Interface for collecting user preferences

• US 7,370,276 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2003
• Issued: 05/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Willis, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo; Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): Theriault; Steven B.
• Application Number:
  US10/354,144
• Publication Number:
  US 20040003096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,923 Days
• Field of Search: 715/747, 715/744
• US Class Current: 715/747
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing

Abstract

Various techniques are disclosed for accepting preference information from a user, where the preference information is specific to content elements within a media asset, and the preference information is collected while the user is viewing a display of the media asset. These techniques allow a user to change his or her preference information quickly, easily, and efficiently, and to improve the use of, for example, a search engine, a portal page, a reverse-query portal page, or a video (for example, television) display. For example, the user may update/modify a search being performed by a search engine while viewing one of the media assets discovered during the search, without having to return to a search engine home page or a search results summary page.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

generating discrete media assets from received information at a content generator, each media asset including content, the content including a plurality of discussion objects;

generating content metadata for each media asset at an article reader, based upon the content;

comparing the content metadata to a filtering database at a content-based router;

filtering the media assets at the content-based router based upon comparing the content metadata to the filtering database;

comparing the filtered media assets to a user preference database storing media asset preference information for a user, at a personalized article processor;

individually prioritizing the filtered media assets for the user into prioritized media assets at the personalized article processor based upon comparing the content metadata of the filtered media assets to the user preference database;

outputting the prioritized media assets including a first discussion object to a rendering medium;

receiving a user feedback selection including at least the first discussion object and postponement preference data associated with at least the first discussion object, the postponement preference data indicating a specified period of time to postpone outputting media assets including the first discussion object, and the user feedback selection being received from a context menu;

re-prioritizing the prioritized media assets based upon the user feedback selection at the personalized article processor; and

outputting the re-prioritized media assets including the first discussion object to the rendering medium.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting the context menu, the context menu illustrating time periods that may be selected as the specified period of time to postpone.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the postponement preference data includes one of the time periods.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the time periods include a next day and a day after the next day.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the time periods refer to a next week and a week after the next week.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

gathering the information using an agent; and

transmitting the information from the agent to the content generator.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information is generated into discrete media assets that each further include content metadata associated with the content.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the content metadata includes the author of the content, the general subject heading of the content, content metadata, attribute information, or portions of the content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the media asset includes text, video, audio and/or hypertext markup language (“

HTML”

) code.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of the content is included in the media asset in multiple formats.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the content further comprises a web page, an electronic mail message, contact information, weather information, or a stock quote.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the enterprise object model describes how the content metadata should be interpreted.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the enterprise object model is a customer enterprise object model, a supplier object model, or a standardized object model.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the information referencing the media assets includes links to the media assets or the content metadata for each media asset.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering database is an access control database storing security clearance information for each user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering database is the user preference database.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising populating the user preference database based upon receiving user preferences via a preference form.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising populating the user preference database over time based upon receiving user feedback.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering medium is an audio or video device.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing the capacity of the rendering medium stored in the user preference database.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the information at the content generator.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing the media assets at the article reader, from the content generator.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the media assets in an article database.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving information referencing the media assets at a content-based router.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the filtered media assets at the personalized article processor from the content-based router.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the formatted media assets further comprises outputting a media asset with the highest priority in a most prominent location of the rendering medium.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the formatted media asset further comprises:

outputting a portion of a media asset with less than the highest priority,

outputting a media asset with the highest priority after outputting the portion of the media asset with less than the highest priority, and

outputting a reminder of the media asset with less than the highest priority after outputting the media asset with the highest priority.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the formatted media assets are output using extensible markup language (“

XML”

).

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the discussion objects are categorized by discussion class.

30. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the prioritized media assets based upon the capacity of the rendering medium.

31. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a capacity of the rendering medium for the user, at a pagination engine; and

formatting the prioritized media assets for the user based upon the capacity of the rendering medium, at the pagination engine,

wherein outputting the prioritized media assets to the rendering medium further comprises outputting the formatted media assets to the rendering medium.

32. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting the received information using a software agent.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information includes information generated within the content generator.

34. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the postponement preference data in the user preference database.

38. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the prioritized media assets include a second discussion object included in the plurality of discussion objects, and

the user feedback selection including at least the first discussion object and the postponement preference data associated with at least the first discussion object is received concurrently with displaying the first discussion object and the second discussion object.

39. The method of claim 2 wherein the user feedback selection is received by selecting one of the time periods.

40. The method of claim 1 wherein the re-prioritized media assets including the first discussion object comprises outputting the re-prioritized media assets including the first discussion object one time only and at a time defined by the postponement preference data.

35. A device comprising:

a content generator configured to generate discrete media assets from received information, each media asset including content, the content including a plurality of discussion objects;

an article reader configured to generate content metadata for each media asset, based upon the content;

a content-based router configured to;

compare the content metadata to a filtering database, and

filter the media assets based upon comparing the content metadata to the filtering database; and

a personalized article processor configured to;

compare the filtered media assets to a user preference database storing media asset preference information for a user,

individually prioritize the filtered media assets for the user into prioritized media assets based upon comparing the content metadata of the filtered media assets to the user preference database,

output the prioritized media assets to a rendering medium,

receive a user feedback selection including at least a first discussion object and postponement preference data associated with at least the first discussion object, the postponement preference data indicating a specified period of time to postpone outputting media assets including the first discussion object, and the user feedback selection being received from a context menu.

re-prioritize the prioritized media assets based upon the user feedback selection, and

output the re-prioritized media assets including the first discussion object to the rendering medium.

36. An apparatus comprising a storage medium, wherein the storage medium stores instructions that, when executed, cause a data processing apparatus to:

generate discrete media assets from received information at a content generator, each media asset including content, the content including a plurality of discussion objects;

generate content metadata for each media asset at an article reader, based upon the content;

compare the content metadata to a filtering database at a content-based router;

filter the media assets at the content-based router based upon comparing the content metadata to the filtering database;

compare the filtered media assets to a user preference database storing media asset preference information for a user, at a personalized article processor;

individually prioritize the filtered media assets for the user into prioritized media assets at the personalized article processor based upon comparing the content metadata of the filtered media assets to the user preference database;

output the prioritized media assets to a rendering medium;

receive a user feedback selection including at least a first discussion object and postponement preference data associated with at least the first discussion object, the postponement preference data indicating a specified period of time to postpone outputting media assets including the first discussion object, and the user feedback selection being received from a context menu;

re-prioritize the prioritized media assets based upon the user feedback selection at the personalized article processor; and

output the re-prioritized media assets including the first discussion object to the rendering medium.

37. A computer-implemented method comprising:

generating discrete media assets from received information at a content generator, each media asset including content, the content including a plurality of discussion objects;

generating content metadata for each media asset at an article reader, based upon the content;

comparing the content metadata to a filtering database at a content-based router;

filtering the media assets at the content-based router based upon comparing the content metadata to the filtering database;

comparing the filtered media assets to a user preference database storing media asset preference information for a user, at a personalized article processor;

individually prioritizing the filtered media assets for the user into prioritized media assets at the personalized article processor based upon comparing the content metadata of the filtered media assets to the user preference database;

outputting a portal page to a rendering medium, the portal page including a section configured to display the prioritized media assets such that the prioritized media assets are included in an iView;

receiving a user feedback selection including at least a first discussion object and postponement preference data associated with at least the first discussion object, the postponement preference data indicating a specified period of time to postpone outputting media assets including the first discussion object, and the user feedback selection being received from a context menu;

re-prioritizing the prioritized media assets based upon the user feedback selection at the personalized article processor; and

outputting the re-prioritized media assets including the first discussion object to the rendering medium.