:22pm (two minutes later) on the same day the user
visited
www.abovegroundpools .com. Continuing with this example, the media guidance
application
may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the user
accessed supplemental
information two minutes after consuming the advertisement based on retrieving
the values
from the interaction history. The media guidance application may determine
(e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a difference between the two values (e.g., the
difference between
8:20pm and 8:22pm is two minutes) as a length of time after the end of the
advertisement that
the user of the plurality of users accessed supplemental information (e.g.,
one of the plurality
.. of durations).
[0256] Process 1300 continues to 1314, where the media guidance application
calculates
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a threshold amount of time
associated with the
advertisement based on the plurality of durations. For example, the media
guidance
application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the
durations calculated
based on the interaction histories and average the durations. As a specific
example, if the
durations are one, two, and three minutes, the media guidance application may
calculate (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) two minutes as the threshold amount of
time. The media
guidance application may optionally weight (e.g., via control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5))
particular durations higher than others, based on a type of supplemental
information accessed.
For example, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) that a user who accesses a website associated with a company whose
product was
feature in an advertisement should be weighted more than if the user accessed
the website
associated with a competitor company selling a similar product.
[0257] Process 1300 continues to 1316, where the media guidance application
calculates
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an amount of time starting from an
endpoint of the
advertisement to when the user started using the first device (e.g., any of
user equipment
discussed with respect to FIGS. 5-6). For example, the media guidance
application may
calculate (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) and store (e.g., in
storage 608 (FIG. 6)) the
amount of time by subtracting the first time from an end time code of the
advertisement. As
.. a specific example, if the user started using the first device at
(20:22:10:00) and the end time
code is (20:21:40:00), then the media guidance application may calculate
(e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the amount of time as 30 seconds. In some embodiments,
the end time
code of the advertisement may not be the endpoint of the advertisement. For
example, the
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media guidance application may add (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
a small amount
of time (e.g., ten seconds) to account for a transition element that leads
back into the media
asset provided as part of the media asset by a content source (e.g., content
source 616 (FIG.
6)).
[0258] Process 1300 continues to 1318, where the media guidance application
compares
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the threshold amount of time with
the amount of time
starting from the endpoint of the advertisement to when the user started using
the first device.
For example, the media guidance application may compare (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) the two calculated values to determine which is greater. In some
embodiments the
media guidance application may round (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) the two
values (e.g., to the nearest second) for easier comparison.
[0259] Process 1300 continues to 1320, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), based on comparing the threshold
amount of time
with the amount of time starting from the endpoint of the advertisement to
when the user
started using the first device (e.g., any of user equipment discussed with
respect to FIGS. 5-
6), that the user started using the first device within the threshold amount
of time from the
endpoint of the advertisement. For example, if the amount of time from the
endpoint of the
advertisement to when the user began using the first device was calculated as
30 seconds and
the threshold amount of time was calculated to be 40 seconds based on the
interaction
histories of users that consumed similar advertisements as described above,
then the media
guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
that the user
started using the first device within the amount of time from the endpoint of
the
advertisement slot. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
determine
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the user started using the
first device within the
amount of time if the amount of time is within a tolerance factor of the
duration. For
example, the user may be slow to start using a mobile phone after the
conclusion of the
advertisement if he or she is interested in an advertisement (e.g., because
the user always
keeps their mobile phone in a different room when watching television) and may
want the
threshold time to be increased.
[0260] Process 1300 continues to 1322, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) supplemental information associated
with the
advertisement that the user consumed last. For example, the media guidance
application may
determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the advertisement
that the user
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consumed most recently (e.g., "Budweiser_ad_1") matches an identifier that is
associated
with supplemental information. The media guidance application may retrieve
(e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) supplemental information associated with the
stored identifier.
For example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) a pointer to a location (e.g., locally in storage 508 or remotely at
media guidance
data source 618, accessible via communications network 614) where the
supplemental
information is located and retrieve the supplemental information from that
location.
[0261] Process 1300 continues to 1324, where the media guidance application
generates
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) for display (e.g., on display 512
(FIG. 5)) the
supplemental information. For example, the supplemental information may be
related to a
promotion, sale, coupon, discount, newly available product, or any other
information the
advertiser wishes to inform the user about to entice him or her to purchase a
good or service.
