Abstract:
The present disclosure selectively blocks advertisements to a user based upon recent purchases of the user. The selectively blocked advertisements may be chosen from a group of advertisements chosen for the user based upon monitored behaviour of the user. Alternate advertisements or brand awareness messages may be displayed if the advertisement is selectively blocked. Also the user may be given a choice to view the blocked advertisement.

Description:
CLAIM TO PRIORITY 
       [0001]    This patent application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/359,475 filed Jan. 26, 2012 which claims the benefit of, and priority to, U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/438,384, which was filed on Feb. 1, 2011, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety into this patent application. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    The present disclosure relates generally to the field of communications, and more particularly to the selective communication of advertisements. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    Computer based selective advertising is well known. For example U.S. Pat. No. 7,496,943 to Goldberg et al. entitled Network System for Advertising describes selective advertising based on user profiles or behaviors, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,930,207 to Merriman et al. entitled Method of Delivery, Targeting and Measuring Advertising Over Networks describes advertising based upon behavior or profile statistics compiled on individual users. Said patents are hereby incorporated by reference. Selective advertising using a computer or mobile cell phone is an effective way to target advertisements that are meaningful to the user of the computer. Such advertisements often help a consumer make a more informed decision when purchasing a desired product or service. 
         [0004]    Selective based advertising is also an effective way to communicate to potential customers by product or service providers. More traditional print media forms of advertising are often mass distributed to large groups of individuals, wherein many individuals have no particular interest in most of the advertisements presented in the print media. While distributions based on user demographics may help improve the effectiveness of advertisement in the print media, it cannot be as effective as statistically analyzing a database of individual user profiles or behaviors and selectively communicating advertisements in response thereto. Since advertisement adds cost to the product or service delivered by the provider, computer based selective advertisement is a more cost effective method of communicating with potential customers. 
         [0005]    Even though computer based selective advertising is beneficial to both the consumer and the provider of products or services in the initial purchase of the product or service, after the purchase of the product or service, there is an arising issue. The user may continue to receive advertisements for the product or service after the purchase even though the user is no longer receptive to the ad because the product or service has been purchased. This results in the delivery of annoying advertisements to users and may alienate the user, thereby reducing any customer loyalty or good will that may have resulted from the transaction. Furthermore, the product or service provider pays for the selective delivery of advertisements that are no longer of interest to the user. This not only adds unnecessary costs, but may even be detrimental to the relationship with the consumer, even though statistical analysis of the user&#39;s behavior or profile indicates that the user should be interested. 
         [0006]    Nevertheless, as the purchased product or service nears the end of its useful life, the user may again be interested in a subsequent purchase. Advertisements at this time may be meaningful to the user, while advertisements sent during the major portion of the life of the purchase are undesirable to both the consumer and the product or service provider. For example, a fourteen year old girl, such as the inventor, may be a beauty parlor customer every three or four months. Thus the problem arises when beauty parlor advertisements are sent after a visit by the user because the ads are substantially useless to both the user and the beauty parlor service providers. The user does not need the services of a beauty parlor at that time and beauty parlor&#39;s expense for advertisements sent to the user during that time are a waste of investment. However, advertisements from competing beauty parlors sent to the user at a later time may be more effective. Thus, what are needed are solutions to the aforementioned problems. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The following summary is exemplary and not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention. 
         [0008]    My invention is called the Product Based Advertisement Selection. The technology used may include a product scanning application and an application for advertisement selection. This invention solves the problem of unnecessary advertisements presented to a person that already owns the product being advertised. Advertisements cost companies millions of dollars annually. Advertisements are presented to users of internet social sites, internet media sites and web portals. An advertiser is charged for each presentation of their ad on the internet. An advertiser would not want an unnecessary ad to someone who already owns their product. This invention allows the advertiser to have targeted advertisements to perspective new customer while saving enormous amounts of money on unnecessary ads to existing customers. 
