System and Method for Shifting Transcript Costs from a Content Supplier to an Advertiser
20210342893 · 2021-11-04
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
H04N21/26225
ELECTRICITY
International classification
G06K19/06
PHYSICS
Abstract
A method for shifting transcript costs from a content supplier to a user that includes the steps of transcribing text into a transcription device, transmitting the transcribed text from the stenographic transcription device to a digital store of a computer and providing in the computer an algorithm configured to associate the steno transcribed text with an advertisement for accessing and viewing. The transcribed text is associated with the advertisement and the text and the associated advertisement is delivered to a user's device for display and viewing. The transcribed text may be in document form or captioning displayed for viewing on a video viewing device such as a laptop monitor or television screen.
Claims
1. A method for shifting transcript costs from a content supplier to a content user, comprising the steps of: (a) transcribing text into a transcription device; (b) transmitting the transcribed text from the transcription device to a digital store of a computer; (c) providing in the computer an algorithm configured to associate the transcribed text with an advertisement for accessing and viewing; (d) associating the text with the advertisement; and (e) delivering the text and associated advertisement to a user's device for display and viewing.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of associating the text with an advertisement comprises providing on an image a visible representation of the advertisement.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of associating the transcribed text to an advertisement comprises providing the digital representation of image for viewing with the advertisement and a visible representation of a link that when activated removes the advertisement from viewing on the image.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer comprises an algorithm that permits a user to access the transcribed text with the associated advertisement substantially in real-time.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the visible representation of the link comprises an image selected from the group consisting of a web domain address, barcode, QR code and an arbitrary image.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the computer algorithm includes user-selectable criteria that includes at least one feature selected from the group consisting of advertisement size, page location, advertisement color, time length of display, manner of linking to the advertisement location and any combination thereof.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the algorithm includes the steps of determining and storing digital viewing data representing the number of times the advertisement is viewed and the length of viewing time, calculating a viewing value based upon the digital viewing data and calculating a cost to the advertiser based on the calculated viewing value.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user's viewing device comprises a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet, a smart phone, television, video display screen or any combination thereof.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is changed at a predetermined interval with a different advertisement.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the transcribed text comprises a caption adapted for being displayed in synchrony with programming content on a video viewing device.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the text is a video caption selected from the group consisting of an open caption and a closed caption.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein removing the associated advertisement from the transcribed text occurs while copying and pasting the associated advertisement from the steno transcribed text into a new document, the associated advertisement being removed from the new document having only the transcribed text pasted therein.
13. A system for associating advertising content with transcribed text comprising: (a) a computer having a processor, memory, and an advertisement module for storing advertising content in digital form, wherein; (b) the processor is configured to electronically receive transcribed text in real time; (c) the processor is configured to electronically communicate with the advertisement module; (d) the advertisement module is configured to digitally associate the digital advertising content with the text; and (e) the processor is configured to electronically communicate the transcribed text with the advertisement to a user's video device.
14. A system according to claim 13, wherein the transcribed text is video captioning and the processor is adapted to simultaneously display the video captioning and the advertisement on a video device.
15. A system according to claim 13, wherein the transcribed text is video captioning and the processor is adapted to disassociate the advertisement from the transcribed text at a predetermined interval and associate the transcribed text with a different advertisement.
16. A system according to claim 13, and including an algorithm having user-selectable criteria that includes at least one feature selected from the group consisting of advertisement size, page location, advertisement color, time length of display, manner of linking the transcript page to the advertisement and any combination thereof.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the algorithm includes the steps of determining and storing digital viewing data representing the number of times the advertisement is viewed and the length of viewing time, calculating a viewing value based upon the digital viewing data and calculating a cost to the advertiser based on the calculated viewing value.
18. The system of claim 13, wherein the user's video device comprises a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet, a smart phone, television, video display screen or any combination thereof.
19. The system of claim 13, wherein the transcribed text comprises a caption and the process is adapted to display the advertising in synchrony with programming content on a video viewing device.
