Patent Issued for Modulation of advertisement display based on vehicle operation data (USPTO 11468476): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 OCT 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Lundsgaard, Soren K. (Inverness, IL, US), filed on October 8, 2019, was published online on October 11, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11468476 is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Improvements in media playback technology has given users a voracious appetite for media content. While users may have previously been limited to what they owned on physical media (e.g., compact disks), users now often expect broad, largely unrestricted access to music, whether as stored on personal devices (e.g., their smartphones) or as streamed over a network (e.g., the Internet). To account for licensing costs, such music may be offered to users for a monthly subscription fee, at a per-song cost, or the like. For example, a user might pay a company a monthly subscription fee to download songs to their mobile device, which they may then play with or without access to the Internet (e.g., when driving in an area with poor cellular Internet service).

“Simultaneously, there is an ongoing need for improvements in the safety of drivers and the general public. Although techniques exist to generally encourage safe driving, they might not provide a mechanism whereby rewards for drivers engaging in safe driving behaviors are provided.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the description below.

“Advantageous solutions to the problems presented above, and other issues which will be apparent upon the reading of the present disclosure, may be to present advertisements based on a risk score, advertising tier, and/or point balance associated with a driver. An indication of media content may be received from a user associated with a vehicle. The media content may be stored or streaming audio and/or visual content. For example, a user may select a playlist of songs to be played via speakers of a vehicle while driving, and/or may select one or more television shows for watching on a mobile device in the vehicle while parked. Sensor data corresponding to operation of the vehicle may be collected, such as information about a speed of the vehicle, an acceleration of the vehicle, a route of the vehicle, weather, road type, or the like. Based on the sensor data, a risk score may be determined. The risk score may be associated with the safe driving behavior and/or the unsafe driving behavior of a driver of the vehicle. Based on the risk score, an advertising tier associated with an advertising frequency may be determined. Also, based on the risk score, one or more points may be added or subtracted from a point balance associated with the user, the driver of the vehicle, a mobile device, and/or the vehicle. The points may be used to access media content by, e.g., spending points to download and/or access the media content. Based on the risk score, the advertising tier, the advertising frequency, and/or the point balance, one or more advertisements may be selected and displayed. For example, the advertisements may be displayed on a mobile device in the vehicle, on an in-vehicle display, or the like, and the frequency with which the advertisements are displayed may be based on the advertising frequency. As another example, the type of advertisement show may be based on the risk score, such that a safer driver may be rewarded with a discount on a product.

“Other features and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the additional description provided herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A media presentation device comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive, from a user associated with a vehicle, an indication of media content; cause presentation of a first portion of the media content; cause, based on a baseline advertisement frequency, presentation of a first advertisement for the first portion of the media content, wherein the baseline advertisement frequency indicates a frequency with which to output different advertisements to the user during presentation of the media content; cause presentation, after presentation of the first advertisement, of a second portion of the media content; receive, from a sensor data collection module, sensor data from sensors associated with the vehicle; determine, based on the sensor data, a risk score, wherein the risk score determined is based at least on a speed of the vehicle or a rate of acceleration of the vehicle; determine, based on the risk score, an advertisement tier; select, based on the advertisement tier, an advertisement frequency associated with an output of a greater frequency of different advertisements as compared with the baseline advertisement frequency; determine, based on the advertisement tier, a second advertisement; and cause presentation, based on the advertisement frequency and a time associated with the second portion of the media content, of the second advertisement.

“2. The media presentation device of claim 1, wherein causing presentation of the first advertisement comprises causing a display in the vehicle to display the first advertisement.

“3. The media presentation device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to adjust a point balance associated with the user based on the risk score, the advertisement tier being determined based on the point balance.

“4. The media presentation device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to determine one or more points to be added to a point balance associated with the user based on the risk score being associated with safe driving behavior, wherein the advertisement tier is determined based on the point balance.

“5. The media presentation device of claim 1, wherein the sensors associated with the vehicle comprise sensors in a mobile device located in the vehicle.

“6. The media presentation device of claim 1, wherein the media content is stored on the media presentation device.

