Apparatus and method for inferring seamless service plan of video contents

• US 8,756,621 B2
• Filed: 10/11/2012
• Issued: 06/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Lee, Gyu Myoung, Kim, Jeong Yun
• Primary Examiner(s): MENGESHA, MULUGETA A
• Application Number:
  US13/649,674
• Publication Number:
  US 20130290998A1
• Time in Patent Office: 614 Days
• Field of Search: 725/10, 725/12, 725/14, 725/78
• US Class Current: 725/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25825 involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks 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 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44226 on social networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP

Abstract

Disclosed are an apparatus and method for inferring a service plan for seamlessly providing an IPTV service. The present invention proposes a context inference algorithm for performing multiple-criteria decision-making using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for context element evaluation through a context inference apparatus for providing a seamless IPTV service using a context awareness technology for recognizing device change and environmental change in a ubiquitous home networking environment including various types of information terminals.

Claims

1. An apparatus for inferring a seamless service plan of video contents comprising:

a context element tracking unit tracking context elements predetermined or variable depending on a user'"'"'s environment; and

a seamless service plan inference unit comparatively analyzing attributes of one of the tracked context elements and then comparatively analyzing attributes of the context elements in the same class to infer the seamless service plan of the video contents,

wherein the seamless service plan inference unit determines a weight for each of the attributes of a specific context element and defines a contribution for each of the attributes in order to infer the seamless service plan based on the weight and a priority for each of the attributes according to the defined contribution.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the seamless service plan inference unit comprises:

an attribute comparison matrix generation unit generating an attribute comparison matrix for the specific context element using a relation score between an attribute score selected in the specific context element and another attribute score;

a weight calculation unit calculating the weight for the each attribute of the specific context element on the basis of the relation score;

an attribute contribution definition unit defining the contribution for each of the attribute for inferring the seamless service plan when the seamless service plan is determined based on the weight; and

a priority calculation unit calculating the priority for each attribute of the specific context element according to the defined attribute contribution.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the seamless service plan inference unit comparatively evaluates different context elements on the basis of the priority to infer the plan when the priority is calculated for each attribute of the specific context element.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the weight calculation unit calculates the weight on the basis of a ratio of each relation score to a sum of all the relation scores.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the attribute contribution definition unit defines the contribution or not on the basis of a ratio of each weight to an average of weights satisfying predetermined criteria.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the attribute comparison matrix generation unit uses as the relation score a score obtained by dividing the selected attribute score by the other attribute scores.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the context element tracking unit tracks devices, which are located in a predetermined zone, as static context elements in the predetermined context elements and tracks at least one of a user'"'"'s location and a network context based on the user'"'"'s location and a user'"'"'s request for service processing as dynamic context elements in variable context elements depending on a user'"'"'s environment.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the context element tracking unit tracks as the static context elements devices having different preferences.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the seamless service plan inference unit determines a device for providing the seamless service of the video contents in consideration of a user'"'"'s location first and device'"'"'s performance second.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the seamless service plan inference unit provides an IPTV service in a home networking environment as the seamless service of the video contents.

11. A method of inferring a seamless service plan of video contents comprising:

a context element tracking step of tracking context elements predetermined or variable depending on a user'"'"'s environment; and

a seamless service plan inference step of comparatively analyzing attributes of one of the tracked context elements and then comparatively analyzing attributes of the context elements in the same class to infer the seamless service plan of the video contents,

wherein the seamless service plan inference unit determines a weight for each of the attributes of a specific context element and defines a contribution for each of the attributes in order to infer the seamless service plan based on the weight and a priority for each of the attributes according to the defined contribution.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the seamless service plan inference step comprises:

an attribute comparison matrix generation step of generating an attribute comparison matrix for the specific context element using a relation score between an attribute score selected in the specific context element and another attribute score;

a weight calculation step of calculating the weight for the each attribute of the specific context element using the relation score;

an attribute contribution definition step defining the contribution for each of the attribute for inferring the seamless service plan when the seamless service plan is determined based on the weight; and

a priority calculation step of calculating the priority for each attribute of the specific context element according to the defined attribute contribution.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the seamless service plan inference step comprises comparatively evaluating different context elements on the basis of the priority to infer the plan when the priority is calculated for each attribute of the specific context element.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the weight calculation step comprises calculating the weight on the basis of a ratio of each relation score to a sum of the relation scores, or

the attribute contribution definition step comprises defining the contribution or not on the basis of a ratio of each weight to an average of weights satisfying predetermined criteria, or

the attribute comparison matrix generation step uses as the relation score a score obtained by dividing the selected attribute score by the other attribute score.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the context element tracking step comprises tracking devices, which are located in a predetermined zone, as static context elements in the predetermined context elements and tracking at least one of a user'"'"'s location and a network context based on the user'"'"'s location and a user'"'"'s request for service processing as dynamic context elements in variable context elements depending on a user'"'"'s environment.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the seamless service plan inference step comprises providing an IPTV service in a home networking environment as the seamless service of the video contents.