Personalizing rich media presentations based on user response to the presentation

• US 6,448,980 B1
• Filed: 10/09/1998
• Issued: 09/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kumar, Keeranoor, Menon, Jai, Lipscomb, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Assistant Examiner(s): WINDER, PATRICE L
• Application Number:
  US09/169,836
• Time in Patent Office: 1,432 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 707/2, 707/104, 707/105, 709/247, 709/219, 709/218, 709/203, 709/217, 205/14, 205/10, 205/26, 205/27, 345/745, 345/744
• US Class Current: 715/745
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

In response to an internet interrogation by a user for goods or services, a hypermedia presentation is provided that starts out with delivery and presentation of simple thumbnail descriptions of the available goods and services, and proceeds in steps through delivery and presentation of more complex descriptions. The presentations are arranged in segments and permit multiple modes of operation. Each mode has a different set of attributes that permit progress through the presentation in a different manner. When a user first enters a website, he is placed in navigation mode which enables him to browse the website by moving from category to category of goods, having an initial look at the offerings of each category. The user can then move on to the inspection and/or transaction modes. In the inspection mode: the user can examine in more detail the various aspects of the goods he is interested in; can change to a more detailed explanation; zoom in on various portions of the goods; and obtain related information. When the user enters the transaction mode, he is apparently ready to purchase the goods and is given appropriate options for this purpose such as: to obtain a quote; to ask for human assistance, and to trigger a transaction. As the user navigates through the presentation in one or more of its modes of operation, his selection process is monitored not only for this overt acts concerning selected goods and services, but also for other factors that may be revealed by the user'"'"'s selection process.

Claims

1. A method for providing personalized media presentations over a network to user'"'"'s terminal comprising:

delivering to the terminal hypermedia presentation streams of rich media material and a hierarchy of the hypermedia descriptions of hypermedia presentation streams for navigation by the user on the descriptions and presentation streams in at least three different modes of operation;

exposing a different set of selectable attributes in each the modes of operation;

allowing the user to switch between the modes and once in a particular mode select selectable attributes exposed in that mode;

gathering data about the user'"'"'s interests expressed through selection events generated at the terminal by the user'"'"'s navigation over the descriptions and presentation streams;

using the gathered data to generate a user model; and

dynamically changing what is delivered and rendered at the terminal in response to a new selection event in the user model based on the gathered selection events and reflected in the user model.

2. The method of claim 1 including dividing the hierarchy of hypermedia descriptions into a plurality of description levels in at least two of the modes where levels higher up in the hierarchial structure represent more abstract attributes of represented objects and levels lower in the hierarchial structure represent further refinements on those attributes.

3. The method of claim 2 including rendering the hierarchy of descriptions at the terminal so that the user first navigates over the hierarchial structure at a more abstract level and transitions to navigation over less and less abstract levels.

4. The method of claim 2 including first delivering to the terminal a hypermedia presentation stream at a level of the hierarchy with more abstract attributes of an item and thereafter delivering to the terminal at that level of the hierarchy in order of increasing refinement only those of the attributes in the hypermedia stream that reflect the user'"'"'s interest and personality as expressed by navigation events.

5. The method of claim 2 including dynamically updating the content of certain of the abstract descriptive attributes in a hypermedia stream depending on the user'"'"'s interest reflected by the user'"'"'s navigation events while the remainder the hypermedia stream data itself is not replaced, to provide a more personalized description of what would be the same media content.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein three different modes of operation in a presentation includes;

a first navigation mode providing descriptive attributes for navigating a website including showing different categories, different members of the same category, and parent categories;

a second inspection mode providing descriptive attributes for examination of a selection in a category of goods including video and animation views of the selection panning and zooming in on the selection in a view and animating and rotating of the selection in a view; and

a third transaction mode providing descriptive attributes to facilitate acquisition of the selection including examining various options for the selection, comparison shopping for comparable items to the selection, calling for a sales representative, and completing the transaction.

7. The server of claim 6 including,

associating different descriptive attributes with different segments of an item in the hypermedia presentation involved in the client'"'"'s navigation or interaction;

and

expanding in later viewing by the user the descriptions of the segments of the item which the user has shown interest by the user'"'"'s navigation events while leaving descriptions of other segments of the item unchanged.

8. The method of claim 1 including using explicit selection events and implicit selection events in generating the user model.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein an implicit selection event is one of the following events;

repeated requests for more detail in the hypermedia presentation;

dwell time on a rendered portion of the hypermedia presentation; and

return parameters relative to a rendered portion of the hypermedia presentation.

10. The method of claim 8 including delivering an input to a user model based on a descriptive attribute associated with a portion of the hypermedia presentation involved in a selection event.

