Increasing the number of advertising impressions in an interactive environment

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

a) displaying a scene of a portion of a simulated environment within a field of view of a virtual camera from a virtual camera point of view (camera POV) on a video display;

b) changing the scene displayed during a user's interaction with the simulated environment; and

c) deliberately placing more of an advertising target within the field of view to increase a likelihood of generating an advertising impression compared to a likelihood of generating an advertising impression had more of the advertising target not been placed in the field of view, wherein the advertising target is characterized by a field of attraction of the camera POV.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the advertising target is a moving advertising target.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a velocity vector of the moving advertising target is calculated such that more of the advertising target moves to within the field of view.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein c) includes identifying a situation in which an advertising target would be at least partly visible in the scene displayed on the video display in the interval Δt but is either (i) obscured by another object in the scene displayed on the video display to a degree that an advertising impression would not be generated, (ii) not visible in the scene displayed for a sufficient time to generate an advertising impression, (iii) visible at too large a viewing angle to generate an advertising impression, (iv) visible but with insufficient resolution to generate an advertising impression, or some combination of two or more of (i), (ii), (iii) or (iv).

5. The method of claim 1 wherein c) includes identifying a situation in which an advertising target would be outside a frame of the scene displayed on the video display but sufficiently close to the camera path that, with a deviation of the camera path that would not cause the scene displayed on the video display to appear nausea-inducing, jarring or unnatural to the user, the advertising target could be placed in the frame: (a) without being obscured by another object in the scene displayed on the video display to a degree that an advertising impression would not be generated, (b) for a sufficient time to generate an advertising impression, (c) at a viewing angle small enough to generate an advertising impression, and (d) with sufficient resolution to generate an advertising impression.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein c) includes calculating a deviation of a camera path from an initial camera path to generate a revised camera path by determining a shift in a location of a camera point of view (POV) and/or a tilt and/or pan of the camera POV that would place an advertising target within a frame of the scene displayed on the video display (a) without being obscured by another object in the scene displayed on the video display to a degree that an advertising impression would not be generated, (b) for a sufficient time to generate an advertising impression, (c) at a viewing angle small enough to generate an advertising impression, and (d) with sufficient resolution to generate an advertising impression.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising determining whether displaying the scene according to the revised camera path during the time interval Δt would cause the scene displayed on the video display to appear nausea-inducing, jarring or unnatural to the user, and either:

displaying the scene according to the revised camera path during the time interval Δt if it is determined that displaying the scene according to the revised camera path during the time interval Δt would not cause the scene displayed on the video display to appear nausea-inducing, jarring or unnatural to the user; or

displaying the scene according to the initial camera path during the time interval Δt if it is determined that displaying the scene according to the revised camera path during the time interval Δt would cause the scene displayed on the video display to appear nausea-inducing, jarring or unnatural to the user.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising associating an attraction strength with the advertising target and wherein calculating a deviation of the camera path from the initial camera path includes taking the attraction strength into account when calculating a deviation of a position, velocity, orientation or rate of change of orientation of the camera POV.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein c) includes adding the movement to the camera path to movement of the camera POV resulting from a user-initiated movement commands or interaction with the simulated environment.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein c) includes adding a tilt or pan to the camera path to direct the camera POV toward the advertising target.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein c) includes adding a shift of a location of the camera POV to the camera path.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein c) further includes limiting an amount and/or rate of the deviation of the camera path in a manner calculated to avoid displaying the scene in way that would appear nausea-inducing, jarring or unnatural to the user.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising recording one or more advertising impressions associated with the advertising target during the user's interaction with the simulated environment.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising reporting a number of advertising impressions during the user's interaction with the simulated environment to a reporting server.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein c) includes adding the movement to the camera path independent of a user-initiated movement command or interaction with the simulated environment.

16. A client device configured to increasing a number of advertising impressions during user interaction with an interactive environment containing one or more advertising targets, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor;

one or more instructions embodied in memory for execution by the processor, the instructions being configured to implement a method for increasing the number of advertising impressions, the instructions comprising:

a) displaying a scene of a portion of a simulated environment within a field of view of a virtual camera from a virtual camera point of view (camera POV) on a video display;

b) changing the scene displayed during a user's interaction with the simulated environment; and

c) deliberately placing more of an advertising target within the field of view to increase a likelihood of generating an advertising impression compared to a likelihood of generating an advertising impression had more of the advertising target not been placed in the field of view, wherein the advertising target is characterized by a field of attraction of the camera POV.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having embodied therein one or more computer-readable instructions that, when executed, implement a method for increasing a number of advertising impressions during user interaction with an interactive environment containing one or more advertising targets, a computer, the instructions comprising:

a) displaying a scene of a portion of a simulated environment within a field of view of a virtual camera from a virtual camera point of view (camera POV) on a video display;

b) changing the scene displayed during a user's interaction with the simulated environment; and

c) deliberately placing more of an advertising target within the field of view to increase a likelihood of generating an advertising impression compared to a likelihood of generating an advertising impression had more of the advertising target not been placed in the field of view, wherein the advertising target is characterized by a field of attraction of the camera POV.