Describing media content in terms of degrees

• US 20030195891A1
• Filed: 04/16/2002
• Published: 10/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Marsh, David J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,640,563 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4665 involving classification methods, e.g. Decision trees
• 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 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

A media classification system receives media content descriptions from one or more description providers. The media classification system generates a description of media content based on descriptions of the media content received from one or more description providers. The descriptions describe the media content in terms of degrees. The media classification system may generate a composite description based on the received media content descriptions. The media classification system provides the descriptions, in terms of degrees, to one or more program data providers.

Claims

1. A method for enabling users to identify media content of interest, comprising:

creating a descriptor file associated with the media content, the descriptor file comprising a name associated with the media content, a genre category, and a genre degree value that represents a quantitative association between the media content and the genre category;

transmitting the descriptor file to a user device;

displaying to the user the name, the genre category, and the genre degree value.

2. A method for describing media content, comprising:

determining multiple elements associated with the media content; and

associating degrees with corresponding elements, each degree indicating how related an element is to the media content relative to another element.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein each element comprises a genre selected from a group of genres comprising action, adventure, horror, comedy, death, mystery, police involvement, thriller, political intrigue, romance, science fiction, period setting, lives drama, sports interest, animal interest, medical interest, legal interest, religious interest, historical interest, war interest, epic production, fantasy folklore, musical, western, monsters, teenage college, ethnic interest, and soap.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein each element comprises an intent of the media content selected from a group of media content intents comprising education, entertainment, news, information, enrichment, involvement, and sales.

5. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the determining comprises receiving one or more descriptions of the media content, each description identifying one or more elements associated with the media content.

6. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the determining comprises:

receiving a text associated with the media content; and

identifying one or more elements associated with keywords in the text.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the text comprises at least one of a description of the media content and a script associated with the media content.

8. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the associating a degree comprises associating various numbers with corresponding elements.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the sum of the numbers associated with the elements is 100.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a first description that identifies a first genre associated with media content and a second description that identifies a second genre associated with the media content; and

assigning a first degree to the first genre and a second degree to the second genre to indicate how relative the first and second genre are to the media content.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein each genre is selected from a group of genre comprising action, adventure, horror, comedy, death, mystery, police involvement, thriller, political intrigue, romance, science fiction, period setting, lives drama, sports interest, animal interest, medical interest, legal interest, religious interest, historical interest, war interest, epic production, fantasy folklore, musical, western, monsters, teenage college, ethnic interest, and soap.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein:

the receiving comprises receiving the first description from a first description provider and the second description from a second description provider, the first description provider being associated with a first trust level and the second description provider being associated with a second trust level; and

the assigning comprises determining the first degree based on the first trust level and the second degree based on the second trust level.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the determining comprises:

multiplying a number by the first trust level to produce the first degree; and

multiplying the number by the second trust level to produce the second degree.

14. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the first and second trust levels are numerical, and wherein the determining comprises:

calculating a preliminary first degree by multiplying the first trust level by 100;

calculating a preliminary second degree by multiplying the second trust level by 100;

calculating the first degree by dividing a product of the preliminary first degree and 100 by a sum of the preliminary first degree and the preliminary second degree; and

calculating the second degree by dividing a product of the preliminary second degree and 100 by the sum of the preliminary first degree and the preliminary second degree.

15. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the first and second degrees are numerical.

16. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the first degree and second degree are identical, indicating that the media content is equally associated with the first and second genre.

17. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a third description that identifies the second genre associated with the media content.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the first and second degrees are numerical, and the second degree is equal to the first degree multiplied by two.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein:

the receiving a first description comprises receiving the first description from a first description provider, the first description provider being associated with a first trust level;

the receiving a second description comprises receiving the second description from a second description provider, the second description provider being associated with a second trust level;

the receiving a third description comprises receiving the third description from a third description provider, the third description provider being associated with a third trust level;

the assigning comprises determining the first degree based on the first trust level and the second degree based on the second and third trust levels.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the first and second trust levels are numerical, and wherein the determining comprises:

calculating a preliminary first degree by multiplying the first trust level by 100;

calculating a preliminary second degree by multiplying a sum of the second trust level and the third trust level by 100;

calculating the first degree by dividing a product of the preliminary first degree and 100 by a sum of the preliminary first degree and the preliminary second degree; and

calculating the second degree by dividing a product of the preliminary second degree and 100 by the sum of the preliminary first degree and the preliminary second degree.

21. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of descriptions associated with media content from a plurality of description providers, each description indicating one or more genre associated with the media content;

assigning a relative degree to each of the genre to indicate how related each genre is to the media content relative to another genre; and

providing the relative degree that was assigned to each of the genre for display to a user.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein each genre is selected from a group of genres comprising action, adventure, horror, comedy, death, mystery, police involvement, thriller, political intrigue, romance, science fiction, period setting, lives drama, sports interest, animal interest, medical interest, legal interest, religious interest, historical interest, war interest, epic production, fantasy folklore, musical, western, monsters, teenage college, ethnic interest, and soap.

23. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the relative degree assigned to each genre is based on a trust level associated with a description provider that provided a description that indicates the genre.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein each description further indicates a degree associated with each of the one or more genre, and wherein the assigning comprises:

calculating a preliminary degree associated with each genre according to the equation;

$P_G=\underset{X=1}{\overset{n}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\left(G_X*T_X\right)$

where;

P_G is a preliminary degree associated with a G^th genre;

G_X is a degree associated with the G^th genre as indicated by the description of the media content received from an X^th description provider;

n is a number of descriptions of the media content; and

T_X is a trust level associated with the X^th description provider; and

calculating a relative degree associated with each genre according to the equation;

$D_G=\frac{\left(P_G*100\right)}{\underset{X=1}{\overset{m}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>P_X}$

where;

D_G is a relative degree associated with the G^th genre; and

m is a number of genre associated with the media content.

25. A method comprising:

modeling media content descriptions with a schema;

representing media content with a media identification class in the schema;

representing description providers with a provider class in the schema;

representing descriptions of media content in terms of genre degrees with a genre degree class in the schema;

creating an association between the media identification class and the genre degrees class to represent a description of a media content; and

creating an association between the provider class and the genre degrees class to represent a description of media content received from a description provider.

26. A method comprising:

modeling media content descriptions with a schema;

representing media content with a media identification class in the schema;

representing description providers with a provider class in the schema;

representing descriptions of media content in terms of degrees of intent with an intent degree class in the schema;

creating an association between the media identification class and the intent degrees class to represent a description of a media content; and

creating an association between the provider class and the intent degrees class to represent a description of media content received from a description provider.

27. A system comprising:

a description provider interface to receive one or more descriptions of media content from one or more description providers; and

a composite generator to generate a composite description of the media content based on the one or more descriptions of media content, the composite description comprising relative degrees to which the media content relates to one or more elements.

28. The system as recited in claim 27, wherein the relative degrees are numeric.

29. The system as recited in claim 28, wherein the sum of the relative degrees is 100.

30. The system as recited in claim 27, wherein each of the one or more elements comprises a genre selected from a group of genre comprising action, adventure, horror, comedy, death, mystery, police involvement, thriller, political intrigue, romance, science fiction, period setting, lives drama, sports interest, animal interest, medical interest, legal interest, religious interest, historical interest, war interest, epic production, fantasy folklore, musical, western, monsters, teenage college, ethnic interest, and soap.

31. The system as recited in claim 27, wherein each of the one or more elements comprises an intent of the media content selected from a group of media content intents comprising education, entertainment, news, information, enrichment, involvement, and sales.

32. The system as recited in claim 27, further comprising a description provider data repository to associate a trust level with a description provider, and wherein the relative degrees are based on the trust level.

33. The system as recited in claim 27, further comprising a description data repository to store the one or more descriptions of media content and to store the composite description of the media content.

34. The system as recited in claim 27, further comprising a program data provider interface to provide the composite description of the media content to a program data provider for display to a user through an electronic programming guide.

35. The system as recited in claim 27, further comprising a user interface component to facilitate receiving a description of the media content.

36. One or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to:

receive at least one description of media content, the description identifying at least one genre associated with the media content; and

generate a composite description of the media content, the composite indicating how related a genre is to the media content relative to another genre.

37. The one or more computer readable media as recited in claim 36, further comprising instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to:

receive at least one description of media content, the description identifying at least one intent associated with the media content; and

generate a composite description of the media content, the composite indicating how related an intent is to the media content relative to another intent.