11. The method of claim 10 including providing entry input points for transactional commands whose parameters are determined by the descriptive attributes associated with the segment of the hypermedia involved in the navigation or interaction of the user.

12. The method of claim 11 including annunciation of a portion of the hypermedia presentation associated with an entry input point involved in the navigation or interaction by the user.

13. The method of claim 10 including varying descriptive attributes in a given portion of the hypermedia presentation depending on the mode of operation covered by that given portion.

14. A server for delivering personalizable media presentations to a user'"'"'s terminal on a network comprising:

production logic for generating and continuing refining a user model of a user'"'"'s requirements and temperament expressed through selection events generated by the user in navigation over a hypermedia presentation and a hierarchy of hypermedia descriptions of the presentation rendered at the user'"'"'s terminal;

selection event capture software for transmission to the user'"'"'s terminal for capturing user selection events and providing them back to the server; and

delivery logic responsive to the user model refined by one of the captured selection events, for delivering hypermedia streams containing the rendered presentation and the hierarchy hypermedia descriptions to the user'"'"'s terminal, said delivery logic having rendering logic for dynamically changing the rendered presentations and hypermedia description based on said one of the selection events used to refine the user model.

15. The server of claim 14 wherein the hierarchy hypermedia description is represented in a multitude of description levels where levels higher up in the hierarchy represent more abstract attributes and levels lower in the hierarchy represent further refinements on the more abstract attributes.

16. The server of claim 14 wherein said selection event capture software includes code for providing inputs to user model to determine user'"'"'s temperament based on implicit navigational actions of the user over the hypermedia.

17. The server of claim 16 wherein the implicit events include repeated request for details, dwell time and return parameters relative to portions of the hypermedia presentation.

18. A method for delivering personalizable media presentations to a user'"'"'s terminal on a network comprising:

delivering rich media hypermedia presentation streams after first delivering and initially rendering in rich media a hierarchy of hypermedia descriptions of the hypermedia presentation stream for client navigation on the hypermedia descriptions;

loading the hypermedia presentation streams on the user'"'"'s terminal based on user'"'"'s selection events during navigation of the hypermedia descriptions;

constantly refining a user model based on the selection events;

varying selection and query inputs to points in the hypermedia descriptions in response to the selection events;

dynamically presenting to the user with the aid of the constantly refining user model, changes to the hypermedia presentation based on the user experiences first with the hypermedia description and then the hypermedia presentation;

dividing the presentation into three different modes of operation;

exposing a different set of selectable attributes in each of the modes of operation; and

allowing the user to switch between the modes of operation using one control action and once in a particular mode select selectable attributes in that mode using a different control action.

19. The method of claim 18 including representation by a hypermedia file is represented in a multitude of description levels where the description levels belong to a hierarchical structure where levels higher up in the hierarchial structure represent more abstract attributes and levels lower in the hierarchial structure represent further refinements on those attributes.

20. The method of claim 19 including presenting the hierarchy of descriptions on the client'"'"'s terminal so that the client always first choose to navigate over representations at the most abstract level, of the descriptions, and transition to navigation over representations that correspond to less and less abstract descriptions.

21. The server of claim 18 wherein, said selection capture software includes counting software for determining the number times particular displayed material is visited and when a threshold level is exceeded providing user interest in that material back to the server.

22. The server of claim 21 wherein, said selection capture software includes timing software for timing user hovering on displayed material and when a time threshold is exceeded providing interest in that material back to the server.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein, the one and the different control actions are multiple and single mouse button clicks respectively.

24. The method of claim 18 wherein three different modes of operation in a presentation includes;

a first navigation mode providing descriptive attributes for navigating a website including showing different categories, different members of the same category, and parent categories;

a second inspection mode providing descriptive attributes for examination of a selection in a category of goods including video and animation views of the selection;

panning and zooming in on the selection in a view and animating and rotating of the selection in a view; and

a third transaction mode providing descriptive attributes facilitate acquisition of the selection including viewing various options for the selection, comparison shopping for comparable items to the selection, calling for a slates representative and completing the transaction.

25. The server of claim 24 including,

associating different descriptive attributes with different segments of an item in the hypermedia presentation involved in the client'"'"'s navigation or interaction;

and

expanding in future viewing by the user the descriptions of the segments of the item which the user has shown interest by the user'"'"'s navigation events while leaving description of other segments of the item unchanged.

26. The method of claim 18 including:

dividing the presentation up into data segments and permitting the user to select between;

a manual mode where progress through the segments is by manual selection of the segments by the user;

an automatic mode where progress through the segments is from segment to segment at preset intervals;

or

a semiautomatic mode where passing from one segment to another is a combination of manual and automatic actions.

27. The method of claim 26 permitting the user to select between rendering a portion or the whole of the data segments.