Recommendation of media content items based on geolocation and venue

• US 8,510,247 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2009
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kane, Francis J. Jr., Killalea, Tom, Mason, Llewellyn J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Traktovenko, Ilya
• Application Number:
  US12/495,009
• Time in Patent Office: 1,505 Days
• Field of Search: 706/46, 706/45, 706/62
• US Class Current: 706/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

Content items, such as e-books, audio files, video files, etc., may be recommended to a user based on the user'"'"'s presence at a geolocation or venue. Geolocation is the geospatial location of the user, while a venue is a designated area for an activity, such as a concert hall, aircraft, waiting room, etc. The recommendations may be of content items relating to the geolocation or venue, or they may be content items being accessed by others who are, or have been, in approximately the same geolocation or venue.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

determining a location of an accessing user who accesses one or more eBooks via an electronic book reader device;

identifying one or more eBooks associated with the location, each of the one or more identified eBooks comprising multiple portions;

ranking the one or more identified eBooks;

filtering the one or more ranked eBooks to form a subset of eBooks;

formulating a recommendation of a portion of an eBook to the accessing user from the subset of eBooks, the recommendation being based at least in part on the location of the accessing user; and

providing the recommendation to the electronic book reader device for presentation to the accessing user.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the location includes a geospatial location, a venue, or both.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises querying the electronic book reader device.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises querying a network service over which the electronic book reader device communicates.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises inferring a location based on networking information from the electronic book reader device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises querying the accessing user and receiving input of the location from the accessing user.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises finding eBooks based on access of the eBooks by other users while at the location.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises finding eBooks accessed by others who reside in a neighboring proximity of the location.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises finding eBooks based on subject matter within the eBook.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises finding eBooks based on content access events captured by the electronic book reader device.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from a user authorization to collect location and content access events generated by the user during access of the eBook.

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions,

determining a location of an accessing user who accesses content items via an electronic access device, individual content items having multiple portions;

identifying at least one potential content item associated with the location; and

formulating a recommendation of a part of the potential content item to the accessing user, the recommendation being based at least in part on the location of the accessing user, the part of the potential content item comprising at least one of one or more pages of the potential content item, one or more chapters of the potential content item, one or more sections of the potential content item, one or more tracks of the potential content item, one or more episodes of the potential content item, or one or more scenes of the potential content item.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the location includes a geospatial location, a venue, or both.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the electronic access device comprises an electronic book reader device.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the identifying comprises finding content items based on access of the content items by other users while at the location.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the identifying comprises finding content items based on subject matter within the content item.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the location comprises a neighborhood, and the identifying comprises finding content items that are accessed by other users who reside in the neighborhood.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the location comprises a logical region of users, and the identifying comprises finding content items that are accessed more frequently by the users in the logical region than users who are not.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions,

deriving content access information describing access of a content item using a first electronic access device at a location, the content item having multiple portions and the content access information comprising at least one of an access velocity through the content item, an elapsed time since a last access of the content item, a total access time of the content item, an access duration of the content item for a time period, a position in the content item that was last accessed, or a path of access through the content item;

determining when a second electronic access device is at the location; and

based at least in part on the content access information, recommending at least part of the content item to the second electronic device when at the location.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the content item comprises at least one of an electronic book, digital music, or video.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the recommending comprises suggesting other content items associated with the location.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the location comprises a geospatial location, a venue, or both.

23. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions,

determining a geographical region in which a user resides as a resident;

identifying one or more content items being accessed by other users who reside as residents in the geographical region, the other users accessing the one or more content items via an electronic book reader device, individual content items having multiple portions; and

recommending at least a portion of one content item to the user for consumption on an electronic book reader device.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the geographical region comprises a neighborhood.

35. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the recommending is based at least in part on one of the following types of information:

a purchase history of the user;

a viewing history of the user;

a preference of the user;

a relevance of the one content item to the user;

a usage pattern of the user;

a popularity of the one content item;

a proximity of the other users to the user;

or

an educational level of the other users compared to the user.

25. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory accessible by the processor;

a collection module stored in the memory and executable on the processor to collect content access events pertaining to access of content items to be consumed by users via electronic access devices, individual content items having multiple portions, each of the content access events comprising at least one of a change in position within a content item of the content items during access, a presentation mode used during access of a content item of the content items, or a time when a content item of the content items is accessed;

a location determination module stored in the memory and executable on the processor to determine a location of an electronic access device; and

a recommendation module stored in the memory and executable on the processor to recommend a content item to a user of the electronic access device based on the location of the electronic access device and the content access events, the content item having an association with the location.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the content access events are collected from an electronic book reader device.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the content item that is recommended to the user has subject matter that is relevant to the location.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the content item that is recommended to the user has been previously accessed by another user while at the location.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the recommendation module recommends the content item based on similarity of the user to a sample user who was at the location.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the recommendation module recommends the content item based on similarity of the content item to other content items accessed at the location.

31. The system of claim 25, wherein the location determination module comprises:

a geolocation determination module to determine a geolocation; and

a venue determination module to determine a venue.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the venue determination module determines venue based on at least one of the following venue determination mechanisms:

a token provided by a venue;

a venue identifier provided by a venue network;

a network identifier provided by a venue network;

a network address of a venue network;

a hardware address of an access point of a venue network;

or

querying a user.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the geolocation determination module determines a geospatial border of the location.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein the geolocation determination module determines geolocation based on at least one of the following geolocation determination mechanisms:

a geolocation report from an access device;

a geolocation service provided by a network provider;

a network address of an access device;

or

a query to a user of an access device.