Color-Changing Animated Images for Cross-Domain Content Viewability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for determining advertisement viewability on webpages are limited by browser restrictions and do not accurately assess whether advertisements are actually viewed, particularly in cross-domain scenarios, and often require unsupported technologies like FLASH.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing animated image files, such as 1×1 pixel GIFs, that change colors or states to determine viewability by monitoring their animation within the browser viewport.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If advertisement tags are placed within cross-domain nested iframes to track advertisement display, then the ability to determine relative position within the parent page is limited due to browser Same Origin Policy, but placing tags outside iframes loses the ability to track advertisements within the specific page context
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a coordinate transformation system that acts as an intermediary between the advertisement tag system and the parent page coordinate system. The system captures coordinates from within the iframe context and transforms them to parent page coordinates through a series of offset calculations, enabling accurate viewability detection while respecting browser security policies.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the traditional DOM-based coordinate querying mechanism (which is blocked by Same Origin Policy) with a coordinate transformation mathematical model. Instead of mechanically accessing parent page elements through DOM traversal, the system uses coordinate offset calculations to transform positions, substituting a blocked mechanical approach with a mathematical solution.
2Measurement precision
If FLASH-based monitoring code is used to monitor advertisement viewability through frame rate changes, then viewability can be detected, but the approach requires browser support for FLASH which is not available in many leading commercial browsers and operating systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the expensive, complex FLASH-based monitoring solution with a simple, lightweight HTML5-based coordinate tracking system. The new approach uses basic JavaScript and HTML elements that are universally supported, discarding the proprietary FLASH technology in favor of web standards that work across all modern browsers without requiring additional plugins or components.
3Measurement precision
If coordinate information is accessed via scripting to determine viewability, then viewability can be detected in some browsers, but this approach is only available in a small subset of browsers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal coordinate transformation system that functions across all browsers supporting standard HTML5 and JavaScript. The solution uses widely-supported web technologies to achieve cross-browser compatibility, making the viewability detection capability universal rather than limited to specific browser implementations.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and media are disclosed for tracking viewability of content, such as Internet content, by associating a color-changing animated image file with the content and determining, based on whether color of an image is changing, whether the content is in a viewable region of a browser.