Patent Publication Number: US-2012030025-A1

Title: Delivering Highly Targeted Advertisements to a User of a Computing Device by Statistically Analyzing of Key Words Used in a Communication Module

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Not applicable. 
     BACKGROUND-FIELD OF INVENTION 
     This invention relates generally to advertising. More specifically, the invention relates to methods for delivering highly targeted advertisement to a user of a computing device. 
     BACKGROUND-DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART 
     Advertising using traditional media, such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines, is well known. Unfortunately, even when armed with demographic studies and entirely reasonable assumptions about the typical audience of various media outlets, advertisers recognize that much of their advertisement budget is simply wasted. Moreover, it is difficult to identify and eliminate such waste. 
     Mobile communication devices have gained significant popularity in recent years. Users are using the mobile device such as, for example, iPhone from Apple Inc, Cupertino, Calif., to access the Internet services. Methods for delivering targeted advertisements to users by employing mobile communication devices have been developed. The targeted advertising messages may be delivered based upon the user&#39;s personal profile, location and history of the user&#39;s interaction with the device. It has always been a significant challenge to understand the user&#39;s real interests and to deliver the advertising message accordingly. 
     SUMMARY 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide an advertisement delivery system for delivering highly targeted advertisements to a user of a computing device. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide an effective method for determining a user&#39;s interests in categories and/or sub-categories of advertisements based on communication media files of the computing device. 
     It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel method to extract key words from the communication media files of the computing device based on a key word library consisting of words representing commercial goods and services, brand names and retailers. 
     It is yet a further object of the present invention to use a statistic method to detect significant usage trend changes of the key words extracted from the communication media files and to deliver highly targeted advertisements accordingly. 
     According to one embodiment of the present invention, the advertisement delivery system comprises a computing device, a data manager and a communication network for connecting them. The computing device further comprises various communication modules such as, for example, voice communication, Short Message Service (SMS), e-mail, on-line chat, social networks and web browsing. Each communication module is associated with a media file. The media files may comprise words. The media files may also comprise image and/or multimedia files. When a specific communication module is used by the user, a media file is created. Some of the words in the files may be related to commercial items and services, brand names and retailers. 
     A key word library including a database of key words related to commercial activities may be stored in a file storage system of the computing device. The database may be sent from the data manager. The key word library may include such words as related to the current location of the user. 
     The key words from media files are extracted. Each key word is associated with a counter. The usage of the word by the user over a predetermined period of time is recorded. A statistic processor is used to determine if there is any significant change of the trend for anyone of the key words based on a set of predetermined rules. The advertisements are delivered according to the changes of the key word usage trend. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       For a more complete understanding of the present invention and its various embodiments, and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of an exemplary advertisement delivery system for delivering highly targeted advertisements based on statistic analysis of key word used by a user in various communication media files; 
         FIG. 2A  is a schematic diagram illustrating that a key word extractor is included in a computing device and a statistic processor is included in a data manager according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 2B  is a schematic diagram illustrating that the key word extractor and the statistic processor are both included in a computing device according to another embodiment; 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating that a key word library is sent from the data manager to the computing device after receiving the user&#39;s location and/or personal data; 
         FIG. 4  is an exemplary hierarchical data file structure for categories and sub-categories of advertisements; 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process that key words in a communication media file are extracted and are utilized to delivery targeted advertisements; 
         FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process that a statistic processor is used to determine if there is a significant change in anyone of key words; 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic illustration of three basic modes of trend changes related to key words. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     One or more specific embodiments of the present invention will be described below. These described embodiments are only exemplary of the present invention. Additionally, in an effort to provide a concise description of these exemplary embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers&#39; specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefits of this disclosure. 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of an exemplary advertisement delivery system for delivering advertisements from advertisers to a user through a communication network. The system  100  comprises a user  102  and a computing device  104 . The computing device  104  may be a personal computer, a mobile communication device, a digital television system, a handheld media player; and a game console. The mobile communication device is used to illustrate exemplarily the present inventive concept without limiting the scope of the invention. The computing device  104  is connectable to a data manager  108  through a communication network  106 . The communication network  106  may be the Internet. The network  106  may also be a public phone network or a broadband network for the digital television system for delivering TV programs. The data manager  108  may be a server connected to the network  106 . The data manager  108  comprises an advertisement database including various categories of advertisements from advertiser  110 . Multiple advertisers may be connected to the data manager  108 . The data manager  108  may also be connected to manufacturers and customer rating and guiding organizations (not shown in the figure). The connections from the advertiser  110  to the data manager  108  may be through a communication network that is the same communication network as  106 . The connections may be through a different communication network. 
       FIG. 2A  is a schematic diagram illustrating that an exemplary implementation of the computing device and the data manger according to one embodiment of the present invention. The computing device  104  comprises, a key word library  103 , a key word extractor  105  and various communication modules such as, for example, a voice communication module  112 , a SMS  114 , an e-mail module  116 , an on-line chat module  118 , a social network  120  and a web browsing module  122 . A mobile communication device such as an iPhone from Apple Inc, Cupertino, Calif. would include all above mentioned communication modules. Each communication module is associated with a communication media file. For example, an SMS or an email is associated with a file in text format. A voice communication module is associated with a file in a voice format. If a voice file is used, a voice to text converter  107  may be used to converter words in voice format into words in text format. The method is well known in the art for the conversion. 
