Video system with a control device for displaying a menu listing viewing preferences having a high probability of acceptance by a viewer that include weighted premium content

• US 6,425,128 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2000
• Issued: 07/23/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Keen Personal Media, Inc. (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Keen Personal Media, Inc. (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Krapf, Russell M., Masters, Bradley S.
• Primary Examiner(s): GRANT, CHRISTOPHER C
• Application Number:
  US09/608,571
• Time in Patent Office: 753 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.716, H04/N.7173, H04/N.5445, 725/46, 725/45, 725/44, 725/39, 725/53, 725/104, 725/87, 725/1, 725/37, 725/32, 725/34, 725/35, 725/36
• US Class Current: 725/37
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26606 for generating or managing entitlement messages, e.g. Entitlement Control Message [ECM] or Entitlement Management Message [EMM] arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems

Abstract

A video system has an input port to receive video data that includes a plurality of premium contents, and an output port to couple to a video display for displaying video data selected by a viewer. A preference engine coupled to the input port tracks viewer selections of the video data and creates a viewer profile representing viewing preferences of the viewer. A storage device is coupled to the preference engine to store the viewer profile. An image generator is coupled to the input port, the output port and the storage device, wherein the image generator is responsive to the viewer profile and responsive to data representing available video data, including data representing the premium contents. The image generator generates a menu image to be displayed on the video display as a menu including a limited number of viewing preferences having a high probability of acceptance by the viewer. The image generator applies a weighting factor to the data representing the premium contents to ensure that at least one of the premium contents is included in the menu.

Claims

1. A video system, comprising:

an input port configured to receive video data, the video data including a plurality of premium contents;

an output port configured to couple to a video display for displaying video data selected by a viewer;

a preference engine coupled to the input port and configured to track viewer selections of the video data and to create a viewer profile representing viewing preferences of the viewer;

a storage device coupled to the preference engine to store the viewer profile; and

an image generator coupled to the input port, the output port and the storage device, the image generator responsive to the viewer profile, responsive to data representing available video data, including data representing the premium contents, and responsive to a weighting factor applied to premium contents, the image generator generating a menu image to be displayed on the video display as a menu including a limited number of viewing preferences having a high probability of acceptance by the viewer, the weighting factor applied to the data representing the premium contents ensuring that at least one of the premium contents is included in the menu.

2. The video system of claim 1, further comprising a set-top box coupled to the input port and configured to receive video data.

3. The video system of claim 2, wherein the video data includes conditional access video content representing the premium content.

4. The video system of claim 3, wherein the conditional access video content is provided through a pay-per-view service.

5. The video system of claim 4, further comprising circuitry configured to provide for a functionality of a personal video recorder for recording the video data, wherein the circuitry provides for a recording of the conditional access video content prior to viewing.

6. The video system of claim 1, wherein the video data includes a plurality of conditional access video contents representing the plurality of premium contents, and wherein the image generator applies different weighting factors to the data representing the premium contents to provide that at least one of the premium contents is included in the menu as a preferred premium content.

7. The video system of claim 6, further comprising circuitry configured to provide for a functionality of a personal video recorder for recording the video data.

8. The video system of claim 7, wherein the circuitry is configured to scramble the conditional access video content and to provide for recording of the scrambled conditional access video content.

9. The video system of claim 1, further comprising a promotion module coupled to the preference engine and the image generator, the promotion module configured to select broadcast preferred promotion contents related to a plurality of premium contents based upon the viewing preference selection of premium contents and to cause display of at least one of the selected promotion contents to entice the viewer to watch a premium content.

10. The video system of claim 9, wherein the promotion module is configured to store a plurality of sets of data, each set of data representing viewer profiles and including preferred promotion contents of one of a plurality of viewers.

11. The video system of claim 10, wherein the promotion module uses the viewing preferences to select a viewer profile from the plurality of viewer profiles upon determining which viewer is likely to watch at a given day and at given time.

12. The video system of claim 1, wherein a weighting factor applied to a premium content is modifiable to selectively increase or decrease a probability of acceptance of the premium content by the viewer.

13. A method of operating a video system, comprising:

creating a viewer profile representing viewing preferences of a viewer;

generating a set of data representing available video content, the set of data including data representing premium content;

correlating the viewer profile with the set of data representing available video content to generate a set of data representing video content having a high probability of acceptance by the viewer;

applying a weighting factor to the data representing the premium content to ensure that data representing at least one premium content is included in the set of data representing video content having a high probability of acceptance by the viewer; and

generating an image of a menu to be displayed on a video display, the menu based upon the set of data representing video content having a high probability of acceptance by the viewer, including the data representing the at least one premium content.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising storing the data representing the viewer profile.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising pre-recording at least one conditional access video content on a personal video recorder, the conditional access video data representing the premium content.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising creating a plurality of viewer profiles, each viewer profile representing viewing preferences and including preferred promotion contents of one of a plurality of viewers.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising selecting a viewer profile from the plurality of viewer profiles upon determining which viewer is likely to watch at a given day and at given time using the viewing preferences.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the premium content includes at least one conditional access video content.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one conditional access video content includes pay-per-view contents.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising pre-recording the at least one conditional access video content on a personal video recorder.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising scrambling the at least one conditional access video content prior to pre-recording it.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising de-scrambling the pre-recorded conditional access video content upon fulfilling a condition for access.