Media queue replenisher

• US 20040162783A1
• Filed: 02/02/2004
• Published: 08/19/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Media Queue LLC
• Original Assignee: Media Queue LLC
• Inventors: Gross, John N.
• Application Number:
  US10/771,094
• Publication Number:
  US 20040162783A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A network based queue replenishment system and method is disclosed for assisting subscribers to temporarily rent playable media items, such as movies in a digital format. The system includes a number of components that interoperate to improve a subscriber'"'"'s experience, including an intelligent queue replenisher which works on his/her behalf to ensure that an adequate and interesting list of titles is made available to the subscriber. The replenisher can be integrated as part of the e-commerce website, at a separate monitoring site, or as a stand alone package based at the user'"'"'s client computing system.

Claims

1. A method of replenishing items in a queue maintained by a content provider for a subscriber, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) setting up a subscriber delivery queue for the subscriber, said subscriber delivery queue consisting of a list of one or more playable media items to be delivered to the subscriber;

(b) setting up queue replenishment control rules for the subscriber delivery queue; and

(c) monitoring said subscriber delivery queue in accordance with said queue replenishment control rules to determine if an additional playable media item should be added to said subscriber delivery queue, and/or if a playable media item should be removed from said subscriber delivery queue; and

(d) modifying said subscriber delivery queue based on said queue replenishment rules to generate a new ordered list of one or more playable media items in response to the results of step (c).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscriber does not need to be connected to the provider over the network during step (c).

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said list of one or more playable media items are set up by a subscriber-defined priority in a delivery sequence ranging from a first playable media item to be delivered from said subscriber delivery queue to a last playable media item to be delivered from said subscriber delivery queue.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said new ordered list is generated automatically without sending a further notification to the subscriber.

5. The method of claim 1, further including a step (c):

sending a notification to the subscriber after step (c) when said queue replenishment control rules determine that said subscriber delivery queue should be modified.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said subscriber delivery queue is automatically modified in accordance with said queue replenishment control rules after a predefined time delay.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said queue replenishment control rules include a trigger event to be used in determining when said subscriber delivery queue should be modified.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said trigger event is associated with a quantity of playable media items remaining in said subscriber delivery queue.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein said trigger event is associated with a determination by an item recommendation system that said additional playable media item should be added to said subscriber delivery queue as a recommended playable media item.

10. A method of replenishing a queue of playable media items over an electronic network to a subscriber of a media rental service, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving subscriber preference data for the subscriber during a first data session, including queue replenishment options for a rental queue of desired playable media items associated with the subscriber;

(b) generating a subscriber profile for the subscriber suitable for use by a recommender system;

(c) processing said subscriber profile using said recommender system to identify a media item that is likely to be of interest to the subscriber;

(d) replenishing said rental queue in accordance with said subscriber preference data;

wherein said media item can be optionally automatically inserted into said rental queue without requiring a second data session by the subscriber with said media rental service.

11. A media rental service system for distributing playable media items to a subscriber, the system comprising:

(a) a subscriber preference routine for capturing subscriber preference data from the subscriber during a first data session, said subscriber preference data including queue replenishment options;

(b) a subscriber selection routine for storing titles of one or more playable media items in a subscriber selection queue;

(c) a subscriber queue replenishing routine configured for updating tide selections in said subscriber selection queue in accordance with said queue replenishment options;

wherein said subscriber queue replenishing routine optionally automatically selects tides and modifies titles in said subscriber selection queue without additional subscriber input.

12. The media rental service system of claim 11, wherein said subscriber selection queue is maintained at a content provider website, and said subscriber preference routine is operable from a separate service website.

13. The media rental service system of claim 11, wherein said subscriber selection queue is maintained within a client computing system operated by the subscriber.

14. The media rental service system of claim 11, wherein said subscriber queue replenishing routine receives recommendations for titles to be added to said subscriber selection queue from a recommender system which uses a content filtering algorithm and/or a collaborative filtering algorithm.

15. The media rental service system of claim 11, wherein said media rental service system is operated at an Internet website.

16. The media rental service system of claim 11, wherein said playable media items are movies.

17. The media rental service system of claim 11, further including a notification routine for sending a notice to the subscriber any changes made by said subscriber queue replenishing routine.

18. The media rental service system of claim 11, wherein said subscriber queue replenishing routine ensures that at least one item is always maintained in said subscriber selection queue.

19. The media rental service system of claim 11, wherein the subscriber can further alter an order of titles in said subscriber selection queue without further additional subscriber input.

20. The media rental service system of claim 11, wherein the subscriber can further specify a type of content to be used by said subscriber queue replenishing routine to replenish said subscriber selection queue.