IMPLICIT USER INTEREST MARKS IN MEDIA CONTENT

• US 20110173194A1
• Filed: 03/14/2008
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Barrett, Peter, Sloo, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,378,286 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/745 the internal structure of a single video sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Automatically marking locations of user interest in media content is disclosed. Data that describes user interaction with media content is analyzed to determine locations of potential interest. For each of the locations of potential interest, the data is analyzed to determine whether user interest satisfies a criterion for establishing a mark for the location. Marks are determined for those locations that satisfy the criterion. A mark includes a description for a given location and information that allows the given location to be automatically presented to a user upon selection of the description. In another aspect, extrinsic data that is separate from a piece of media content is analyzed to determine whether moments of high user interest might exist in the piece of media content. Then, the piece of media content is scanned to find locations in the media content that correspond to the moments.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

analyzing data that describes user interaction with media content to determine locations of potential user interest in the media content;

determining which of the locations of potential user interest satisfies a criterion for establishing a mark; and

marking each location for which user interest satisfies the criterion, said marking including;

determining a description for each of the locations for which user interest satisfies the criterion; and

associating information with each of the descriptions, said information for a given description allows the location associated with the given description to be automatically presented to a user upon selection of the given description.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining which of the locations of potential user interest satisfies a criterion for establishing a mark includes analyzing the data to determine a location of group interest in the media content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the analyzing the data to determine a location of group interest in the media content includes:

determining an individual level of user interest in a first location of the locations of potential user interest; and

determining collective user interest in the first location based on each of the individual levels.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the analyzing the data to determine a location of group interest in the media content includes:

determining a level of collective user interest in a first location of the locations of potential user interest; and

comparing the level of collective user interest in the first location with levels of collective user interest in other locations of potential user interest.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining a description for each of the locations includes analyzing the media content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining which of the locations of potential user interest satisfies a criterion for establishing a mark includes:

detecting a sequence of interactions that are associated with a high level of user interest.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining which of the locations of potential user interest satisfies a criterion for establishing a mark includes:

determining a degree of user interest in the locations of potential interest relative to each other.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining which of the locations of potential user interest satisfies a criterion for establishing a mark includes:

determining which of the locations of potential interest have content that is associated with a user attribute.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the description for each mark and the information that is associated with each description; and

in response to receiving a selection of the stored description for a first mark of the marks, automatically presenting media content that corresponds to the description for the first mark, said automatically presenting is based on the information that is associated with the description for the first mark.

10. A computer implemented method of providing marks associated with media content, said method comprising:

analyzing extrinsic data in order to determine moments of expected user interest in a piece of media content, said extrinsic data is separate from said piece of media content;

determining locations in the piece of media content that correspond to each of the moments of expected user interest;

determining an identifier of each of the locations, said identifier for a given location allows the given location to be determined;

associating a unique description with each of the identifiers; and

providing the unique descriptions and the identifiers of the locations to at least one user to enable selective viewing of portions of the piece of media content that correspond to the moments of expected user interest.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

accessing the extrinsic data from a first content provider that is distinct from a second content provider that provides the piece of media content.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

automatically performing a Web search to locate the extrinsic data.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the analyzing extrinsic data includes analyzing a description of an event that is captured in the piece of media content.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the analyzing extrinsic data includes analyzing a written review of the piece of media content.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

analyzing the piece of media content to determine the unique description that is associated with each of the identifiers.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

analyzing the extrinsic data to determine the unique description that is associated with each of the identifiers.

17. A computer implemented method comprising:

scanning media content for locations that satisfy a criterion that is associated with expected user interest;

determining a description for each of location of the locations for which the level of user interest satisfies the criterion; and

associating information with the description for each location for which the level of user interest satisfies the criterion, said information for a given description allows the location associated with a given description to be automatically presented to a user upon selection of the given description.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the scanning media content for locations that satisfy the criterion includes:

scanning the media content for content that is associated with a user attribute.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the scanning media content for locations that satisfy the criterion further includes:

scanning the media content for content that is expected to have interest for users in general.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the scanning media content for locations that satisfy a criterion that is associated with expected user interest includes:

performing a statistical analysis data in the media content.