Media recommendations based on negative feedback

• US 8,621,518 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2013
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Danker, Daniel, Barrett, Peter T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): ANDRAMUNO, FRANKLIN S
• Application Number:
  US13/755,691
• Publication Number:
  US 20130174189A1
• Time in Patent Office: 334 Days
• Field of Search: 725/46, 725/47
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A media recommendation system gathers negative user feedback associated with media content. Based on the gathered feedback, the media recommendation system extracts a list of recommended media content from program data describing available media content.

Claims

1. A method for gathering negative user feedback comprising:

tuning a multimedia tuner to a particular media content through a media channel;

receiving a user submitted command that results in the particular media content not being presented, the user submitted command comprising a power off command or a channel change command;

inferring user disinterest in the particular media content based on the user submitted command;

associating an indication of negative feedback with one or more attributes of the particular media content, based on the inferred user disinterest;

generating a list of currently available media content to be recommended to the user based on a media content recommendation algorithm;

generating a filtered list of media content by filtering the list of available media content to be recommended to the user such that media content having attributes with an associated indication of negative feedback is removed from the list of available media content to be recommended to the user; and

generating media recommendations based on the filtered list.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the media channel comprises one of a broadcast channel, a television channel, a radio channel, or a virtual channel associated with stored media content.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the particular media content comprises one of a broadcast television program, a video-on-demand program, a previously recorded program, a song, or a news program segment.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the one or more attributes of the particular media content are selected from a plurality of attributes comprising:

a rating;

a release year;

a program description;

a representation of the media channel;

closed caption data;

a title;

a rerun indicator;

a genre;

an actor;

an artist;

an album;

a broadcast time; and

a viewing time.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

making subsequent inferences of user disinterest based on subsequent user-submitted commands; and

refining indications of negative feedback associated with media content attributes based on the subsequent inferences.

6. One or more memory storage devices comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to perform a method as recited in claim 1.

7. A method comprising:

tuning to a particular channel that is currently broadcasting a particular program;

receiving a user-submitted command that results in the particular program not being presented while the particular program is being broadcast, the user submitted command comprising a power off command or a channel change command;

inferring, from the user-submitted command, a user disinterest in at least one attribute associated with the particular program;

analyzing other viewing data to select the at least one attribute associated with the particular program with which to associate the user disinterest;

associating an indication of user disinterest with the at least one attribute that is selected; and

filtering a list of programs to recommend to remove programs having an attribute with which user disinterest is associated.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the at least one attribute associated with the particular program is selected from a group of attributes including:

a television series of which the particular program is a single episode;

a particular episode of a television series;

a broadcast network;

a re-run indicator;

a broadcast time;

a broadcast day; and

a programming content.

9. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the other viewing data includes at least one of:

indicators of preferred programs;

user viewing history;

or other inferred indicators of user disinterest.

10. One or more memory storage devices comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to perform a method as recited in claim 7.

11. One or more memory storage devices comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to perform operations comprising:

identifying a particular media content on a currently tuned channel;

detecting a user-submitted command that results in the particular media content not being presented, the user submitted command comprising a power off command or a channel change command;

in response to detecting the user-submitted command, associating an indicator of negative user feedback with a media content attribute that is associated with the particular media content; and

generating media content recommendations based, at least in part, on the indicator of negative user feedback.

12. One or more memory storage devices as recited in claim 11 wherein the currently tuned channel comprises one of a broadcast channel, a television channel, a radio channel, or a virtual channel associated with stored media content.

13. One or more memory storage devices as recited in claim 11 wherein the particular media content comprises one of a broadcast television program, a video-on-demand program, a previously recorded program, a song, or a news program segment.

14. One or more memory storage devices as recited in claim 11 wherein the media content attribute that is associated with the particular media content is selected from a plurality of attributes comprising:

a rating;

a release year;

a program description;

a representation of the media channel;

closed caption data;

a title;

a rerun indicator;

a genre;

an actor;

an artist;

an album;

a broadcast time; and

a viewing time.