SCHEMA FOR INTERESTS AND DEMOGRAPHICS PROFILE FOR ADVANCED BROADCAST SERVICES

• US 20120185888A1
• Filed: 01/19/2011
• Published: 07/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Eyer, Mark, Yamagishi, Yasuaki
• Application Number:
  US13/009,720
• Publication Number:
  US 20120185888A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/13
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4431 characterized by the use of Application Program Interface [API] libraries
• 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 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• 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 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method for a digital broadcast system comprises an operation of receiving and processing an electronic questionnaire from at least one service provider of the digital broadcast system by a receiver. For instance, the electronic questionnaire has a first data structure that, when processed by the receiver, generates for display a plurality of questions. Thereafter, the method comprises an operation of acquiring answers to the electronic questionnaire in the receiver. The answers are used in filtering content subsequently downloaded to the receiver.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for a digital broadcast system, the method comprising:

receiving and processing an electronic questionnaire from at least one service provider of the digital broadcast system by a receiver, the electronic questionnaire having a first data structure that, when processed by the receiver, generates for display a plurality of questions; and

acquiring answers to the electronic questionnaire by the receiver, the answers being used in filtering content subsequently downloaded to the receiver.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the first data structures comprise an XML schema.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the first data structure comprises a type of answer identifier, a question identifier, a question associated with the question identifier, and answer candidates associated with the question.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 wherein the type of answer identifier comprises a Boolean type answer, a variable integer type answer, a multiple selection type answer, a single selection type answer, or a variable text type answer.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 wherein the question identifier is associated with at least one service provider.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein prior to receiving and processing the questionnaire, the method further comprises submitting a question inquiry request and receiving a response that identifies whether the question inquiry request either has been granted or has been denied, the question inquiry request comprises (i) a proposed question and (ii) information that identifies a reply format to the proposed question.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the response comprises information to identify whether the request has been granted or denied, and either (i) a question identifier that uniquely identifies a registered question identical or similar to the proposed question when the request has been granted so as to avoid registration of duplicate questions from different service providers, or (ii) information to identify one or more reasons for a denial of the request.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the XML schema comprises a lifetime attribute associated with a question identifier, the lifetime attribute configured to signal to the receiver that an answer associated with the question identifier may be deleted after a specified amount of time has elapsed in the receiver.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

executing a script at a web browser of the receiver, wherein the script is configured to ask a user of the receiver questions from the questionnaire, and to store answers in the receiver.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, having instructions stored therein, which when executed, cause a computer system to perform a method comprising:

receiving and processing an electronic questionnaire associated with at least one service provider of the digital broadcast system by a receiver, the questionnaire comprises a first data structure including a text question, an identifier being a unique value associated with the text question, and a question type identifier to identify a reply format for the question; and

acquiring answers to the electronic questionnaire in the receiver.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the first data structures comprise an XML schema.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the first data structure comprises a type of answer identifier, a question identifier, and a question associated with the question identifier.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein the type of answer identifier comprises a Boolean type answer, a variable integer type answer, a multiple selection type answer, a single selection type answer, or a variable text type answer.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein the question identifier is associated with at least one service provider.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the XML schema comprises a lifetime attribute associated with a question identifier, the lifetime attribute configured to delete an answer associated with the question identifier after a predetermined amount of time has elapsed in the receiver.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the method further comprises:

executing a script at a web browser of the receiver, wherein the script is configured to display question from the questionnaire, to identify responses to the questions, and to store answers in the receiver.

17. A digital broadcast receiver comprising:

a storage device configured to store (i) a questionnaire received from at least one service provider of a digital broadcast system and (ii) answers to the questionnaire; and

a processing logic coupled to the storage device, the processing logic configured to process information within the questionnaire to generate one or more displayable images including a plurality of questions that request answers, the information includes an Extensible Markup Language (XML) schema including a data structure that comprises a type of answer identifier, a question identifier and a question associated with the question identifier,

wherein execution of the XML schema prompts a display of the question associated with the question identifier and to await a response being one or more answers to the displayed question for use in filtering content received by the receiver.

18. The digital broadcast receiver of claim 17 wherein the XML schema comprises a lifetime attribute associated with the question identifier, the lifetime attribute configured to delete an answer associated with the question identifier after a predetermined amount of time has elapsed in the receiver.

19. The digital broadcast receiver of claim 17 wherein the processing logic is further configured to execute a script at a web browser of the receiver, wherein the script is configured to the question associated with the question identifier, and to store the one or more answers to the question in the receiver.

20. The digital broadcast receiver of claim 19 wherein the processing logic is further configured to access the one or more answers and the questionnaire with an application programming interface at the receiver.