Systems and methods for automatically identifying a user profile

• US 20080092155A1
• Filed: 11/15/2006
• Published: 04/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: UV Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: United Video Properties Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Ferrone, Andrew, Shannon, Steve
• Application Number:
  US11/600,936
• Publication Number:
  US 20080092155A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• 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 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/4753 for user identification, e.g. by entering a PIN or password cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time

Abstract

Systems and methods for automatically recognizing a user of an interactive media guidance application are provided. The interactive media guidance application may monitor a plurality of users'"'"' interactions with the interactive media guidance application, and determine, from the interactions, user profiles. For example, the interactive media guidance application may determine that a number of interactions (e.g., a number of viewed programs) satisfy a relevancy rule, and associate the interactions with the same user profile. The interactive media guidance application may identify the parts of the day when each user uses the interactive media guidance application, and associate the corresponding user profiles with the current day part. The interactive media guidance application may further identify the user that is associated with each user profile by prompting a user to identify himself during the day part that is associated with a particular user profile.

Claims

1. A method for automatically assigning a demographic profile to media using an interactive media guidance application implemented on user equipment, comprising:

receiving a user request to access the media during a part of day;

identifying a demographic profile associated with the day part; and

associating the identified demographic profile with the media.

2. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising:

identifying the user associated with the day part; and

wherein identifying a demographic profile associated with the day part comprises identifying a demographic profile associated with the identified user.

3. The method defined in claim 2 wherein identifying the user associated with the part of day further comprises:

monitoring user interactions with the interactive media guidance application during the part of day;

determining whether the user interactions of the part of day and a profile of the user meet a relevancy rule; and

in response to determining that the user interactions of the part of day and the profile of the user meet the relevancy rule, associating the part of day with the user.

4. The method defined in claim 3 wherein:

monitoring user interactions during the part of day comprises monitoring programs watched on the user equipment; and

determining whether the user interactions of the part of day and the profile of the user meet the relevancy rule comprises determining whether the programs watched during the part of day and the profile of the user meet the relevancy rule.

5. The method defined in claim 3 wherein determining whether the user interactions of the part of day and the profile of the user meet the relevancy rule comprises determining the similarity between the user interactions and the profile of the user.

6. The method defined in claim 3 wherein determining whether the user interactions of the part of day and the profile of the user meet the relevancy rule comprises determining the similarity between metadata associated with the user interactions and the profile of the user.

7. The method defined in claim 4 wherein determining whether the user interactions of the part of day and the profile of the user meet the relevancy rule comprises:

for each program, retrieving media guidance data defining at least one property of the program; and

determining whether an aggregate relational distance between a property of the program and properties of the profile of the user meets a relevancy threshold.

8. The method defined in claim 7 wherein the aggregate relational distance is a measure of the similarity between the respective properties of the program and of the profile of the user.

9. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising performing a media guidance function targeted to the demographic profile during the part of day.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the media guidance function comprises displaying an advertisement targeted to the demographic profile.

11. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the demographic profile is one of a plurality of generic demographic profiles.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

performing a segmentation analysis on user interactions with the interactive media guidance application against psychographic information; and

developing generic demographic profiles based on results of the segmentation analysis.

13. The method defined in claim 1 wherein:

the user equipment comprises a set-top box; and

the interactive media guidance application is an interactive television program guide implemented on the set-top box.

14. A system for automatically assigning a demographic profile to media using an interactive media guidance application implemented on user equipment comprising a display device and control circuitry, the control circuitry configured to:

receive a user request to access the media during a part of day;

identify a demographic profile associated with the day part; and

associate the identified demographic profile with the media.

15. The system defined in claim 14 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

identify the user associated with the day part; and

identify a demographic profile associated with the identified user.

16. The system defined in claim 15 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

monitor user interactions with the interactive media guidance application during the part of day;

determine whether the user interactions of the part of day and a profile of the user meet a relevancy rule; and

in response to determining that the user interactions of the part of day and the profile of the user meet the relevancy rule, associate the part of day with the user.

17. The system defined in claim 15 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

monitor programs watched on the user equipment; and

determine whether the programs watched during the part of day and the profile of the user meet the relevancy rule.

18. The system defined in claim 15 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determine the similarity between the user interactions and the profile of the user.

19. The system defined in claim 15 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determine the similarity between metadata associated with the user interactions and the profile of the user.

20. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

for each program, retrieve media guidance data defining at least one property of the program; and

determine whether an aggregate relational distance between a property of the program and properties of the profile of the user meets a relevancy threshold.

21. The system defined in claim 19 wherein the aggregate relational distance is a measure of the similarity between the respective properties of the program and of the profile of the user.

22. The system defined in claim 14 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to perform a media guidance function targeted to the demographic profile during the part of day.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the control circuitry is configured to display an advertisement targeted to the demographic profile.

24. The system defined in claim 14, wherein the demographic profile is one of a plurality of generic demographic profiles.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

perform a segmentation analysis on user interactions with the interactive media guidance application against psychographic information; and

develop generic demographic profiles based on results of the segmentation analysis.

26. The system defined in claim 14 wherein:

the user equipment comprises a set-top box; and

the interactive media guidance application is an interactive television program guide implemented on the set-top box.