20. The system of claim 13, wherein the transcribed text is a video caption selected from the group consisting of an open caption and a closed caption.
21. The system of claim 13, wherein the transcribed text is captured by voice recognition.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES
[0041] The present invention is best understood when the following detailed description of the invention is read with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0042]
[0043]
[0044]
[0045]
[0046]
[0047]
[0048]
[0049]
[0050]
[0051]
[0052]
[0053]
[0054]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0055] The invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown. Like reference numbers refer to like elements throughout the various drawings.
[0056] Referring now specifically to
[0057] In certain aspects, the system described herein is format independent or adaptable to various formats. Exemplary formats may include, but are not limited to, Word documents, txt files, PDF files and the like. In certain aspects, Adobe PDF format is a particularly suitable format to serve as a basis for implementation of the system. Such a format, which may be termed PDF/T (“T” for transcript) may be used with a password provided by the service provider (e.g., a court reporting service), and may be convertible when desired into a PDF/A format without the advertising. The PDF/A format may be used, for example, when filing a court document, or for other uses where visible advertising would not be suitable. In additional aspects, the documents having advertisements can be copied and pasted into another document. When this text is copied and pasted into another document, it is preferable to maintain the text's original format such that the advertisements no longer remain in the copied and pasted text.
[0058] The system can be offered for sale as a combination of size, percentage transcript coverage, number of pages, hearing advertisements, lines, and duration. For example, a subscriber may choose to purchase the right to place advertisements amounting to 2.5 percent of the space coverage in quarter-page sizes for 100 transcripts, with the fee calculated on the selected combination of size, percentage of coverage and duration.
[0059]
[0060] After the text has been transcribed in real-time into the recording device (1), the transcribed text is subsequently communicated (2, 3) to a computer (4) or tablet (5) or hand held device that is configured to convert the transcribed text into a readable medium (23) while also associating an advertisement (25) into the transcribed text. The computer or tablet is configured to receive a request from a user to access the transcribed text with the associated advertisement. The computer or tablet having the transcribed text with an associated advertisement communicates the transcribed text with the associated advertisement either directly to a user's peripheral device (6 and 7) or indirectly via a router (8) to a user's peripheral device (9, 10, 11, and 12), which may include, but is not limited to, a laptop, pod, personal computer, tablet, smart phone, and television, including a “smart” television which connects to the Internet and facilitates “streaming.” For example,
[0061] Alternatively, the transcribed text may be stored for later insertion of advertising content. The transcribed text may be transmitted in such a way that one transcript is sent to one party or a court and contains specific advertising or no advertising, and the same transcript is sent to another party with different specific advertising. The possible combinations and permutations are quite large in complex litigations, and can thus take into account the preferences of various real parties in interest, some of whom may prefer no advertising or advertising of a certain maximum size or content.
[0062] In addition, transcribed text may be transmitted for a specific period of time with specific advertising, and/or sent later to other party with either no advertising, or different advertising content.
[0063] Codes may be associated in the transcript that delete the advertising after a specified period of time, change the advertising from initial content to later content, expand the footprint of the advertising on a transcript page from a small link to a specified size advertisement upon the occurrence of a specific event such as changing pages when reading on a laptop.
[0064] Specified transcript pages may contain a link visible, for example, in a header or footer, that when clicked downloads an advertisement from the Internet. The link may be an actual representation of a domain from which the advertisement is downloaded for viewing, or may alternatively be a code such as a barcode, QR code or similar object. The downloaded content may include an audio file, animated graphics or other similar material.
