System and method for scheduling broadcast of an access to video programs and other data using customer profiles
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for scheduling the receipt of desired movies and other forms of data from a network which simultaneously distributes many sources of such data to many customers, as in a cable television system. Customer profiles are developed for the recipient describing how important certain characteristics of the broadcast video program, movie or other data are to each customer. From these profiles, an “agreement matrix” is calculated by comparing the recipient'"'"'s profiles to the actual profiles of the characteristics of the available video programs, movies, or other data. The agreement matrix thus characterizes the attractiveness of each video program, movie, or other data to each prospective customer. “Virtual” channels are generated from the agreement matrix to produce a series of video or data programming which will provide the greatest satisfaction to each customer. Feedback paths are also provided so that the customer'"'"'s profiles and/or the profiles of the video programs or other data may be modified to reflect actual usage. Kiosks are also developed which assist customers in the selection of videos, music, books, and the like in accordance with the customer'"'"'s objective profiles.
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Citations
187 Claims
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1-115. -115. (canceled)
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116. A method for assisting customers with the selection of content from a content collection comprising the steps of:
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predetermining descriptive characteristics of the content in said collection;
creating content profiles indicating the presence or absence of said predetermined characteristics;
creating one or more customer profiles without customer explicitly expressing preference for said predetermined characteristics;
said customer profiles representing the customers'"'"' preferences for said predetermined characteristics;
finding the most desired subset of said content having said content profiles that comprise the most suitable pairings to the said customer profiles; and
presenting said subset to said customers for selection. - View Dependent Claims (117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139)
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140. A method for assisting customers with the selection of content from a content collection comprising the steps of:
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predetermining descriptive characteristics of content in said collection;
creating content profiles indicating the presence or absence of said predetermined characteristics;
creating a customer profiles indicating the customer'"'"'s preference for said predetermined characteristics;
finding the subset of said content having said content profiles that comprise the most suitable pairings to the said customer profile;
creating virtual channels comprising said subset; and
presenting said virtual channels to said customers for selection.
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141. A method for predicting customer interest in content across different content collections comprising the steps of:
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creating one or more customer profiles for each customer indicating the preference for predetermined characteristics;
computing correlations between said customer profiles and content profiles from a different content collection;
finding a subset of said content having said content profiles with good correlations to the said customer profiles; and
recommending said subset of content to customers by presenting said subset to said customers for selection.
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142. A method for assisting customers with purchasing content or objects comprising the steps of:
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predetermining descriptive characteristics of the content or objects that are purchasable;
creating content profiles indicating the presence or absence of said predetermined characteristics;
creating one or more customer profiles [for each customer] indicating the preference for said predetermined characteristics;
finding the subset of said content or objects having said content profiles that comprise the most suitable pairings to the said customer profiles; and
presenting said subset to said customers in a way that enables purchase.
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143. A method for assisting customers with the selection of content from a content collection comprising the steps of:
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predetermining descriptive characteristics of content in said collection;
creating content profiles indicating the presence or absence of said predetermined characteristics;
creating customer clusters;
creating customer-cluster profiles indicating the cluster'"'"'s preference for said predetermined characteristics;
finding the subset of said [content] having said content profiles that comprise the most suitable pairings to the said customer-cluster profiles; and
presenting said subset to said customers based on cluster membership for selection. - View Dependent Claims (144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154)
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155. A method for passively and automatically updating customer profiles comprising the steps of:
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passively monitoring the content accessed by customers; and
automatically updating the preferences for predetermined characteristics in the customer profiles in accordance with the content accessed. - View Dependent Claims (156, 157)
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158. A method for passively and automatically updating customer profiles comprising the steps of:
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passively monitoring the content accessed by customers in a cluster; and
automatically updating the preferences for predetermined characteristics in the customer profiles of customers in said cluster in accordance with the content accessed by customers in said cluster.
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159. A method for recommending books to customers from a book content collection comprising the steps of:
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predetermining descriptive characteristics of the book content in said collection;
creating book content profiles indicating the presence or absence of said predetermined characteristics;
creating one or more customer profiles without customer explicitly expressing preference for said predetermined characteristics;
said customer profiles representing the customers'"'"' preferences for said predetermined characteristics;
finding the most desired subset of said books having said book content profiles that comprise the most suitable pairings to the said customer profiles; and
presenting said subset to said customers for selection. - View Dependent Claims (160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175)
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176. A method for recommending books to customers from a book content collection comprising the steps of:
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predetermining descriptive characteristics of book content in said collection;
creating book content profiles indicating the presence or absence of said predetermined characteristics;
creating customer clusters;
creating customer-cluster profiles indicating the cluster'"'"'s preference for said predetermined characteristics;
finding the subset of said music content having said content profiles that comprise the most suitable pairings to the said customer-cluster profiles; and
presenting said subset to said customers based on cluster membership for selection. - View Dependent Claims (177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187)
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Specification