Method and apparatus for automatic generation of query search terms for a program recommender

• US 7,007,294 B1
• Filed: 10/30/2000
• Issued: 02/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sisvel S.p.A. (Fineur International S.A.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Kurapati, Kaushal
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ustaris, Joseph G.
• Application Number:
  US09/699,607
• Time in Patent Office: 1,947 Days
• Field of Search: 725/46, 725/45, 725/53, 725/57, 707/1, 707/3
• US Class Current: 725/53
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/732 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/735 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• 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 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A method and apparatus are disclosed for generating television program recommendations based on a user-specified query. The television programming recommender automatically constructs a query based on previous searches that have been executed by a user. The television programming recommender can automatically initiate a search in response to a user command using the top-N search terms for each attribute that have been previously used in a query. Each time a search is initiated by the user the query is decomposed to identify the attribute-value pairs specified by the user and a counter is incremented. When an automatic search is initiated, the top-N attribute-value pairs are retrieved for each possible attribute and automatically placed in a search bin. The attributes of each program in an electronic program guide are compared to the attribute-value pairs specified in the automatic query to identify programs satisfying the limitations of the automatic query.

Claims

1. A method for searching a list of available programs from an electronic program guide, comprising the steps of:

generating a query in response to a command by a user, wherein the user command comprises a request to generate program recommendations from the available programs;

said query specifying at least one attribute-value pair for each of a plurality of program attributes, wherein at least one of said attribute-value pairs is selected based on at least one prior search that has been executed by the user to obtain program recommendations;

said query generation being performed automatically in response to said user command by accessing a historical search database that indicates a number of times that each attribute-value pair appears in the at least one prior search; and

comparing attributes of said available programs to said attribute-value pairs specified by said query to identify programs from the available programs satisfying said query.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said user command is provided by a single button click.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one of said attribute-value pairs selected based on the at least one prior search is obtained using the top-N search terms, where N is a positive number, that have been previously used in a query for said attribute.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of receiving one or more default terms for a given attribute that supercede said corresponding top-N search terms.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of decomposing said query to identify attribute-value pairs contained in said query and incrementing a counter indicating a number of times each of said attribute-value pairs appears in a query.

6. A method for constructing a query of an electronic program guide, comprising the steps of:

receiving a command from a user initiating said query, retrieving at least one prior search of the electronic program guide that has been executed by said user; and

generating said query to include at least one attribute-value pair for each of a plurality of program attributes, at least one of said attribute-value pairs being selected based on said at least one prior search, and said query generation being performed automatically in response to said user command by accessing a historical search database that indicates a number of times that each attribute-value pair appears in the at least one prior search.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said user command is provided by single button click.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said at least one of said attribute-value pairs selected based on said at least one prior search is obtained using the top-N search terms, where N is a positive number, that have been previously used in a query for said attribute.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of receiving one or more default terms for a given attribute that supercede said corresponding top-N search terms.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of decomposing said query to identify attribute-value pairs contained in said query and incrementing a counter indicating a number of times each of said attribute-value pairs appears in a query.

11. A method for constructing a query of an electronic program guide, wherein said query is comprised of at least one attribute-value pair for each of a plurality of program attributes, comprising the steps of:

receiving a command from a user initiating said query;

retrieving the top-N, where N is greater than or equal to zero, attribute-value pairs for each possible attribute based on a number of times said attribute-value pairs have previously been utilized in at least one prior search that has been executed by the user to obtain program recommendations; and

constructing said query with said top-N attribute-value pairs for each possible attribute unless a default attribute-value pair has been specified for a given attribute said query construction being performed automatically in response to said user command by accessing a historical search database that indicates a number of times that each attribute-value pair appears in the at least one prior search.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said user command is provided by single button click.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of receiving one or more default terms for a given attribute that supercede said corresponding top-N search terms.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising the steps of decomposing said query to identify attribute-value pairs contained in said query and incrementing a counter indicating a number of times each of said attribute-value pairs appears in a query.

