WO2002003222A2 - In-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising - Google Patents

In-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising Download PDF

Info

Publication number
WO2002003222A2
WO2002003222A2 PCT/JP2001/000644 JP0100644W WO0203222A2 WO 2002003222 A2 WO2002003222 A2 WO 2002003222A2 JP 0100644 W JP0100644 W JP 0100644W WO 0203222 A2 WO0203222 A2 WO 0203222A2
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
contents
digital contents
advertisement
advertisement information
distribution system
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/JP2001/000644
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Ken Kutaragi
Shinichi Okamoto
Keiso Shimakawa
Makoto Kubo
Yutaka Kagiwada
Original Assignee
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. filed Critical Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Priority to EP01904307A priority Critical patent/EP1297443A1/en
Priority to CA002384163A priority patent/CA2384163A1/en
Priority to KR1020027002898A priority patent/KR20020035128A/en
Priority to BR0106946-2A priority patent/BR0106946A/en
Priority to MXPA02002256A priority patent/MXPA02002256A/en
Priority to AU32220/01A priority patent/AU3222001A/en
Publication of WO2002003222A2 publication Critical patent/WO2002003222A2/en

Links

Classifications

    • A63F13/12—
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63F—CARD, BOARD, OR ROULETTE GAMES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; VIDEO GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • A63F13/00—Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions
    • A63F13/60—Generating or modifying game content before or while executing the game program, e.g. authoring tools specially adapted for game development or game-integrated level editor
    • A63F13/61—Generating or modifying game content before or while executing the game program, e.g. authoring tools specially adapted for game development or game-integrated level editor using advertising information
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63F—CARD, BOARD, OR ROULETTE GAMES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; VIDEO GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • A63F13/00—Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions
    • A63F13/30—Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63F—CARD, BOARD, OR ROULETTE GAMES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; VIDEO GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • A63F13/00—Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions
    • A63F13/30—Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
    • A63F13/35—Details of game servers
    • A63F13/352—Details of game servers involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63F—CARD, BOARD, OR ROULETTE GAMES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; VIDEO GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • A63F13/00—Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions
    • A63F13/50—Controlling the output signals based on the game progress
    • A63F13/52—Controlling the output signals based on the game progress involving aspects of the displayed game scene
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • G06Q30/0241—Advertisements
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • G06Q30/0241—Advertisements
    • G06Q30/0251—Targeted advertisements
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • G06Q30/0241—Advertisements
    • G06Q30/0251—Targeted advertisements
    • G06Q30/0267—Wireless devices
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • G06Q30/0241—Advertisements
    • G06Q30/0273—Determination of fees for advertising
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • G06Q30/0241—Advertisements
    • G06Q30/0277—Online advertisement
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/23—Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
    • H04N21/236—Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Insertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rate; Assembling of a packetised elementary stream
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63F—CARD, BOARD, OR ROULETTE GAMES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; VIDEO GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • A63F2300/00—Features of games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions, e.g. on a television screen, showing representations related to the game
    • A63F2300/50—Features of games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions, e.g. on a television screen, showing representations related to the game characterized by details of game servers
    • A63F2300/55—Details of game data or player data management
    • A63F2300/5506—Details of game data or player data management using advertisements
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63F—CARD, BOARD, OR ROULETTE GAMES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; VIDEO GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • A63F2300/00—Features of games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions, e.g. on a television screen, showing representations related to the game
    • A63F2300/50—Features of games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions, e.g. on a television screen, showing representations related to the game characterized by details of game servers
    • A63F2300/55—Details of game data or player data management
    • A63F2300/552—Details of game data or player data management for downloading to client devices, e.g. using OS version, hardware or software profile of the client device