[0065] In accordance with a further preferred embodiment, the computer (4), tablet (5) or other processing device contains an algorithm that permits the user to access a password protected setup screen. After gaining access to a specified, secure area of the system, the setup screen prompts the user to select the ad size and percent coverage, select the advertising art to be uploaded and merged with the transcript, select whether the ad will be displayed in color or black and white, select the page locations, and select the duration, expressed in number of events, number of pages, or another suitable criteria. In addition, the user may prefer custom advertising of its own creation, in which case the advertiser would create the advertising display using provided information regarding size, resolution, format and the like, and upload the advertising in the specified format into the content supplier's server for insertion in the transcript. A user interface may be provided to allow the advertiser to observe the appearance of the advertisement selected on a sample page or pages before a final selection is made. Once the final selection is made, the fee is determined and a charge is made to the advertiser's account, or provision is made for the charge to be paid online with a credit or debit card, or by some other means. The advertisement is merged into the transcript and either printed or prepared for electronic transmission to those transcript purchasers who are willing to pay less for the transcript than for a copy without advertising. This information is stored in a database accessed by the content provider and/or the transcript user.
[0066]
[0067] In some embodiments, the processor (13) described herein may include a microcontroller or general purpose microprocessor that reads its program from memory (14). The processor may be comprised of one or more components configured as a single unit. Alternatively, when of a multi-component form, the processor may have one or more components located remotely relative to the others. One or more components of the processor may be of the electronic variety including digital circuitry, analog circuitry, or both. In one embodiment, the processor is of a conventional, integrated circuit microprocessor arrangement, such as one or more CORE 2 QUAD processors from INTEL Corporation, or ATHLON or PHENOM processors, One AMD, or POWER6 processors. In alternative embodiments, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), reduced instruction-set computing (RISC) processors, general-purpose microprocessors, programmable logic arrays, or other devices may be used alone or in combination as will occur to those skilled in the art.
[0068] As one step of associating the steno transcribed text to an advertisement, the digital representation of the transcript page may be provided for viewing with the advertisement and a visible representation of a link that when activated removes the advertisement from viewing on the transcript page. Also, the computer may include an algorithm that permits a user to access the steno transcribed text with the associated advertisement substantially in real-time.
[0069] The association of the advertising content with the transcript is “virtual” and the visible representation of the link between the advertising content and the transcript may be an active image of a web domain address, barcode, QR code or it may be an arbitrary image behind which resides an active link.
[0070] The computer algorithm may also include user-selectable criteria that include advertisement size, page location, advertisement color, time length of display, manner of linking the transcript page to the advertisement and any combination thereof.
[0071] The computer algorithm may include the steps of determining and storing digital viewing data representing the number of times the advertisement is viewed and the length of viewing time, calculating a viewing value based upon the digital viewing data and calculating a cost to the advertiser based on the calculated viewing value. For a regular subscriber to this service with an account debiting feature on file, the algorithm can deduct an amount from the account based on the calculated viewing valve and periodically forward statements to the subscriber.
[0072] In various embodiments, the memory (14) may include one or more types such as solid-state electronic memory, magnetic memory, or optical memory, just to name a few. By way of non-limiting example, memory (14) can include solid-state electronic Random Access Memory (RAM), Sequentially Accessible Memory (SAM) (such as the First-In, First-Out (FIFO) variety or the Last-In First-Out (LIFO) variety), Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM), Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), or Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM); an optical disc memory (such as a recordable, a thumb drive, rewritable, or read-only DVD or CD-ROM); a magnetically encoded hard drive, floppy disk, tape, or cartridge medium; or a plurality and/or combination of these memory types. Also, memory (14) may be volatile, nonvolatile, or a hybrid combination of volatile and nonvolatile varieties.
[0073] Referring to
[0074] After routing the transcribed text through the data network, the media server (20) receives the routed text from the processor (13) and connects to a media processor (21) to associate one or more advertisements within the transcribed text. Upon the media processor receiving the transcribed text, an advertisement retrieving method is used in parallel with the text stream (i.e., the transcribed text received in media processor (21) to retrieve stored advertisement media in digital form from a storage repository (22).
