Method and apparatus for interactively retrieving content related to previous query results

• US 20040025180A1
• Filed: 06/06/2003
• Published: 02/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rosen, Kenneth H., Gibbon, David Crawford, Shahraray, Behzad, Liu, Zhu, Renger, Bernard S., Begeja, Lee
• Granted Patent: US 8,060,906 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/735 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/738 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7834 using audio features
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7844 using original textual content or text extracted from visual content or transcript of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/26603 for automatically generating descriptors from content, e.g. when it is not made available by its provider, using content analysis techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and system for automatically identifying and presenting video clips or other media to a user at a client device. One embodiment of the invention provides a method for updating a user profile or other persistent data store based on user feedback to improve the identification of video clips or other media content responsive to the user'"'"'s profile. Embodiments of the invention also provide methods for processing user feedback. Related architectures are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for searching comprising:

identifying at least one media clip based on a user profile;

providing access to the at least one media clip to a user; and

receiving feedback from the user based on the at least one media clip.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the at least one media clip includes:

calculating an initial weight of a media clip based on the user profile;

comparing the initial weight of the media clip to a predetermined weight threshold; and

identifying the media clip if the initial weight of the media clip exceeds the predetermined threshold.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising adjusting the initial weight of the media clip based on similarity to a different media clip, the different media clip being associated with a user feedback parameter.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising automatically adjusting the predetermined weight threshold.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein automatically adjusting the predetermined weight threshold includes:

selecting a plurality of previously viewed media clips; and

incrementing the predetermined threshold where less than all of the plurality of previously viewed media clips are associated with a positive feedback parameter.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising decrementing the predetermined threshold where each of the plurality of previously viewed media clips are associated with the positive feedback parameter.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access to the at least one media clip includes providing access to closed captioned text associated with the at least one media clip.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving feedback from the user includes receiving a selection of text.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising processing the feedback, wherein the processing includes:

selecting a word from the selection of text;

determining a frequency of the word; and

comparing the frequency to a predetermined threshold.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the frequency includes:

measuring the number of times that the word appears in the selection of text; and

adjusting the frequency based on occurrence of the word in native language literature.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving feedback from the user includes receiving a media clip ranking.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising processing the feedback, wherein processing includes:

comparing the media clip ranking to a predetermined weight threshold; and

outputting metadata associated with the media clip if the media clip ranking exceeds the predetermined weight threshold.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving feedback from the user includes receiving a user action.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the user action comprises viewing more than a predetermined portion of the media clip.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the user action comprises storing a video clip.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the user action comprises skipping a media clip.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising processing the feedback, wherein processing includes:

setting a calculated weight to a baseline weight;

determining whether the user action is positive;

adding a first parameter to the calculated weight if the user action is positive; and

subtracting a second parameter from the calculated weight if the user action is not positive.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein adding the first parameter includes reading the first parameter from a table, the table having a plurality of user actions and an associated plurality of first parameters.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the received feedback to produce information.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising updating the user profile with the information.

21. Processor-executable code for searching comprising:

code for identifying at least one media clip based on a user profile;

code for presenting the at least one media clip to a user;

code for receiving feedback from the user based on the presented at least one media clip; and

code for processing the received feedback to produce information.

22. A system for searching, the system comprising:

an interface to a client;

a memory including a user profile;

a search engine coupled to the interface to the client and the memory, the search engine configured to search at least one source video to identify at least one video clip based on the user profile; and

a feedback processor coupled to the interface to the client and the memory, the feedback processor configured to receive feedback from the client and update the user profile based on the received feedback.

23. A method for processing user feedback related to a first media clip, the user feedback being associated with a plurality of user actions, comprising:

setting a weight to one of a reset value and a previously determined weight;

determining whether each of the plurality of user actions are positive;

adding a first parameter to the weight for each of plurality of user actions that are positive;

subtracting a second parameter from the weight for each of the plurality of user actions that are not positive.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

comparing the weight to a predetermined weight threshold;

identifying metadata associated with the first media clip if the weight exceeds the predetermined weight threshold; and

adding the identified metadata to one of a user profile and a persistent data store.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising identifying a second media clip based on a metadata index and at least one of the user profile and the persistent data store.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising providing a user with access to the second media clip.

27. Processor-executable code for processing user feedback related to a first media clip, the user feedback being associated with a plurality of user actions, comprising:

code for setting a weight to one of a reset value and a previously determined weight;

code for determining whether each of the plurality of user actions are positive;

code for adding a first parameter to the weight for each of plurality of user actions that are positive;

code for subtracting a second parameter from the weight for each of the plurality of user actions that are not positive.