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to an in-contents advertising method, an in- contents advertising server, and a program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising, suitable for displaying advertisements of advertisers in contents such as games. More specifically, the present invention obtains advertisement information appropriated beforehand to contents, at the time of activation of the contents, and inserts the advertisement information in the contents, based on commissioning from advertisers, and information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted, thereby enabling advertising within the contents.
  • the contents are placed on a medium and distributed to the user, and cannot be applied to advertisements dealing with digital contents distribution modes using networks. Also, the same advertisement is displayed indefinitely in the same advertising area, unless a new stamper is made. Accordingly, it is difficult to easily update the contents of advertisements whenever appropriate according to requests from the advertisers and so forth.
  • the present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems.
  • the in-contents advertising method includes advertisement information provided beforehand in contents, based on information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted within the contents.
  • the in-contents advertising server inserts advertisement information in contents, based on specifications of the advertiser, and information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted.
  • the program transferring medium is for realizing in-contents advertisements by obtaining advertisement information appropriated beforehand to the contents, at the time of activation of the contents, and inserting the advertisement information in the contents, based on information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted.
  • the digital contents distribution system for realizing in-contents advertisements comprises: a digital contents distribution system comprising a first server storing a plurality of digital contents to be provided; an advertisement information providing system comprising a database storing advertisement information which is to be set in advertisement areas in the digital contents; and a plurality of user terminal devices; wherein, in response to download requests for specific digital contents from the users, the digital contents distribution system distributes the specific digital contents to the user; and wherein the advertisement information providing system transmits advertisement information corresponding to the specific digital contents from the database, to the user.
  • the digital contents distribution system may configure a network of the digital contents distribution system comprising the first server, the advertisement information providing system comprising the database, and the plurality of user terminal devices, using one, or two or more, of the following means: cable television, broad-band wireless network, and optical fiber network.
  • the digital contents distribution system may further comprise means for recording the transmission state of the advertisement information, with advertising fees being calculated based on the recording results, and may further comprise a contents providing system for creating contents and providing the contents to the digital contents providing system, and an advertisement creating system for creating advertisement information and providing the advertisement information to the advertisement information providing system.
  • the digital contents distribution system may further comprise a banking system, wherein the advertisement information providing system comprises means for recording the transmission state of the advertisement information, with advertising fees being calculated based on the recording results, and the advertiser is billed for the advertising fees from the bank.
  • the advertisement information providing system comprises means for recording the transmission state of the advertisement information, with advertising fees being calculated based on the recording results, and the advertiser is billed for the advertising fees from the bank.
  • the advertisement information providing system may provide the advertisement creating system with advertisement structure information containing at least portions and times regarding which advertisement insertion can be made, and the advertisement creating system may provide the advertisement information creating system with advertisement information created based on the advertisement structure information and specified information from the advertiser.
  • the digital contents data may contain advertisement programs, with the advertisement information being set into the digital contents by the advertisement programs.
  • the digital contents providing system comprises a plurality of servers storing digital contents, wherein the digital contents providing system configures an advertisement information providing system having a database storing advertisement information to be set into advertising areas within the digital contents, and a network, and wherein, in response to download requests for digital contents from the users, the digital contents distribution system receives corresponding advertisement information from the database, and distributes the advertisement information along with the requested digital contents.
  • FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall system connected to a network
  • Fig. 2 is a communication flow illustrating information exchange between parties
  • FIGs. 3 A and 3B are explanatory diagram illustrating an example of the data configuration of advertising structure information, and a screen example for advertisers;
  • Fig. 4 is a screen example for advertisers indicating the time slot for displaying advertisements, status, and monetary amount
  • Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a user client terminal
  • Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the configuration of contents downloaded to the user client terminal
  • Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating advertising operations in the event that a game is activated at the user client terminal
  • Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of an advertising program which operates on the client terminal where the game has been activated.
  • Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the advertisement output operations in the event that game data is being downloaded to the user client terminal.
  • Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall system wherein a related server or terminal is connected to a network 1, such as cable television, a broad-band wireless network, or an optical fiber network, for example.
  • a contents provider system 2 made up of a contents server 4 and a system 3, an advertising agency server 5 having a database 6 such as advertisement information data and the like for configuring an advertisement information creating system
  • terminals 7-1 through 7-N which are terminals of a contents providing company such as a game software company or the like
  • advertiser terminals 8-1 through 8-N user terminals 9-1 through 9-N
  • a bank server 10 and an advertisement creating company server 11.
  • the contents server 4 is for distributing digital contents requested from users 9-1 through 9-N, and stores massive amounts of contents digital contents produced by authoring at the contents providing company 7-1 through 7-N, e.g., contents such as games or the like.
  • the overall system will be described with reference to Fig. 2.
  • the contents providing company 7-1 through 7-N provides the advertising agency server 5 with advertisement structure information indicating portions and time slots in which advertisements can be inserted, demonstration information, etc. ((1) providing advertisement structure information), and this is registered in the database 6 of the advertising agency server 5.
  • the advertising agency server 5 directly informs the advertiser terminals 8-1 through 8-N of the advertisement informing information such as "title”, "contents", etc., of a newly-registered title, by mail or otherwise ((2) informing).
  • the advertiser 8-1 through 8-N can access the advertising agency server 5, and can view the advertisement informing information ((3) viewing), and further apply for advertising from the browser screen ((4) application).
  • advertiser specified information such as "advertiser name", time slot, and time period, are notified to the contents providing company terminals 7-1 through 7-N from the advertising agency server 5 by mail or the like ((5) notification).
  • advertiser specified information and advertisement structure information are supplied to the server 11 of the advertisement creating company from the advertising agency server 5 ((6) ordering).
  • the advertisement creating company creates advertisement information based on the advertiser specified information and advertisement structure information.
  • the completed advertisement information such as bitmap data or the like is delivered from the server 11 of the advertisement creating company to the advertising agency server 5 ((7) delivery).
  • the fact that the advertisement has been completed is notified from the advertising agency server 5 to the advertiser via the terminals 8-1 through 8-N, by mail or the like ((8) notification).
  • the advertiser can view the completed advertisement information on the advertising agency server 5 via the terminals 8-1 through 8-N ((9) viewing). If the advertiser presses an "OK” button or the like here, the product is delivered, and an itinerary is sent from the advertising agency server 5 to the contents providing company via the contents providing company terminals 7- 1 through 7-N, by mail or the like.
  • the breakdown of the itinerary is "advertiser", "time slot”, “period”, “advertising fees”, and so forth.
  • the advertising information from the advertising agency server 5 is provided to the contents providing company via the contents providing company terminals 7-1 through 7-N ((10) delivery (itinerary)).
  • the advertisement information is merged with digital contents and advertising programs by authoring processing, and then registered in the contents server 4 of the contents provider 2 ((11) registration).
  • the user applies for the contents (e.g., a driving game) using terminals 9-1 through 9-N ((12) application), and starts downloading ((13) download).
  • the contents provider 4 notifies the advertising agency server 5 of the fact of the download request and the title thereof, etc.
  • the advertising agency server 5 transmits the advertisement information data corresponding to the received title to the system 3 of the contents provider 2.
  • the contents provided can update the advertisement information based on the advertising program of the digital contents regarding which downloading has been requested, using received updated advertisement information data.
  • the user can download the requested digital contents via the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N ((14) advertisement information).
  • the user activating the digital contents renders the updated advertisement information (delivered in the above step (7)) within the contents, by the updated advertising program added to the contents.
  • the state of advertisement such as the number of sets of digital contents distributed are notified from the advertising agency server 5 to the advertiser via the advertiser terminals 8-1 through 8-N ((15) notification), and also the same information is notified to the contents providing company via the contents providing company terminals 7-1 through 7-N ((16) notification). Further, invoicing of the advertiser and payment amount of the contents providing company based on the same information is notified to the bank by the server 10. Thus, the bank bills the advertiser, and pays the contents providing company.
