Providing content interruptions

Abstract

Content which users may wish to receive may be distributed with interrupting content such that the use of the content on the user's receiver may be interrupted and replaced with the interrupting content. The content which the user wishes to receive may be software, audio, video, graphics or other material and the interrupting content in one embodiment of the prevent invention may be advertisements. In this way, the user's receiver may be utilized to determine when it is appropriate to interrupt the interruptible content with the interrupting content. This may provide a convenient mechanism for reduced price or free distribution of a wide variety of media currently provided only in physical form or only for free without any compensation to the content provider.

1 . A system comprising: 
 a receiver to receive content and at least one advertisement;    a cache, coupled to said receiver, to store said content and said at least one advertisement; and    an interface, in said receiver, to select at least one stored advertisement, said advertisement selection based on a content characteristic that is specified by an advertisement provider, said interface also to retrieve content from said cache to enable the display of the retrieved content in a regular viewing mode, to detect a user-initiated pause of the regular viewing mode, and in response to said detecting, to provide a user interface that enables the user to view said at least one selected advertisement for as long as the content remains paused.    
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said system is a television receiver.  
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said system is a set-top box.  
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said system is a computer.  
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said receiver is coupled to a back channel to receive instructions about how to select an advertisement based on a content characteristic.  
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 1  including a device in said receiver that parses content from instructions for inserting a selected advertisement.  
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 6  wherein said device parses instructions for how to store the content and advertisement.  
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said interface determines a characteristic of the content.  
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 6  wherein said instructions for inserting a selected advertisement includes indicia that indicate a characteristic of the content.  
   
   
       10 . The system of  claim 9  wherein said interface accesses said indicia.  
   
   
       11 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said interface accesses a characteristic specified by an advertiser.  
   
   
       12 . The system of  claim 9  wherein said indicia is a keyword that characterizes at least one part of the content, said keyword associated with a start time value and an end time value, each of said values corresponding to at least one of a content scene, an object in the content, and an action in the content.  
   
   
       13 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said interface selects an advertisement based on a content suitability characteristic that is specified by an advertisement provider.  
   
   
       14 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said interface selects an advertisement based on a content type that is specified by the advertisement provider.  
   
   
       15 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said interface resumes the regular viewing mode of the content at the user's request.  
   
   
       16 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said content is encrypted and said interface controls the decryption of said content to prevent an unauthorized use of said content.  
   
   
       17 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said cache is an encrypted cache.  
   
   
       18 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said cache is repeatably accessible to a user.  
   
   
       19 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said interface controls the number of accesses to the content in the cache.  
   
   
       20 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said content is stored in a randomly accessible storage.  
   
   
       21 . A system comprising: 
 a receiver to receive content and an advertisement;    a cache, coupled to said receiver, to store said content and said advertisement;    an interface, in said receiver, to receive an updated advertisement and updating instructions, said updating instructions to enable the receiver to replace the stored advertisement with the updated advertisement; and    said interface to detect a user-initiated pause in the viewing of content, to retrieve the updated advertisement from said storage, and to provide a user interface that enables the user to view the retrieved advertisement for as long as the viewing of the content remains paused.    
   
   
       22 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said receiver is adapted to enable storage of the updated advertisement in a location other than the location of said stored advertisement that the updated advertisement is to replace, and to create and store a pointer to said other location.  
   
   
       23 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said receiver is to receive additional content together with another advertisement, said receiver to determine whether the another advertisement was previously stored.  
   
   
       24 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said receiver is to detect the starting point of said advertisement and to create a marker and insert it into the content to indicate said starting point.  
   
   
       25 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said cache stores marker and pointer information in a file other than an associated content file and the receiver uses the marker and pointer information to locate an advertisement prior to the display of content from that content file.  
   
   
       26 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said receiver is to maintain a list of stored advertisements and to compare information about a newly received advertisement to information on said list of stored advertisements to determine whether said newly received advertisement was previously stored.  
   
   
       27 . The system of  claim 23  wherein said receiver is to store said newly received advertisement only if the newly-received advertisement was not previously stored.  
   
   
       28 . The system of  claim 26  wherein said receiver is to upload said list of stored advertisements, to a remote server, along with pointers to said stored advertisements.  
   
   
       29 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said receiver is to receive information about when to update said stored advertisement and automatically update said stored advertisement in accordance with said information.  
   
   
       30 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said receiver periodically, automatically updates advertisements.  
   
   
       31 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said system is a set-top box.  
   
   
       32 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said system stores a plurality of advertisements, and said user interface enables the user to select, from a subset of said plurality, one or more advertisements for viewing so long as the content remains paused.  
   
   
       33 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said system stores a plurality of advertisements, and said user interface enables the user to select, from a subset of said plurality, one or more advertisements for viewing, said user interface to be displayed before or after the display of said content, without user interaction.  
   
   
       34 . A system comprising: 
 a cache, coupled to a receiver, to store content and advertisements received on said receiver;    an interface, in said receiver, to detect, during the play of content retrieved from said cache, the occurrence of an advantageous condition, to locate one or more advertisements in said cache, and to enable the display of a user interface in place of said content so long as said advantageous condition is detected, said user interface to include selectable indicia of the one or more located advertisements and an indicia of said content.    
   
   
       35 . The system of  claim 34  wherein said interface is enabled to detect a user-initiated pause in the regular play of said content.  
   
   
       36 . The system of  claim 35  wherein said pause in the regular play of said content is in the form of fast forwarding or rewinding the content.  
   
   
       37 . The system of  claim 34  wherein said interface enables the display of a user interface including selectable indicia in the form of a reduced-size, still image corresponding to each located advertisement.  
   
   
       38 . The system of  claim 34  wherein said interface locates said one or more advertisements using keywords.  
   
   
       39 . The system of  claim 34  wherein said interface locates said one or more advertisements using markers that are inserted into said content and pointers associated with said markers.  
   
   
       40 . The system of  claim 34  wherein if more than one advertisement is located, said interface determines which located advertisements are most appropriate based on advertisement guidelines.  
   
   
       41 . The system of  claim 34  wherein during regular play of content that is retrieved from said cache, said interface detects a marker that was inserted in said content by said receiver, and based on said marker, said interface determines which advertisement should be presented in said user interface, should the advantageous condition occur in the part of the content near said detected marker.  
   
   
       42 . The system of  claim 34  wherein said interface enables the display of a user interface including selectable indicia in the form of an animation or a video corresponding to each located advertisement.  
   
   
       43 . The system of  claim 34  wherein said interface locates said one or more advertisements using markers and pointers that are kept in a data file other than a data file for the corresponding content, the markers to indicate a location in that content where an advertisement can be inserted, the pointers to point to a selected advertisement.