System and method for personalized TV

• US 20060206912A1
• Filed: 03/06/2006
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing SAS (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Humpleman, Richard, Zhou, Yiming, Bentolila, Isaac (Ariel), Klarfeld, Kenneth A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,781,478 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/40
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/231 Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/251 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies details of learning user preferences for the retrieval of video data in a video database G06F16/739; computer systems using learning methods G06N3/08
• 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 21/26283 for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4751 for defining user accounts, e.g. accounts for children
• 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 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4823 using a channel name
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 : by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 : using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 : Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 : by receiver means only

Abstract

A Personal TV System receives a plurality of video segments constituting a TV program and information describing each segment, and controls the display of the segments to a viewer in accordance with preferences of the viewer and with the description of each segment. Segments may be omitted or replaced with substitute segments. The viewer may review his preferences and edit or replace them. In a multi-viewer household, the system may prompt a viewer to confirm her preferences. A TV program may contain interactive segments, and when the viewer chooses to interact with a particular segment, the system automatically stores all subsequently received segments for later viewing while the viewer interacts with the selected segment. The system may present TV program choices to the viewer selected and arranged in accordance with her preferences.

Claims

1. A method for displaying a TV program to a viewer, comprising;

allowing the viewer to select one of a plurality of available TV programs for viewing;

receiving a plurality of video segments constituting the selected TV program;

receiving information describing each received video segment; and

controlling the display of one or more of the received video segments in accordance with the segment information and with previously determined viewing preferences of the viewer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the information comprises;

receiving the information together with each respective video segment.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information received comprises any one ore more of video segment content, length, rating, title, subject, category, or target audience characteristics.

4. The method of claims 1 or 3, wherein controlling the display comprises:

selecting a subset of the received segments in accordance with the segment information and with previously determined viewing preferences of the viewer; and

displaying the selected segments.

5. The method of claim 4, comprising:

receiving an alternative video segment for replacing a specific received video segment, the specific segment not in the subset of selected segments; and

wherein selecting the subset comprises selecting the alternative video segment.

6. The method of claim 4, comprising:

storing the received segments not in the subset of selected segment for subsequent viewing.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising:

receiving a command from the viewer to display the stored received segments; and

displaying the stored received segments.

8. The method of claim 4, comprising:

notifying the viewer that a subset of the received segments are displayed.

9. The method of claim 7, comprising:

receiving a command from the viewer to display all received segments; and

wherein selecting the subset comprises selecting all received segments.

10. A method for displaying an interactive TV program to a viewer, comprising:

receiving a plurality of video segments comprising the TV program;

displaying the received video segments sequentially;

allowing the viewer to select a received video segment to interact therewith; and

storing subsequently received video segments while the viewer is interacting with the selected video segment.

11. The method of claim 10, comprising:

displaying the stored video segments following the viewer interacting with the selected video segment.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein displaying the stored video segments comprises:

automatically displaying the stored video segments immediately following the viewer interacting with the selected video segment.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the video segment comprises:

receiving the plurality of linear video segments at a set-top box connected to a display of the viewer.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein storing the video segments comprises:

storing the subsequently received video segments at the set-top box.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the video segments are selected from the group of video segments comprising advertising, entertainment, news, weather, financial, sports, educational, and shopping programming.

16-31. -31. (canceled)