JP2011118186A - Coupon distribution device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a coupon distribution device for enhancing advertisement effects. <P>SOLUTION: A video monitor 14 displays an advertisement video on a monitor screen. A camera 12 repeatedly outputs the image representing a field in front of the monitor screen. A control device 18 retrieves one or more persons viewing the advertisement video displayed on the monitor screen by referring to the image output from the camera 12, and pursues the one or more persons found by the retrieval till the ending time of the advertisement video displayed on the monitor screen. Also, the control device 18 issues coupons having different grades in accordance with the result of the pursuit to each of the one or more pursued persons. Thus, adaptive coupons considering the behaviors of the persons viewing the advertisement video can be issued and advertisement effects can be enhanced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a coupon distribution apparatus, and more particularly to a coupon distribution apparatus that distributes a coupon to a person who appreciates video content displayed on a monitor screen.

  An example of this type of device is disclosed in Patent Document 1. According to this background art, the advertising content requested by the advertising agency is sent via the main distribution server installed in the advertising video distribution service company and the local distribution server installed in the place where the advertisement is performed. It is distributed to the advertisement display touch monitor terminal installed in the place where the advertisement is performed. When a customer operates a touch monitor terminal for displaying advertisements and issues a discount coupon, bi-directional communication between the in-store touch monitor terminal installed in the advertiser's store and the touch monitor terminal for displaying advertisements is distributed locally. It is executed via the server and the main distribution server.

JP 2005-114981 A

  However, the discount coupon is issued in response to an operation of the advertisement display touch monitor terminal, and the contents of the discount coupon are not adaptively changed. For this reason, the advertising effectiveness is limited in the background art.

  Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a coupon distribution device that can increase the advertising effect.

  A coupon distribution device according to the present invention (10: reference numeral corresponding to the embodiment; the same applies hereinafter) is a display means (14) for displaying an advertisement video on a monitor screen, and repeatedly outputs an image representing a scene in front of the monitor screen. The image pickup means (12), the search means (S7) for searching for one or more persons viewing the advertisement image displayed by the display means with reference to the image output from the image pickup means, and the search means Tracking means (S11 to S23, S27 to S35) for tracking one or more persons to the reference time of the advertisement video display time zone displayed by the display means, and having different grades depending on the tracking results of the tracking means Issuing means (S43, S49 to S71) for issuing a coupon to each of one or more persons noticed by the tracking means.

  Preferably, the tracking result of the tracking means includes a tracking time as a parameter, and the issuing means includes a grade adjusting means (S55 to S65) for increasing the clade as the tracking time is longer.

  Preferably, the reference time corresponds to the end time of the advertisement video.

  Preferably, the tracking means includes a classification means (S23) for classifying each attribute of one or more persons, and the issuing means selects a coupon corresponding to the attribute classified by the classification means for a plurality of coupons belonging to a common grade. Coupon selection means (S69) for selecting from among is included.

  Preferably, the tracking means includes storage means (S21) for storing one or more characteristics respectively corresponding to one or more persons found by the search means, and the issuing means is the person who performed the coupon receiving operation. A feature search unit (S51) for searching for one or more features stored in the storage unit for a feature matching the feature of the feature, and tracking of a person who has received a coupon based on the search result of the feature search unit A tracking result specifying means (S55) for specifying the result is included.

  Preferably, when one or more persons tracked by the tracking means when the reference time arrives, a person specifying means (S81) for specifying a person that satisfies a predetermined condition, and the person specified by the person specifying means Guidance display means (S83) for displaying a coupon issue guidance on the monitor screen corresponding to the position is further provided.

  According to the present invention, when a person who appreciates the advertisement video displayed on the monitor screen is discovered, the discovered person is traced to the reference time of the advertisement video provision time zone. The contents of the coupon issued to the tracked person have different contents depending on the tracking result. As a result, adaptive coupon issuance taking into account the behavior of the person viewing the advertising video is realized, and the advertising effect is increased.

  The above object, other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments with reference to the drawings.

It is a block diagram which shows the basic composition of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of one Example of this invention. FIG. 3 is an illustrative view showing one portion of behavior of the embodiment in FIG. 2; FIG. 3 is an illustrative view showing one example of a table created by the embodiment in FIG. 2; FIG. 10 is an illustrative view showing another portion of behavior of the embodiment in FIG. 2; It is an illustration figure which shows another example of the table produced by FIG. 2 Example. It is a flowchart which shows a part of operation | movement of the control apparatus applied to the FIG. 2 Example. It is a flowchart which shows a part of other operation | movement of the control apparatus applied to the FIG. 2 Example. It is a flowchart which shows a part of other operation | movement of the control apparatus applied to the FIG. 2 Example. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing yet another portion of the operation of the control device applied to the embodiment in FIG. 2; It is a flowchart which shows a part of other operation | movement of the control apparatus applied to the FIG. 2 Example.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[Basic configuration]

