Method and apparatus for recommending items of interest to a user based on recommendations for one or more third parties

• US 20030093793A1
• Filed: 11/13/2001
• Published: 05/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sisvel S.p.A. (Fineur International S.A.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Gutta, Srinivas
• Granted Patent: US 7,571,452 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4661 Deriving a combined profile for a plurality of end-users of the same client, e.g. for family members within a home user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A method and apparatus are disclosed for recommending items of interest to a user based on recommendations made to one or more third parties. The recommendation scores generated by a primary recommender are influenced by recommendations generated for one or more third parties, such as a friend, colleague or trendsetter. The disclosed recommender corroborates with other recommenders when recommending items of interest and adjusts a conventional recommender score based on third party recommendations. The third party recommendations may be a top-N list of recommended items for a given third party, and may optionally include a recommendation score and an indication of whether or not the third party actually selected the recommended item. A recommender evaluates the viewing or purchase habits of a user and communicates with one or more other recommenders to determine the items that are being recommended by such other recommenders.

Claims

1. A method for recommending one or more available items to a user, comprising the steps of:

obtaining at least one third party recommendation for at least one of said available items that reflects a history of selecting said one or more items by at least one third party; and

generating a recommendation score for said at least one of said available items based on said third party recommendation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating a recommendation score for at least one of said available items that reflects a history of selecting said one or more items by said user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said generating step further comprises the step of averaging a plurality of recommendation scores for said at least one of said available items.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said obtaining step further comprises the step of receiving said third party recommendation score from a remote recommender.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said received third party recommendation includes an indication of whether said corresponding recommended item was selected by said third party.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more items are programs.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more items are content.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more items are products.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said third party is a selected individual.

10. A system for recommending one or more available items to a user, comprising:

a memory for storing computer readable code; and

a processor operatively coupled to said memory, said processor configured to;

obtain at least one third party recommendation for at least one of said available items that reflects a history of selecting said one or more items by at least one third party; and

generate a recommendation score for said at least one of said available items based on said third party recommendation.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said processor is further configured to generate a recommendation score for at least one of said available items that reflects a history of selecting said one or more items by said user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said processor is further configured to average a plurality of recommendation scores for said at least one of said available items.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said system receives said third party recommendation score from a remote recommender.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said received third party recommendation includes an indication of whether said corresponding recommended item was selected by said third party.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein said one or more items are programs.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein said one or more items are content.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein said one or more items are products.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein said third party is a selected individual.

19. An article of manufacture for recommending one or more available items to a user, comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer readable code means embodied thereon, said computer readable program code means comprising;

a step to obtain at least one third party recommendation for at least one of said available items that reflects a history of selecting said one or more items by at least one third party; and

a step to generate a recommendation score for said at least one of said available items based on said third party recommendation.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 19, further comprising a step to generate a recommendation score for at least one of said available items that reflects a history of selecting said one or more items by said user.