15. A system for searching a list of available programs from an electronic program guide, comprising:

a memory for storing computer readable code; and

a processor operatively coupled to said memory, said processor configured to execute the computer readable code to;

generate a query in response to a command by a user, wherein the user command comprises a request to generate program recommendations from the available programs;

said query specifying at least one attribute-value pair for each of a plurality of program attributes, wherein at least one of said attribute-value pairs is selected based on at least one prior search that has been executed by the user to obtain program recommendations;

said query generation being performed automatically in response to said user command by accessing a historical search database that indicates a number of times that each attribute-value pair appears in the at least one prior search; and

compare attributes of said available programs to said attribute-value pairs specified by said query to identify programs from the available programs satisfying said query.

16. A system for constructing a query of an electronic program guide, comprising:

a memory for storing computer readable code; and

a processor operatively coupled to said memory, said processor configured to execute the computer readable code to;

receive a command from a user initiating said query,

retrieve at least one prior search of the electronic program guide that has been executed by said user; and

generate said query comprised of at least one attribute-value pair for each of a plurality of program attributes, at least one of said attribute-value pairs being selected based on said at least one prior search, and query generation being performed automatically in response to said user command by accessing a historical search database that indicates a number of times that each attribute-value pair appears in the at least one prior search.

17. A system for constructing a query of an electronic program guide, wherein said query is comprised of at least one attribute-value pair for each of a plurality of program attributes, comprising:

a memory for storing computer readable code; and

a processor operatively coupled to said memory, said processor configured to execute the computer readable code to;

receive a command from a user initiating said query;

retrieve the top-N, where N is greater than or equal to zero, attribute-value pairs for each possible attribute based on a number of times said attribute-value pairs have previously been utilized in at least one prior search of the electronic program guide that has been executed by the user; and

construct said query with said top-N attribute-value pairs for each possible attribute unless a default attribute-value pair has been specified for a given attribute, said query construction being performed automatically in response to said user command by accessing a historical search database that indicates a number of times that each attribute-value pair appears in the at least one prior search.

18. An article of manufacture for searching a list of available programs from an electronic program guide, comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer readable code embodied thereon, said computer readable program code being executable to perform a method comprising;

generating a query in response to a command by a user, wherein the user command comprises a request to generate program recommendations from the available programs;

said query specifying at least one attribute-value pair for each of a plurality of program attributes, wherein at least one of said attribute-value pairs is selected based on at least one prior search that has been executed by the user to obtain program recommendations;

said query generation being performed automatically in response to said user command by accessing a historical search database that indicates a number of times that each attribute-value pair appears in the at least one prior search; and

comparing attributes of said available programs to said attribute-value pairs specified by said query to identify programs from the available programs satisfying said query.

19. An article of manufacture for constructing a query of an electronic program guide, comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer readable code embodied thereon, said computer readable program code being executable to perform a method comprising;

receiving a command from a user initiating said query;

retrieving at least one prior search of the electronic program guide that has been executed by said user; and

generating said query comprised of at least one attribute-value pair for each of a plurality of program attributes, at least one of said attribute-value pairs is being selected based on said at least one prior search, and said query generation being performed automatically in response to said user command by accessing a historical search database that indicates a number of times that each attribute-value pair appears in the at least one prior search.

20. An article of manufacture for constructing a query of an electronic program guide, wherein said query is comprised of at least one attribute-value pair for each of a plurality of program attributes, comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer readable code embodied thereon, said computer readable program code being executable to perform a method comprising;

receiving a command from a user initiating said query,

retrieving the top-N, where N is greater than or equal to zero attribute-value pairs for each possible attribute based on a number of times said attribute-value pairs have previously been utilized in at least one prior search of the electronic program guide that has been executed by the user; and

constructing said query with said top-N attribute-value pairs for each possible attribute unless a default attribute-value pair has been specified for a given attribute, said query construction being performed automatically in response to said user command by accessing a historical search database that indicates a number of times that each attribute-value pair appears in the at least one prior search.