         [0009]    The merger of the internet and television is currently occurring and many televisions utilize DVR (digital video recorder) which have internet connectivity. There is on demand programming; again, done through the internet and many episodes of TV shows are watched via the internet through network websites. Today, in fact, before you watch a television show on the internet you are asked which advertisement you would like to see. This invention utilizes your past purchases to make a more intelligent choice of advertisements to be targeted to you. 
         [0010]    One example of how it works for the user would involve the user utilizing a visual based barcode reader application either on a cell phone, webcam, or scanner. The product barcode information would be stored either on the user&#39;s computer, cell phone, or central database. When the user accesses the internet their product ownership information is transferred to the advertisement database. Advertisement selection profiles would be done and the appropriate ads selected for each user, not unlike the way cookies give information about a particular user on a computer to a particular website. For example advertisements for a product the consumer already owns would not be sent to the user. Thereby saving the advertiser money and saving the user from the frustration of experiencing ads they don&#39;t need to experience. 
         [0011]    How to make money with this invention: the advertiser has the potential to save for unnecessary presentation of ads. To entice the user to utilize this application a rebate could be offered at the time the product is purchased. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    Example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the included drawings such that like reference numerals refer to like elements and in which: 
           [0013]      FIG. 1  is an illustration of the system; 
           [0014]      FIG. 2  is an illustration a process flow of the system; 
           [0015]      FIG. 3A-FIG .  3 D show example ads and messages for illustrating the operation of the various examples of the invention; 
           [0016]      FIG. 4  illustrates a modification of the process flow of  FIG. 2 ; and 
           [0017]      FIG. 5  illustrates another modification of the process flow of  FIG. 2 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0018]    For simplicity and clarity of illustration, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. Numerous details are set forth to provide an understanding of the embodiments described herein. The embodiments may be practiced without these details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, and components have not been described in detail to avoid obscuring the embodiments described. The description is not to be considered as limited to the scope of the embodiments described herein. 
         [0019]      FIG. 1  shows an illustration of the system. A user  100  sits at a desktop computer terminal  102  consisting of a keyboard, display, mouse, processing unit and computer readable storage media (not shown). Although a classical desktop computer is shown, other computer systems are anticipated including a laptop, cell phone, smart phone, super phone, PDA, tablet and computer based signage. The display includes a portion  104  for internet surfing or operating applications of the computer, and an advertising portion  106  where ads are selectively presented to the user based upon monitored behavior of the user in a manner known to those familiar with the art. 
         [0020]    The computer is coupled to a cloud of  110  of processes that operate external to the computer. Behavior monitor  112  includes an internet interactions monitor  114  that monitors various behaviors of the user. This may include monitoring internet sites visited, products purchased on the internet, emails, voice messages, texts messages, instant messages, social media messages or other information exchanged by the user. The behavior monitor communicates with a selective advertiser process  120  which has a database  122  of advertisements from product or service providers subscribing to the advertising service. Each user behavior profile  124  is accumulated and used to select specific advertisements from the advertisements database that are most relevant to the user based upon behavior. 
         [0021]    When a user identifies a product or service  130 , for example by scanning a barcode  132  associated with it using a barcode reader  134  or by purchasing or otherwise obtaining possession of the product, the identification is also made available to the selective advertiser process  120  and stored in the user identified product or service database  140 . If the product or service has a life expectancy that the life data  142  is also stored in database  140 . 
         [0022]    Alternate or modified approaches to the user identification of product or services are anticipated. For example, if terminal  102  was a smartphone, then barcode reader  134  could be incorporated as part of the smartphone. Alternately, a RFID or NFC reader could be used in place of a barcode reader. User identified products or services can also be determined my monitoring purchases of the user. In another example, credit card purchase information of the user can be mined for such identification, or internet purchase made with the terminal can be monitored in order to determine a signal indicate of the purchase of the product or service. Alternately, if the terminal  102  is an electronic wallet capable of facilitating purchase transactions, the user identified products or services can be minded by the electronic wallet at the time of a transaction. The aforesaid examples show processing a signal indicative of a selection of a product or service by the user. It is not necessary that the product or service actually be purchased by the user in order for it to be a selection by the user, thus the user could block ads for products simply by scanning a barcode of the product without purchasing it. 
