Hierarchical Playlist Generator

• US 20080256032A1
• Filed: 01/17/2005
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Pauws, Steffen Clarence, Vignoli, Fabio
• Granted Patent: US 7,840,620 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/637 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialization, adaptation or distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A playlist generator partitions the playlist generation process into a multi-stage, hierarchical process. At an example highest hierarchical level, the user'"'"'s “general” preferences are applied. These general preferences reflect the user'"'"'s “tastes”, and are relatively constant. At a lower level of the hierarchy, the user'"'"'s “specific” preferences are applied. These specific preferences reflect the dynamic time-dependent or event dependent aspects of a user'"'"'s entertainment preferences. The high-level preferences generate a subset of material from the global collection of material, and the lower-level preferences are applied to this subset of material as the user'"'"'s immediate preferences change. By segregating the playlist generation process hierarchically, efficiency is gained by applying immediate preference changes to a smaller subset of material, and coherency is improved by limiting the subsequent selection processes to a given subset of the material.

Claims

1. A playlist generator comprising:

a first selector that is configured to search a source of material and to provide therefrom a first subset of identifications of items within the source of material, based on a first set of user preferences, and

a second selector that is configured to search the first subset of identifications based on a second set of user preferences, and to provide therefrom a second subset of identifications of items within the source of material that facilitates subsequent rendering of the items identified in the second subset.

2. The playlist generator of claim 1, wherein

the first set of user preferences includes time-independent user preferences, and

the second set of user preferences includes user preferences at a particular time.

3. The playlist generator of claim 1, wherein

the first set of user preferences includes event-independent user preferences, and

the second set of user preferences includes user preferences upon an occurrence of an event.

4. The playlist generator of claim 1, wherein

the first set of user preferences includes general user preferences, and

the second set of user preferences includes specific user preferences.

5. The playlist generator of claim 1, wherein

the source of material includes one or more Internet web-sites.

6. The playlist generator of claim 1, further including

non-volatile memory that is configured to store the first subset of identifications, and

the second selector is further configured to search the first subset of identifications, based on a third set of user preferences, to provide therefrom a third subset of identifications of items within the source of material, to form another playlist that facilitates subsequent rendering of the items identified in the third subset.

7. The playlist generator of claim 1, wherein

the first set of user preferences includes one or more parameters for searching the source of material based on a frequency of access of the items within the source of material, and

the first selector is configured to determine a measure of requests for each item within the source material by a plurality of users, and to provide therefrom the first subset of identifications of items, based on the measure of requests for each item.

8. The playlist generator of claim 7, wherein

the first selector is further configured to provide the first subset of identifiers based on a set of general user preferences, and

the second set of user preferences includes a set of specific user preferences.

9. The playlist generator of claim 7, wherein

the first selector is further configured to provide the first subset of identifiers based on a set of general user preferences, and

the second set of user preferences includes a set of preferences based upon a particular event.

10. The playlist generator of claim 7, further including

non-volatile memory that is configured to store the first subset of identifications, and

the second selector is further configured to search the first subset of identifications, based on a third set of user preferences, to provide therefrom a third subset of identifications of items within the source of material, to form another playlist that facilitates subsequent rendering of the items identified in the third subset.

11. A system comprising:

a playlist generator that is configured to provide a set of identifications of select items within a source of material, and

a rendering device, operably coupled to the playlist generator, that is configured to render the select items;

wherein

the playlist generator includes;

a first selector that is configured to search the source of material and to provide therefrom a first subset of identifications of items within the source of material, based on a first set of parameters, and

a second selector that is configured to search the first subset of identifications based on a second set of parameters, and to provide therefrom the set of identifications of the select items.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein

the first set of parameters includes time-independent user preferences, and

the second set of parameters includes user preferences at a particular time.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein

the source of material includes one or more Internet web-sites.

14. The system of claim 11, further including

non-volatile memory that is configured to store the first subset of identifications to facilitate generation of multiple sets of identifications of select items based on the first subset of identifications.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein

the first set of parameters includes one or more parameters for searching the source of material based on a frequency of access of the items within the source material, and

the first selector is configured to determine a measure of requests for each item within the source of material by a plurality of users, and to provide therefrom the first subset of identifications of items, based on the measure of requests for each item.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein

the first selector is further configured to provide the first subset of identifiers based on a set of general user preferences, and

the second set of parameters includes a set of specific user preferences.

17. A method of generating a playlist, comprising:

searching a source of material based on a first set of parameters to provide thereby a first subset of identifications of items within the source of material, and

generating the playlist from the first subset of identifications of items, based on a second set of parameters.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein

the first set of parameters includes substantially time-invariant user preferences, and

the second set of parameters includes user preferences at a particular time.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein

the first set of parameters includes one or more parameters for searching the source of material based on accesses to the items within the source of material, and

searching the source of material further includes

determining a frequency of access of each of a plurality of items within the source of material, and

selecting the identifications of items for inclusion in the first subset of identifications based at least in part on the frequency of access of each of the plurality of items.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein

selecting the identifications of items for inclusion in the first subset is also based on substantially time-invariant user preferences, and

the second set of parameters includes user preferences at a particular time.

21. The method of claim 17, further including

storing the first subset of identifications, and

generating another playlist from the first subset of identifications of items, based on a further set of parameters.