Method and system for registering a user preference

• US 20020178448A1
• Filed: 04/09/2002
• Published: 11/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Van De Streek, Eibert, Te Kiefte, Jan Benjamin, Das, Duco Annardo David
• Application Number:
  US10/118,874
• Publication Number:
  US 20020178448A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4663 involving probabilistic networks, e.g. Bayesian networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4665 involving classification methods, e.g. Decision trees
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A method and system for registering a user preference for a program (201) in at least one of a collection (221) of preference profiles for recording a set of user preferences. An input (211, 212) representing the user preference for the program (201) is received. For each preference profile from said collection (221) a score for the program (201) is determined, said score indicating the degree of agreement of the program (201) with said preference profile.

If the input (211, 212) represents a positive user preference, a preference profile having a relatively high score, preferably the maximum score, is updated to reflect the positive user preference for the program (201). Otherwise a preference profile from said collection (221) having a relatively low score is updated.

Claims

1. A method of registering a user preference for a program (201) in at least one of a collection (221) of preference profiles for recording a set of user preferences, comprising

receiving (210) an input (211, 212) representing the user preference for the program (201),

determining (220) for each preference profile from said collection (221) a score for the program (201), said score indicating the degree of agreement of the program (201) with said preference profile,

if the input (211, 212) represents a positive user preference, updating (240) a preference profile from said collection (221) having a relatively high score with respect to the scores of all the preference profiles from said collection (221) to reflect the positive user preference for the program (201), and

if the input (211, 212) represents a negative user preference, updating (245) a preference profile from said collection (221) having a relatively low score with respect to the scores of all the preference profiles from said collection (221) to reflect the negative user preference for the program (201).

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, whereby said relatively high score is a maximum of the scores of all the preference profiles from said collection (221), and said relatively low score is a minimum of the scores of all the preference profiles from said collection (221).

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, whereby the received input (211, 212) is a numeric value, which is deemed to represent a positive user preference if the numeric value exceeds a threshold value, and which is deemed to represent a negative user preference otherwise.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, where the preference profile is additionally updated to reflect the numeric value of the user preference.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, whereby if plural preference profiles from said collection (221) have the same relatively high score with respect to the scores of all the preference profiles from said collection (221), all said plural preference profiles are updated to reflect the positive user preference for the program (201).

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, whereby if plural preference profiles from said collection (221) have the same relatively low score with respect to the scores of all the preference profiles from said collection (221), all said plural preference profiles are updated to reflect the negative user preference for the program (201).

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising maintaining, for each preference profile from said collection (221), a personal channel for reproducing program (201)s that match the preference profile to which the personal channel corresponds, and adding (250) the program (201) to the personal channel corresponding to the preference profile from said collection (221) having the relatively high score.

8. A system for registering a user preference for a program (201) in at least one of a collection (221) of preference profiles for recording a set of user preferences, comprising

receiving means (10) for receiving an input (211, 212) representing the user preference for the program (201),

scoring means (14) for determining for each preference profile from said collection (221) a score for the program (201), said score indicating the degree of agreement of the program (201) with said preference profile,

updating means for determining if the input (211, 212) represents a positive user preference, and if so updating a preference profile from said collection (221) having a relatively high score with respect to the scores of all the preference profiles from said collection (221) to reflect the positive user preference for the program (201), and if the input (211, 212) represents a negative user preference, updating a preference profile from said collection (221) having a relatively low score with respect to the scores of all the preference profiles from said collection (221) to reflect the negative user preference for the program (201).

9. The system as claimed in claim 8, further comprising personal channel means (15) for maintaining, for each preference profile from said collection (221), a personal channel for reproducing program (201)s that match the preference profile to which the personal channel corresponds, and adding the program (201) to the personal channel corresponding to the preference profile from said collection (221) having the relatively high score.

10. The system as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a display (9) for rendering the program (201).

11. A computer program product enabling a programmable device to function as a system as claimed in claim 8.