Patent ID: 8185923

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of displaying an interactive advertisement to a viewer via a television, wherein the television is connected to a set-top box, and wherein the set-top box is configured to receive input from the viewer via a user input device, the method comprising: receiving at the set-top box at least one television advertisement, wherein the received television advertisement relates to at least one product offered by a particular advertiser, wherein the at least one product has multiple features, wherein different features of the at least one product are emphasized to different viewers based on personal information or preferences associated with the viewer, and wherein the personal information or preferences are obtained without providing a sequence of input prompts related to product attributes; requesting by the set-top box an action from the viewer during display of the television advertisement; receiving at the set-top box the requested action from the viewer during display of the advertisement, wherein the received action includes personal information or preferences associated with the viewer, and wherein at least a portion of the personal information or preferences is input by the viewer to the set-top box via the user input device; creating at the set-top box an interactive advertisement, wherein the interactive advertisement emphasizes certain features of the at least one product based on the personal information or preferences associated with the viewer, wherein the personal information associated with the viewer comprises an image of the viewer, wherein the interactive advertisement is created by modifying the received television advertisement based on the received action, wherein modifying comprises combining the personal information or preferences associated with the viewer with the received television advertisement, and wherein creating the interactive advertisement includes inserting the image of the viewer into the received advertisement; displaying the interactive advertisement to the viewer via the television; and transmitting from the set-top box to a remote data collection site an indication of the displayed interactive advertisement and an indication of one or more demographic statistics associated with the viewer, while omitting from the transmission to the remote data collection site any personally identifiable information associated with the viewer, wherein the personally identifiable information includes the personal information or preferences associated with the viewer.