Methods and systems for selecting and presenting content based on activity level spikes associated with the content

• US 7,657,526 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2007
• Issued: 02/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veveo, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Veveo, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Aravamudan, Murali, Rajasekharan, Ajit, Ramakrishnan, Kajamalai G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo; James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Moser; Bruce M
• Application Number:
  US11/682,689
• Publication Number:
  US 20070276821A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,064 Days
• Field of Search: 707/7, 707/3, 707/5, 725/39, 725/44, 725/46
• US Class Current: 707/750
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/152 using file content signatures, e.g. hash values
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2453 Query optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2457 with adaptation to user needs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2462 Approximate or statistical queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/437 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialisation, adaptation, distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/438 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• 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 21/44224 : Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 : involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• 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 21/466 : 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 21/4828 : for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 : Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 : Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 : Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 : Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method of selecting and presenting content based on detecting an increased level of activity associated with the content is presented. The method includes providing a set of content items with associated descriptive terms. The method includes receiving user search input for identifying desired content items and, in response to the incremental input entered by the user, presenting a subset of content items to the user. The method further includes receiving actions from the user selecting content items from the subset and analyzing the descriptive terms associated with the selected content items to detect an increased level of activity for descriptive terms associated with the content items selected by the users. The method includes, in response to receiving subsequent user search input, selecting and ordering a collection of content items based on promoting the ranking of content items associated with descriptive terms that have an increased level of recent activity.

Claims

1. A user-interface method of selecting and presenting a collection of content items in which the presentation is ordered at least in part based on analyzing descriptive terms associated with content items of the collection and promoting the presentation order of content items associated with descriptive terms that are also associated with content items that have an increased level of recent selection occurrence by a plurality of users, the method comprising:

providing a set of content items, each content item having at least one associated descriptive term to describe the content item;

receiving a plurality of incremental input strings entered by a corresponding plurality of users for incrementally identifying desired content items;

in response to each of the plurality of incremental input strings entered by the plurality of users, presenting a subset of content items to each user of the plurality of users responsive to the incremental input string entered by the corresponding a user;

receiving actions from each of the users of the plurality of users selecting content items from the subset of content items presented to said user;

analyzing the descriptive terms associated with the content items selected by the plurality of users to detect an increase in the frequency with which descriptive terms are associated with the content items selected by the plurality of users;

in response to receiving subsequent incremental input entered by a user of the plurality of users, selecting and ordering a collection of content items based on promoting the order of content items associated with descriptive terms that have a recent increase in the frequency with which said descriptive terms are associated with the content items selected by the plurality of users; and

presenting the ordered collection of content items on a display device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of at least a plurality of the content items is associated with a corresponding popularity value indicating a relative measure of a likelihood that the corresponding content item is desired by the user, and wherein ordering the collection of content items is further based on promoting the order of content items having popularity values that are higher relative to popularity values associated with other content items.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of content items includes at least one of television program items, movie items, audio/video media items, music items, contact information items, personal schedule items, web content items, and purchasable product items.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of content items includes at least one of television program items, movie items, and audio/video media items and the at least one associated descriptive term includes at least one of title, cast, director, content description, and keywords associated with the content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of content items is contained on at least one of a cable television system, a video-on-demand system, an IPTV system, and a personal video recorder.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the incremental input and the subsequent incremental input are entered by the user on a hand-held device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the hand-held device has a plurality of overloaded keys, each of the overloaded keys representing two or more characters.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the incremental input and the subsequent incremental input are entered by the user on at least one of a telephone, a PDA, a computer, and a remote control.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting the ordered collection of content items on at least part of a television screen.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the display device is a hand-held device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the hand-held device is at least one of a telephone, a PDA, and a remote control.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the incremental input and the subsequent incremental input comprises at least one prefix of a word for describing the desired content items.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the incremental input and the subsequent incremental input comprises at least two prefixes of a phrase for describing the desired content items.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of receiving incremental input, presenting the subset of content items, receiving actions from the user, analyzing the descriptive terms, and selecting and ordering the collection of content items is performed on a server system remote from the user.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of receiving incremental input, presenting the subset of content items, receiving actions from the user, analyzing the descriptive terms, and selecting and ordering the collection of content items is performed on a user client device.