MOVIE DISCOVERY SYSTEM

• US 20120324374A1
• Filed: 06/17/2011
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Oron, Avigad, KARMON, Kfir, Bennet, Rotem, Amit-Miller, Noga, Diamant, Adi
• Granted Patent: US 9,326,033 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/735 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/251 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies details of learning user preferences for the retrieval of video data in a video database G06F16/739; computer systems using learning methods G06N3/08
• 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 21/4755 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38

Abstract

A movie browsing system may use a combination of long term and session based preferences to help a user browse movies using microcategories. The user preferences may be stored as microcategory weights, where the session based weights may change during a session as the system learns the types of movies a user wishes to see at that time. The long term microcategory weights may change at a slower rate than the session weights. The system may present a diverse set of microcategories to a user in an effort to diverge the search and learn the user'"'"'s current interest, and may refine the weights as the user browses to converge to a desired movie. A user interface may operate on a television screen with a minimum of user input controls to navigate the browsing system while still collecting user preferences.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a movie database comprising a plurality of microcategories assigned to each movie in said movie database;

a user database comprising user profiles, each of said user profiles comprising microcategory weights corresponding to said plurality of microcategories;

an interactive browser that;

determines an initial set of movies using a user profile for a first user;

presents a plurality of microcategories on a user interface, each of said microcategories comprising a plurality of movies;

receives input from a user to select one of said microcategories;

updating a session profile comprising said microcategory weights based on said input; and

updating said plurality of microcategories on said user interface.

2. The system of claim 1, said plurality of microcategories comprising a highly weighted microcategory and a lightly weighted microcategory.

3. The system of claim 2, said highly weighted microcategory representing a microcategory having a high affinity with a user'"'"'s previous selections.

4. The system of claim 2, said lightly weighted microcategory representing a microcategory having a low affinity with a user'"'"'s previous selections.

5. The system of claim 2, said interactive browser that further:

receives a movie selection from said user and updates said user profile based on said session profile.

6. The system of claim 5, said interactive browser that further:

presents at least three movies in each of said microcategories on said user interface.

7. The system of claim 6, said interactive browser that further:

has a mechanism to view details about one of said movies.

8. The system of claim 7, said interactive browser that further:

has a mechanism to view a trailer for at least one of said movies.

9. The system of claim 2, said interactive browser that updates said session profile based on a type of interaction received from a user.

10. The system of claim 9, said interactive browser that weights a first type of interaction higher than a second type of interaction.

11. The system of claim 1, said movie database comprising on average at least 5 microcategory classifications for each of said movies.

12. The system of claim 11, said movie database comprising on average at least 10 microcategory classifications for each of said movies.

13. A method comprising:

receiving a user identifier;

looking up said user identifier in a user profile database comprising user profiles, each of said user profiles comprising a plurality of microcategory weights;

determining a browsing starting point comprising a first microcategory;

accessing a movie database comprising a plurality of movies organized by microcategories;

determining at least two additional microcategories;

presenting said first microcategory and said at least two additional microcategories on a user interface; and

for each of said microcategories, presenting at least one movie associated with said microcategories on said user interface.

14. The method of claim 13, at least one of said at least two additional microcategories being a microcategory having a low affinity with said user profile.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

receiving an input from a user selecting a second microcategory, said first microcategory being one of said at least two additional microcategories; and

replacing said first microcategory with said second microcategory on said user interface.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

receiving a selection identifying a movie from said user interface and displaying information about said movie on said user interface.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

causing at least a portion of said movie to be displayed on said user interface.

18. A system comprising:

a movie database comprising a plurality of movies, each of said movies being categorized into a plurality of microcategories;

a movie categorizer comprising a first user interface through which an expert identifies a movie and categorizes said movie using said microcategories;

a user database comprising user profiles, each of said user profiles comprising microcategory weights associated with said plurality of microcategories;

a movie browser comprising a second user interface through which a user browses movies arranged by said microcategories, said movie browser that;

determines an initial set of movies using a user profile for a first user, said initial set of movies being members of a first microcategory;

identifies a plurality of additional microcategories;

for each of said additional microcategories and said first microcategory, identifying a plurality of movies within the microcategory and presenting at least some of said plurality of movies as part of said microcategory;

receives input from a user to select one of said additional microcategories;

updates said second user interface to highlight said one of said additional microcategories; and

selects a second set of additional microcategories to display on said second user interface.

19. The system of claim 18, said movie browser that further:

receives a selection from said user for a first movie;

determines a microcategory weighting for said first movie; and

updates said microcategory weights for said user profile for said user using said microcategory weighting.

20. The system of claim 19, said movie browser that further:

updates said microcategory weights for said user profile for said user based on said input from said user.