  • the in-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising, according to the present invention, described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2, can be applied to advertising dealing with networks.
  • contents such as a driving game or the like are provided from a contents server 4 of a contents provider to the user, and advertisement information set in the advertisement areas therein is separately provided to the user from the server 5 of the advertising agency. Accordingly, the advertising information can be readily updated whenever appropriate, without new stamper creation.
  • Figs. 3 A and 3B are explanatory diagrams illustrating an example of data configuration of advertisement structure information supplied to the advertising agency server 5 via the contents providing company terminals 7-1 through 7-N in the above advertisement information providing step (1).
  • the advertisement structure information is made up of a header with the ID of the contents providing company, title, etc., movie data
  • the demonstration program 22 is the actual title program simplified for a demonstration.
  • the object data 23 is a collection of coordinates values of objects made up of polygon apex data or the like, for example.
  • the texture data 24 is pattern data of the object data converted from 3 -dimensional data to 2-dimensional data by transparent conversion and subsequently written to areas indicated by coordinates value, and in the event that the object data is a racing car, for example, the texture data is the coloring pattern on the body, and so forth.
  • advertisement insertable information AD1 is set into the movie 21 area
  • advertisement insertable information AD2 is set at the head of the object area
  • advertisement insertable information AD3 and AD4 are set to the heads of each texture area.
  • AD1 contains information such as a code indicating that advertisements may be inserted, code indicating that the data is a movie, the number of insertion frames, resolution etc.
  • AD2 contains information such as a code indicating that advertisements may be inserted, code indicating that the data is an object
  • AD3 and AD4 each contain information such as a code indicating that advertisements may be inserted, code indicating that the insertion format may be any of all or part of texture, code indicating that the data is texture, the range of the texture in the event of all, the range of the texture in the event of part, and so forth.
  • the advertising agency server 5 makes reference to this information and thus generates the viewing screen for the advertiser in the above viewing step (3).
  • Fig. 3B is a screen display example of a screen which the advertiser can view by accessing the advertising agency server 5.
  • the display screen is made up of list data Da such as title, manufacturer, advertisement target 1, estimated amount, advertisement target 2, estimated amount, and so forth, and switches and the like displayed below, which are a game demo switch SW1 for executing the game demo, an advertisement sample switch SW2 for showing an advertisement sample, switches SW3 through SWn for specifying advertisement targets 1 through n, and estimate sum switch SWn+1 for calculating and displaying the estimate sum, an input area INI for inputting the advertisement carrying period, an input area IN2 for inputting the advertisement carrying time slot, and an applying switch SWn+2 for applying.
  • list data Da such as title, manufacturer, advertisement target 1, estimated amount, advertisement target 2, estimated amount, and so forth, and switches and the like displayed below, which are a game demo switch SW1 for executing the game demo, an advertisement sample switch SW2 for showing an advertisement sample, switches SW3 through SWn for specifying advertisement targets 1 through n, and estimate sum switch SW
  • the advertiser can watch the game demo and the advertisement sample, select the advertisement object, input the advertisement carrying period and time slot, confirm the estimated sum, and apply, Note that data of the same contents of the above list is formed in the database 6 of the advertising agency server 5.
  • a schedule SCI such as shown in Fig. 4 is displayed on a monitor (not shown) connected to the terminals 8-1 through 8-N of the advertiser, along with buttons Bui through Bun for selecting advertising targets, a monthly schedule SC2 for specifying the month, and a daily schedule SC3 for specifying the day.
  • the schedule SCI is made up of time slot, status, and monetary amount.
  • the time slot is in increments of one hour, for example.
  • the status indicates whether or not another advertiser has already applied, with a circle meaning that application can be made, and an X implying that application cannot be made. In other words, an X means that another advertiser has already applied for that time slot.
  • This schedule is made for each advertisement target. As shown in the Figure, advertising target 1 is selected for the current schedule.
  • the button Bui for the advertisement target 1 is displayed in inverse (hatched in the figure). Also, May (hatched) is specified for the month, and the 10th (framed) for the day.
  • FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating one of the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N, e.g., 9-1.
  • the user terminal 9-1 comprises a user terminal 12, monitor 13, main data storage 14, sub-data storage 15, controller 16, and interface 17 for network 1.
  • This terminal 9-1 is an entertainment system represented by home game computers for example, wherein the main data storage 14 is a hard disk drive or a high-speed optical disk drive or the like, and the sub-data storage 15 is flash memory.
  • Game data Gl through Gn containing advertisement programs API through APn as shown in Fig. 6 respectively are each stored in the main data storage 14.
  • the other user terminals 9-2 through 9-N are of the same configuration.
  • the sets of game data Gl through Gn are each made up of a header 30 of contents providing company name, title, date of sale, etc., and movie data
  • program data 32 is not a demonstration program like the advertisement structure information, but is an authentic program intended for sale.
  • advertisement information is obtained from the advertising agency server 5 based on the embedded above information indicating that advertisements may be inserted, and the advertisement information is displayed in the game.
  • the advertisement program is activated, in step
  • step S2 the advertising program accesses the server 5 of the advertising agency, and also in step S3, makes notification of the title of the digital contents activated on the user terminal 9-1 through 9-N, and user address.
  • the server 5 reads out the advertisement data corresponding to the database 6, and transfers this to the above address.
  • step S4 the user terminal 9-1 through 9-N receives the above advertising data under control of the advertising program, records this in the main data storage 14
  • step S5 in step S5, and in step S6 generates a table of information indicating addresses in the main data storage for advertisement data, and the position of the advertisement target, i.e., information indicating which advertisement insertable information shown in Fig. 6 this is.
  • step S8 judgement is made whether or not the position is the position for inserting advertisement information, and in the event that this yields "YES", in step S9 the corresponding advertisement data is positioned at the corresponding position in the memory. It is needless to say that this positioning is made at an earlier point in the progression of the game. Also, an arrangement may be made wherein not all advertisement data is obtained at once, but rather a little is obtained at a time as the game progresses.
  • movie data is preferably placed in the main memory or a graphics engine buffer immediately before the game starts
  • object data is preferably placed in the main memory either immediately before the game starts or before the data is used
  • texture data is preferably placed in the main memory or a graphics engine buffer either immediately before the game starts or before the data is used.
  • cars the same as cars actually manufactured and sold by the advertiser can be operated by the user, or wherein advertisements of the advertiser are carried on the body of the car operated by the user, and so forth.
  • step S 10 judgement is made regarding whether or not there is access from the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N, and in the event that this yields "YES", the title of the digital contents and the user address is received from the terminals 9-1 through 9-N in step SI 1, the database 6 is referred to in step SI 2, advertisement data corresponding to the title is read out in step SI 3, the advertisement data is transmitted to the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N indicated by the user address received in step SI 4, and the transmission record for the advertising data is updated in step S 15. Counting the number of times of updating the transmission record allows measurement of how many advertisements have been viewed to be made, and payment to the contents providing company and billing the advertiser can be calculated based on this value.
  • step S20 the system 3 of the contents provider 4 judges whether or not there has been a request for downloading digital contents from the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N, and in the event that this yields "YES", the flow proceeds to step S21, and then notifies the title to the advertising agency server 5.
  • the advertising agency server 5 searches the database 6 for the advertising information data corresponding to the received title, and transmits this to the system 3 of the contents provider 2.
  • step S22 the system 3 of the contents provider 2 receives the downloading advertisement data.
  • step S23 once the contents server 4 starts downloading the digital contents, the system 3 transmits advertisement information data to the download destination user terminals 9-1 through 9-N in step S24.
  • step S25 the system judges whether or not the download from the contents server 4 has ended, and in the event that this yields "YES”, the flow ends, and in the event that this is "NO”, the flow proceeds to step S24 again.
  • An arrangement may be made wherein the advertising agency server 5 directly sends advertising information data to the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N.
  • the advertising agency server 5 needs to receive data indicating starting and ending of downloading from the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N, and also receive the title of digital contents, user address requesting the download, etc., from the system 3 of the contents provider, beforehand.
  • advertisement information is set into the contents each time there is a digital contents download request from the user, but the present invention is not restricted to this. Instead, the advertising information can be updated as necessary regarding advertisement contents, carrying period, etc., based on specifications from the advertiser.
  • an in-contents advertising method an in-contents advertising server, and a program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising, capable of application to advertising dealing with networks, can be provided.
  • an in-contents advertising method an in-contents advertising server, and a program-transferring medium for realizing in- contents advertising, capable of easily updating the advertisement contents whenever appropriate, can be provided.

