Method and apparatus for enabling recipient interaction with a content stream

摘要

Passive advertising via a video display unit or radio passive advertising is performed through the insertion of commercials at specific time locations based on signaling provided in a video or audio broadcast stream. However, such advertising systems do not take advantage of a recipient's first impulse to react to the advertisement, thereby losing a potential sale. Embodiments disclosed herein provide a recipient of a video display or radio broadcasts with real-time information on products (e.g., goods or services) placed in the video display or radio broadcasts. In addition, embodiments provide the recipient with a real-time opportunity to gather information or to respond to requests (e.g., marketing requests) at the time associated with the recipient's initial impulse to act in response to receiving the video display or radio broadcast.

主权项

1. A method for enabling recipient interaction with a content stream, the method comprising:
identifying representations, of real-world objects or services in content, to be sent to a recipient via the content stream; associating identifiers with at least a subset of the representations, the identifiers including enabled and disabled identifiers having respective enabled and disabled states to indicate whether interactions with the subset of the representations are enabled or disabled; sending the content with the identifiers to the recipient in a manner enabling the recipient to interact with the subset of the representations via the identifiers, interactions by the recipient, during times the subset of the representations associated with the enabled identifiers are presented to the recipient, causing information, selected based on the identifiers, to be provided to the recipient or a third party recipient; observing the interactions; and determining metrics associated with the interactions observed, the determining including determining metrics associated with the interactions with the enabled identifiers and determining metrics associated with attempts at interactions with the disabled identifiers by the recipient of the content stream.