System for customized electronic identification of desirable objects

• US 6,029,195 A
• Filed: 12/05/1997
• Issued: 02/22/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Pinpoint Incorporated (Altitude Capital Partners)
• Original Assignee: Frederick S.M. Herz
• Inventors: Herz, Frederick S. M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, John W.
• Application Number:
  US08/985,731
• Time in Patent Office: 809 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.47-200.49, 348/1, 348/2, 348/6, 348/7, 348/8, 348/10, 455/3.1, 455/4.1, 455/4.2, 455/5.1, 455/6.1, 455/6.2
• US Class Current: 725/116
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• 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 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26603 for automatically generating descriptors from content, e.g. when it is not made available by its provider, using content analysis techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4332 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. local EPG data repository interfaces, Database management systems or updating for information retrieval G06F16/23; details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4665 involving classification methods, e.g. Decision trees
• 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 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 : Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 : with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17354 : in an intermediate station common to a plurality of user terminals

Abstract

This invention relates to customized electronic identification of desirable objects, such as news articles, in an electronic media environment, and in particular to a system that automatically constructs both a "target profile" for each target object in the electronic media based, for example, on the frequency with which each word appears in an article relative to its overall frequency of use in all articles, as well as a "target profile interest summary" for each user, which target profile interest summary describes the user'"'"'s interest level in various types of target objects. The system then evaluates the target profiles against the users'"'"' target profile interest summaries to generate a user-customized rank ordered listing of target objects most likely to be of interest to each user so that the user can select from among these potentially relevant target objects, which were automatically selected by this system from the plethora of target objects that are profiled on the electronic media. Users'"'"' target profile interest summaries can be used to efficiently organize the distribution of information in a large scale system consisting of many users interconnected by means of a communication network. Additionally, a cryptographically-based pseudonym proxy server is provided to ensure the privacy of a user'"'"'s target profile interest summary, by giving the user control over the ability of third parties to access this summary and to identify or contact the user.

Claims

1. A method for providing a user with access to selected ones of a plurality of target object bulletin boards that are accessible via an electronic data transmission media, where said users are connected via user terminals and data communication connections to a server system which provides access to said electronic data transmission media, said method comprising the steps of:

automatically generating target profiles for target object bulletin boards that are accessible by said electronic data transmission media, each of said target profiles being generated from the contents of an associated one of said target object bulletin boards;

automatically generating at least one user target profile interest summary for a user at a user terminal, each said user target profile interest summary being generated from ones of said target object bulletin boards accessed by said user; and

enabling access to said plurality of target object bulletin boards accessible by said electronic data transmission media by users via said target profile, comprising;

automatically creating virtual communities of users of said target object bulletin boards, comprising;

scanning bulletin board postings to existing target object bulletin boards,

identifying groups of user identifications whose associated users have common interests,

matching users with other like inclined users to create a new target object bulletin board.

2. The method for providing a user with access to selected ones of a plurality of target object bulletin boards of claim 1, wherein said step of automatically creating further comprises:

dynamically creating electronic mailing lists for said users matched by said step of matching.

3. The method for providing a user with access to selected ones of a plurality of target object bulletin boards of claim 2, wherein said step of automatically creating further comprises:

automatically transmitting a notification to said users matched by said step of matching to identify said new target object bulletin board to said ones of said associated users.

4. The method for providing a user with access to selected ones of a plurality of target object bulletin boards of claim 1, wherein said step of automatically creating further comprises:

continuing to enroll additional users in said new target object bulletin board.

5. A method for providing a user with access to selected ones of a plurality of target object bulletin boards that are accessible via an electronic data transmission media, where said users are connected via user terminals and data communication connections to a server system which provides access to said electronic data transmission media, said method comprising the steps of:

automatically generating target profiles for target object bulletin boards that are accessible by said electronic data transmission media, each of said target profiles being generated from the contents of an associated one of said target object bulletin boards comprising;

generating a target profile comprising the cluster profile for a cluster of documents posted on said new target object bulletin board;

automatically generating at least one user target profile interest summary for a user at a user terminal, each said user target profile interest summary being generated from ones of said target object bulletin boards accessed by said user; and

enabling access to said plurality of target object bulletin boards accessible by said electronic data transmission media by users via said target profile.

6. A method of operating a network-based agent to seek out users of a network with common interests, where said users are connected via user terminals and data communication connections to a server system which provides access to an electronic data transmission media, comprising the steps of:

dynamically creating bulletin boards for said users, comprising;

scanning bulletin board postings to existing bulletin boards,

identifying a group of users who have common interests,

matching users with other like inclined users in said identified group to create a proposed new bulletin board.

7. The method of operating a network-based agent of claim 6 wherein said step of scanning bulletin boards comprises:

automatically generating target profiles for bulletin boards that are accessible by said electronic data transmission media, each of said target profiles being generated from the contents of an associated one of said bulletin boards.

8. The method of operating a network-based agent of claim 7, wherein said step of automatically generating target profiles comprises:

generating a target profile comprising the cluster profile for a cluster of documents posted on said bulletin boards.

9. The method of operating a network-based agent of claim 6 wherein said step of identifying a group of users comprises:

automatically generating at least one user target profile interest summary for a user at a user terminal, each said user target profile interest summary being generated from ones of said bulletin boards accessed by said user.

10. The method of operating a network-based agent of claim 6, wherein said step of automatically creating further comprises:

dynamically creating electronic mailing lists for said users matched by said step of matching.

11. The method of operating a network-based agent of claim 10, wherein said step of automatically creating further comprises:

automatically transmitting a notification to said users matched by said step of matching to identify said proposed new bulletin board to said ones of said associated users.

12. The method of operating a network-based agent of claim 6, wherein said step of automatically creating further comprises:

continuing to enroll additional users in said proposed new bulletin board.

13. The method of operating a network-based agent of claim 6, wherein said step of matching comprises:

identifying an existing bulletin board whose mean profile of the set of messages recently posted therein is within a threshold distance of the cluster profile of said proposed new bulletin board.

14. The method of operating a network-based agent of claim 13, further comprising the step of:

automatically transmitting a notification to said users matched by said step of matching to identify said existing bulletin board to said ones of said associated users.

15. The method of operating a network-based agent of claim 14, wherein said step of automatically transmitting a notification comprises:

transmitting to said users matched by said step of matching an indication at least one of the data comprising an indication of common interest including;

a list of titles of messages recently sent to the bulletin board, an introductory message provided by the bulletin board, a label that identifies the content of the cluster profile that was used to identify the existing bulletin board.