Method and apparatus for providing personalized supplemental programming
First Claim
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1. A set-top box comprising:
- a receiver to receive primary programming;
an electronic program guide, the electronic program guide containing descriptive information regarding programs of the primary programming;
a supplemental programming database having content criteria and associated supplemental programming, the supplemental programming being programming that supplements the primary programming;
a processor agent to evaluate the descriptive information of the electronic program guide for a selected program using the content criteria and to identify the supplemental programming associated with the used content criteria using the database, the content criteria comprising user personalized and user entered content criteria, the supplemental programming being identified in accordance with user programming affinity determination based upon user programming preference analysis of the types of programming that have undergone user access;
a delivery module, coupled to the processing agent, to provide the identified supplemental programming to an element of an entertainment system together with the selected program.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for providing personalized supplemental programming is provided. In one embodiment, the invention can include searching text for a keyword, the text associated with primary programming to be provided to an element of an entertainment system, accessing a database upon finding the keyword, retrieving content associated with the keyword from the database, combining the retrieved content with the primary programming to generate combined programming, and providing the combined programming to the element of the entertainment system.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A set-top box comprising:
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a receiver to receive primary programming; an electronic program guide, the electronic program guide containing descriptive information regarding programs of the primary programming; a supplemental programming database having content criteria and associated supplemental programming, the supplemental programming being programming that supplements the primary programming; a processor agent to evaluate the descriptive information of the electronic program guide for a selected program using the content criteria and to identify the supplemental programming associated with the used content criteria using the database, the content criteria comprising user personalized and user entered content criteria, the supplemental programming being identified in accordance with user programming affinity determination based upon user programming preference analysis of the types of programming that have undergone user access; a delivery module, coupled to the processing agent, to provide the identified supplemental programming to an element of an entertainment system together with the selected program. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus comprising:
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a computer system that comprises system memory, the computer system comprising an electronic program guide, the electronic program guide containing descriptive information regarding programs of primary programming; a supplemental programming database including supplemental programming content associated with search criteria; a search engine to search the descriptive information based on the criteria, the criteria being satisfied when it is associated with descriptive information that describes primary programming being provided to an element of an entertainment system; a processor agent, communicatively coupled to the search engine, the processor agent to access the supplemental programming database upon the criteria being satisfied, to retrieve supplemental programming content associated with the criteria from the database, and to combine the retrieved content with the respective primary programming, the supplemental programming content being identified in accordance with user programming affinity determination based upon user programming preference analysis of the types of programming that have undergone user access; and a delivery component, communicatively coupled to the processor agent, the delivery component to provide the combined programming to a tangible element of the entertainment system. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method comprising:
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receiving primary programming; searching descriptive information of an electronic programming guide based on search criteria, the criteria being satisfied when it is associated with descriptive information that describes primary programming being provided to an element of an entertainment system, the descriptive information being information of an electronic program guide and describing programs of the primary programming, the search criteria being of a supplemental programming database including supplemental programming content associated with the search criteria; accessing the supplemental programming database upon the criteria being satisfied, to retrieve supplemental programming content associated with the criteria from the database, supplemental programming content being identified in accordance with user programming affinity determination based upon user programming preference analysis of the types of programming that have undergone user access; combining the retrieved content with the respective primary programming program; and providing the combined programming to a tangible element of the entertainment system. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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22. Non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a machine, result in the machine performing operations comprising:
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receiving primary programming; searching descriptive information of an electronic programming guide based on search criteria, the criteria being satisfied when it is associated with descriptive information that describes primary programming being provided to an element of an entertainment system, the descriptive information being information of an electronic program guide and describing programs of the primary programming, the search criteria being of a supplemental programming database including supplemental programming content associated with the search criteria; accessing the supplemental programming database upon the criteria being satisfied, to retrieve supplemental programming content associated with the criteria from the database, supplemental programming content being identified in accordance with user programming affinity determination based upon user programming preference analysis of the types of programming that have undergone user access; combining the retrieved content with the respective primary programming program; and providing the combined programming to a tangible element of the entertainment system. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24)
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Specification