Computer software product and system for advertising business and services

#This invention relates to a computer software products and a system which uses utilizes personal images and games for advertising goods and/or services.

#Playing games on computers has always been a popular use of computing power even before the advent of the personal computer. With the widespread popularity of personal computing, games consume a significant amount of consumer's time. It is natural that companies who have products to sell and thus advertise must compete for a consumer's discretionary time on any given day. With the relatively recent rise in popularity of the Internet, both games and forms of advertisement have multiplied greatly. Companies purchasing advertising and promotional space on the Internet are interested in metrics like how many impressions do their messages receive and more importantly, how many consumers actually select to link to the advertiser's own site as a result of the purchased promotional space.

#Generally, games played on the computer are well known including a variety of games that are played remotely through connection to the Internet. Some games include the possibilities of playing against an opponent who is simultaneously connected to the same game via the Internet. There are puzzles and games available through the Internet whereupon completion, a consumer may elect to enter a drawing for a prize. One such example may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,991 where there is disclosed an interactive consumer product promotional method and computer match game. The game, which can be internet Web-based, is played by comparing selected consumer product categories with pre-selected spaces on a matrix to detect matches and be awarded a corresponding prize. Some of these games include the use of pictures supplied by the site as it was heretofore difficult for a user to supply a properly formatted picture for use in the game. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,271 an image-based tic-tac-toe like computer game is disclosed where a player is initially shown the position of cartoon images and later asked to identify their locations. A “win” is rewarded with coupons which may be redeemed for prizes.

#In the detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention presented below, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is a storage computer readable storage medium made in accordance with the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a system of a first embodiment of the invention;

#FIG. 1 shows a computer readable storage medium 10 made in accordance with the present invention. The storage medium 10 is divided into separate memory sections 12, 14, 16, and 18. In the embodiment illustrated computer readable storage medium 10 is a Compact Disc—Read Only Memory (CD-ROM ). It will be understood by one skilled in the art that the computer readable storage medium 10 may take variety of other forms, for example but not by way of limitation, a rotating or linear magnetic media, a solid state memory device such as Compact Flash (CF) memory card, a floppy disk, Laser Cards from Lasercard Systems Corporation, or other optical memory technologies such as Mini-Disk from Sony Corp. It will also be understood that the computer readable storage medium 10 can be inserted into a computer 20 (See FIG. 2) as a discrete media shown in FIG. 1 or the data contained therein transmitted from a remote source (for example, a database/server) to memory in computer 20 via a network.

#Memory sections 12, 14, 16, and 18 are capable of storing digitized data. In the embodiment illustrated, memory section 12 contains digital data relating to a contest entry number or a plurality of such numbers as a contest or multiple contests residing on the same computer readable storage medium 10 depending upon the number and type of contest stored on CD 10. Memory section 12 is written from a database provided by a contest sponsor. Memory section 14 contains an executable software program that when loaded into a computer will play at least one game. It will be understood that memory section 14 may include several games selectable by a user. Memory section 16 contains digital data relating to a particular advertising sponsor. The digital data in section 16 may take the form of images, sounds, videos, and text related to the sponsor of the game or games contained in memory section 14.

#Memory section 18 contains digitized consumer images in a manner that is preferably consistent with a commercially available image format. For example, but not by way of limitation, the image may be provided in the format of a Picture CD™ product such as is provided by the Eastman Kodak Company. With the PictureCD™ products each having memory sections corresponding to memory sections 12, 14 and 16 are mass produced prior to distribution to local photofinishing operations. These local photofinishing operations process rolls of consumer film, scan the developed rolls of film and write the images in a digital format to a memory section on the Picture CD corresponding to memory section 18.