         [0023]    Advertisements are then selected by the selective advertiser based on user behaviors and user identified products or services and communicated to the user through and ad communicator  150  which causes the ads to be displayed to the user on the advertising portion  106  of terminal  102 . 
         [0024]    While terminal  102  is shown to have a slit screen layout where a portion of the screen is designated for advertisements  106  and another portion  104  is designated for other processes, other layouts and configurations are also contemplated. For example the advertisements portion  106  may occupy the entire screen for a period of time, or may occupy a portion of the screen for a period of time. Advertisements may be video only using a display, audio only using a speaker or a combination of video and audio content using both display and speaker. 
         [0025]      FIG. 2  illustrates a process flow of the system operating within a computing system having non-transitory computer readable storage media (not shown), the computing system may be highly distributed. Step  200  monitors the user behavior in manners know to those familiar with the art. Step  202  then determines the user identified product or service and corresponding life. In step  204  a plurality of advertisements for product or services providers are accumulated. 
         [0026]    Step  206  determines if a user is ready to receive an advertisement. If the user is browsing the internet, and the browser window facilitates advertising, then the user is ready to receive an advertisement. Alternately, social media and other content delivery processes may be able to facilitate delivery of advertisements. 
         [0027]    Step  208  selects an advertisement from database  122 . At step  210 , a check is run to determine if the advertisement is related to a user behavior. Numerous methods for implementing process are known to those familiar with the art. For example, if the user often views popular culture web sites targeting teenage girls, then advertisements for trendy local beauty parlors would likely found to be related to the user behavior. If the ad is not related then another ad is selected at steps  208 . 
         [0028]    Step  212  checks if the ad is related to an identified product or service. If not, then the ad is communicated to the user at step  218  and the advertiser is invoiced for delivery of the ad at step  220 . However, if the user has identified the product or service at step  214 , then the ad will not be delivered and another ad selected at step  208 . The non-selected ad may be optionally related to the product or service. Optional step  216  may nevertheless allow for delivery of the ad if there is an associated life and the life is approaching or exceeding expiration. 
         [0029]    For example, the beauty parlor advertisement may be selected based on user behavior at step  210 . However, if the user recently visited a beauty parlor then any beauty parlor ad would be blocked at step  214 . In one embodiment, only an ad for the visited beauty parlor would be blocked, but in another embodiment, ads for any beauty parlor service or complementary product would be blocked. The beauty parlor visit would be identified by either the mining data indicating that the user paid for products or services with a credit card or an electronic wallet, or scanning a barcode related to a beauty parlor product or service. Optionally, the beauty parlor product or service may have an associated life. The life may be predetermined, statistically ascertained, set by the user or set by the product or service provider. If the life of a beauty parlor visit is 4 months, then beauty parlor ads would be blocked for a substantial portion of the life, until the life was approaching or exceeding expiration. For example, beauty parlor ads would be blocked for the first month after a beauty parlor visit was identified, but would be communicated to the user around or after the fourth month after the visit. 
         [0030]    In another example, if the user behavior indicated that Wii gaming applications were related to their behavior, then an ad for a popular game such as SIMs for the Wii could be selected. If the user purchased the game, then future ads for the purchased version of the game would be blocked because the user would no longer be in the market for the game, and would likely find such ad annoying. Also, the provider of the game would not be invoiced for delivery of the ad. Thus the user is less annoyed and the provider costs are reduced. Since in this example, the Wii SIMs game has no effective life, then the optional step  216  of allowing the ad as the expiration of life is approached or exceeded is not required. 
