Method and System to Maintain Relative Statistics for Creating Automatically a List of Favorites

• US 20080010657A1
• Filed: 09/17/2007
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Candelore, Brant, Guo, Zicheng
• Granted Patent: US 7,725,911 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/046
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/43 for identifying broadcast channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/466 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 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

An apparatus may include a front-end with a tuner to receive television broadcasts, a memory to store statistics, and a processor in communication with the front-end and the memory. The processor detects tuning events and maintains relative statistics on items related to tuning events. The processor eliminates any occurrence of rollover of the count value by adjusting the count value of each of the one or more items relative to each other upon reaching a predetermined value prior to being reset. The processor creates a list of favorites based on the relative statistics in the memory. The processor may transfer the list of favorites to another device or auto-tune the tuner to receive the items that are placed in the list of favorites. A length of time represented by the units of time may be changed to allow greater selectivity of items that are placed in the list of favorites.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a front-end including a tuner;

a memory to store relative statistics; and

a processor in communication with the front-end and the memory, the processor

to detect a tuning event,

to maintain the relative statistics on one or more items related to tuning events, the relative statistics including a count value of either a number of times or a number of units of time that the item has been tuned to and received by the front-end,

to eliminate any occurrence of rollover of the count value by at least adjusting the count value of each of the one or more items relative to each other upon reaching a predetermined value prior to being reset,

to create a list of favorites based on the relative statistics in the memory, and

to transfer the list of favorites to another device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor detects the tuning event by detecting a selected channel or program.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the item includes at least one of a program, a channel number, an actor, a director, a theme, and a category.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor eliminates any occurrence of rollover of the count value by adjusting the relative statistics on the item through one of subtraction of a predetermined value from the count value, subtraction of a predetermined percentage of counts from the count value, and multiplication of the count value by a percentage value less than one and greater than zero.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor creates the list of favorites by:

multiplying the relative statistics on the item by a weighting factor assigned to the item;

multiplying stored relative statistics on other items by a corresponding weighting factor assigned to each item; and

ranking all of the items based on the highest weighted values.

6. A broadcast system comprising:

a display;

a receiver coupled to the display and

to store relative statistics,

to detect a tuning event,

to maintain the relative statistics related to a plurality of items of the tuning event,

to eliminate any occurrence of rollover of a count value by automatically adjusting the count value of each of the plurality of items relative to each other once one of the plurality of items reaches a maximum value so that an order of the plurality of items according to count value remains intact,

to create automatically a list of favorites based on the relative statistics in the memory, and

to transfer the list of favorites to another device.

7. The broadcast system of claim 6, wherein the receiver detects the tuning event by detecting selection of a channel or a program.

8. The broadcast system of claim 6, wherein the plurality of items include at least one of a program item, a channel number item, an actor item, a director item, a theme item, and a category item.

9. The broadcast system of claim 6, wherein the receiver eliminates any occurrence of rollover of the count value by adjusting the relative statistics on the item through one of subtraction of a predetermined value from the count value, subtraction of a predetermined percentage of counts from the count value, and multiplication of the count value by a percentage value less than one and greater than zero.

10. The broadcast system of claim 6, wherein the receiver creates the list of favorites by:

multiplying the relative statistics on the item by a weighting factor assigned to the item;

multiplying stored relative statistics on other items by a corresponding weighting factor assigned to each item; and

ranking all of the items based on the highest weighted values.

11. A method for a broadcast system comprising:

detecting a tuning event,

maintaining the relative statistics on one or more items related to tuning events, the relative statistics including a count value of either a number of times or a number of units of time that the item has been tuned to and received by the front-end,

eliminating any occurrence of rollover of the count value by at least adjusting the count value of each of the one or more items relative to each other upon reaching a predetermined value prior to being reset,

creating a list of favorites based on the relative statistics in the memory, and

transferring the list of favorites to another device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting the tuning event includes detecting a selected channel or program.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the item includes at least one of a program, a channel number, an actor, a director, a theme, and a category.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein eliminating any occurrence of rollover of the count value includes adjusting the relative statistics on the item through one of subtraction of a predetermined value from the count value, subtraction of a predetermined percentage of counts from the count value, and multiplication of the count value by a percentage value less than one and greater than zero.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein creating the list of favorites includes:

multiplying the relative statistics on the item by a weighting factor assigned to the item;

multiplying stored relative statistics on other items by a corresponding weighting factor assigned to each item; and

ranking all of the items based on the highest weighted values.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a front-end including a tuner;

a memory to store relative statistics; and

a processor in communication with the front-end and the memory, the processor

to detect a tuning event,

to maintain the relative statistics on one or more items related to tuning events, the relative statistics including a count value of either a number of times or a number of units of time that the item has been tuned to and received by the front-end,

to eliminate any occurrence of rollover of the count value by at least adjusting the count value of each of the one or more items relative to each other upon reaching a predetermined value prior to being reset,

to create a list of favorites based on the relative statistics in the memory, and

to auto-tune the tuner to receive the items that are placed in the list of favorites.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor detects the tuning event by detecting a selected channel or program.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the item includes at least one of a program, a channel number, an actor, a director, a theme, and a category.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor eliminates any occurrence of rollover of the count value by adjusting the relative statistics on the item through one of subtraction of a predetermined value from the count value, subtraction of a predetermined percentage of counts from the count value, and multiplication of the count value by a percentage value less than one and greater than zero.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor creates the list of favorites by:

multiplying the relative statistics on the item by a weighting factor assigned to the item;

multiplying stored relative statistics on other items by a corresponding weighting factor assigned to each item; and

ranking all of the items based on the highest weighted values.

21. An apparatus comprising:

a front-end including a tuner;

a memory to store relative statistics; and

a processor in communication with the front-end and the memory, the processor

to detect a tuning event,

to maintain the relative statistics on one or more items related to tuning events, the relative statistics including a count value of a number of units of time that the item has been tuned to and received by the front-end,

to eliminate any occurrence of rollover of the count value by at least adjusting the count value of each of the one or more items relative to each other upon reaching a predetermined value prior to being reset,

to create a list of favorites based on the relative statistics in the memory, and

to change a length of time represented by the units of time and thereby allow greater selectivity as to the items that are placed in the list of favorites.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processor detects the tuning event by detecting a selected channel or program.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the item includes at least one of a program, a channel number, an actor, a director, a theme, and a category.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processor eliminates any occurrence of rollover of the count value by adjusting the relative statistics on the item through one of subtraction of a predetermined value from the count value, subtraction of a predetermined percentage of counts from the count value, and multiplication of the count value by a percentage value less than one and greater than zero.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processor creates the list of favorites by:

multiplying the relative statistics on the item by a weighting factor assigned to the item;

multiplying stored relative statistics on other items by a corresponding weighting factor assigned to each item; and

ranking all of the items based on the highest weighted values.