Description

DESCRIPTION
IN-CONTENTS ADVERTISING METHOD, IN-CONTENTS ADVERTISING SERVER, AND PROGRAM-TRANSFERRING MEDIUM FOR REALIZING IN- CONTENTS ADVERTISING
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an in-contents advertising method, an in- contents advertising server, and a program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising, suitable for displaying advertisements of advertisers in contents such as games. More specifically, the present invention obtains advertisement information appropriated beforehand to contents, at the time of activation of the contents, and inserts the advertisement information in the contents, based on commissioning from advertisers, and information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted, thereby enabling advertising within the contents.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally, there are cases wherein actual advertisements of advertisers are displayed within contents such as games. A most classic example is in a driving game, wherein advertisements are pasted onto sign boards around the course as textures. With such in-game advertising, the game software company which creates the contents finds an advertiser, creates texture data based on commissioning from the advertiser, and sets this in the game advertisement area as texture. The game program data and texture containing the advertising texture, and audio data, are temporarily stored on a hard disk or the like by an authoring tool, then sent to the optical disk manufacturing process, and stamped by a stamper. The stamper manufactures massive numbers of optical disks. Once such contents reach the user in the form of an optical disk, the user can view the advertisements of the advertiser within the in-game advertising areas on the signs within the game space.
However, with the above method, the contents are placed on a medium and distributed to the user, and cannot be applied to advertisements dealing with digital contents distribution modes using networks. Also, the same advertisement is displayed indefinitely in the same advertising area, unless a new stamper is made. Accordingly, it is difficult to easily update the contents of advertisements whenever appropriate according to requests from the advertisers and so forth.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems.
Accordingly, the in-contents advertising method according to the present invention includes advertisement information provided beforehand in contents, based on information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted within the contents.
Also, the in-contents advertising server according to the present invention inserts advertisement information in contents, based on specifications of the advertiser, and information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted.
Also, the program transferring medium according to the present invention is for realizing in-contents advertisements by obtaining advertisement information appropriated beforehand to the contents, at the time of activation of the contents, and inserting the advertisement information in the contents, based on information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted.
Also, the digital contents distribution system according to the present invention for realizing in-contents advertisements comprises: a digital contents distribution system comprising a first server storing a plurality of digital contents to be provided; an advertisement information providing system comprising a database storing advertisement information which is to be set in advertisement areas in the digital contents; and a plurality of user terminal devices; wherein, in response to download requests for specific digital contents from the users, the digital contents distribution system receives advertisement information corresponding to the specific digital contents from the database of the advertisement information providing system, and subsequently distributes the specific digital contents to the user.
Also, the digital contents distribution system for realizing in-contents advertisements according to the present invention comprises: a digital contents distribution system comprising a first server storing a plurality of digital contents to be provided; an advertisement information providing system comprising a database storing advertisement information which is to be set in advertisement areas in the digital contents; and a plurality of user terminal devices; wherein, in response to download requests for specific digital contents from the users, the digital contents distribution system distributes the specific digital contents to the user; and wherein the advertisement information providing system transmits advertisement information corresponding to the specific digital contents from the database, to the user.
Now, the digital contents distribution system according to the present invention may configure a network of the digital contents distribution system comprising the first server, the advertisement information providing system comprising the database, and the plurality of user terminal devices, using one, or two or more, of the following means: cable television, broad-band wireless network, and optical fiber network.
Also, the digital contents distribution system according to the present invention may further comprise means for recording the transmission state of the advertisement information, with advertising fees being calculated based on the recording results, and may further comprise a contents providing system for creating contents and providing the contents to the digital contents providing system, and an advertisement creating system for creating advertisement information and providing the advertisement information to the advertisement information providing system.
The digital contents distribution system may further comprise a banking system, wherein the advertisement information providing system comprises means for recording the transmission state of the advertisement information, with advertising fees being calculated based on the recording results, and the advertiser is billed for the advertising fees from the bank.
Also, the advertisement information providing system may provide the advertisement creating system with advertisement structure information containing at least portions and times regarding which advertisement insertion can be made, and the advertisement creating system may provide the advertisement information creating system with advertisement information created based on the advertisement structure information and specified information from the advertiser. Further, the digital contents data may contain advertisement programs, with the advertisement information being set into the digital contents by the advertisement programs.
Also, the digital contents providing system according to the present invention comprises a plurality of servers storing digital contents, wherein the digital contents providing system configures an advertisement information providing system having a database storing advertisement information to be set into advertising areas within the digital contents, and a network, and wherein, in response to download requests for digital contents from the users, the digital contents distribution system receives corresponding advertisement information from the database, and distributes the advertisement information along with the requested digital contents.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall system connected to a network;
Fig. 2 is a communication flow illustrating information exchange between parties;
Figs. 3 A and 3B are explanatory diagram illustrating an example of the data configuration of advertising structure information, and a screen example for advertisers;
Fig. 4 is a screen example for advertisers indicating the time slot for displaying advertisements, status, and monetary amount;
Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a user client terminal; Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the configuration of contents downloaded to the user client terminal;
Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating advertising operations in the event that a game is activated at the user client terminal;
Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of an advertising program which operates on the client terminal where the game has been activated; and
Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the advertisement output operations in the event that game data is being downloaded to the user client terminal.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The following is a description of an embodiment of the present invention, with reference to Figs. 1 through 9 in order.
Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall system wherein a related server or terminal is connected to a network 1, such as cable television, a broad-band wireless network, or an optical fiber network, for example. As shown in Fig. 1, connected to the network 1 are a contents provider system 2 made up of a contents server 4 and a system 3, an advertising agency server 5 having a database 6 such as advertisement information data and the like for configuring an advertisement information creating system, terminals 7-1 through 7-N which are terminals of a contents providing company such as a game software company or the like, advertiser terminals 8-1 through 8-N, user terminals 9-1 through 9-N, a bank server 10, and an advertisement creating company server 11. Now, the contents server 4 is for distributing digital contents requested from users 9-1 through 9-N, and stores massive amounts of contents digital contents produced by authoring at the contents providing company 7-1 through 7-N, e.g., contents such as games or the like.
The overall system will be described with reference to Fig. 2. The contents providing company 7-1 through 7-N provides the advertising agency server 5 with advertisement structure information indicating portions and time slots in which advertisements can be inserted, demonstration information, etc. ((1) providing advertisement structure information), and this is registered in the database 6 of the advertising agency server 5. The advertising agency server 5 directly informs the advertiser terminals 8-1 through 8-N of the advertisement informing information such as "title", "contents", etc., of a newly-registered title, by mail or otherwise ((2) informing).
The advertiser 8-1 through 8-N can access the advertising agency server 5, and can view the advertisement informing information ((3) viewing), and further apply for advertising from the browser screen ((4) application). Once the advertisers have been decided upon, advertiser specified information such as "advertiser name", time slot, and time period, are notified to the contents providing company terminals 7-1 through 7-N from the advertising agency server 5 by mail or the like ((5) notification). Also, advertiser specified information and advertisement structure information are supplied to the server 11 of the advertisement creating company from the advertising agency server 5 ((6) ordering). The advertisement creating company creates advertisement information based on the advertiser specified information and advertisement structure information. The completed advertisement information such as bitmap data or the like is delivered from the server 11 of the advertisement creating company to the advertising agency server 5 ((7) delivery).
Next, the fact that the advertisement has been completed is notified from the advertising agency server 5 to the advertiser via the terminals 8-1 through 8-N, by mail or the like ((8) notification). The advertiser can view the completed advertisement information on the advertising agency server 5 via the terminals 8-1 through 8-N ((9) viewing). If the advertiser presses an "OK" button or the like here, the product is delivered, and an itinerary is sent from the advertising agency server 5 to the contents providing company via the contents providing company terminals 7- 1 through 7-N, by mail or the like. The breakdown of the itinerary is "advertiser", "time slot", "period", "advertising fees", and so forth.
The advertising information from the advertising agency server 5 is provided to the contents providing company via the contents providing company terminals 7-1 through 7-N ((10) delivery (itinerary)). At the contents providing company, the advertisement information is merged with digital contents and advertising programs by authoring processing, and then registered in the contents server 4 of the contents provider 2 ((11) registration).
The user applies for the contents (e.g., a driving game) using terminals 9-1 through 9-N ((12) application), and starts downloading ((13) download). At this time, the contents provider 4 notifies the advertising agency server 5 of the fact of the download request and the title thereof, etc. The advertising agency server 5 transmits the advertisement information data corresponding to the received title to the system 3 of the contents provider 2. If necessary, the contents provided can update the advertisement information based on the advertising program of the digital contents regarding which downloading has been requested, using received updated advertisement information data. The user can download the requested digital contents via the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N ((14) advertisement information). After downloading the digital contents, the user activating the digital contents renders the updated advertisement information (delivered in the above step (7)) within the contents, by the updated advertising program added to the contents.