  Referring to FIG. 1, the coupon distribution device of the present invention is basically configured as follows. The display unit 1 displays the advertisement video on the monitor screen. The imaging means 2 repeatedly outputs an image representing the scene in front of the monitor screen. The searching means 3 searches for one or more persons who appreciate the advertisement video displayed by the display means 1 with reference to the image output from the imaging means 2. The tracking unit 4 tracks one or more persons discovered by the search unit 3 until the reference time of the advertisement video providing time zone displayed by the display unit 1. The issuing means 5 issues coupons having different grades depending on the tracking result of the tracking means 4 to each of one or more persons who are noted by the tracking means.

When a person who appreciates the advertisement video displayed on the monitor screen is discovered, the discovered person is traced to the reference time of the advertisement video provision time zone. The contents of the coupon issued to the tracked person have different contents depending on the tracking result. As a result, adaptive coupon issuance taking into account the behavior of the person viewing the advertising video is realized, and the advertising effect is increased.
[Example]

  With reference to FIG. 2, the coupon distribution device 10 of this embodiment includes a video monitor 14. The control device 18 displays the video advertisement indicating the periodic movement on the monitor screen 14m provided in the video monitor 14. The start time of one cycle of movement corresponds to the advertisement provision start time, and the end time of one cycle of movement corresponds to the advertisement provision end time. For example, one cycle of the video advertisement is 2 minutes, and the video advertisement is repeatedly provided with a pause of 1 minute.

  Note that when the video advertisement is accompanied by audio indicating a periodic change, the video advertisement may be static. In this case, the start time of the one-cycle sound change corresponds to the advertisement provision start time, and the end time of the one-cycle sound change corresponds to the advertisement provision end time.

  The camera 12 has an imaging surface that captures the scene in front of the monitor screen 14m, and outputs it in response to a vertical synchronization signal Vsync that repeatedly generates image data representing the scene image generated on the imaging surface. The output image data is given to the control device 18. A person who views the advertisement video displayed on the monitor screen is tracked by the control device 18 in the following manner during the period from the advertisement provision start time to the provision end time.

  First, a variable K for identifying a column constituting the table TBL1 (described later) is set to “0” in response to the start of advertisement video provision. Next, the face of the person existing in front of the monitor screen 14 is searched based on the image data output from the camera 12. If at least one face is found, the number of found faces is set to the maximum value FCmax. As shown in FIG. 3, when the person M1 views a video advertisement displayed on the monitor screen 14m, the maximum value FCmax is set to “1”. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, when the persons M1 and M2 appreciate the video advertisement displayed on the monitor screen 14m, the maximum value FCmax is set to “2”.

  Subsequently, the variable FC is set to each of “1” to “FCmax”, whether or not the FC-th face is a face of a new person is determined for each numerical value, and different processes are performed according to the determination result. It is executed as follows. In this determination process, the facial features of the person described in the table TBL1 are referred to.

  If the FC-th face is a newly discovered face, the variable K is incremented to have the viewing time (= 1) of the person having the FC-th face, the FC-th face characteristics, and the FC-th face. The attribute of the person (male or female) is described in the Kth column of the table TBL1.

  When the description is completed, the guidance “Distribute coupon after advertisement” is displayed on the video monitor 14 for 3 seconds, for example. A person who first appears in front of the video monitor 14 recognizes that a coupon can be acquired by viewing a video advertisement.

  On the other hand, if the FC-th face is the face of a person registered in the table TBL1, the column corresponding to the FC-th face is specified from the table TBL1, and the viewing time described in the specified column is incremented.

  Such a series of processing from face search to table description is repeatedly executed during a period in which a video advertisement is provided. Therefore, if the person M1 first appears in front of the monitor screen 14m after the start of the video advertisement and the person M1 is a male, the viewing time of the person M1 (= 1), the facial features of the person M1, and the attributes of the person M1 (= Male) is described in the first column of the table TBL1 in the manner shown in FIG. The viewing time described in the first column is incremented as long as the face of the person M1 is recognized.

  If the person M1 appears in front of the monitor screen 14m while the person M1 is viewing the video advertisement and the person M2 is a woman, the viewing time of the person M2 (= 1), the facial features of the person M2, and The attribute (= female) of the person M2 is described in the second column of the table TBL1 in the manner shown in FIG. The viewing time described in the second column is also incremented as long as the face of the person M2 is recognized.

  When the provision of the video advertisement is finished, a coupon issue guide “Coupon will be distributed from now on” is displayed at the position where the person with the longest viewing time can easily see. When the persons M1 and M2 who appear in the above-described manner have viewed the video advertisement to the end, the coupon issue guidance is displayed at a position where the person M1 can easily see.