As a specific example, the media guidance application may generate (e.g., via
control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) for display the supplemental information automatically
upon detecting
that the user has started using the first device (e.g., as an overlay or popup
on display 612
(FIG. 6)). The media guidance application may, alternatively or additionally,
prompt (e.g.,
on display 512 (FIG. 5)) the user prior to presenting the supplemental
information. In
response to receiving a user selection (e.g., via user input interface 510
(FIG. 5)) to display
the supplemental information, the media guidance application may generate
(e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the retrieved supplemental information for display.
[0262] FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for determining a
plurality of interaction
histories to retrieve based on advertisements that were consumed by users
associated with the
interaction histories, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.
For example, a
media guidance application implementing process 1400 may be executed by
control circuitry
504 (FIG. 5). It should be noted that process 1400 or any step thereof could
be performed on,
or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6.
[0263] Process 1400 begins with 1402, where the media guidance application
selects (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a previously unselected group of similar
advertisements.
For example, the media guidance application may access (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) a server (e.g., media guidance data source 618 (FIG. 6)) that contains
data associated with
groups of advertisements. Continuing with this example, the media guidance
application may
execute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an instruction to
iteratively retrieve (e.g., by
utilizing a for-loop) data associated with each group of advertisements.
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102641 Process 1400 continues to 1404, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) metadata associated with the
selected group of
similar advertisements. For example, the media guidance application may
retrieve (e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the metadata associated with a group of
advertisements from
local storage (e.g., storage 508 (FIG. 5)) or a remote server (e.g., media
guidance data source
618 (FIG. 6)). As a specific example, the media guidance application may
retrieve (e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) metadata that defines a common characteristic
or element of a
group of advertisements, such as that all the advertisements are related by an
appearance of
actor "Chuck Norris."
[0265] Process 1400 continues to 1406, where the media guidance application
compares
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) metadata associated with an
advertisement that the
user consumed last with the metadata associated with the selected similar
group of
advertisements. For example, the media guidance application may compare (e.g.,
via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) each retrieved piece of metadata associated with the
advertisement
that the user consumed last with the metadata associated with each group of
similar
advertisements by comparing the characters of the metadata. For example, the
media
guidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
characters "Tom
Hanks," representing an actor associated with the advertisement that the user
consumed last,
with characters "Tom Cruise," representing an actor associated with a
particular group of
similar advertisements.
[0266] Process 1400 continues to 1408, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the metadata associated
with an
advertisement that the user consumed last matches the metadata associated with
the selected
similar group of advertisements. For example, the media guidance application
may
determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a match between metadata
of the
advertisement that the user consumed last and the metadata of the group of
similar
advertisements if every character matches between a particular piece of
metadata (e.g., for an
actor). In some embodiments, all the metadata associated with the
advertisement that the user
consumed last must match the metadata of the group of similar advertisements
for a match to
be determined. In other embodiments, if a threshold amount of the metadata
matches, a
match may be determined. If the media guidance application determines (e.g.,
via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the metadata matches between the advertisement
that the user
consumed last and a particular group of similar advertisements, the media
guidance
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application may determine that the advertisement that the user consumed last
is part of the
group of similar advertisements.
[0267] If, at 1408, the media guidance application determines that the
metadata associated
with an advertisement that the user consumed last does not match the metadata
associated
with the selected similar group of advertisements, process 1400 continues to
1410, where the
media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) whether there
are any other groups of advertisements. As discussed above with respect to
action 1402, the
media guidance application may execute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) an
instruction to iteratively retrieve (e.g., by utilizing a for-loop) data
associated with each group
of advertisements (e.g., of an advertisement slot) to determine which group of
advertisements
includes an advertisement that the user consumed last. If, at 1410, the media
guidance
application determines that there are other groups of advertisements, process
1400 continues
to 1402, where the media guidance application selects (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) a previously unselected group of similar advertisements.
[0268] If, at 1410, the media guidance application determines that there are
not any other
groups of advertisements, process 1400 continues to 1416, where the media
guidance
application searches (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a plurality of
interaction
histories corresponding to a plurality of users for an identifier of the
advertisement that the
user consumed last. For example, if the media guidance application is unable
to determine a
group of similar advertisements that the advertisement that the user consumed
last is a part of,
the media guidance application may search (e.g., via control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) the
interaction histories for an identifier of the advertisement that the user
consumed last (as
opposed to for identifiers of any advertisement in a group of similar
advertisements). As a
specific example, the media guidance application may search (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) the interaction histories for a single identifier, "Cola_ad_1,"
associated with the
advertisement that the user consumed last to determine which other users
consumed the
advertisement. Process 1400 then continues to 1418.