On the other hand, the state of advertisement such as the number of sets of digital contents distributed are notified from the advertising agency server 5 to the advertiser via the advertiser terminals 8-1 through 8-N ((15) notification), and also the same information is notified to the contents providing company via the contents providing company terminals 7-1 through 7-N ((16) notification). Further, invoicing of the advertiser and payment amount of the contents providing company based on the same information is notified to the bank by the server 10. Thus, the bank bills the advertiser, and pays the contents providing company.
The in-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising, according to the present invention, described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2, can be applied to advertising dealing with networks. Also, according to the present invention, contents such as a driving game or the like are provided from a contents server 4 of a contents provider to the user, and advertisement information set in the advertisement areas therein is separately provided to the user from the server 5 of the advertising agency. Accordingly, the advertising information can be readily updated whenever appropriate, without new stamper creation.
Figs. 3 A and 3B are explanatory diagrams illustrating an example of data configuration of advertisement structure information supplied to the advertising agency server 5 via the contents providing company terminals 7-1 through 7-N in the above advertisement information providing step (1).
As shown in Fig. 3 A here, the advertisement structure information is made up of a header with the ID of the contents providing company, title, etc., movie data
(graphics data of several tens to several hundreds of frames) 21, a demonstration game program 22, object data 23, multiple sets of texture data 24, and so forth.
Now, the demonstration program 22 is the actual title program simplified for a demonstration. Also, the object data 23 is a collection of coordinates values of objects made up of polygon apex data or the like, for example. The texture data 24 is pattern data of the object data converted from 3 -dimensional data to 2-dimensional data by transparent conversion and subsequently written to areas indicated by coordinates value, and in the event that the object data is a racing car, for example, the texture data is the coloring pattern on the body, and so forth.
As shown in Fig. 3 A here, advertisement insertable information AD1 is set into the movie 21 area, advertisement insertable information AD2 is set at the head of the object area, and advertisement insertable information AD3 and AD4 are set to the heads of each texture area. For example, AD1 contains information such as a code indicating that advertisements may be inserted, code indicating that the data is a movie, the number of insertion frames, resolution etc., AD2 contains information such as a code indicating that advertisements may be inserted, code indicating that the data is an object, and AD3 and AD4 each contain information such as a code indicating that advertisements may be inserted, code indicating that the insertion format may be any of all or part of texture, code indicating that the data is texture, the range of the texture in the event of all, the range of the texture in the event of part, and so forth. The advertising agency server 5 makes reference to this information and thus generates the viewing screen for the advertiser in the above viewing step (3).
Fig. 3B is a screen display example of a screen which the advertiser can view by accessing the advertising agency server 5. As shown in Fig. 3B here, the display screen is made up of list data Da such as title, manufacturer, advertisement target 1, estimated amount, advertisement target 2, estimated amount, and so forth, and switches and the like displayed below, which are a game demo switch SW1 for executing the game demo, an advertisement sample switch SW2 for showing an advertisement sample, switches SW3 through SWn for specifying advertisement targets 1 through n, and estimate sum switch SWn+1 for calculating and displaying the estimate sum, an input area INI for inputting the advertisement carrying period, an input area IN2 for inputting the advertisement carrying time slot, and an applying switch SWn+2 for applying.
In the above applying step (4), the advertiser can watch the game demo and the advertisement sample, select the advertisement object, input the advertisement carrying period and time slot, confirm the estimated sum, and apply, Note that data of the same contents of the above list is formed in the database 6 of the advertising agency server 5. In the event that the advertiser presses the schedule button SWn+3, a schedule SCI such as shown in Fig. 4 is displayed on a monitor (not shown) connected to the terminals 8-1 through 8-N of the advertiser, along with buttons Bui through Bun for selecting advertising targets, a monthly schedule SC2 for specifying the month, and a daily schedule SC3 for specifying the day.
The schedule SCI is made up of time slot, status, and monetary amount. The time slot is in increments of one hour, for example. The status indicates whether or not another advertiser has already applied, with a circle meaning that application can be made, and an X implying that application cannot be made. In other words, an X means that another advertiser has already applied for that time slot. This schedule is made for each advertisement target. As shown in the Figure, advertising target 1 is selected for the current schedule. Here, the button Bui for the advertisement target 1 is displayed in inverse (hatched in the figure). Also, May (hatched) is specified for the month, and the 10th (framed) for the day. Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating one of the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N, e.g., 9-1. As shown in Fig. 5 here, the user terminal 9-1 comprises a user terminal 12, monitor 13, main data storage 14, sub-data storage 15, controller 16, and interface 17 for network 1. This terminal 9-1 is an entertainment system represented by home game computers for example, wherein the main data storage 14 is a hard disk drive or a high-speed optical disk drive or the like, and the sub-data storage 15 is flash memory.
Game data Gl through Gn containing advertisement programs API through APn as shown in Fig. 6 respectively are each stored in the main data storage 14. The other user terminals 9-2 through 9-N are of the same configuration.
As shown in Fig. 6, the sets of game data Gl through Gn are each made up of a header 30 of contents providing company name, title, date of sale, etc., and movie data
31, program data 32, object data 33, multiple sets of texture data 34, advertising program data AP, and so forth. Here, the program data is not a demonstration program like the advertisement structure information, but is an authentic program intended for sale. Also, with regard to the advertising program data, advertisement information is obtained from the advertising agency server 5 based on the embedded above information indicating that advertisements may be inserted, and the advertisement information is displayed in the game.
Next, with reference to Fig. 7, description will be made the advertising carrying operation of the advertising program in the event that the user has activated contents downloaded to an own terminal 9-1 through 9-N.
Once the digital contents such as a game or the like downloaded to the terminals 9-1 through 9-N is activated, the advertisement program is activated, in step
51, judgement is made by the advertisement program whether or not the digital contents have been activated, and in the event that this yields "YES", the flow proceeds to step
52. In step S2, the advertising program accesses the server 5 of the advertising agency, and also in step S3, makes notification of the title of the digital contents activated on the user terminal 9-1 through 9-N, and user address. Thus, the server 5 reads out the advertisement data corresponding to the database 6, and transfers this to the above address. In step S4, the user terminal 9-1 through 9-N receives the above advertising data under control of the advertising program, records this in the main data storage 14
(see Fig. 5) in step S5, and in step S6 generates a table of information indicating addresses in the main data storage for advertisement data, and the position of the advertisement target, i.e., information indicating which advertisement insertable information shown in Fig. 6 this is.
Once the game starts in step S7, subsequently in step S8 judgement is made whether or not the position is the position for inserting advertisement information, and in the event that this yields "YES", in step S9 the corresponding advertisement data is positioned at the corresponding position in the memory. It is needless to say that this positioning is made at an earlier point in the progression of the game. Also, an arrangement may be made wherein not all advertisement data is obtained at once, but rather a little is obtained at a time as the game progresses. Further, movie data is preferably placed in the main memory or a graphics engine buffer immediately before the game starts, object data is preferably placed in the main memory either immediately before the game starts or before the data is used, and texture data is preferably placed in the main memory or a graphics engine buffer either immediately before the game starts or before the data is used.
Thus, with driving games for example, arrangements can be realized wherein cars the same as cars actually manufactured and sold by the advertiser can be operated by the user, or wherein advertisements of the advertiser are carried on the body of the car operated by the user, and so forth.
Next, with reference to Fig. 8, description will be made regarding operation of the advertising agency server 5 in the event that advertising data is requested by the advertising program. In step S 10, judgement is made regarding whether or not there is access from the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N, and in the event that this yields "YES", the title of the digital contents and the user address is received from the terminals 9-1 through 9-N in step SI 1, the database 6 is referred to in step SI 2, advertisement data corresponding to the title is read out in step SI 3, the advertisement data is transmitted to the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N indicated by the user address received in step SI 4, and the transmission record for the advertising data is updated in step S 15. Counting the number of times of updating the transmission record allows measurement of how many advertisements have been viewed to be made, and payment to the contents providing company and billing the advertiser can be calculated based on this value.
Next, carrying advertisements at the time of downloading digital contents will be described with reference to Fig. 9. In step S20, the system 3 of the contents provider 4 judges whether or not there has been a request for downloading digital contents from the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N, and in the event that this yields "YES", the flow proceeds to step S21, and then notifies the title to the advertising agency server 5. The advertising agency server 5 searches the database 6 for the advertising information data corresponding to the received title, and transmits this to the system 3 of the contents provider 2. In step S22, the system 3 of the contents provider 2 receives the downloading advertisement data. In step S23, once the contents server 4 starts downloading the digital contents, the system 3 transmits advertisement information data to the download destination user terminals 9-1 through 9-N in step S24. Thus, a corresponding advertisement is output on the monitor 13 of the downloading user terminals 9-1 through 9-N. In step S25, the system judges whether or not the download from the contents server 4 has ended, and in the event that this yields "YES", the flow ends, and in the event that this is "NO", the flow proceeds to step S24 again.
It should be understood that the present invention is by no means restricted to the above-described embodiment. The present invention can take on other forms such as the following variations, for example.
(1) An arrangement may be made wherein the advertising agency server 5 directly sends advertising information data to the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N. In this case, the advertising agency server 5 needs to receive data indicating starting and ending of downloading from the user terminals 9-1 through 9-N, and also receive the title of digital contents, user address requesting the download, etc., from the system 3 of the contents provider, beforehand.
(2) Though the advertisements in the above example only involved images, it is needless to say that advertisements using audio can be similarly carried.
(3) In the above example, advertisement information is set into the contents each time there is a digital contents download request from the user, but the present invention is not restricted to this. Instead, the advertising information can be updated as necessary regarding advertisement contents, carrying period, etc., based on specifications from the advertiser.
As described above, according to the present invention, an in-contents advertising method, an in-contents advertising server, and a program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising, capable of application to advertising dealing with networks, can be provided.
Further, according to the present invention, an in-contents advertising method, an in-contents advertising server, and a program-transferring medium for realizing in- contents advertising, capable of easily updating the advertisement contents whenever appropriate, can be provided.

