Method and apparatus for detecting and viewing similar programs within a video system

• US 6,973,663 B1
• Filed: 03/24/2000
• Issued: 12/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hughes Electronics Corporation (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Brown, Jeffrey A., Finseth, Craig A., Hsiao, Philip E.
• Primary Examiner(s): BUI, KIEU OANH T
• Application Number:
  US09/536,074
• Time in Patent Office: 2,083 Days
• Field of Search: 725/9, 725/37, 725/39, 725/40, 725/42, 725/43, 725/54, 725/145, 725/146, 725/49
• US Class Current: 725/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• 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 21/466 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 21/4663 involving probabilistic networks, e.g. Bayesian networks
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/162 Authorising the user terminal, e.g. by paying; Registering the use of a subscription channel, e.g. billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A device that detects and displays similar programs within a video system includes a memory, a display and a receiver that receives an input stream of television program content and electronic program guide data, wherein. the program guide data includes a plurality of attributes characterizing television programs within the television program content. The receiver separates electronic program guide data from the input stream while the memory stores the electronic program guide data separated from the input stream. Upon receiving a first user request, a controller compares a first set of attributes relating to at least one television program within the television content with second sets of attributes relating to further television programs within the television program content to determine a correlation between the first television program and each of the further television programs. In this manner, the controller identifies the television programs that have attributes that are similar to the attributes of the first television program based on the correlation and displays indications of the television programs found to be similar.

Claims

1. A program similarity detecting device comprising:

a receiver adapted to receive an input stream of television program content and electronic program guide data, and adapted to separate the electronic program guide data from the input stream, wherein the program guide data includes a plurality of attributes characterizing television programs within the television program content;

a memory coupled to the receiver and adapted to store the electronic program guide data;

a controller coupled to the memory; and

a display coupled to the controller;

wherein the controller is programmed to compare a first set of attributes relating to at least one television program within the television program content to a second set of attributes relating to a second television program within the television program content to calculate a similarity score for the second television program based on a weighted combination of at least two attributes from the second set of attributes, and wherein the controller is programmed to cause the display to generate a first display indicating the second television program based on the similarity score.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to cause the display to generate a second display including an explanation describing the similarity score.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the explanation includes a textual description of the attributes used by the controller when calculating the similarity score.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of attributes characterizing television programs within the television program content include category information and wherein the controller is programmed to compare category information associated with the first television program to category information associated with the second television program to calculate the similarity score.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of attributes characterizing television programs within the television program content include keywords and phrases and wherein the controller is programmed to compare keywords and phrases associated with the first television program to keywords and phrases associated with the second television program to calculate the similarity score.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of attributes characterizing television programs within the television program content include series information and wherein the controller is programmed to compare series information associated with the first television program to series information associated with the second television program to calculate the similarity score.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of attributes characterizing television programs within the television program content include group information and wherein the controller is programmed to compare group information associated with the first television program to group information associated with the second television program to calculate the similarity score.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of attributes characterizing television programs within the television program content include credits information and wherein the controller is programmed to compare credits information associated with the first television program to credits information associated with the second television program to calculate the similarity score.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of attributes characterizing television programs within the television program content include name information and wherein the controller is programmed to compare name information associated with the first television program to name information associated with the second television program to calculate the similarity score.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to calculate a similarity score for each of a plurality of the television programs included in the television program content by comparing the first set of attributes and a further set of attributes associated with each of the plurality of television programs.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the memory stores a cutoff score and wherein the controller is programmed to compare the similarity scores to the cutoff score and to limit the number of indications of television programs displayed on the display using the cutoff score.

12. A method of identifying similar programs within a video reception system comprising:

storing first characterizing information associated with a first television program;

receiving further characterizing information associated with each of a second set of television programs;

comparing the first characterizing information and each of the further characterizing information to determine a similarity score for each of the second set of television programs, wherein each similarity score is calculated based on a weighted combination of attributes associated with a corresponding one of the programs from the second set television programs;

selecting a third set of television programs from the second set of television programs based on the similarity scores; and

displaying indications of the third set of television programs.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising displaying an explanation of the similarity score for at least one of the third set of programs.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein displaying the explanation further comprises the stop of displaying an attribute associated with the further characterizing information that matches an attribute associated with the first characterizing information.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein displaying the explanation further comprises displaying the explanation textually.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the attributes include category information.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the attributes include keywords and phrases.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the attributes include series information.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the attributes include group information.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the attributes include credits information.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the attributes include name information.

22. A method of displaying program similarity explanations comprising the steps of:

receiving program guide data including characterizing information for each of a plurality of television programs;

storing the program guide data in a memory;

identifying a first set of television programs;

storing attribute information for the first set of television programs;

comparing the characterizing information of the first set of television programs with attribute information for a second set television programs;

calculating a similarity score for each of the second set of television programs, wherein each of the similarity scores is based on a weighted combination of attributes associated with the second set of television programs that match attributes associated with the first set of television programs; and

displaying an indication of at least one of the television programs within the second set of television programs based on the similarity scores.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of displaying the indication includes displaying an explanation of a correlation between the first set of television programs and one of the television programs within the second set of television programs.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the first set of television programs includes one television program.