  Subsequently, the timer TM1 is reset and started in order to limit the coupon distribution period to a period of 30 seconds from the coupon distribution guide. The timer TM1 is a timer that times out in 30 seconds, and the description in the table TBL1 is cleared when the timer TM1 times out.

  When a coupon receiving operation is performed on the coupon generator 16 during a period of 30 seconds after the coupon distribution guidance, the facial features of the person who performed the coupon receiving operation are based on the image data output from the camera 12. Detected.

  A facial feature common to the detected facial features is searched from the table TBL1. If a common facial feature is not found from the table TBL1, the person who performed the coupon receiving operation is regarded as a person who has not watched the video advertisement, and the coupon receiving operation is invalidated. On the other hand, if a common facial feature is found from the table TBL1, the viewing time of the operator is detected from the table TBL1 in order to distribute the coupon to the operator who performed the coupon receiving operation.

  The detected viewing time is compared with threshold values TH1 and / or TH2. Here, a relationship of TH1> TH2 is established between the thresholds TH1 and TH2. The grade of the issued coupon is set to “A” when the viewing time exceeds the threshold TH1, is set to “B” when the viewing time is less than the threshold TH1 and exceeds the threshold TH2, and the viewing time is less than the threshold TH2. Is set to “C”.

  When the grade setting is completed, the attribute of the operator who performed the coupon receiving operation is detected from the table TBL1, and the coupon corresponding to the detected attribute is selected from the common grade. For example, when the coupon grade is set to “A” and the operator's attribute is “male”, a coupon for men is selected from a plurality of coupons having grade A.

  The selected coupon is distributed to the IC card 20 (see FIG. 1) possessed by the operator. When the distribution is completed, the column description corresponding to the operator is cleared. As a result, the second and subsequent coupon distribution operations by the same operator are invalidated.

  In order to issue a coupon, the control apparatus 18 performs the process according to the flowchart shown in FIGS. A control program corresponding to this flowchart is stored in a flash memory (not shown).

  Referring to FIG. 7, in step S <b> 1, it is determined whether or not advertisement video provision through the video monitor 14 is started. When the determination result is updated from NO to YES, the variable K is set to “0” in step S3, and after waiting for the generation of the vertical synchronization signal Vsync, the process proceeds from step S5 to step S7. In step S <b> 7, face search processing is performed on the image data output from the camera 12 in order to search for the face of a person existing in front of the video monitor 14. In step S9, it is determined whether or not at least one face has been found based on the result of the face search process. If the determination result is NO, the process returns to step S5, whereas if the determination result is YES, the process proceeds to step S11.

  In step S11, the number of detected faces is set to the maximum value FCmax, and in step S13, the variable FC is set to “1”. In step S15, it is determined whether or not the FC-th face corresponds to a new face. If the determination result is YES, the process proceeds to step S17, and if the determination result is NO, the process proceeds to step S27. In the determination process in step S15, the facial features of the person described in the table TBL1 are referred to in step S21 described later.

  In step S17, the variable K is incremented, and in step S19, the viewing time (= 1) is described in the Kth column. In step S21, the feature of the FCth face is described in the Kth column, and in step S23, the attribute of the FCth face (male or female) is described in the Kth column. When the process of step S23 is completed, a guidance “Distribute coupon after advertisement” is displayed on the video monitor 14 in step S25.

  On the other hand, in step S27, the column corresponding to the FC-th face is specified from the table TBL1. In step S29, the viewing time described in the specified column is incremented.

  When the process of step S25 or S29 is completed, the variable FC is incremented in step S31, and it is determined in step S33 whether or not the variable FC exceeds the maximum value FCmax. If the determination result is NO, the process returns to step S15, while if the determination result is YES, the process proceeds to step S35. In step S35, it is determined whether or not the advertisement video has been provided. If the determination result is NO, the process returns to step S5, whereas if the determination result is YES, the process proceeds to step S37.

  In step S37, it is determined whether or not the variable K indicates “0”. If the determination result is YES, it is assumed that no one has watched the advertisement video and the process is terminated. If the determination result is NO, it is considered that at least one person has watched the advertisement video, and the process proceeds to step S39. In step S39, a coupon issue guidance process is executed in order to display the coupon issue guidance at a position that is easy to see for the person with the longest viewing time.

  When the process of step S39 is completed, the timer TM1 is reset and started in step S41. In step S43, it is determined whether or not a coupon receiving operation has been performed on the coupon generator 16, and in step S45, it is determined whether or not a timeout has occurred in the timer TM1. If a time-out occurs in the timer TM1, YES is determined in step S45, the process is terminated after the description of the table TBL1 is cleared in step S47.