38. One or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to:

receive a first description of media content that identifies a first genre associated with the media content;

receive a second description of the media content that identifies a second genre associated with the media content; and

assign a first degree to the first genre and a second degree to the second genre.

39. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 38, wherein the first degree and the second degree are the same, indicating that the media content is equally associated with the first and second genre.

40. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 38, further comprising instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to:

receive the first description from a first description provider, the first description provider having an associated first trust level;

receive the second description from a second description provider, the second description provider having an associated second trust level; and

the first degree is based on the first trust level and the second degree is based on the second trust level.

41. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 40, wherein the first and second degrees are numeric, the first degree comprises a number multiplied by the first trust level, and the second degree comprises the number multiplied by the second trust level.

42. The one or more computer readable media as recited in claim 40, further comprising instructions that, when executed, direct the computing system to assign a first degree to the first genre and a second degree to the second genre by directing the computing system to:

calculate a preliminary first degree by multiplying the first trust level by a number;

calculate a preliminary second degree by multiplying the second trust level by the number;

calculate the first degree by multiplying the preliminary first degree by the number and subsequently dividing the result by the sum of the preliminary first degree and the preliminary second degree; and

calculate the second degree by multiplying the preliminary second degree by the number and subsequently dividing the result by the sum of the preliminary first degree and the preliminary second degree.

43. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 40, wherein the instructions further direct the computing system to:

receive a third description of the media content from a third description provider, the third description provider having an associated third trust level; and

the first degree is based on the first trust level and the second degree is based on the second and third trust levels.

44. The one or more computer readable media as recited in claim 43, further comprising instructions that, when executed, direct the computing system to assign a first degree to the first genre and a second degree to the second genre by directing the computing system to:

calculate a preliminary first degree by multiplying the first trust level by a number;

calculate a preliminary second degree by multiplying the sum of the second trust level and the third trust level by the number;

calculate the first degree by multiplying the preliminary first degree by the number and subsequently dividing the result by the sum of the preliminary first degree and the preliminary second degree; and

calculate the second degree by multiplying the preliminary second degree by the number and subsequently dividing the result by the sum of the preliminary first degree and the preliminary second degree.

45. One or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to:

receive a plurality of descriptions of media content from a plurality of description providers, with individual ones of the descriptions indicating one or more genre associated with the media content, each of the description providers having an associated trust level;

calculate a preliminary degree associated with each genre according to the equation;

$P_G=\underset{X=1}{\overset{n}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\left(G_X*T_X\right)$

where;

P_G is a preliminary degree associated with a G^th genre;

G_X is a degree associated with the G^th genre as indicated by the description of the media content received from an X^th description provider;

n is a number of descriptions of the media content; and

T_X is a trust level associated with the X^th description provider; and

calculate a relative degree associated with each genre according to the equation;

$D_G=\frac{\left(P_G*100\right)}{\underset{X=1}{\overset{m}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>P_X}$

where;

D_G is a relative degree associated with the G^th genre; and

m is a number of genre associated with the media content.

46. One or more computer-readable media comprising a schema, the schema comprising:

at least one media identification class that represents media content;

at least one provider class that represents providers of media content descriptions; and

at least one genre degrees class that represents descriptions of media content in terms of genre degrees, the genre degrees class being modeled as an association between the media identification class and the provider class.

47. One or more computer-readable media comprising a schema, the schema comprising:

at least one media identification class that represents media content;

at least one provider class that represents providers of media content descriptions; and

at least one intent degrees class that represents descriptions of media content in terms of intent degrees, the intent degrees class being modeled as an association between the media identification class and the provider class.

48. One or more computer-readable media comprising a schema, the schema comprising:

at least one media identification class that represents media content;

at least one provider class that represents providers of media content descriptions;

at least one program type class that represents a classification of media content descriptions received from description providers, the program type class being modeled as an association between the media identification class and the provider class;

at least one genre degrees class that represents descriptions of media content in terms of genre degrees, the genre degrees class being modeled as an association between the media identification class and the provider class; and

at least one intent degrees class that represents descriptions of media content in terms of intent degrees, the intent degrees class being modeled as an association between the media identification class and the provider class.