Claims

1. An in-contents advertising method, wherein advertisement information provided beforehand is included in contents, based on information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted within said contents.
2. An in-contents advertising server wherein advertisement information is inserted in contents, based on specifications of the advertiser, and information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted.
3. A program transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertisements by obtaining advertisement information appropriated beforehand to contents, at the time of activation of said contents, and inserting said advertisement information in said contents, based on information contained within contents indicating that advertisements may be inserted.
4. A digital contents distribution system for realizing in-contents advertisements, said distribution system comprising: a digital contents distribution system comprising a first server storing a plurality of digital contents to be provided; an advertisement information providing system comprising a database storing advertisement information which is to be set in advertisement areas in said digital contents; and a plurality of user terminal devices; wherein, in response to download requests for specific digital contents from said users, said digital contents distribution system receives advertisement information corresponding to said specific digital contents from said database of said advertisement information providing system, and subsequently distributes said specific digital contents to said user.
5. A digital contents distribution system for realizing in-contents advertisements, said distribution system comprising: a digital contents distribution system comprising a first server storing a plurality of digital contents to be provided; an advertisement information providing system comprising a database storing advertisement information which is to be set in advertisement areas in said digital contents; and a plurality of user terminal devices; wherein, in response to download requests for specific digital contents from said users, said digital contents distribution system distributes said specific digital contents to said user; and wherein said advertisement information providing system transmits advertisement information corresponding to said specific digital contents from said database, to said user.
6. A digital contents distribution system according to Claims 4 or 5, wherein said distribution system configures a network of: said digital contents distribution system comprising said first server; said advertisement information providing system comprising said database; and said plurality of user terminal devices; using one, or two or more, of the following means: cable television, broad- band wireless network, and optical fiber network.
7. A digital contents distribution system according to Claims 4 or 5, said advertisement information providing system further comprising means for recording the transmission state of said advertisement information, with advertising fees being calculated based on said recording results.
8. A digital contents distribution system according to Claims 4 or 5, said distribution system further comprising: a contents providing system for creating contents and providing said contents to said digital contents providing system; and an advertisement creating system for creating advertisement information and providing said advertisement information to said advertisement information providing system.
9. A digital contents distribution system according to Claim 8, said distribution system further comprising a banking system; wherein said advertisement information providing system comprises means for recording the transmission state of said advertisement information, with advertising fees being calculated based on said recording results, and the advertiser being billed for said advertising fees from said bank.
10. A digital contents distribution system according to Claim 8, wherein said advertisement information providing system provides said advertisement creating system with advertisement structure information containing at least portions and times regarding which advertisement insertion can be made; and wherein said advertisement creating system provides said advertisement information providing system with advertisement information created based on said advertisement structure information and specified information from the advertiser.
11. A digital contents distribution system according to Claims 4 or 5, wherein said digital contents data contains advertisement programs, with said advertisement information being set into said digital contents by said advertisement programs.
12. A digital contents providing system comprising a plurality of servers storing digital contents, wherein said digital contents providing system configures an advertisement information providing system having a database storing advertisement information to be set into advertising areas within said digital contents, and a network; and wherein, in response to download requests for specific digital contents from said users, said digital contents distribution system receives advertisement information corresponding to said specific digital contents from said database, and distributes said advertisement information along with said requested digital contents.
PCT/JP2001/000644 2000-07-04 2001-01-31 In-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising WO2002003222A2 (en)

Priority Applications (6)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP01904307A EP1297443A1 (en) 2000-07-04 2001-01-31 In-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising
CA002384163A CA2384163A1 (en) 2000-07-04 2001-01-31 In-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising
KR1020027002898A KR20020035128A (en) 2000-07-04 2001-01-31 In-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising
BR0106946-2A BR0106946A (en) 2000-07-04 2001-01-31 Embedded content ad method, embedded content ad server, and program download medium to display the embedded content ad digital content distribution system and digital content delivery system
MXPA02002256A MXPA02002256A (en) 2000-07-04 2001-01-31 In-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising.
AU32220/01A AU3222001A (en) 2000-07-04 2001-01-31 In-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP2000241861 2000-07-04
JP2000/241861 2000-07-04
JP2000/375096 2000-12-08
JP2000375096A JP2002083219A (en) 2000-07-04 2000-12-08 In-content advertisement method, server for in-content advertisement, and transfer medium of program for realizing in-content advertisement

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2002003222A2 true WO2002003222A2 (en) 2002-01-10

Family

ID=26597679

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/JP2001/000644 WO2002003222A2 (en) 2000-07-04 2001-01-31 In-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising

Country Status (11)

Country Link
US (1) US7761328B2 (en)
EP (1) EP1297443A1 (en)
JP (1) JP2002083219A (en)
KR (1) KR20020035128A (en)
CN (1) CN1383515A (en)
AU (1) AU3222001A (en)
BR (1) BR0106946A (en)
CA (1) CA2384163A1 (en)
MX (1) MXPA02002256A (en)
TW (1) TW501044B (en)
WO (1) WO2002003222A2 (en)