“7. The media presentation device of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that further cause the one or more processors to: analyze the media content to determine the first portion of the media content and the second portion of the media content.

“8. The media presentation device of claim 1, wherein the risk score is further determined based on one or more of: a road type, a time of day, or a weather.

“9. The media presentation device of claim 1, wherein causing presentation of the second advertisement comprises buffering a third portion of the media content.

“10. The media presentation device of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that further cause the one or more processors to: subtract, based on receiving a request to skip the second advertisement, one or more points from a point balance associated with the user, the advertisement tier being determined based on the point balance; and skip the second advertisement based on the request to skip the second advertisement.

“11. A method, comprising: receiving, by a media presentation device and from a user associated with a vehicle, an indication of media content; causing presentation of a first portion of the media content; causing, based on a baseline advertisement frequency, presentation of a first advertisement for the first portion of the media content, wherein the baseline advertisement frequency indicates a frequency with which to output different advertisements to the user during presentation of the media content; causing presentation, after presentation of the first advertisement, of a second portion of the media content; receiving, from a sensor data collection module, sensor data from sensors associated with the vehicle; determining, based on the sensor data, a risk score, wherein the risk score determined is based at least on a speed of the vehicle or a rate of acceleration of the vehicle; determining, based on the risk score, an advertisement tier; selecting, based on the advertisement tier, an advertisement frequency associated with an output of a greater frequency of different advertisements as compared with the baseline advertisement frequency; determining, based on the advertisement tier, second advertisement; and causing presentation, based on the advertisement frequency and a time associated with the second portion of the media content, of the second advertisement.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein causing presentation of the first advertisement comprises causing a display in the vehicle to display the first advertisement.

“13. The method of claim 11, further comprising adjusting a point balance associated with the user based on the risk score, the advertisement tier being determined based on the point balance.

“14. The method of claim 11, wherein the sensors associated with the vehicle comprise sensors in a mobile device located in the vehicle.

“15. The method of claim 11, further comprising: subtracting, based on receiving a request to skip the second advertisement, one or more points from a point balance associated with the user, the advertisement tier being determined based on the point balance; and skipping the second advertisement based on the request to skip the second advertisement.

“16. A system comprising: a media presentation device, and a display device in a vehicle, wherein the media presentation device is configured to: receive, from a user associated with the vehicle, an indication of media content; cause presentation of a first portion of the media content; cause, based on a baseline advertisement frequency, presentation of a first advertisement for the first portion of the media content, wherein the baseline advertisement frequency indicates a frequency with which to output different advertisements to the user during presentation of the media content; cause presentation, after presentation of the first advertisement, of a second portion of the media content; receive, from a sensor data collection module, sensor data from sensors associated with the vehicle; determine, based on the sensor data, a risk score, wherein the risk score is determined based at least on a speed of the vehicle or a rate of acceleration of the vehicle; determine, based on the risk score, an advertisement tier; select, based on the advertisement tier, an advertisement frequency associated with an output of a greater frequency of different advertisements as compared with the baseline advertisement frequency; determine, based on the advertisement tier, a second advertisement; and cause presentation, based on the advertisement frequency and a time associated with the second portion of the media content, of the second advertisement on the display device.

“17. The system of claim 16, wherein the sensors associated with the vehicle comprise sensors in a mobile device located in the vehicle.

“18. The system of claim 16, wherein the media presentation device is further configured to adjust a point balance associated with the user based on the risk score, the advertisement tier being determined based on the point balance.

“19. The system of claim 16, wherein the media presentation device is further configured to determine one or more points to be added to a point balance associated with the user based on the risk score being associated with safe driving behavior, and wherein the advertisement tier is determined based on the point balance.

“20. The system of claim 16, wherein the media presentation device is further configured to: subtract, based on receiving a request to skip the second advertisement, one or more points from a point balance associated with the user, the advertisement tier being determined based on the point balance; and skip the second advertisement based on the request to skip the second advertisement.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Lundsgaard, Soren K. Modulation of advertisement display based on vehicle operation data. U.S. Patent Number 11468476, filed October 8, 2019, and published online on October 11, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11468476.PN.&OS=PN/11468476RS=PN/11468476

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