System and method for personalized TV

• US 8,938,758 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2006
• Issued: 01/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thomson Licensing SAS (Vantiva SA)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Klarfeld, Kenneth A., Humpleman, Richard, Bentolila, Isaac (Ariel), Zhou, Yiming
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN, RUEBEN M
• Application Number:
  US11/370,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20060212904A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,242 Days
• Field of Search: 725/46, 725/45, 725/9, 725/14
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/231 Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/251 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies details of learning user preferences for the retrieval of video data in a video database G06F16/739; computer systems using learning methods G06N3/08
• 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 21/26283 for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• 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 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4751 for defining user accounts, e.g. accounts for children
• 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 21/4823 using a channel name
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 : by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 : using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 : Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 : by receiver means only

Abstract

A Personal TV System receives a plurality of video segments constituting a TV program and information describing each segment, and controls the display of the segments to a viewer in accordance with preferences of the viewer and with the description of each segment. Segments may be omitted or replaced with substitute segments. The viewer may review his preferences and edit or replace them. In a multi-viewer household, the system may prompt a viewer to confirm her preferences. A TV program may contain interactive segments, and when the viewer chooses to interact with a particular segment, the system automatically stores all subsequently received segments for later viewing while the viewer interacts with the selected segment. The system may present TV program choices to the viewer selected and arranged in accordance with her preferences.

Claims

1. A method for delivering customized video programming to each of a plurality of viewers, said method comprising:

employing a processor for;

processing information indicative of preferences of each of the plurality of viewers to develop a plurality of profiles respectively corresponding to the plurality of viewers, wherein all viewer actions about viewing a predetermined channel are ignored;

analyzing viewer actions made by an individual one of the viewers;

selecting one of the profiles most indicative of the viewer actions; and

prompting the individual viewer to confirm that the selected profile corresponds to the individual viewer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving confirmation from the individual viewer that the selected profile corresponds to the individual viewer; and

allowing the individual viewer to prevent the rest of the plurality of viewers from accessing the profile of the individual viewer.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving confirmation from the individual viewer that the selected profile corresponds to the individual viewer; and

allowing the individual viewer to edit the information in the profile of the individual viewer.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

allowing the individual viewer to edit the information in the profile of the individual viewer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein viewer characteristics of the plurality of viewers comprise specific known demographics of each of the viewers.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the profile is selected for the individual viewer without knowing specific demographics of the individual viewer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewer actions include usage patterns.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the usage patterns include time of usage.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewer actions are tracked over predetermined time periods.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein sets of consecutive viewer actions are grouped together to form usage patterns.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the usage patterns are based on a predetermined number of viewer actions.

12. A method for delivering customized video programming to each of a plurality of viewers, said method comprising:

employing a processor for;

processing information indicative of preferences of each of the plurality of viewers to develop a plurality of profiles respectively corresponding to the plurality of viewers, wherein all viewer actions about viewing a predetermined channel are ignored;

analyzing a plurality of viewing selections and viewer action context for an individual one of the viewers where viewing actions performed by said individual viewer while viewing a selection from said plurality of viewing selections is analyzed only when said selection is viewed more than a threshold duration of time;

selecting one of the profiles most indicative of the viewing selections and viewer action context; and

prompting the individual viewer to confirm that the selected profile corresponds to the individual viewer.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the viewer action context includes viewer actions with a viewing device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the viewer actions comprise:

channel change requests, requests to view information, configuration of the viewing device parameters, and requests to perform recording or deletion of programs from a storage device.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the viewer actions comprise device commands.