Families Citing this family (99)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8352400B2 (en) 1991-12-23 2013-01-08 Hoffberg Steven M Adaptive pattern recognition based controller apparatus and method and human-factored interface therefore
US8574074B2 (en) 2005-09-30 2013-11-05 Sony Computer Entertainment America Llc Advertising impression determination
US7895076B2 (en) * 1995-06-30 2011-02-22 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Advertisement insertion, profiling, impression, and feedback
US7966078B2 (en) 1999-02-01 2011-06-21 Steven Hoffberg Network media appliance system and method
US7305696B2 (en) * 2000-04-17 2007-12-04 Triveni Digital, Inc. Three part architecture for digital television data broadcasting
WO2002063414A2 (en) * 2000-11-01 2002-08-15 Real Media, Inc. System and method for delivering plural advertisement information on a data network
US8751310B2 (en) 2005-09-30 2014-06-10 Sony Computer Entertainment America Llc Monitoring advertisement impressions
KR20030094771A (en) * 2002-06-07 2003-12-18 주식회사 무선정보기술 Advertising method using program code and private video recorder
US7729946B2 (en) * 2003-01-24 2010-06-01 Massive Incorporated Online game advertising system
US8243636B2 (en) 2003-05-06 2012-08-14 Apple Inc. Messaging system and service
GB0321337D0 (en) * 2003-09-11 2003-10-15 Massone Mobile Advertising Sys Method and system for distributing advertisements
US8214256B2 (en) * 2003-09-15 2012-07-03 Time Warner Cable Inc. System and method for advertisement delivery within a video time shifting architecture
US8763157B2 (en) 2004-08-23 2014-06-24 Sony Computer Entertainment America Llc Statutory license restricted digital media playback on portable devices
US20060105841A1 (en) * 2004-11-18 2006-05-18 Double Fusion Ltd. Dynamic advertising system for interactive games
US8849701B2 (en) * 2004-12-13 2014-09-30 Google Inc. Online video game advertising system and method supporting multiplayer ads
US8435113B2 (en) * 2004-12-15 2013-05-07 Google Inc. Method and system for displaying of transparent ads
US20060128470A1 (en) * 2004-12-15 2006-06-15 Daniel Willis System and method for managing advertising content delivery in a gaming environment supporting aggregated demographics serving and reporting
US8267778B2 (en) * 2004-12-15 2012-09-18 Google Inc. Video game feedback system and method
US20060135230A1 (en) * 2004-12-16 2006-06-22 Dhananjay Godse Post-deployment spot creation
US20060135232A1 (en) * 2004-12-17 2006-06-22 Daniel Willis Method and system for delivering advertising content to video games based on game events and gamer activity
US20060148573A1 (en) * 2004-12-17 2006-07-06 Daniel Willis Method and system for cataloging advertising spots of an advertising enabled game
US20060168277A1 (en) * 2004-12-17 2006-07-27 Dhananjay Godse Traffic forwarding and conversion for supporting multiple advertising providers in video game advertising
US20060166742A1 (en) * 2004-12-17 2006-07-27 Daniel Willis Method for advertisement service provider wholesaling
US8246464B2 (en) * 2004-12-17 2012-08-21 Google Inc. Caching and reporting system for accelerating combined computer gaming and advertising
US20060143675A1 (en) * 2004-12-17 2006-06-29 Daniel Willis Proxy advertisement server and method
US20060135233A1 (en) * 2004-12-17 2006-06-22 Daniel Willis System and method for managing advertising content delivery in an on-line gaming environment
US20060135234A1 (en) * 2004-12-17 2006-06-22 Dhananjay Godse System and method for automatically enabling and disabling advertising in video games
US20060136297A1 (en) * 2004-12-17 2006-06-22 Daniel Willis Method and system for providing location specific advertising content within mobile platforms
US8128493B2 (en) 2004-12-20 2012-03-06 Google Inc. Method and system for automatically managing a content approval process for use in in-game advertising
US20060218036A1 (en) * 2005-03-23 2006-09-28 King Michael D System and method for embedding dynamic, server-based questionnaire content within online banner ads
EP1866832A4 (en) 2005-04-05 2010-04-07 Google Inc Method and system supporting audited reporting of advertising impressions from video games
US20060230141A1 (en) * 2005-04-05 2006-10-12 Daniel Willis Method of routing and managing advertising feedback data
JP5124912B2 (en) * 2005-06-23 2013-01-23 ソニー株式会社 Electronic advertising system and electronic advertising method
US20070072676A1 (en) * 2005-09-29 2007-03-29 Shumeet Baluja Using information from user-video game interactions to target advertisements, such as advertisements to be served in video games for example
US8626584B2 (en) * 2005-09-30 2014-01-07 Sony Computer Entertainment America Llc Population of an advertisement reference list
US7877387B2 (en) 2005-09-30 2011-01-25 Strands, Inc. Systems and methods for promotional media item selection and promotional program unit generation
US8677020B2 (en) * 2005-10-17 2014-03-18 Amobee Inc. Device, system and method of wireless delivery of targeted advertisements
US20070088838A1 (en) * 2005-10-17 2007-04-19 Zohar Levkovitz Device, system and method of wireless content delivery
US20070088801A1 (en) * 2005-10-17 2007-04-19 Zohar Levkovitz Device, system and method of delivering targeted advertisements using wireless application protocol
US20070088852A1 (en) * 2005-10-17 2007-04-19 Zohar Levkovitz Device, system and method of presentation of advertisements on a wireless device
US8676900B2 (en) 2005-10-25 2014-03-18 Sony Computer Entertainment America Llc Asynchronous advertising placement based on metadata
US11004089B2 (en) * 2005-10-25 2021-05-11 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC Associating media content files with advertisements
US20070118425A1 (en) 2005-10-25 2007-05-24 Podbridge, Inc. User device agent for asynchronous advertising in time and space shifted media network
US10657538B2 (en) * 2005-10-25 2020-05-19 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC Resolution of advertising rules
US8326775B2 (en) 2005-10-26 2012-12-04 Cortica Ltd. Signature generation for multimedia deep-content-classification by a large-scale matching system and method thereof
CN101046873A (en) * 2006-03-29 2007-10-03 腾讯科技（深圳）有限公司 Method and device for issuing network advertisement in network game
EP2018728A4 (en) 2006-05-05 2011-07-06 Sony Comp Entertainment Us Advertisement rotation
GB2435565B (en) * 2006-08-09 2008-02-20 Cvon Services Oy Messaging system
JP2008077173A (en) 2006-09-19 2008-04-03 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc Content display processing device and in-content advertising display method
US20080126226A1 (en) 2006-11-23 2008-05-29 Mirriad Limited Process and apparatus for advertising component placement
GB2436412A (en) * 2006-11-27 2007-09-26 Cvon Innovations Ltd Authentication of network usage for use with message modifying apparatus
KR100771973B1 (en) * 2007-01-12 2007-11-01 박경양 Method and system for advertising skin change of mobile advertising game
GB2438475A (en) 2007-03-07 2007-11-28 Cvon Innovations Ltd A method for ranking search results
GB2441399B (en) 2007-04-03 2009-02-18 Cvon Innovations Ltd Network invitation arrangement and method
US8671000B2 (en) * 2007-04-24 2014-03-11 Apple Inc. Method and arrangement for providing content to multimedia devices
US8935718B2 (en) 2007-05-22 2015-01-13 Apple Inc. Advertising management method and system
US20080307103A1 (en) * 2007-06-06 2008-12-11 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Mediation for auxiliary content in an interactive environment
GB2448957B (en) * 2007-06-20 2009-06-17 Cvon Innovations Ltd Mehtod and system for identifying content items to mobile terminals
US20090054117A1 (en) * 2007-08-20 2009-02-26 James Beser Independently-defined alteration of output from software executable using later-integrated code
US8416247B2 (en) 2007-10-09 2013-04-09 Sony Computer Entertaiment America Inc. Increasing the number of advertising impressions in an interactive environment
US20090099932A1 (en) * 2007-10-11 2009-04-16 Cvon Innovations Ltd. System and method for searching network users
US8655718B2 (en) * 2007-12-18 2014-02-18 Yahoo! Inc. Methods for augmenting user-generated content using a monetizable feature
US8769558B2 (en) * 2008-02-12 2014-07-01 Sony Computer Entertainment America Llc Discovery and analytics for episodic downloaded media
US20090248524A1 (en) * 2008-03-26 2009-10-01 Jonathan Defoy Systems, methods and apparatus for the display of advertisements in a software application
US20090300144A1 (en) * 2008-06-03 2009-12-03 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Hint-based streaming of auxiliary content assets for an interactive environment
GB2461262A (en) * 2008-06-23 2009-12-30 Cvon Innovations Ltd Method and system for presenting customized data to user terminals
US8763090B2 (en) 2009-08-11 2014-06-24 Sony Computer Entertainment America Llc Management of ancillary content delivery and presentation
US9367847B2 (en) 2010-05-28 2016-06-14 Apple Inc. Presenting content packages based on audience retargeting
TWI424366B (en) * 2010-07-05 2014-01-21 Rhematech Inc Internet Multimedia Player Advertising System
US8510658B2 (en) 2010-08-11 2013-08-13 Apple Inc. Population segmentation
KR101921926B1 (en) * 2012-01-13 2018-11-26 삼성전자주식회사 Operating method and content providing system
CN104093046B (en) * 2013-04-01 2019-02-15 天津米游科技有限公司 A kind of video inter-cut system and method based on cloud game
US10846779B2 (en) 2016-11-23 2020-11-24 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC Custom product categorization of digital media content
US10860987B2 (en) 2016-12-19 2020-12-08 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC Personalized calendar for digital media content-related events
WO2019008581A1 (en) 2017-07-05 2019-01-10 Cortica Ltd. Driving policies determination
WO2019012527A1 (en) 2017-07-09 2019-01-17 Cortica Ltd. Deep learning networks orchestration
US10931991B2 (en) 2018-01-04 2021-02-23 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC Methods and systems for selectively skipping through media content
US11126870B2 (en) 2018-10-18 2021-09-21 Cartica Ai Ltd. Method and system for obstacle detection
US11181911B2 (en) 2018-10-18 2021-11-23 Cartica Ai Ltd Control transfer of a vehicle
US10839694B2 (en) 2018-10-18 2020-11-17 Cartica Ai Ltd Blind spot alert
US20200133308A1 (en) 2018-10-18 2020-04-30 Cartica Ai Ltd Vehicle to vehicle (v2v) communication less truck platooning
US11700356B2 (en) 2018-10-26 2023-07-11 AutoBrains Technologies Ltd. Control transfer of a vehicle
US10789535B2 (en) 2018-11-26 2020-09-29 Cartica Ai Ltd Detection of road elements
US11170647B2 (en) 2019-02-07 2021-11-09 Cartica Ai Ltd. Detection of vacant parking spaces
US11643005B2 (en) 2019-02-27 2023-05-09 Autobrains Technologies Ltd Adjusting adjustable headlights of a vehicle
US11285963B2 (en) 2019-03-10 2022-03-29 Cartica Ai Ltd. Driver-based prediction of dangerous events
US11694088B2 (en) 2019-03-13 2023-07-04 Cortica Ltd. Method for object detection using knowledge distillation
US11132548B2 (en) 2019-03-20 2021-09-28 Cortica Ltd. Determining object information that does not explicitly appear in a media unit signature
US11488290B2 (en) 2019-03-31 2022-11-01 Cortica Ltd. Hybrid representation of a media unit
US10796444B1 (en) 2019-03-31 2020-10-06 Cortica Ltd Configuring spanning elements of a signature generator
US11222069B2 (en) 2019-03-31 2022-01-11 Cortica Ltd. Low-power calculation of a signature of a media unit
US10789527B1 (en) 2019-03-31 2020-09-29 Cortica Ltd. Method for object detection using shallow neural networks
US10776669B1 (en) 2019-03-31 2020-09-15 Cortica Ltd. Signature generation and object detection that refer to rare scenes
US11167214B1 (en) * 2019-04-15 2021-11-09 Exponential Corp. Dynamic game management platform that utilizes predictive analytics to modify game parameters in real-time
US10748022B1 (en) 2019-12-12 2020-08-18 Cartica Ai Ltd Crowd separation
US11593662B2 (en) 2019-12-12 2023-02-28 Autobrains Technologies Ltd Unsupervised cluster generation
US11590988B2 (en) 2020-03-19 2023-02-28 Autobrains Technologies Ltd Predictive turning assistant
US11827215B2 (en) 2020-03-31 2023-11-28 AutoBrains Technologies Ltd. Method for training a driving related object detector
US11756424B2 (en) 2020-07-24 2023-09-12 AutoBrains Technologies Ltd. Parking assist

