User to user recommender

• US 8,996,540 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2012
• Issued: 03/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Torrens, Marc, Ferrera, Pere
• Primary Examiner(s): Mamillapalli, Pavan
• Application Number:
  US13/689,978
• Publication Number:
  US 20130198172A1
• Time in Patent Office: 851 Days
• Field of Search: 707/749
• US Class Current: 707/749
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising

Abstract

Disclosed are embodiments of systems and methods for recommending relevant users to other users in a user community. In one implementation of such a method, two different sets of data are considered: a) music (or other items) that users have been listening to (or otherwise engaging), and b) music (or other items) recommendations that users have been given. In some embodiments, pre-computation methods allow the system to efficiently compare item sets and recommended item sets among the users in the community. Such comparisons may also comprise metrics that the system can use to figure out which users should be recommended for a given target user.

Claims

1. A method for recommending users in a user community to a target user, the method comprising:

selecting a target user within the user community;

selecting a user set within the user community excluding the target user;

comparing a user profile for the target user with user profiles for one or more of the users in the user set to assess similarity of the target user profile to each of the other one or more users'"'"' profiles as a proxy for compatibility of the corresponding users;

classifying a relationship type between the target user and each of the one or more of the users in the user set as one of a predetermined number of relevant relationship types; and

generating a recommended set of compatible users for the target user responsive to the comparing and classifying steps, wherein the recommended set of compatible users comprises at least one user within the selected user set; and

further

wherein the target user'"'"'s profile comprises a target user media item set [IS] and a target user recommended media item set [RS];

the user profiles for each of the users in the user set comprises a corresponding user media item set and a corresponding user recommended media item set; and

each recommended media item set is generated by providing at least the corresponding user'"'"'s media item set or recommended media item set as input to a computer-implemented recommender system,

wherein the computer-implemented recommender system that generates the recommended media item set is driven by a predetermined knowledge base stored in a memory that contains correlation metrics among a collection of media data items.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the correlation metrics stored in the knowledge base driving the computer-implemented recommender system to generate the recommended media item set of each user'"'"'s profile reflect subjective judgments of a universe of other users outside of the said user community.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the stored correlation metrics are not based on objective characterizing attributes of the selected media items.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the correlation metrics stored in the knowledge base driving the computer-implemented recommender system to generate the recommended media item set of each user'"'"'s profile reflect the numbers of co-occurrences of pairs of media items together within the personal playlists of a universe of other users outside of the said user community, so that the correlation metrics are a function of the outside users'"'"' subjective decisions to include a pair of selected media items together within a data set or playlist, without regard to characterizing attributes of the selected media items.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said comparing the user profiles includes determining an intersection of the target user media item set with the respective recommended media item sets of each of the users in the selected user set.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said comparing the user profiles includes determining an intersection of the target user recommended media item set with the respective recommended media item sets for each of the users in the selected user set.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said comparing the user profiles includes determining an intersection of the target user recommended media item set with the respective media item sets for each of the users in the selected user set.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for performing a method for recommending users in a user community, the method comprising:

selecting a first user within the user community;

selecting a user set within the user community;

comparing a user profile for the first user with user profiles for one or more of the users in the user set;

classifying a relationship type between the first user and each of the one or more of the users in the user set as one of a predetermined number of relevant relationship types; and

generating a recommended user set for the first user responsive to the comparing and classifying steps, wherein the recommended user set comprises at least one user within the user community; and

further

wherein the selected first user'"'"'s profile comprises a first user media item set and a first user recommended media item set;

the user profiles for each of the users in the selected user set comprises a corresponding user media item set and a corresponding user recommended media item set;

each recommended media item set is generated by providing at least the corresponding user'"'"'s media item set or recommended media item set as input to a computer-implemented recommender system; and

the computer-implemented recommender system that generates the recommended media item set is driven by a predetermined knowledge base stored in a memory that contains correlation metrics among a collection of media data items.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the comparing a user profile for the first user with user profiles for each of the users in the user set includes computing a total relevance of the first user to each of the users in the user set, wherein the total relevance is a function of at least one of an affinity metric, a discovery metric and a guidance metric;

wherein

the affinity metric determines an intersection M_a∩

M_b of the first user'"'"'s media set with the other users'"'"' respective media sets;

the discovery metric determines an intersection R_a∩

M_b of the other users'"'"' respective media sets with the first user'"'"'s recommended media set; and

the guidance metric determines an intersection M_a∩

R_b of the first user'"'"'s media set with the other users'"'"' respective recommended media sets.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the correlation metrics stored in the knowledge base driving the computer-implemented recommender system to generate the recommended media item set of each user'"'"'s profile reflect subjective judgments of a universe of other users outside of the said user community.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the stored correlation metrics are not based on objective characterizing attributes of the selected media items.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the correlation metrics stored in the knowledge base driving the computer-implemented recommender system to generate the recommended media item set of each user'"'"'s profile reflect the numbers of co-occurrences of pairs of media items together within the personal playlists of a universe of other users outside of the said user community, so that the correlation metrics are a function of the outside users'"'"' subjective decisions to include a pair of selected media items together within a data set or playlist, without regard to characterizing attributes of the selected media items.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein said comparing the user profiles includes determining an intersection of the first user media item set with the respective recommended media item sets of each of the users in the selected user set.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein said comparing the user profiles includes determining an intersection of the first user recommended media item set with the respective recommended media item sets for each of the users in the selected user set.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein said comparing the user profiles includes determining an intersection of the first user recommended media item set with the respective media item sets for each of the users in the selected user set.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for performing a method for recommending users in a user community, the method comprising:

selecting a first user within the user community;

selecting a user set within the user community;

comparing a user profile for the first user with user profiles for one or more of the users in the user set;

classifying a relationship type between the first user and each of the one or more of the users in the user set as one of a predetermined number of relevant relationship types; and

generating a recommended user set for the first user responsive to the comparing and classifying steps, wherein the recommended user set comprises at least one user within the user community; and

further

wherein the selected first user'"'"'s profile comprises a first user media item set and a first user recommended media item set; and

the user profiles for each of the users in the selected user set comprises a corresponding user media item set or a corresponding user recommended media item set; and

each recommended media item set is generated by providing the corresponding user'"'"'s media item set or recommended media item set as input to a computer-implemented recommender system, wherein the computer-implemented recommender system generates the recommended media item set based on a predetermined knowledge base stored in memory that contains concurrency metrics among collections of mediasets, the concurrency metrics associating each media item in the user'"'"'s media item set with at least one media item in the recommended media item set.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the comparing a user profile for the first user with user profiles for each of the users in the user set includes computing a total relevance of the first user to each of the users in the user set, wherein the total relevance is a function of at least one of an affinity metric, a discovery metric and a guidance metric;

wherein

the affinity metric determines an intersection Ma∩

Mb of the first user'"'"'s media set with the other users'"'"' respective media sets;

the discovery metric determines an intersection Ra∩

Mb of the other users'"'"' respective media sets with the first user'"'"'s recommended media set; and

the guidance metric determines an intersection Ma∩

Rb of the first user'"'"'s media set with the other users'"'"' respective recommended media sets.

18. A method for recommending users in a user community to a target user, the method comprising:

selecting a target user within the user community;

selecting a user set within the user community excluding the target user;

comparing a user profile for the target user with user profiles for one or more of the users in the user set to assess similarity of the target user profile to each of the one or more users'"'"' profiles as a proxy for compatibility of the corresponding users;

classifying a relationship type between the target user and each of the one or more of the users in the user set as one of a predetermined number of relevant relationship types; and

generating a recommended set of compatible users for the target user responsive to the comparing and classifying steps, wherein the recommended set of compatible users comprises at least one user within the selected user set; and

further

wherein the target user'"'"'s profile comprises a target user media item set [IS] and a target user recommended media item set [RS];

the user profiles for each of the users in the user set comprises a corresponding user media item set or a corresponding user recommended media item set; and

each recommended media item set is generated by providing at least the corresponding user'"'"'s media item set or recommended media item set as input to a computer-implemented recommender system, wherein the computer-implemented recommender system generates the recommended media item set based on a predetermined knowledge base stored in memory that contains concurrency metrics among collections of mediasets, the concurrency metrics associating each media item in the user'"'"'s media item set with at least one media item in the recommended media item set.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the concurrency metrics are a pre-concurrency metric for ordered mediasets, wherein the pre-concurrency metric between two items is computed as the number of times a given item precedes the other item in the mediasets of the knowledge base.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the concurrency metrics are a post-concurrency for ordered mediasets, wherein the post-concurrency metric between two items is computed as the number of times an item follows another item in the mediasets of the knowledge base.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the concurrency metrics are a co-concurrency metric, wherein the co-concurrency metric between two items is computed as the number of times the items appear together in a mediaset.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the concurrency metrics are based on descriptive metadata similarities by considering keywords associated with the media items such as artist, actor, genre, or date.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the recommended user set is generated by using at least one of:

a first metric that analyzes an intersection of the first user media item set with the corresponding media item set for each of the users in the selected user set,

a second metric that analyzes an intersection of the first user media item set with the corresponding recommended media item set for each of the users in the selected user set,

a third metric that analyzes an intersection of the first user recommended media item set with the corresponding media item set for each of the users in the selected user set, and

a fourth metric that analyzes an intersection of the first user recommended media item set with the corresponding recommended media item set for each of the users in the selected user set.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein the recommended user set is generated by further using playcounts for media items in the media item set for each of the users in the user set.

25. A method for recommending users according to claim 18, wherein:

said comparing the user profiles includes determining an intersection of the target user media item set with the respective recommended media item sets of each of the users in the selected user set.

26. A method for recommending users according to claim 18, wherein:

said comparing the user profiles includes determining an intersection of the target user recommended media item set with the respective recommended media item sets for each of the users in the selected user set.

27. A method for recommending users according to claim 18, wherein:

said comparing the user profiles includes determining an intersection of the target user recommended media item set with the respective media item sets for each of the users in the selected user set.