  When the coupon receiving operation is performed, the process proceeds from step S43 to step S49, and the facial features of the operator who performed the coupon receiving operation are detected based on the image data output from the camera 12. In step S51, a facial feature common to the detected facial features is searched from the table TBL1, and in step S53, it is determined whether or not a common facial feature has been found.

  If the determination result is NO, the operator who performed the coupon receiving operation is regarded as a person who has not watched the advertisement video, and the process returns to step S43. On the other hand, if a common facial feature is found from the table TBLL1, the process proceeds to step S55 in order to distribute the coupon to the operator who performed the coupon receiving operation.

  In step S55, the viewing time of the operator who performed the coupon receiving operation is detected from the table TBL1. In step S57, it is determined whether or not the detected viewing time exceeds a threshold value TH1, and in step S59, it is determined whether or not the detected viewing time exceeds a threshold value TH2.

  If “YES” in the step S57, the coupon grade is set to “A” in a step S61. If “YES” in the step S59, the coupon grade is set to “B” in a step S63. If both of steps S57 and S59 are NO, the grade of the coupon is set to “C” in step S65.

  When the process of step S61, S63 or S65 is completed, the process proceeds to step S67, and the attribute of the operator who performed the coupon receiving operation is detected from the table TBL1. In step S69, a coupon corresponding to the detected attribute is selected from the common grade. In step S71, the selected coupon is distributed to the IC card 20 possessed by the operator, and in step S73, the description of the column corresponding to the operator is cleared. When the process of step S73 is completed, the process returns to step S43.

  The coupon issue guidance process in step S39 shown in FIG. 9 is executed according to a subroutine shown in FIG. In step S81, the person with the longest viewing time is specified with reference to the table TBL1. In step S83, the guidance “Coupon will be distributed” is displayed at a position suitable for the specified person. When the process of step S83 is completed, the process returns to the upper-level routine.

  As can be seen from the above description, the video monitor 14 displays the advertisement video on the monitor screen. The camera 12 repeatedly outputs an image representing the scene in front of the monitor screen. The control device 18 searches for one or more persons who appreciate the advertisement video displayed on the monitor screen with reference to the image output from the camera 12 (S7), and finds one or more persons discovered thereby. The person is traced until the end time of the advertisement video displayed on the monitor screen (S11 to S23, S27 to S35). The control device 18 also issues coupons having different grades depending on the tracking result to each of one or more tracked persons (S43, S49 to S71).

  When a person who appreciates the advertisement video displayed on the monitor screen is found, the found person is tracked until the end time of the advertisement video. The contents of the coupon issued to the tracked person have different contents depending on the tracking result. As a result, adaptive coupon issuance taking into account the behavior of the person viewing the advertising video is realized, and the advertising effect is increased.

  In this embodiment, the grade of the coupon is determined with reference to the length of the viewing time, but instead of the viewing time length or in addition to the viewing time length, the position of the person and It may also be possible to refer to a person's behavior pattern. In this embodiment, gender is estimated as a person attribute, but age may be estimated instead of gender or in addition to gender.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Coupon delivery apparatus 12 ... Camera 14 ... Video monitor 16 ... Coupon delivery device 18 ... Control apparatus

Claims (6)

Display means for displaying advertisement video on a monitor screen;
Imaging means for repeatedly outputting an image representing an object scene in front of the monitor screen;
Search means for searching for one or more persons who appreciate the advertisement video displayed by the display means with reference to an image output from the imaging means;
A tracking unit that tracks one or more persons discovered by the search unit to a reference time of a provision time zone of the advertisement video displayed by the display unit; and a different grade depending on a tracking result of the tracking unit A coupon distribution apparatus comprising issuing means for issuing a coupon to each of one or more persons noted by the tracking means. The tracking result of the tracking means includes a tracking time as a parameter,
The coupon distribution apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the issuing unit includes a grade adjusting unit that increases the grade as the tracking time increases.   The coupon distribution device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the reference time corresponds to an end time of the advertisement video. The tracking means includes classification means for classifying attributes of each of the one or more persons,
The coupon distribution apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the issuing means includes a coupon selection means for selecting a coupon corresponding to the attribute classified by the classification means from a plurality of coupons belonging to a common grade. The tracking means includes storage means for storing one or more features respectively corresponding to one or more persons discovered by the search means;
The issuing means searches for a characteristic matching with the characteristic of the person who performed the coupon receiving operation from one or more characteristics stored in the storage means, and a search result of the characteristic searching means 5. The coupon distribution device according to claim 1, further comprising tracking result specifying means for specifying a tracking result of a person who has performed the coupon receiving operation based on the tracking result specifying means. Corresponding to the person specifying means for specifying a person who satisfies a predetermined condition from one or more persons tracked by the tracking means when the reference time has arrived, and corresponding to the position of the person specified by the person specifying means The coupon distribution device according to claim 1, further comprising guidance display means for displaying a coupon issue guidance on the monitor screen.

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