Interactive video distribution systems – Use surveying or monitoring – By passively monitoring receiver operation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-29
2001-09-11
Miller, John W. (Department: 2611)
Interactive video distribution systems
Use surveying or monitoring
By passively monitoring receiver operation
C725S032000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289514
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention pertains to the field of automatic monitoring of cable television use, and more particularly, to a system and method for near-real time capturing and reporting of cable television use by consumers.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
The purchase of cable television time for advertisers is extremely expensive. As a result, it is has always been desirous to obtain good reliable statistics about who is watching “what” and when they are watching “it”. To obtain such information, it is necessary to construct a system/method that is capable of identifying cable media once transmitted, determining which channel consumers are tuned to and then generating useful data from such information. Examples of past and current systems/methods, or portions thereof, directed towards this objective are listed below.
Media encoding systems and processes are known in the art, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,851 (Haselwood et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,488 (Leventer et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,804 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,304 (Watanabe et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,779 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,974 (Butler et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,020 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,871 (Kramer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,412 (Kramer et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,273 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,916 (Pshtissky et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,479 (Mary); U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,453 (copriviza et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,127 (Dinsel); U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,237 (Gerdes, et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,240 (Hori); U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,941 (Montgomery et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,100 (Thomas et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,122 (Keene); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,026 (Lu et al.).
Systems or methods for determining to which frequency a television is tuned are known in the art, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,206 (Haselwood et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,562 (Haselwood et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,578 (Haselwood et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,958 (Machnik et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,209 (Kiewit et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,302 (Fulmer et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,808 (Solar) U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,736 (Kiewit); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,503 (Zurlinden).
Systems or methods for identifying and verifying broadcasted programs are known in the art, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,531 (Kenyon et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,917 (Köhler et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,804 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,304 (Watanabe et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,779 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,974 (Butler et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,466 (Lert, Jr. et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,398 (Thomas et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,020 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,871 (Kramer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,412 (Kramer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,273 (Greenberg); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,934 (Lu et al.).
Systems or methods for determining television audience behavior are known, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,833,859 (Rahmel et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,479 (Moon et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,851 (Haselwood et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,990 (Lert, Jr. et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,245 (Matsumoto et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,531 (Kenyon et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,917 (Köhler et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,466 (Lert, Jr. et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,871 (Kramer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,412 (Kramer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,398 (Thomas et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,974 (Butler et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,963 (Waechter et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,822 (Bronfin et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,423 (DeJean et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,100 (Thomas et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,122 (Keene); U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,159 (Faust et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,182 (Cathey et al.).
However, many of the cable systems/methods only poll a plurality of consumer set top boxes, i.e., these systems/methods ask “what is everyone doing at this moment?” Thus, none of these references teach or suggest a system or method for continuously monitoring every consumer set top box in near-real time using existing cable television infrastructure and providing for the aggregation, collection and dissemination of relevant information for near-real time publication.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is the general object of this invention to provide an invention that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for monitoring interesting events at a plurality of user television set top boxes.
It is still yet a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method for the near-real time collection of information from a plurality of user television set top boxes.
It is still yet another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for handling and processing, in near-real time, information collected from a plurality of user television set top boxes.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a system and method that utilizes ongoing transmission from remote locations (set top boxes) to central facilities (head-ends).
It is yet even a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method whereby information is transmitted to a central facility through the existing cable television infrastructure from a remote location without requiring a “modem” mechanism.
It is still yet even a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method for near-real time capture and reporting of consumer behavior as regards television use.
It is still even yet a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method for near-real time capture and reporting of consumer behavior as regards other peripheral devices (e.g., video cassette recorder, video game, printer, and other auxiliary inputs) coupled to the set top box.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objects of the instant invention are achieved by providing a set top box for use in a cable television system wherein the set top box is in communication with a television and wherein the set top box transmits information about events (e.g., television on/off, mute on/off, set top box on/off, etc.) of the television to the cable television system whenever television events occur.
These and other objects of the instant invention are also achieved by providing a system for near-real time capturing and reporting of viewer's cable television use for televisions coupled to a cable television network including at least one head end. The system comprises: (1) a first subsystem for generating encoded media assets for transmission through the cable network and whereby the preparation subsystem includes means for assigning a range of codes to be associated with the media assets and with entities that own the media assets to form assigned asset data; (2) a second subsystem, coupled to the first subsystem, comprising at least one set top box coupled to an associated television for receiving the encoded media assets and for obtaining data of television events as they occur, and whereby the at least one set top box generates a message corresponding to each one of the data of television events as they occur; at least one set top box event dispatching means for receiving each of the messages and for routing the messages to collection means within the second subsystem; the second subsystem also includes means for generating statistics from the television event data coupled to the at least one set top box event dispatching means; means for extracting the code from the encoded media assets and creating asset tag timestamps therefrom; and (3) a third subsystem, coupled to the first subsystem and to the second subsystem whereby the third subsystem comprises means for merging the asset tag timestamps with (a) the statistics generated in the second subsystem; (b) information related to published broadcast schedules and to head-end channel line-ups; and (c) the assigned asset data to generate, in near-real time, viewership consolidated data.
These and other objects of the instant invention are also achieved by providing a method for tracking television events of at least one television in a cable system. The method c
Brown Thomas A.
Endler, III George
Graves George A.
Heimark Christopher J.
Link John F.
Caesar Rivise Bernstein Cohen & Pokotilow Ltd.
Miller John W.
QCOM TV, Inc.
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