METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SELECTING A MULTIMEDIA ITEM

• US 20110125795A1
• Filed: 07/10/2009
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Skowronek, Janto
• Application Number:
  US13/003,446
• Publication Number:
  US 20110125795A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/780
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/437 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialisation, adaptation, distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/637 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialization, adaptation or distribution

Abstract

Multimedia items are selected from a plurality of candidate multimedia items by:

determining (201) a plurality of features characterizing a user collection of multimedia items; determining (203) a probability function from said determined features, said probability function having a plurality of maxima, said plurality of maxima indicating the probability that a user prefers an item having the combination of features represented by said maxima; and selecting (209) at least one multimedia item from a plurality of candidate multimedia items on the basis of at least one of said determined maxima.

Claims

1. A method of selecting a multimedia item from a plurality of candidate multimedia items, the method comprising the steps of:

determining (201) a plurality of features characterizing a user collection of multimedia items;

determining (203) a probability function from said determined features, said probability function having a plurality of maxima, said plurality of maxima indicating the probability that a user prefers an item having the combination of features represented by said maxima; and

selecting (209) at least one multimedia item from a plurality of candidate multimedia items on the basis of at least one of said determined maxima.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one of said determined maxima is not the absolute maximum of said determined probability function.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said at least one of said determined maxima is within a predetermined range of said absolute maximum of said determined probability function.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of selecting at least one multimedia item comprises the steps of:

determining at least one feature vector corresponding to said at least one of said determined maxima; and

selecting at least one multimedia item having a feature vector similar to said determined at least one feature vector.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said probability function is modeled by multiple Gaussian functions.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the said plurality of candidate multimedia items exclude multimedia items of said user collection of multimedia items.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises the step of:

maintaining a log of previously selected multimedia items;

and wherein the step of selecting at least one multimedia item comprises the step of;

selecting at least one multimedia item from said plurality of candidate multimedia items which are not included in said log.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

selecting at least one multimedia item from said plurality of candidate multimedia items on the basis of at least one other of said determined maxima.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of selecting at least one multimedia item comprises:

selecting a plurality of multimedia items from said user collection of multimedia items on the basis of at least one of said determined maxima;

allowing the user to select at least one of said plurality of selected multimedia items; and

generating a query to select at least one multimedia item from said plurality of candidate multimedia items on the basis of said user-selected at least one of said plurality of selected multimedia items.

10. A computer program product comprising a plurality of program code portions for carrying out the method according to claim 1.

11. Apparatus (101) for selecting a multimedia item from a plurality of candidate multimedia items, said apparatus (101) comprising:

a store (107) for storing a plurality of candidate multimedia items;

a processor (103) for determining a plurality of features characterizing a user collection of multimedia items and determining a probability function from said determined features, said probability function having a plurality of maxima, said plurality of maxima indicating the probability that a user prefers an item having the combination of features represented by said maxima; and

a selector for selecting (105) at least one multimedia item from said plurality of candidate multimedia items on the basis of at least one of said determined maxima.

12. A recommender system (100) for recommending a multimedia item, the system comprising:

apparatus (101) according to claim 12;

a user terminal (111) for playing multimedia items, said user terminal including user storage means (113) for storing said user collection of multimedia items;

an interface (109) for communicating with said apparatus (101) and said user terminal (111) such that items selected by the apparatus (101) are recommended to the user.