Pushing content to secondary connected devices

Abstract

Systems and methods of pushing content to secondary connected devices include pushing targeted content such as interactive advertisements, banners, games or application to secondary connected devices in a household. The targeted content may reflect user preferences associated with the secondary connected devices, including user behaviour and previous interaction with various forms of content viewed on the secondary connected devices. The targeted content may be either locally cached or retrieved from an advertisement server at the time of pushing to the secondary connected devices.

What is claimed is what is disclosed and illustrated, including: 
     
         1 . A method of providing advertisement content to a user operating a secondary user device in connection with primary content at a primary user device, the method comprising:
 receiving, over a content network interface, primary content at a primary user device;   performing content recognition on the received primary content to determine an attribute of the received primary content;   receiving a playback indication from the secondary user device;   selectively modifying, based on the playback indication and the attribute, the primary content with a secondary advertisement; and   providing, the selectively modified primary content to the secondary user device for displaying to the user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 selecting the secondary advertisement based on a profile of the user.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 selecting the secondary advertisement based on the determined attribute of the received primary content;   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the performing the content recognition comprises:
 extracting image patterns from the primary content; and   matching the extracted image patterns with a library of reference image patterns.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, at a time prior to receiving the primary content, a set of advertisements that includes the secondary advertisement; and   storing the set of advertisements on a storage medium at the primary user device.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the set of advertisements is received over a data network interface that is different from the content network interface. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selectively modifying the primary content with a secondary advertisement includes:
 overlaying an advertisement banner over the primary content.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selectively modifying the primary content includes:
 retrieving the secondary advertisement from a locally stored cache.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selective modification of the primary content includes:
 retrieving a content segment from a local storage; and   transcode the content segment, based on a display characteristic of the secondary user device, resulting in the secondary advertisement.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selective modification of the primary content includes:
 fetching a content segment from a remote advertisement server; and   generating the secondary advertisement based on the fetched content.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the fetching operation further includes;
 providing a display characteristic of the secondary user device and the attribute of the received primary content to the remote advertisement server.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the performing content recognition includes receiving metadata associated with the primary content and extracting a keyword from the received metadata. 
     
     
         13 . An apparatus for providing targeted advertisements to a user operating a companion user device, the apparatus comprising:
 a content network interface configured to receive primary content;   a look-up table configured to store sequence information;   a fingerprint processor configured to match the received primary content with an entry in the look-up table;   a bundle manager configured to retrieve a secondary advertisement based on the entry in the look-up table; and   a profile manager configured to transmit a targeted advertisement based on the primary content and the secondary advertisement content to the user.   
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein the profile manager modified the targeted advertisement content according to display properties of the secondary user device. 
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein the secondary advertisement content includes at least one of a banner that can be overlaid on the primary content, an application and a game. 
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein the content network interface is further configured to receive the sequence information and a plurality of secondary advertisements. 
     
     
         17 . A computer-readable program storage medium having code stored thereon, the code, when executed by a processor, causing the processor to implement a method of providing targeted advertisement to a user device, the method comprising:
 receiving live content transmission comprising an advertisement;   receiving an ad bundle comprising a plurality of targeted advertisements;   identifying the advertisement included in the live content transmission;   modifying the advertisement to include one of the plurality of targeted advertisements based on the identification of the advertisement and a user profile associated with the user device; and   transmitting the modified advertisement to the user device.   
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable program storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the ad bundle comprises one or more of an interactive application, a banner and a game. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable program storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises:
 creating a user profile for the user; and   associating the user profile with the device receiving the modified advertisement.   
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable program storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the user profile includes information regarding the user's behavior and interaction with various forms of content. 
     
     
         21 . A method of providing advertisement playback information from a secondary user device to a primary user device, the method comprising:
 receiving an advertisement from the primary user device;   performing content recognition on the received advertisement to determine an attribute of the received advertisement;   collecting playback information for the advertisement at the secondary device; and   providing at least one of the attribute of the received advertisement and the playback information to the primary user device.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the collecting the playback information includes collecting information about at least one of a user interaction with the received advertisement and a duration of playback of the received advertisement, 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 updating a user profile based on the collected playback information.   
     
     
         24 . An apparatus for providing advertisement playback information to a primary user device, the apparatus comprising:
 a content recognition module that performs content recognition on a received multimedia program to determine that an advertisement is being received;   a display controller that causes the advertisement to be displayed to a user;   a user interaction module that captures a level of user interaction with the displayed advertisement; and   a feedback module that provides feedback to the primary user device including the level of user interaction.   
     
     
         25 . The apparatus of  claim 24 , wherein the user interaction module further stores information about at least one of whether the user muted volume during advertisement playback and whether the user navigated to a resource location displayed with the advertisement. 
     
     
         26 . The apparatus of  claim 24 , further comprising:
 a playback indication module that indicates to the primary user device whether or not the advertisement was played back in its entirety.   
     
     
         27 . The apparatus of  claim 24 , further comprising:
 a program guide module that modifies, based on the level of user interaction, at least one attribute of a program guide subsequently displayed to the user.   
     
     
         28 . A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having code stored thereon, the code, when executed by a processor, causing the processor to implement a method of providing advertisement playback information from a secondary user device to a primary user device, the method comprising:
 receiving an advertisement from the primary user device;   performing content recognition on the received advertisement to determine an attribute of the received advertisement;   collecting playback information for the advertisement at the secondary device; and   providing at least one of the attribute of the received advertisement and the playback information to the primary user device.