Method and apparatus for generating a list of suggested scheduled television programs

• US 20020188949A1
• Filed: 06/12/2001
• Published: 12/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Madison Patent Holdings (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing SA (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Randall, Darrel Wayne, Wang, Chunzhi, McLane, Michael Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 7,380,262 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/4668 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

Abstract

A system and method for generating a list of suggested scheduled television programs wherein television schedule guide data which comprises characteristics of scheduled programs and optionally relevancy of those characteristics is obtained from broadcast information. User profiles comprising characteristics of television programs previously viewed, the cumulative amount of time programs having those characteristics has been previously viewed, and optionally the relevancy of the previously viewed characteristics is stored. The user is allowed to manually adjust the weights assigned to characteristics so as to override the system assigned weight values. The system calculates the suggested program list from the schedules it receives from broadcast or other means, using the characteristic weights in the user profiles. The user interface displays percentage values currently assigned to characteristics in that user'"'"'s profile, but smoothes the percentage values by calculating them based on a ratio of characteristic weights to the greater of a preset value such as 500 or the actual weight of the highest weighted characteristic in that user'"'"'s profile.

Claims

1. A television system for displaying suggested scheduled programs comprising:

memory means for storing data representing a user profile comprising characteristics and characteristic weights of programs viewed by said user;

control means for automatically assigning characteristic weights in said user profile based on relevance and/or time logged as being viewed by said user, ranking scheduled programs based on characteristics of each scheduled program and relative characteristic weights in said user profile, generating a list of suggested scheduled programs according to said ranking, calculating characteristic percentages based on relative characteristic weights in said user profile and generating a display of said characteristic percentages which can be manually adjusted by a user using a user interface.

a user interface at which a user can view and manually adjust said characteristic percentages, thereby overriding said automatically assigned characteristic weights.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said characteristic percentage is calculated based on the ratio of each characteristic weight to the greater of a preset value or a highest actual characteristic weight in said user profile.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said control means increments a characteristic weight by either 1 or a relevancy value for each elapsed 5 minute period for which a user watches a television program having that characteristic and optionally that relevancy value.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said characteristic percentage is calculated based on the ratio of each characteristic weight to the greater of a preset value of 500 or a highest actual characteristic weight in said user profile so as to cause a gradual increase in percentage weightings assigned to a particular characteristic.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said weighting adjustment icons comprise plus and minus buttons and a number representing the currently set percentage for a particular characteristic.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein, said control means generates a display of television programs comprising a list of television programs having similar characteristics to characteristics of a previously watched television Program, wherein said list is generated based on weightings which are optionally user-assigned.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said list of suggested scheduled programs includes selectable options to record a listed program, to add a listed program to a plan to view list, and/or to display a listed program at the time it is broadcast.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein, in response to user-entered data, said control means controls said display means to display said list of characteristics, said list of characteristics including a percentage number which is calculated based on actual counter value relative to the greater of 500 and the actual counter value, said counter value being the sum of the product of the number of 5 minute periods any program having a topic-theme combination is viewed times the relevancy factor assigned by the broadcaster.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 further including means to identify one of a plurality of users, wherein said memory means is adapted to store user program guide characteristic search preferences data for said plurality of users, and wherein said list of suggested scheduled programs is generated based on preferences data for one identified user.

10. A method of generating a list of suggested scheduled television programs comprising maintaining a user profile comprising characteristics of programs previously viewed by said user and characteristic weights calculated from the cumulative amount of time said user has viewed programs having each of said characteristics, using television schedule guide data which comprises characteristics of scheduled programs and optionally relevancy factors to calculate a list of suggested scheduled programs, and allowing a user to manually adjust said assigned weightings.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein a characteristic weighing in a user profile is incremented by said relevancy factor upon elapse of each 5 minute period during which the user is tuned to program having said characteristic and said relevancy factor.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein said characteristics consist of topic and theme.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein characteristic percentages are calculated from said characteristic weights according to a ratio of each characteristic weight to the greater of a preset minimum value and the actual highest characteristic value in that user'"'"'s profile.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said preset minimum value is 500.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein said user may manually adjust weights to be assigned to characteristics by use of displayed icons and scrollable percentage numbers.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein said topics and themes are obtained from broadcast data and are selected from the group consisting of movies, sports, mystery, science fiction, history, baseball, golf, comedy, basketball, religion, comedy, talk, documentary, and shopping.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein data is collected for a plurality of users in a user profile record and each user is allowed to manually adjust weights to be assigned to characteristics in that user'"'"'s profile record.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein said weights assigned to said characteristics are increased by a relevancy factor at the completion of each five minute interval of viewing of a program having that characteristic by a user.

19. The method of claim 10 wherein said characteristics consist of topic-theme combinations, said weights are calculated for each characteristic as a product of the number of five minute intervals a program having each characteristic is watched by said user times a relevancy factor on a scale of 1 to 10, and said weights are incremented each time said viewer watches an additional program wherein characteristic percentages are calculated from said characteristic weights according to a ratio of each characteristic weight to the greater of a preset minimum value and the actual highest characteristic value in that user'"'"'s profile, wherein said preset minimum value is 500, and wherein said user may manually adjust weights to be assigned to characteristics by use of displayed icons and scrollable percentage numbers.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said weights assigned to each characteristic in said user profile are increased by said relevancy factor at the completion of each said five minute interval of viewing of said program having each said characteristic by said user.