     The words in a communication media file are then compared with words in the key word library  103 . The words in the key word library  103  include but not limited to the words representing commercial goods and services, brand names and local retailers. The words in the media file matched to the words in the key word library  103  are extracted and their frequencies of usage are counted. The recorded key words and their usage counts are sent to the data manager  108  through the communication network  106 . A statistic processor  109  in the data manager  108  is used to analyze the received key words and their counts. The received key words and their counts may be combined with an already existed key word counting database  111  to generate key word usage trends over a predetermined period of time such as, for example, a day, a week, or a month. 
     The statistic processor  109  outputs key words that are up-trending ( 124 ), down-trending ( 126 ) and in an excursion ( 128 ) based on a set of predetermined rules. The changes of trend in a statistic manner may indicate a shift of the user&#39;s commercial interests, which can be utilized to deliver highly targeted advertisements to the user. The predetermined rules may include one or more than one control limits. 
       FIG. 2B  is a schematic diagram illustrating another embodiment of the present invention. The key word library  103 , the key word extractor  105 , the statistic processor  109  and the key word counting database  111  are all included in the computing device  104 . For such an embodiment, only the key words demonstrated a significant trend change will be sent to the data manager  108 . 
     It has been a great challenge for the advertising industry to find a balance between protecting privacy and using personal data effectively to deliver targeted messages. The present invention provides an innovative method to resolve the issue. The method involves transmitting the key words only related to commercial goods and services or the key words that have demonstrated significant trend changes. It would be impossible for a service provider such as the data manager  108  to reconstruct a complete media file based only on selected key words. The sequence of the key words may also be intentionally randomized to further prevent leakage of the private media file to the service provider  108 . 
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating that a key word library  103  is sent from the data manager  108  to the computing device  104  after receiving the user&#39;s location and his personal data. Process  300  starts with step  302  that the computing device  104  is connected to the data manager  108 . A data file including the user&#39;s location and/or his personal information is sent from the computing device  104  to the data manager  108  in step  304 . A key world library  103  for the user is constructed by the data manager  108  and is sent back to the computing device  104  in step  306 . 
       FIG. 4  is a schematic presentation of data file structure in an exemplary manner for key words in the key word library  103 . Categories of commercial goods or services may include travel insurance, airlines, computers, restaurants, bars, automobiles, theaters, Starbucks, McDonald&#39;s, Electronic retailers, hospitals and many more. In an exemplary illustration, the category representing automobile may further include a sub-category including various brands including such as, for example, Toyota, Audi, Honda, BMW, Nissan, Ford and GM. Each brand may further include various models of the brand. Local dealers for specific automobile brands may also be included. The categories and sub-categories of key words may be organized in such a hierarchical manner. If “BMW” is captured by the key word extractor  105  one or multiple times in a media file, the counters associated with the “automobile” and “BMW” may be updated. The data manager  108  may include advertisements related to the key words representing the categories and/or sub-categories of advertisements. 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process that key words in a communication media file are extracted and are utilized to delivery targeted advertisements. Process  500  starts with step  502  that key words from a communication media file associated with a communication module are extracted by the key word extractor  105 . The extracted key words should be a sub-set of key words from the key word library  103 . In an optional step  503 , the extracted key words may be randomized to further prevent the leakage of the private information included in the media file other than the key words disclosing the user&#39;s commercial interests. The key words are sent to the statistic processor  109  in step  504 . The statistic processor  109  may be located in the data manager  108 . The processor  109  may also be located in the computing device  104 . The received key words and their counts may be analyzed by the statistic processor  109  in step  506 . The received key words may be combined with a key word counting database  111  to generate a key word usage trend for a predetermined period time. In step  508 , a personal interest profile may be updated based on the key words that have demonstrated significant changes in their usage trends. Highly targeted advertisements are transmitted to the computing device  104  based on the updated personal interest profile in step  510  according to one implementation of the present invention. 
       FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process that a statistic processor  109  is used to determine a significant change in anyone of keywords. Process  600  starts with step  602  that key words are received by the data manager  108  from the computing device  104 . The word counts for each affected key word for categories and sub-categories of advertisements are updated in step  604 . Statistic trends for affected key words are generated in step  606 . The key words that have demonstrated an up-trend ( 702  of  FIG. 7 ), a down-trend ( 704  of  FIG. 7 ) and an excursion ( 706  of  FIG. 7 ) are marked. The out of control key words representing categories and sub-categories of advertisements are determined in step  608 . In step  610 , the user&#39;s personal interest profile is updated based on the trend changes. The key words that have demonstrated a significant increase in usage tend will be used to determine an increase in associated commercial interests disclosed by the key words. The key words that have demonstrated a significant decrease in usage trend will be used to determine a decrease in associated commercial interests disclosed by the key words. The key words that have demonstrated an excursion may indicate a sudden increase in commercial interest of the user in a specific category or sub-category of commercial goods or services and may be utilized to generate the advertisements accordingly.