Replay apparatus and content evaluation method

• US 20050163481A1
• Filed: 12/22/2004
• Published: 07/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Hirai, Jun
• Granted Patent: US 7,751,912 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/248
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9261 involving data reduction

Abstract

There is provided a replay apparatus including a skip function, which is initiated if a skip button is pressed, for stopping a replay operation to restart at the next content after skipping during the replay operation of one of a plurality of stored contents. The replay apparatus includes measuring means for measuring an elapsed time from a replay start time of a content and a time when the content is skipped, evaluating means for giving an evaluation value reflecting a preference of a user to the replayed content that is skipping based on the elapsed time, and creating means for creating preference information by registering the given evaluation value in association with the replayed content.

Claims

1. A replay apparatus including a skip function, which is initiated if a skip button is pressed, for stopping a replay operation to restart at the next content after skipping during the replay operation of one of a plurality of stored contents, the replay apparatus comprising:

measuring means for measuring an elapsed time from a replay start time of a content and a time when the content is skipped;

evaluating means for giving an evaluation value reflecting a preference of a user to the replayed content that is skipping based on the elapsed time; and

creating means for creating preference information by registering the given evaluation value in association with the replayed content.

2. The replay apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the evaluating means gives a lower evaluation value of the preference to the replayed content if as the elapsed time is smaller.

3. The replay apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the evaluating means gives no evaluation value or an evaluation value of 0 to the replayed content if the elapsed time is less than a threshold value.

4. The replay apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the evaluating means corrects the given evaluation value in accordance with a feature of the content to be evaluated.

5. The replay apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the evaluating means obtains an evaluation value in response to the measured elapsed time with reference to reference data including a list of evaluation values corresponding elapsed times or calculation methods for evaluation values.

6. The replay apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the evaluating means defines a time when a beginning of a substantial part of the content is replayed as a replay start time of the content.

7. The replay apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

selecting means for selecting a plurality of contents, which are more preferred by a user, among a large number of stored contents based on the created preference information; and

replaying means for replaying the plurality of selected contents sequentially.

8. The replay apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

inferring means for inferring a content that is preferred by a user based on the preference information; and

content acquiring means for downloading and storing the inferred content from a communication network.

9. A replay apparatus replaying a content selected from a plurality of stored contents, the replay apparatus comprising;

acquiring means for acquiring operation information for replaying a content and replaying status;

evaluating means for giving an evaluation value reflecting a reference of a user to a replayed content based on the acquired operation information and the replaying status; and

creation means for creating preference information by registering the given evaluation value in association with the replayed content.

10. The replay apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

the evaluating means gives an evaluation value indicating of a higher preference to a content which is replayed to the end and consecutively replayed again.

11. The replay apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

the evaluating means gives an evaluation value indicating of lower preference to a content if replay frequency of the content exceeds a threshold value.

12. The replay apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

the evaluating means gives an evaluation value indicating of a higher preference to a content if a newly stored content is replayed for the first time.

13. The replay apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

the evaluating means gives an evaluation value indicating of a lower preference to a content if the content is replayed after a preset period of time has elapsed since the first replay.

14. A replay apparatus replaying a plurality of stored contents sequentially and including an evaluation button manually providing preference to respective contents, the replay apparatus comprising;

measuring means for measuring an elapsed time from a replay start time of a content to a time when the evaluation button is pressed; and

evaluating means for giving an evaluation value reflecting preference of a user to the replayed content based on the elapsed time.

15. The replay apparatus according to claim 14, wherein:

the evaluation button includes a first button to be used for giving an evaluation indicating the content is matched with a user'"'"'s preference and a second button to be used for giving an evaluation indicating the content is not matched with a user'"'"'s preference; and

the evaluating means gives an evaluation value indicating a degree of preference of a user to the replayed content based on the elapsed time if the first button is pressed, and gives an evaluation value indicating a degree of nonpreference of a user to the replayed content based on the elapsed time if the second button is pressed.

16. The replay apparatus according to claim 14, wherein:

a demo version of a content, which is created by editing representative parts of the content, is used as a content to be evaluated.

17. The replay apparatus according to claim 14, wherein:

the evaluating means corrects the given evaluation value in accordance with a feature of the content to be evaluated.

18. A content evaluation method evaluating a replayed content based on preference of a user, the content evaluation method comprising steps of:

measuring an elapsed time between times when a plurality of operations associated with the replay of a content are carried out; and

giving an evaluation value indicating a degree of preference of a user to the replayed content based on the measured elapsed time.

19. The content evaluation method according to claim 18, further comprising a step of:

creating preference information by registering the given evaluation value in association with the replayed content.

20. A replay apparatus including a skip function, which is initiated if a skip button is pressed, for stopping a replay operation to restart at the next content after skipping during the replay operation of one of a plurality of stored contents, the replay apparatus comprising:

a measuring section for measuring an elapsed time from a replay start time of a content and a time when the content is skipped;

an evaluating section for giving an evaluation value reflecting a preference of a user to the replayed content that is skipping based on the elapsed time; and

a creating section for creating preference information by registering the given evaluation value in association with the replayed content.

21. A replay apparatus replaying a content selected from a plurality of stored contents, the replay apparatus comprising;

an acquiring section for acquiring operation information for replaying a content and replaying status;

an evaluating section for giving an evaluation value reflecting a reference of a user to a replayed content based on the acquired operation information and the replaying status; and

an creation section for creating preference information by registering the given evaluation value in association with the replayed content.

22. A replay apparatus replaying a plurality of stored contents sequentially and including an evaluation button manually providing preference to respective contents, the replay apparatus comprising;

a measuring section for measuring an elapsed time from a replay start time of a content to a time when the evaluation button is pressed; and

an evaluating section for giving an evaluation value reflecting preference, of a user to the replayed content based on the elapsed time.