Television receiver apparatus and method for automatically performing an action based on viewership information

• US 20070136751A1
• Filed: 12/08/2005
• Published: 06/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Garbow, Zachary, Paterson, Kevin
• Application Number:
  US11/297,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20070136751A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• 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 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• 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 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• 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 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• 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 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

A television receiver apparatus and method is disclosed that allow a viewer to define a viewer profile, to receive and process viewership information received from the program provider, and to perform at least one action based on the viewer profile and the received viewership information. The viewer profile may include geographical preferences, genre preferences, and channel preferences. The at least one action may include determining the most popular transfer channels, and performing one or more of the following: 1) displaying the most popular transfer channel as picture-in-picture (PIP); 2) display a menu option to jump to the most popular transfer channel; 3) display a menu option of the top X most popular transfer channels. The at least one action may also include providing control signals to a digital video recorder (DVR) to start and/or stop recording based on the viewership information and the viewer profile.

Claims

1. A television receiver comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor;

a viewership collection mechanism residing in the memory that receives aggregate viewership information from a program provider coupled to the television receiver;

a viewer profile mechanism residing in the memory that allows a user of the television receiver to define a viewer profile; and

a viewership action mechanism residing in the memory that processes the viewership information and the viewer profile, and in response thereto, performs at least one action based on the processed viewership information and the viewer profile.

2. The television receiver of claim 1 wherein the viewer profile includes at least one of:

geographical preferences, genre preferences and channel preferences.

3. The television receiver of claim 1 wherein the at least one action comprises the steps of:

determining a most popular transfer channel; and

performing at least one of the steps of;

displaying the most popular transfer channel as picture-in-picture (PIP);

displaying a menu option to jump to the most popular transfer channel; and

initializing recording of the most popular transfer channel.

4. The television receiver of claim 1 wherein the at least one action comprises the steps of:

determining a plurality of most popular transfer channels; and

displaying a menu comprising the plurality of most popular transfer channels.

5. The television receiver of claim 1 wherein the at least one action comprises the steps of:

determining a most popular transfer channel for a next program; and

initializing recording of the most popular transfer channel for a next program.

6. The television receiver of claim 1 wherein the at least one action comprises the step of signaling to stop recording when the viewership information indicates a specified percentage of viewers have left a current channel.

7. A method for a television receiver to automatically perform at least one action, the method comprising the steps of:

(A) presenting a user interface to a viewer thereby allowing the viewer to define a viewer profile;

(B) receiving aggregate viewership information from a program provider;

(C) processing the aggregate viewership information in view of the viewer profile; and

(D) automatically performing at least one action based on the processed viewership information and the viewer profile.

8. The method of claim 8 wherein step (A) comprises the step of allowing a user to select at least one of:

geographical preferences, genre preferences and channel preferences.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein step (C) comprises the step of determining a most popular transfer channel, and wherein step (D) comprises at least one of the steps of:

displaying the most popular transfer channel as picture-in-picture (PIP);

displaying a menu option to jump to the most popular transfer channel; and

initializing recording of the most popular transfer channel.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein step (C) comprises the step of determining a plurality of most popular transfer channels, and wherein step (D) comprises the step of displaying a menu comprising the plurality of most popular transfer channels.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein step (C) comprises the step of determining a most popular transfer channel for a next program, and wherein step (D) comprises the step of initializing recording of the most popular transfer channel for a next program.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein step (D) comprises the step of signaling to stop recording when the viewership information indicates a specified percentage of viewers have left a current channel.

13. A computer-readable program product comprising:

(A) a viewership collection mechanism that receives aggregate viewership information from a program provider coupled to the television receiver;

(B) a viewer profile mechanism that allows a user to define a viewer profile;

(C) a viewership action mechanism that processes the viewership information and the viewer profile, and in response thereto, performs at least one action based on the processed viewership information and the viewer profile; and

(D) computer-readable signal bearing media bearing (A), (B) and (C).

15. The program product of claim 15 wherein the computer-readable signal bearing media comprises transmission media.

14. The program product of claim 15 wherein the computer-readable signal bearing media comprises recordable media.

16. The program product of claim 15 wherein the viewer profile includes at least one of:

geographical preferences, genre preferences and channel preferences.

17. The program product of claim 15 wherein the at least one action comprises the steps of:

determining a most popular transfer channel; and

performing at least one of the steps of;

displaying the most popular transfer channel as picture-in-picture (PIP);

displaying a menu option to jump to the most popular transfer channel; and

initializing recording of the most popular transfer channel.

18. The program product of claim 15 wherein the at least one action comprises the steps of:

determining a plurality of most popular transfer channels; and

displaying a menu comprising the plurality of most popular transfer channels.

19. The program product of claim 15 wherein the at least one action comprises the steps of:

determining a most popular transfer channel for a next program; and

initializing recording of the most popular transfer channel for a next program.

20. The program product of claim 15 wherein the at least one action comprises the step of signaling to stop recording when the viewership information indicates a specified percentage of viewers have left a current channel.

21. A television system comprising:

(A) a television provider system that collects viewership information from a plurality of subscribers; and

(B) a plurality of television receivers coupled to the television provider system, each television receiver comprising;

a viewership collection mechanism that receives the viewership information from the television provider system;

a viewer profile mechanism that allows a user of the television receiver to define a viewer profile; and

a viewership action mechanism that processes the viewership information and the viewer profile, and in response thereto, performs at least one action based on the processed viewership information and the viewer profile.