Apple Researching Automatic Mood Assessment for Targeted Ad Delivery

The United States Patent and Trademark Office today published a new patent application (via AppleInsider) from Apple that describes a method of mood-based advertisement. This method infers the mood of the user by monitoring phone activities, and this mood sentiment information would provide advertisers with a powerful consumer intelligence metric they could use to deliver targeted content.

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Rather than ask for mood information directly, Apple's method of mood-based advertising relies on indirect means of inferring a user's feelings. This involves the creation of a baseline mood profile that's derived by monitoring app usage, music playback, social network activity and input from various biometric sensors. Once a profile is established, rules then can be applied to the data and used to gauge the relative mood of the user in relation to this baseline.

A way of improving targeted content delivery can be to select content based, at least in part, on a user's current mood. One way of accomplishing this could be to query the user regarding their current mood prior to selecting an item of invitational content. A targeted content delivery system can then select an item of invitational content based on the user's response. However, such an approach could quickly lead to user aggravation, and likely a majority of users reporting a similar mood. Instead, a targeted content delivery system can be configured to use an inferred or derived mood, which can be generated using the presently disclosed technology.

This mood information can then be used by Apple and other content providers to gauge a user's responsiveness to a product as well as their interest in that product before deciding which ad or offer to send to the user's handset. This mood information also can be used to adjust select settings on the user's handset.

Though Apple is not an advertising company, the company does have an iAd unit that sells advertising space in iOS Apps and iTunes Radio. Since its debut in 2010, iAd has undergone several leadership changes and is now under the control of Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President for Internet Software and Services.

Tag: patent

Top Rated Comments

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0007776

83 months ago

Hopefully it can detect that I'm not in the mood to see a bunch of ads and not show them to me, but I doubt it.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

monkeybagel

Not cool... Apple should distance themselves from stuff like this. This is one of the important distinctions between Apple and Google. Google invades privacy like no other. Apple should protect it.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Sky Blue

"I see you're sad today, why not buy a brand new iPad Air to cheer yourself up!"

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

v0lume4

I just don't understand the loads of money that goes into advertising. Out of the thousands and thousands of ads I've seen on the internet throughout the entirety of my life, I've literally only ever bought one item based off of an ad. And even then, I bought it like months after seeing the ad. It was a wallet

I mean really. For example, no one watches the full 30-second YouTube ads. We all hit the "Skip ad" after the first five seconds as quickly as we can.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

ArtOfWarfare

Your mood indicates that now is an optimal time to deploy large quantities of Trojan ads.

Or, our analysis has determined you're on your period: have our menstral cramp relief pill.

You're listening to a lot of angry death metal: here's an ad for guns.

rickdollar

I wonder what the response would be if Google was behind this.:eek:

The same. It's a terrible idea no matter who's doing it.

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