Streaming Content Tracking via Server-Side Notification Intermediation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing streaming content delivery systems face challenges in controlling and monitoring content output on client devices, as clients can modify or block content portions, such as advertisements, without the content provider's knowledge, leading to reduced revenue and effectiveness of legal warnings.
Innovation Solution
A streaming content delivery system that uses back-end notifications, where client computing devices report viewing information to a server, which determines and transmits appropriate notifications, preventing clients from identifying and blocking content portions based on notification information, and employs concealed identifiers to inhibit content type differentiation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If client computing devices are provided with notification information to identify content portions, then clients can selectively block or modify content portions, but this leads to loss of information about actual content viewing and reduced revenue for providers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary between the content delivery system and client devices. The server generates and manages notification information, receiving content portion identifiers from clients and translating them into meaningful viewing data. This intermediary layer prevents clients from directly accessing or manipulating notification information, ensuring accurate tracking of actual content viewing while still allowing clients to block content through their viewers.
2Adaptability or versatility
If clients can modify content portions on client devices, then users have control similar to traditional networks, but content integrity is compromised and providers lose revenue
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where client devices report content portion viewing status to a server. The server receives notifications about which content portions were actually output by the client device and uses this feedback to determine whether providers should be notified. This closed-loop feedback system maintains content integrity by verifying actual viewing behavior while preserving user adaptability to control content playback.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-generating notification information and content portion identifiers before content delivery. The server prepares the notification framework in advance, establishing rules and structures that will govern content tracking. This preliminary setup ensures content integrity is built into the system architecture before any client-side modifications can occur.
3Reliability
If back-end notifications are used instead of client-side notifications, then content integrity is maintained, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the notification generation and management functions into the existing server infrastructure of the content delivery system. Rather than creating a separate complex notification system, the server combines content delivery, notification generation, and viewing verification functions into a unified architecture. This consolidation maintains content integrity while reducing overall system complexity by leveraging existing server capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are described to enable delivery of a content stream while inhibiting or preventing removal, blocking, or skipping of portions within that content stream. Existing systems can request that a client device send various notifications during viewing of a streaming content. This information can be used by the client device to automatically remove or modify secondary content from the content stream. To prevent such removal or modification, embodiments of the present disclosure can remove the requirement that a client device have knowledge of when notifications are to be transmitted regarding portions of a content stream. A server can obtain monitoring information from either or both of a client device or a network-delivery system, to determine when the client device has output a portion of a content stream. The server can then determine an appropriate notification to be transmitted in response to that output, and transmit the notification.