Advertisement Tracking

Abstract

A display device which shows content with advertisement portions may monitor user actions to determine the efficacy of the advertisement. During the presentation of an advertisement, actions of a user may take are monitored, such as, changing the audio level of the advertisement during play, obstructing the advertisement, or changing the z-order of the window containing the advertisement, and this information may be reported to determine the efficacy of the advertisement.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 determining how much an advertisement was obscured during presentation of the advertisement on a display device; and   generating an advertisement effectiveness report for the advertisement, wherein the report identifies how the advertisement was obscured during the presentation of the advertisement on the display device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the report further includes an indication of whether a user turned off the display device during the presentation of the advertisement on the display device. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the report identifies a percentage of a display area of the advertisement that was obscured. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the report further identifies one or more other pieces of content that obscured the advertisement during the advertisement's presentation on the display device. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the report further identifies a time duration during which a second piece of content obscured the advertisement during the presentation of the advertisement on the display device. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the report further identifies one or more portions of the advertisement that were obscured during presentation of the advertisement on the display device. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the report identifies a z-order of the advertisement during the presentation of the advertisement on the display device. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the report further identifies a z-order of one or more other pieces of content that were displayed during the presentation of the advertisement on the display. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the report further identifies one or more user inputs that were entered by a user during the presentation of the advertisement on the display device. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the report further identifies one or more applications that received the one or more user inputs. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the report further identifies a size change to a display area of the advertisement made during presentation of the advertisement on the display device. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the report further identifies an audio level used to present audio of the advertisement during presentation of the advertisement on the display device. 
     
     
         13 . A method, comprising:
 presenting video content on a display device, the video content containing an advertisement portion and a non-advertisement portion;   permitting a user to obscure the non-advertisement portion during presentation of the content on the display device; and   restricting a user's ability to obscure the advertisement portion during presentation of the content on the display device.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the advertisement portion and non-advertisement portions are at different times during the presentation of the content. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the restricting comprises prohibiting the user from obscuring the advertisement portion during presentation of the content on the display device. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the restricting comprises prohibiting the user from obscuring a portion of the advertisement portion during presentation of the content on the display device. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  16 , wherein the portion of the advertisement portion is temporally defined. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the restricting comprises prohibiting the user from lessening the audio level of the advertisement portion during presentation of the content on the display device. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the restricting comprises prohibiting the user from shrinking the size of the display area of the advertisement portion during presentation of the content on the display device. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the report further identifies an orientation or acceleration of the display device during the presentation of the advertisement on the display device. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 determining that a user has reduced an audio level of the video content below a predetermined threshold during presentation of the advertisement; and   in response to the determining, activating closed-captioning for a remaining duration of the advertisement.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 determining that a user has reduced an audio level of the video content below a predetermined threshold during presentation of the advertisement; and   in response to the determining, pausing the advertisement portion until the user raises the audio level to or above the predetermined threshold during presentation of the advertisement.