Method of self-adaptive management of the pertinence of multimedia contents for use in multimedia content receivers and an associated receiver

• US 20040033777A1
• Filed: 05/30/2003
• Published: 02/19/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Chuberre, Nicolas, Farineau, Jean
• Application Number:
  US10/448,125
• Publication Number:
  US 20040033777A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/3.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/72 using electronic programme guides [EPG] focusing on identifying broadcast space time H04H60/39 ; menu type display of EPG in television receivers H04N21/47
• 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 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A method of self-adaptive management of the pertinence of multimedia contents for use in a multimedia content receiver in a telecommunication network takes account of a long-term user profile corresponding to a set of permanent interests of the user of the receiver and a short-term user profile corresponding to a set of temporary interests of the user. A receiver implementing the method is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of self-adaptive management of the pertinence of multimedia contents for use in a multimedia content receiver in a telecommunication network, when each content is classified in accordance with a tree of categories ranging from the general to the specific, which method takes account of a long-term user profile corresponding to a set of permanent interests of the user of the receiver and a short-term user profile corresponding to a set of temporary interests of the user.

2. The method claimed in claim 1, which includes assigning priority to taking account of a received content referred to as a priority content to which a priority identification flag is appended.

3. The method claimed in claim 1 wherein a generic user profile is previously defined for a user of said receiver and said long-term user profile is deduced from said generic user profile so as to be subject to the same variations as said generic user profile, the trend being formulated over a period much longer than that of the cycle of said generic user profile.

4. The method claimed in claim 1 wherein each content is classified in accordance with a category tree from the general to the specific by means of a pointer identifying the branch i.j.k to which the content belongs, each branch being assigned a weight wG_i,j,k representing the degree of interest of the user in said branch, the weight variation wG_{i.j.k being defined by the equation:}

wG_i,j,k=wG_i.j.k−

wG_i.j.k<sup>−

1</sup>,

in which wG_i,j,k<sup>−

1</sup> represents the value of wG_i,j,k at the end of the preceding cycle, and the weight w_i.j,k of the branch i.j.k for the long-term user profile is deduced from the weight w_i.j.k<sup>−

1</sup> of that branch in the preceding cycle, using the following formula;

5. The method claimed in claim 4 wherein said short-term user profile STUP is deduced from the generic user profile and the long-term user profile using the following equation, in which pos( )=the value of the argument if the argument is positive, or 0 otherwise:

STUP=pos(GUP−

LTUP).

6. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory capacity available for the cache memory is divided into three memory parts, respectively a part associated with said long-term user profile, a part associated with said short-term user profile, and a part intended for storing priority contents, and the cache memory part C_i.j.k assigned to each branch i.j.k of the tree is deduced, for that part, from the relative weight w_i.j.k of the branch, using the following equation, in which C_total represents the total memory capacity for each part:

C_i,j,k=(w_i.j.k/Σ

w_i.j.k)·

C_total.

7. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein a pertinence score is evaluated for each content as a function of an estimated pertinence supplied by the content provider and as a function of said user profile.

8. The method claimed in claim 7, wherein said score of each content received is equal to the product of the weight of the branch to which said content belongs and said pertinence of said content.

9. The method claimed in claim 7, wherein said pertinence varies within a range of values from 0.1 to 10, where the value for a standard content is 1, a content of marginal interest tends toward the lower limit of 0.1, and a content evaluated as being of great interest to users interested in the branch concerned tends toward the value 10.

10. The method claimed in claim 7, wherein a description vector of each content is broadcast to the receiver before broadcasting the associated content and includes a content identifier, the storage capacity needed, and the duration of the content, and respective tables associated with the long-term user profile, the short-term user profile and the priority content are created and then updated and list in detail, in decreasing order, the associated identifier, score, capacity needed and duration.

11. The method claimed in claim 10, wherein, on receiving each content, the presence of said associated identifier in one of said three tables is verified and a positive result leads to storage of said content in said memory part corresponding to said table in which the presence of said identifier has been detected.

12. The method claimed in claim 11, wherein said memory parts respectively associated with said long-term user profile and said short-term user profile are filled in order of decreasing content score until saturation of the respective parts.

13. The method claimed in claim 12, wherein selection redundancies between said long-term memory part and said short-term memory part are eliminated by eliminating contents having the lowest score.

14. The method claimed in claim 1, including learning said generic user profile on initialization of said receiver on the basis of said typical user profile and from the first contents received and the weight variation applied to the branch to which each of said contents belongs, said variation being a function of input of commands to said receiver by said user and the time after which said commands are entered.

15. The method claimed in claim 14, wherein consultation of a given content for a time less than a first value leads to a negative variation of the weight attached to said branch and consultation for a time greater than said first value leads to a positive variation of the weight thereof.

16. The method claimed in claim 15, wherein consultation of the content for a time greater than a second value greater than the first value leads to no modification of the weight of said branch.

17. The method claimed in claim 16, wherein at least the first and second values are corrected self-adaptively as a function of the actual behavior of the user during the consultation cycle.

18. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein archival storage of a content received by said receiver within a time less than a third value leads to no variation of the weight of the branch to which said content belongs and archival storage of said contents after a time greater than said third value leads to a positive variation of that weight.

19. A multimedia content receiver in a telecommunication network which uses the method as claimed in claim 1.