[0075] One or more advertisements stored in the repository are selected based upon various criteria including, but not limited to, case types, event types, program types, advertisement type, size, color, location, or any combination thereof. For example, if the transcribed text pertains to a legal document such as a deposition, a legal advertisement within the repository may be selected from a participating third-party legal support provider such as Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw and the advertisement may be subsequently associated with the transcribed text. In certain aspects, the advertisements may include, but are not limited to, still images, hyperlinks, videos, text, audio content, or any combination thereof. In certain embodiments, the advertisements include a PDF file, a Flash file, an HTML file, a ShockWave file, an SVG file, a GIF, a TIF, a JPEG, or any combination thereof. The file type of the text and the advertisement may be the same or different. In certain aspects, the advertisement may further include a tag. The advertisement associated within the text may be identified based on this tag or difference in file type, and the advertisement may be subsequently removed from the text if desired using the methods and systems described herein.
[0076] After associating the advertisement with the text, the text associated with the advertisement may then be routed back to the processor (13). The processor (13) subsequently outputs (16) the text associated with the advertisement to a user's peripheral device, and the user's peripheral device displays the text and the associated advertisement. As described above, this text associated with an advertisement may include compressed transcripts, advance ASCII copies and the like having searchable indices and editable text. These electronic documents may be saved on the user's peripheral device for viewing and editing at a later time.
[0077]
[0078]
[0079]
[0080]
[0081] Several advertisers may advertise in the same transcript using software similar to that used to select seats on aircraft to determine location on a first come, first served basis, and the advertisements can be rotated in location throughout the length of the transcript according to predetermined preference. For an additional charge, the advertising can be hyperlinked to the advertiser's website or some other location, and data regarding monthly activity provided to the advertiser using an analytics tool. Advertising can also be charged to the customer on the basis of the number of clicks applied to a particular advertisement, length or viewing among other criteria.
[0082] In the litigation context, the computer algorithm also includes a routine that automatically adjusts the transcript line numbers so that, for example, if an advertisement is in the middle of the page, the line numbering proceeds consecutively above and below the advertisement without skipping any line numbers. When the transcript is modified to remove the advertisements, the line numbers shift back into the ordinary location. If necessary, the line numbering of a particular page may shift to a subsequent page while the advertisement is present in order to maintain the integrity of the transcript, permitting the user to copy and paste testimony as usual while maintaining the proper transcript format. The software notes that the transcript includes third party advertising, and the charges to the transcript purchaser is adjusted downwardly according to the content provider's fee schedule. The transcription company can preferably track and quantify the number of users accessing and using the system described herein. The transcription the company can also preferably track and quantify the number of potential users interested in accessing the system described in this application. These tracking numbers can be quantified in any desirable metric including, but not limited to, number of total users per unit of time (e.g., users per day, week, month, or year) and/or the number of advertisements displayed per transcribed subject matter (e.g., related to legal subject matter, related to medical subject matter, related to scholarly subject matter, etc.).
[0083] According to one embodiment of the invention, the documents having advertisements can be copied and pasted into another document. When this text is copied and pasted into another document, it is preferable to maintain the text's original format such that the advertisements no longer remain in the copied and pasted text.
[0084]
[0085]
[0086]
[0087]
[0088] In contrast, in the captioning context (38) an advertiser wanting to advertise on, for example, a closed captioned television program pays the content supplier, for example, a television station, and the advertisement is integrated into the caption as it is displayed at the bottom of a television screen. In this instance, the viewer of the programming is the user and the beneficiary of the captioning and is exposed to the advertising. This process provides advantages to all of the relevant parties. The content supplier benefits by being able to recoup at least part of the legally-required cost of providing captioning on most programming. The advertiser benefits by being able to expose viewers to advertising during otherwise non-advertising related programming. The viewer benefits by being able to more easily ignore the advertising being supplied along with the captioning than is the case with advertising segments that interrupt the non-advertising content at intervals.
[0089]
[0090] A computer-based apparatus and method for inserting material, such as advertising, promotional materials or public service announcements or postings into transcripts, such as deposition, trial and hearing transcripts, captioning, real-time, and computer generated, among others, according to the invention have been described with reference to specific embodiments and examples. Various details of the invention may be changed without departing from the scope of the invention. Furthermore, the foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention and best mode for practicing the invention are provided for the purpose of illustration only and not for the purpose of limitation, the invention being defined by the claims.