SMART PLAYLIST

• US 20180020255A1
• Filed: 06/29/2017
• Published: 01/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Original Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Inventors: Fishman, Alex, Chai, Crx K.
• Granted Patent: US 10,419,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score

Abstract

A smart playlist system is described. In one example embodiment, a collector module obtains content utilization data from a plurality of client devices associated with respective plurality of viewers. A hot list generator module generates a list of popular content items based on the obtained content utilization data. A customization module generates a customized playlist for a target viewer from the plurality of viewers, based on the list of popular content items and a profile of the target viewer. The communications module communicates the customized playlist to a client device of the target viewer.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

accessing a database to obtain content utilization data of a plurality of client devices, each client device associated with a respective viewer of a plurality of viewers, wherein the content utilization data for a first viewer from the plurality of viewers is indicative of an interest of the first viewer in respective content items, and wherein the plurality of viewers comprises a second viewer who is not identified as a social connection of the first viewer;

automatically generating, at a server computer system, a list of popular content items that are currently popular among the plurality of viewers based on the content utilization data;

for the first viewer, customizing the list of popular content items to generate a customized playlist, the customizing based on profile data of the first viewer and stored at the server computer system, wherein the customizing is performed by the server computer system and comprises;

generating a score for each item from the list of popular content items based on the profile data of the first viewer; and

including items in the customized playlist based on at least some of the scores of the items from the list of popular content items.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the customizing the list of popular content items to generate the customized playlist is further based on viewing history data of at least one viewer who is identified in social connection data as a social connection of the first viewer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the generating of the score for each item from the list of popular content items is further based on the viewing history data of the at least one viewer who is identified in the social connection data as a social connection of the first viewer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the customizing comprises selecting at least one of the popular content items for the customized playlist based on the viewing history data of the at least one viewer who is identified in the social connection data as a social connection of the first viewer indicating a high level of interest in the at least one of the popular content items while viewing history data of the first viewer indicates a low level of interest in the at least one of the popular content items by the first viewer.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating the customized playlist to a client device of the first viewer.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the communicating of the customized playlist to the client device of the first viewer comprises communicating an instruction that causes initiation of recording of a live program identified in the customized playlist.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the communicating of the customized playlist to the client device of the first viewer comprises communicating an instruction that causes display of an alert message regarding a live program identified in the customized playlist.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the items in the customized playlist include at least one of a first item that identifies Internet content, a second item that identifies video on demand content, and a third item that identifies a live program.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device comprises a set top box.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device comprises a desktop computer.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device comprises a mobile device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the customizing of the list of popular content items is also based at least in part on a content category of interest to the first viewer.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the content utilization data indicates lengths of time during which the plurality of viewers have viewed a content item.

14. A system comprising:

a memory that stores instructions; and

one or more processors configured by the instructions to perform operations comprising;

accessing a database to obtain content utilization data of a plurality of client devices associated with a plurality of viewers, wherein the content utilization data for a first viewer from the plurality of viewers is indicative of an interest of the first viewer in respective content items, and wherein the plurality of viewers comprises a second viewer who is not identified as social connections of the viewer;

automatically generating a list of popular content items that are currently popular among the plurality of viewers based on the content utilization data;

generating a customized playlist for the first viewer by performing customization operations comprising;

generating a score for each item from the list of popular content items based on a profile of the first viewer; and

including items in the customized playlist based on respective scores of the items from the list of popular content items.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the customizing the list of popular content items to generate the customized playlist is further based on viewing history data of at least one viewer who is identified in social connection data as a social connection of the first viewer.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the generating of the score for each item from the list of popular content items is further based on viewing history data of the at least one viewers who is identified in social connection data as social connections of the first viewer.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the customization operations further comprise selecting at least one of the popular content items for the customized playlist based on viewing history data of the at least one viewer who is identified in social connection data as social connections of the first viewer indicating a high level of interest in the at least one of the popular content items while viewing history data of the first viewer indicates a low level of interest in the at least one of the popular content items by the first viewer.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

communicating the customized playlist to a client device of the first viewer.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise communicating to the client device of the first viewer an instruction that causes initiation of recording of a live program identified in the customized playlist.

20. A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

accessing a database to obtain content utilization data of a plurality of client devices, each client device associated with a respective viewer of a plurality of viewers, wherein the content utilization data for a first viewer of the plurality of viewers is indicative of an interest of the first viewer in respective content items, and wherein the plurality of viewers comprises a second viewer who is not identified as a social connection of the viewer;

automatically generating a list of popular content items that are currently popular among the plurality of viewers based on the content utilization data;

generating a customized playlist for the first viewer, the generating of the customized playlist being based on the list of popular content items and profile data of the first viewer, wherein the generating of the customized playlist comprises;

generating a score for each item from the list of popular content items based on the profile data of the first viewer; and

including items in the customized playlist based on at least some of the scores of the items from the list of popular content items.