         [0031]    In another example, if the user behavior indicated that figure skating was related to their behavior, then an ad for figure skates could be selected. Ads related to the figuring skating behavior include ads for skates, gloves, dresses, skating competitions etc. If the user purchased figure skates, then future ads for the figure skates would be blocked because the user would no longer be in the market for figure skates, and would likely find such an ad annoying. Also, the provider of the skates would not be invoiced for delivery of the ad. Thus the user is less annoyed and the provider costs are reduced. Since in this example, figure skates have a very long effective life, five years for example, then the optional step  216  of allowing the ad as the expiration of life is approached or exceeded would execute substantially five years thereafter. However if the user was known to be a twelve year old girl and demographics showed that twelve year old girls require new skates substantially twenty four months after purchase because of their growth patterns, then optional step  216  would block ads for a time less than or equal to the twenty four months, and then permit ads for figure skates thereafter. 
         [0032]    While steps  202 ,  212  and  214  are shown as occurring in cloud  110 , in an alternate embodiment, the ads can be blocked by terminal  102  by implementing these steps in the terminal and maintaining databases  140  and optional  142  in the terminal. This would be particularly applicable to a smartphone or super phone with electronic wallet capabilities. Here the electronic wallet would monitor purchase by the user and then selectively block ads selected by conventional targeted advertisement processes occurring in the cloud from being presented to the user on the smartphone. This embodiment also applies to other terminals, such as personal computers, laptops or tablets, able to both present advertisements selected based upon user behavior and facilitate product identification or purchases by the user. 
         [0033]    Thus, what has been shown is the selection from a plurality of advertisements an advertisement that is related to the behavior of the user but not related to a product or service identified by the user. 
         [0034]      FIG. 3A-FIG .  3 D show example ads and messages for illustrating the operation of the various examples of the invention.  FIG. 3A  is an example of an ad for the sale of figure skates worn by figure skaters and  FIG. 3B  is an ad for the sale of gloves worn by figure skaters. Step  200  monitors the behavior of the user. In one example, the user has purchased figure skates so figure skating is indicative of user behavior. Step  204  would then accumulate ads related to the behavior, such as ads shown in  FIG. 3A  and  FIG. 3B . Step  210  may select either the figure skates ad of  FIG. 3A  or the gloves ad of  FIG. 3B . If only figures skates and not gloves have been identified by the user, because skates have been purchased and gloves have not been purchased for example, then if the gloves advertisement were selected at step  210  because it is related to a user behavior, then step  212  would proceed to communicate the gloves ad to the user at step  218  because gloves have not been identified by the user. 
         [0035]    However if the figure skates ad of  FIG. 2A  were selected at step  208 , then step  212  would determine the ad was related to an identified an identified product, because figure skates had been recently purchase, and steps  212 - 216  would result in the figure skates ad not being communicated to the user even though the figure skate ad is clearly related to a user behavior. Upon returning to step  210 , another ad would be chosen that was related to a user behavior at step  210 , but not related to an identified product at step  212 - 216  even though the identified product is used to determine the user behavior. The other ad could be the glove ad of  FIG. 2B  or could be a skate dress ad or a competition ad for example, all of which are related to the user behavior of figure skating. 
         [0036]      FIG. 4  illustrates a modification of the process flow of  FIG. 2 . In this example, step  402  is entered from step  210  of  FIG. 2  where an ad related to a user behavior has been selected. If the ad is not related to an identified product or service, such as figure skating, then step  218  of  FIG. 2  is executed and the ad is communicated to the user. However, if the ad is related to an identified product or service, then an alternate ad related to the product or service is selected at step  404  and communicated to the user at step  218 . 