Family Cites Families (14)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5758257A (en) * 1994-11-29 1998-05-26 Herz; Frederick System and method for scheduling broadcast of and access to video programs and other data using customer profiles
US5892900A (en) * 1996-08-30 1999-04-06 Intertrust Technologies Corp. Systems and methods for secure transaction management and electronic rights protection
KR100516552B1 (en) 1995-06-30 2006-06-20 소니 가부시끼 가이샤 Apparatus and method for running game programs with advertisements
JP4040117B2 (en) * 1995-06-30 2008-01-30 ソニー株式会社 Game machine and game machine control method
US5823879A (en) 1996-01-19 1998-10-20 Sheldon F. Goldberg Network gaming system
WO1998029974A1 (en) 1996-12-25 1998-07-09 Sony Corporation Game machine system, broadcasting system, data distribution system and its method, and program executing device and its method
US6385596B1 (en) * 1998-02-06 2002-05-07 Liquid Audio, Inc. Secure online music distribution system
JP2000029712A (en) 1998-07-15 2000-01-28 Sony Corp Advertisement distributing method for amusement machine and advertisement distribution system using the same
JP3985369B2 (en) 1998-08-21 2007-10-03 株式会社セガ Game screen display control method, character movement control method, game machine, and recording medium recording program
US20020010623A1 (en) * 1998-09-08 2002-01-24 Hewlett-Packard Company System and method for publishing, distributing and redeeming coupons on a network
CA2293556A1 (en) * 1999-12-17 2001-06-17 Tomasz Duczmal Apparatus and method of generating a dynamic image on billboards and poster displays
KR20000024643A (en) 2000-02-25 2000-05-06 최창언 Advertisement method in computer network by transmitting music file including advertisement audio
US6950623B2 (en) * 2000-09-19 2005-09-27 Loudeye Corporation Methods and systems for dynamically serving in-stream advertisements
US6904408B1 (en) * 2000-10-19 2005-06-07 Mccarthy John Bionet method, system and personalized web content manager responsive to browser viewers' psychological preferences, behavioral responses and physiological stress indicators

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
KR20020035128A (en) 2002-05-09
CA2384163A1 (en) 2002-01-10
US7761328B2 (en) 2010-07-20
EP1297443A1 (en) 2003-04-02
TW501044B (en) 2002-09-01
CN1383515A (en) 2002-12-04
MXPA02002256A (en) 2002-09-02
US20020004743A1 (en) 2002-01-10
JP2002083219A (en) 2002-03-22
BR0106946A (en) 2002-04-23
AU3222001A (en) 2002-01-14

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US7761328B2 (en) In-contents advertising method, in-contents advertising server, and program-transferring medium for realizing in-contents advertising
US7895076B2 (en) Advertisement insertion, profiling, impression, and feedback
CN103366465B (en) There is lottery system and the method for real-time progressive jackpot
US20060148573A1 (en) Method and system for cataloging advertising spots of an advertising enabled game
EP1589465A2 (en) Method and apparatus for executing game programs having advertisements therein
EP1191469A1 (en) Self-service terminal
US20030107580A1 (en) Dynamic mapping of texture maps onto three dimensional objects
US20090125412A1 (en) Token trading
CN101517608A (en) Content displaying device and in-content advertisement display method
JP3815654B2 (en) Billing management system for online game machines
KR100771973B1 (en) Method and system for advertising skin change of mobile advertising game
US20010005845A1 (en) Electronic advertisement receiving apparatus, electronic advertisement confirming apparatus and electronic advertisement supply system for enabling advertiser to know without inquiry user confirmation of distributed electronic advertisement contents
JP3278436B1 (en) Game advertisement charging system, program, and game advertisement charging control method for home games, etc.
JP3321151B1 (en) Game advertisement charging system, program and game advertisement charging method
JP4462521B2 (en) Simulation game service provision method
KR20080090584A (en) Method and apparatus for advertising using motion picture created by a user
JP2002056204A (en) System and method for providing service and information storage medium
JP7402918B2 (en) Information provision device, information provision method, and information provision program
JP2005085015A (en) Content provision method, benefit provision method, method for content provision and benefit provision, device for service commodity provision facility, and content provision device
JP2024051489A (en) Advertisement space management device, advertisement space management method, and recording medium
JPH11184709A (en) Managing method for game machine for distribution or the like and complementary software therefor
CN115983917A (en) Helmet display system with advertisement putting function
KR20200065216A (en) Management system and method for game app coupled with a shoppingmall
JP2002150122A (en) Method for distributing advertisement information, and server device for realizing the method, and program for controlling advertisement information distribution
AU2006301916A1 (en) Token trading

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
AK Designated states

Kind code of ref document: A2

Designated state(s): AU BR CA CN IN KR MX NZ RU SG

AL Designated countries for regional patents

Kind code of ref document: A2

Designated state(s): AT BE CH CY DE DK ES FI FR GB GR IE IT LU MC NL PT SE TR

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: IN/PCT/2002/219/KOL

Country of ref document: IN

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 32220/01

Country of ref document: AU

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 517436

Country of ref document: NZ

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: PA/a/2002/002256

Country of ref document: MX

Ref document number: 2001904307

Country of ref document: EP

WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 018019188

Country of ref document: CN

Ref document number: 1020027002898

Country of ref document: KR

Ref document number: 2384163

Country of ref document: CA

121 Ep: the epo has been informed by wipo that ep was designated in this application
WWP Wipo information: published in national office

Ref document number: 1020027002898

Country of ref document: KR

ENP Entry into the national phase

Ref document number: 2002 2002107426

Country of ref document: RU

Kind code of ref document: A

WWP Wipo information: published in national office

Ref document number: 2001904307

Country of ref document: EP