[0269] If, at 1408, the media guidance application determines that the
metadata associated
with an advertisement that the user consumed last does match the metadata
associated with
the selected similar group of advertisements, process 1400 continues to 1412,
where the
media guidance application retrieves (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) identifiers of
each advertisement in the selected group of similar advertisements. For
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
identifiers
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associated with each advertisement of a group of advertisements from local
storage (e.g.,
storage 508 (FIG. 5)) or a remote server (e.g., media guidance data source 618
(FIG. 6)).
[0270] Process 1400 continues to 1414, where the media guidance application
searches
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a plurality of interaction
histories corresponding to a
plurality of users for the retrieved identifiers of each advertisement in the
selected group of
similar advertisements. For example, if the media guidance application is able
to determine a
group of similar advertisements that the advertisement that the user consumed
last is a part of,
the media guidance application may search (e.g., via control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) the
interaction histories for any identifiers of advertisements in the group of
similar
advertisements. As a specific example, the media guidance application may
search (e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the interaction histories for a single
identifier, "Cola_ad_1,"
associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last to determine
which other users
consumed the advertisement, as well as identifiers of similar advertisements,
"Juice_ad_1,"
and "Milk_ad_1".
[0271] Process 1400 continues to 1418, where the media guidance application
stores (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) identifiers of interaction histories that
include an identifier
of an advertisement that was searched for. For example, the media guidance
application may
store in a list or other data structure (e.g., stored locally in storage 508
or remotely at media
guidance data source 618, accessible via communications network 614) an
identifier of each
interaction history where a match was determined with an identifier that the
media guidance
application searched for.
[0272] FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for calculating a
threshold amount of
time based on durations calculated from interaction histories, in accordance
with some
embodiments of the disclosure. For example, a media guidance application
implementing
process 1500 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5). It should be
noted that
process 1500 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of
the devices
shown in FIGS. 5-6.
[0273] Process 1500 begins with 1502, where the media guidance application
initializes
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a data structure to store
durations. For example, the
media guidance application may execute an instruction which initializes an
empty list, array,
or other data structure that can be used to store durations of time calculated
from interaction
histories of users, as discussed further below.
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102741 Process 1500 continues to 1504, where the media guidance application
selects (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a previously unselected interaction
history of a plurality of
interaction histories. For example, the media guidance application may access
(e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a server (e.g., media guidance data source 618
(FIG. 6)) that
contains a plurality of interaction histories. Continuing with this example,
the media
guidance application may execute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an
instruction to
iteratively retrieve (e.g., by utilizing a for-loop) each interaction history
of the plurality of
interaction histories.
[0275] Process 1500 continues to 1506, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the selected interaction history of
the plurality of
interaction histories. As discussed above with respect to FIG. 14, the media
guidance
application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) specific
interaction histories
based on a stored identifier and an indication that the interaction history
indicates that a user
consumed a similar advertisement to the advertisement that the user consumed
last, in order
to minimize the number of interaction histories that are retrieved. For
example, the media
guidance application may retrieve the selected interaction history from local
storage (e.g.,
storage 508 (FIG. 5)) or a remote server (e.g., media guidance data source 618
(FIG. 6)).
[0276] Process 1500 continues to 1508, where the media guidance application
searches
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the selected interaction history
for an identifier of
supplemental information associated with one or more advertisements in the
group of similar
advertisements. For example, the media guidance application may iteratively
retrieve (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) entries from the selected interaction
history at times after a
time that the similar advertisement was consumed by a user associated with the
interaction
history. For example, when the media guidance application determines (e.g.,
via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the time that the user consumed an advertisement of
the group of
similar advertisements in the interaction history, the media guidance
application may search
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the interaction history for later
times when the user
may have accessed supplemental information.
[0277] Process 1500 continues to 1510, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the selected interaction
history contains an
identifier of supplemental information associated with the advertisement in
the group of
similar advertisements. For example, for each retrieved value, the media
guidance
application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the
particular piece
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of supplemental information the value corresponds to is related to the
advertisement. The
media guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) that a
particular piece of supplemental information is related to the advertisement
based on a rule-
set, as discussed above with respect to FIG. 1.