         [0037]    For example, if figure skates ad of  FIG. 3A  were selected at step  210 , then user may find the ad undesirable because skates that were recently purchased are now advertised as being on a price reduced clearance sale. However, instead of blocking the ad as shown by the process flow of  FIG. 2 , the process flow of  FIG. 3C  provides an alternate message, such as the message of  FIG. 3C  which does not profess to advertise a sale of the product. Rather the message of  FIG. 3  presents the a beneficial message related to the recently purchase figure skates, which may cultivate improved brand loyalty. Thus, instead of presenting the undesirable message of  FIG. 3A , a more desirable message of  FIG. 3C  is presented because the message is both related to a behavior of the user and related to an identified product or service which is included in the related behavior. 
         [0038]      FIG. 5  illustrates another modification of the process flow of  FIG. 2 . In this example, step  502  is entered from step  210  of  FIG. 2  where an ad related to a user behavior has been selected. If the ad is not related to an identified product or service, such as figure skating, then step  218  of  FIG. 2  is executed and the ad is communicated to the user. However, if the ad is related to an identified product or service, such as the ad of  FIG. 3A  then an intermediate message related to the product or service is displayed at step  404 , such as the information of  FIG. 3D . If the user selects the intermediate message prior to a timeout at step  508 , then the selected ad, such as the ad of  FIG. 3A  is communicated to the user at step  218 . Otherwise another ad, such as the ad of  FIG. 3B  is selected at step  208 . 
         [0039]      FIG. 5  illustrates an advantage of providing the user to the option to see ads related to an identified product or service. If the user does not express a desire to see such an ad at step  506 , then an alternate ad is selected. Thus, if the figure skate ad of  FIG. 3A  were selected at step  210 , then step  504  would display the intermediate message of  FIG. 3D , inquiring if the user wants to see the figure skates ad. If the user does not respond, then the glove ad of  FIG. 3B  would be communicated. If the user does respond then the figure skate ad of  FIG. 3A  would be communicated. Thus the user would not be arbitrarily presented with the potentially undesirable ad of  FIG. 3A , without the user indicating a desire to see the ad—by responding to the information presentation of  FIG. 3D . 
         [0040]    Note that in other examples of  FIG. 5  the duration of the timeout may be varied, or the timeout itself may be optionally eliminated, resulting in an extended display of the intermediate message. 
         [0041]    The description includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium such as a memory CD, DVD, ROM or other device having computer-executable instructions for causing a selective advertising server system comprising a processor and associated memory to manage electronic advertisements. The server system may be included in cloud  110  of  FIG. 1  and distributed amongst one or more processors operating within the cloud. The server system may also be at least partially included within personal computer  102  of  FIG. 1  which may implement one or more processes of the selective advertising server system. The process comprises monitoring a behavior of a user which may be monitored by monitoring web surfing of the user, purchases of the user or activities indicative of behavior of the user known to those familiar with the art. The process then determines a product or service identified by the user, such as a product purchased by the user, and selects from a plurality of advertisements an advertisement that is related to the behavior. The process then blocks the advertisement selected from the plurality of advertisements based upon the advertisement being related to the product or service and communicating the advertisement for reception by the user based upon the advertisement not being blocked. The determination includes processing a signal indicative of a purchase of the product or service by the user. The signal indicative of the purchase may be received from an electronic wallet which facilitates purchase of the product or service. The advertisement may further not be related to a comparable product or service that is similar to the identified product or service. The monitoring of the behavior of the user includes monitoring of the identification of the product or service by the user and the selecting of the advertisement includes selection of an advertisement of a complementary product or service. In one example, the process may further include determining a life of the product or service wherein an advertisement related to the product or service is not selected for presentation during a substantial portion of the determined life and the advertisement related to the product or service is selected in response to the determined life of the product or service approach or exceeding expiration. In another example, the monitoring the behavior of the user includes the determining of the product or service identified by the user, thus the product or service identified by the user is used to both select the advertisement related to the behavior and then to block the advertisement based upon the advertisement being related to the product or service. In another example and as shown by  FIG. 2 , the process may further include selecting from the plurality of advertisements a subsequent advertisement that is related to the behavior based upon the advertisement being blocked, then blocking the subsequent advertisement selected from the plurality of advertisements based upon the subsequent advertisement being related to the product or service, and communicating the subsequent advertisement for reception by the user based upon the subsequent advertisement not being blocked. In another example, the process further comprises selecting an alternate message, such as shown by  FIG. 3C , that is related to identified product or service based upon the advertisement, such as shown by  FIG. 3A  being blocked and communicating the alternate message for reception by the user. In another example the process includes selecting an intermediate message, such as shown by  FIG. 3D , that is related to selected advertisement based upon the selected advertisement being blocked, receiving a manual input responsive to the intermediate message from the user, such as shown by step  506 , and communicating the selected advertisement for reception by the user. 