[0278] If, at 1510, the media guidance application determines that the
selected interaction
history does contain the identifier of supplemental information, process 1500
continues to
1512, where the media guidance application retrieves (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
a first time from the interaction history that the advertisement of the
similar advertisements
was consumed and a second time when the supplemental information was accessed.
For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)), from a field of the selected interaction history, a time code for when
the user consumed
the advertisement, such as 8:20pm. The media guidance application may also
retrieve (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), from another field of the selected
interaction history, a
time code for when the user accessed supplemental information, such as 8:25pm
on the same
day.
[0279] Process 1500 continues to 1514, where the media guidance application
stores (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a duration based on the first time and the
second time in
the data structure. For example, the media guidance application may store
(e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a value for the duration based on subtracting the
first time from the
second time retrieved from the interaction history. Process 1500 may continue
to 1516.
[0280] If, at 1510, the media guidance application determines that the
selected interaction
history does not contain the identifier of supplemental information, process
1500 continues to
1516, where the media guidance application determines (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) whether there are any other interaction histories of the plurality of
interaction histories
.. that have not been selected. As discussed above with respect to action
1504, the media
guidance application may execute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an
instruction to
iteratively retrieve (e.g., by utilizing a for-loop) each interaction history
of the plurality of
interaction histories. If the loop executed by the media guidance application
terminates, the
media guidance application may determine that every interaction history has
been retrieved.
If, at 1516, the media guidance application determines that there are other
interaction
histories of the plurality of interaction histories that have not been
selected, process 1500
returns to 1504, where the media guidance application selects (e.g., via
control circuitry 504
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(FIG. 5)) a previously unselected interaction history of a plurality of
interaction histories, as
discussed above.
[0281] If, at 1516, the media guidance application determines that there are
not any other
interaction histories of the plurality of interaction histories that have not
been selected,
process 1500 continues to 1518, where the media guidance application
calculates (e.g., via
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a threshold amount of time based on durations
stored in the
data structure. For example, the media guidance application may calculate
(e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the threshold amount of time by averaging the
durations stored on the
list. As a specific example, if durations of two minutes and 4 minutes are
stored on the list,
representing the amount of time two users took to access supplemental
information after
consuming an advertisement, the media guidance application may calculate
(e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) three minutes as the threshold amount of time.
[0282] FIG. 16 is a flowchart of illustrative actions for determining
supplemental
information to retrieve, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure. For
example, a media guidance application implementing process 1600 may be
executed by
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5). It should be noted that process 1600 or any
step thereof could
be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6.
[0283] Process 1600 begins with 1602, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that no supplemental information is
available for an
advertisement that the user consumed last. For example, the media guidance
application may
compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an identifier of the
advertisement that was
most recently consumed by the user with a plurality of identifiers associated
with
supplemental information in a database (e.g., stored locally in storage 508 or
remotely at
media guidance data source 618) and determine that none of the supplemental
information in
the database is associated with the advertisement.
[0284] Process 1600 continues to 1604, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) metadata related to the
advertisement that the user
consumed last. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g.,
via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) metadata associated with the advertisement locally
from storage (e.g.,
.. storage 508 (FIG. 5)) or a remote server (e.g., media guidance data source
618, accessible via
communications network 614 (FIG. 6)). The metadata may be any data related to
the
advertisement that describes content associated with the advertisement. For
example, if the
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advertisement is for a new book, the metadata may include the author of the
article, genre
(e.g., Non-fiction), and/or publisher.
[0285] Process 1600 continues to 1606, where the media guidance application
selects (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a previously unselected advertisement from
a group of
similar advertisements including the advertisement that the user consumed
last. For example,
the media guidance application may access (e.g., via control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) a server
(e.g., media guidance data source 618 (FIG. 6)) that contains data associated
with
advertisements of the group of similar advertisements. Continuing with this
example, the
media guidance application may execute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) an
instruction to iteratively retrieve (e.g., by utilizing a for-loop) data
associated with each
advertisement.
[0286] Process 1600 continues to 1608, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) metadata related to the selected
advertisement. For
example, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via control
circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) metadata from a field of a data structure associated with the selected
advertisement, which
may be stored on a server (e.g., media guidance data source 618 (FIG. 6)).
[0287] Process 1600 continues to 1610, where the media guidance application
compares
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the metadata related to the
selected advertisement
with the metadata related to the advertisement that the user consumed last.