         [0042]    In another example, the description also shows a selective advertising process operating within an advertising server system. The process comprising determining a product or service identified by a user based upon an electronic transaction signal received from a point of sale device, such as device  134  included within a plurality of electronic devices used for monitoring a behavior of the user, receiving a plurality of electronic signals including the electronic transaction signal from the plurality of electronic devices, determining the behavior of the user based upon the plurality of electronic signals, selecting from a plurality of advertisements a selected advertisement that is related to the determined behavior of the user, blocking the selected advertisement based upon the selected advertisement being related to the identified product or service, and communicating an electronic signal indicative of the selected advertisement for rendering by an electronic display  102 ,  104 ,  106  associated with the user based upon the selected advertisement not being blocked. The plurality of electronic devices further includes at least one of a tablet, a personal computer  102 , and a smart phone. The electronic display may be included within one of the plurality of electronic devices  102 . In another example, the process may further include selecting an alternate message that is related to the identified product or service based upon the selected advertisement being blocked, and communicating an alternate electronic signal indicative of the alternate message for rendering by the electronic display. In another example, the process may further include selecting an alternate advertisement from the plurality of advertisements based upon the selected advertisement being blocked, and communicating an alternate electronic signal indicative of the alternate advertisement for rendering by the electronic display. 
         [0043]    In another example, the description also shows a process operating within in an electronic device used to facilitate an acquisition of a product or service. The electronic device may be an electronic wallet used to purchase products, a smartphone having process for facilitating acquisition of products or services using Near Field Communications (NFC) or other technologies at a point or sale, a personal computer  102  used to make Internet purchases or other electronic devices used to acquire products or services. The process includes transmitting a purchase signal from the electronic device to facilitate the acquisition of the product or service, receiving an advertisement signal including an advertisement at the electronic device, such as the advertisement shown in  FIG. 3A , rendering the advertisement on a display of the electronic device  102 ,  104 ,  106  based upon the advertisement not being related to the acquired product or service, and blocking, step  212 - 216  rendering of the advertisement on the display of the electronic device based upon the advertisement being related to the acquired product or service. In this example the electronic device used to purchase the product or service receives advertisements and the electronic device itself includes a process to block the advertisement based upon the electronic device being used to facilitate the acquisition of the product or service related to the blocked advertisement. In one example, the process may include rendering an alternate message on the display of the electronic device based the advertisement being blocked. In another example the process may include rendering the advertisement on the display of the electronic device based upon a manual input being received at the electronic device while the alternate message is rendered on the display. In another example the process may include rendering an alternate advertisement on the display of the electronic device based the advertisement being blocked. In another example the process may include rendering an alternate message that is related to the identified product or service based the advertisement being blocked wherein the alternate message does not include an invitation to acquire for the identified product or service. For example,  FIG. 3C  shows an alternate message related to the identified product or service that does not include an invitation to acquire the product or service, whereas  FIG. 3A ,  FIG. 3B  and  FIG. 3D  includes invitations such as offers or to acquire products or services. 
         [0044]    The present disclosure may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the disclosure is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.