For example, the
media guidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) each piece
of metadata associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last with
the metadata
associated with each advertisement in the group of similar advertisements by
comparing the
characters of the metadata. As a specific example, the media guidance
application may
compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) characters "Tom Hanks," who
is an actor
associated with the advertisement that the user consumed last, with characters
"Tom Cruise,"
an actor associated with the selected advertisement in the group of similar
advertisements.
[0288] Process 1600 continues to 1612, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an amount that the metadata related
to the selected
advertisement matches the metadata related to the advertisement that the user
consumed last.
For example, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via control
circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) the amount based on the number of attributes that match between the
advertisement
that the user consumed last and the selected advertisement. As a specific
example, a higher
amount may be determined (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) by the
media guidance
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application for a first advertisement than a second advertisement if both the
product type and
actor in the first advertisement match the corresponding attributes of the
advertisement that
the user consumed last, as opposed to just the product type in the second
advertisement.
[0289] Process 1600 continues to 1614, where the media guidance application
assigns (e.g.,
via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the amount to the selected advertisement.
For example, the
media guidance application may store (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.
5)) a list or other
suitable data structure with identifiers of each selected advertisement and an
associated field
with the assigned amount. The media guidance application may use (e.g., via
control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the assigned amounts to rank the advertisements based
on their
similarity to the advertisement that the user consumed last (e.g., by
utilizing a merge sort,
bubble sort, or other sorting algorithm).
[0290] Process 1600 continues to 1616, where the media guidance application
determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether there are any other
advertisements in the
group of similar advertisements to compare to the advertisement that the user
compared last.
As discussed above with respect to action 1606, the media guidance application
may execute
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an instruction to iteratively
retrieve (e.g., by utilizing
a for-loop) data associated with each advertisement. If the loop executed by
the media
guidance application terminates, the media guidance application may determine
that every
similar advertisement has been retrieved. If, at 1616, the media guidance
application
.. determines that there are other advertisements in the group of similar
advertisements to
compare to the advertisement that the user compared last, process 1600 returns
to 1606,
where the media guidance application selects (e.g., via control circuitry 504
(FIG. 5)) a
previously unselected advertisement from a group of similar advertisements
including the
advertisement that the user consumed last, as discussed above.
[0291] If, at 1616, the media guidance application determines that there are
not any other
advertisements in the group of similar advertisements to compare to the
advertisement that
the user compared last, process 1600 continues to 1618, where the media
guidance
application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), based on
the assigned
amounts, a highest ranked advertisement. For example, the media guidance
application may
determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), from a ranked list or
other data structure
containing the assigned amounts, which assigned amount is greatest. The media
guidance
application may retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an
identifier of the
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advertisement associated with the greatest assigned amount as the highest
ranked
advertisement.
[0292] Process 1600 continues to 1620, where the media guidance application
retrieves
(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) supplemental information associated
with the highest
ranked advertisement of the group of similar advertisements. For example, the
media
guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))
that the highest
ranked advertisement (e.g., "Budweiser_ad_1") matches an identifier that is
associated with
supplemental information. The media guidance application may retrieve (e.g.,
via control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) supplemental information associated with the stored
identifier.
[0293] It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of FIGS. 7-16
may be used
with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps and
descriptions
described in relation to FIGS. 7-16 may be done in alternative orders or in
parallel to further
the purposes of this disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be
performed in any
order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase
the speed of the
.. system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that any of the devices
or equipment
discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could be used to perform one or more of the
steps in FIGS.
7-16.
[0294] While some portions of this disclosure may make reference to
"convention," any
such reference is merely for the purpose of providing context to the instant
disclosure, and
does not form any admission as to what constitutes the state of the art.
[0295] The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and not
limiting. One
skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of the processes discussed
herein may be
omitted, modified, combined, and/or rearranged, and any additional steps may
be performed
without departing from the scope of the disclosure. More generally, the above
disclosure is
meant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow are meant
to set bounds
as to what the present disclosure includes. Furthermore, it should be noted
that the features
and limitations described in any one embodiment may be applied to any other
embodiment
herein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may be combined
with any
other embodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done in
parallel. In
.. addition, the systems and methods described herein may be performed in real
time. It should
also be noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be applied
to, or used in
accordance with, other systems and/or methods.
