Programs of interest presentation apparatus, systems, and methods

• US 9,241,121 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2007
• Issued: 01/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Rudolph, Daniel L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alata, Yassin
• Application Number:
  US11/961,873
• Publication Number:
  US 20090165054A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,952 Days
• Field of Search: 725 37- 59, 725/68, 725/100, 725/131, 725/139, 725/151
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• 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 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• 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 5/781 on disks or drums

Abstract

Various embodiments present information about programs of interest. Some embodiments provide electronic program guides based on previously viewed programs. In some cases, an electronic program guide generator (“EPGG”) generates an electronic program guide for a designated time period, the electronic program guide including information about one or more scheduled programs, based on the one or more scheduled programs each having at least one attribute that matches an attribute of a program that was previously viewed at a time of day corresponding to the designated time period. The generated electronic program guide may then be presented on a presentation device. Another embodiment provides information about one or more programs that are related to a designated program of interest.

Claims

1. A receiving device for presenting information about available programming, comprising:

a memory;

an electronic program guide generator stored on the memory that is configured, when executed, to;

store one or more attributes of a plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on a presentation device;

identify one or more of the plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on the presentation device during a first time period;

identify one or more programs of interest selected for recording and store one or more attributes of the one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording;

select one or more future programs to be broadcast, each program of the one or more future programs scheduled for broadcast during the first time period, and the selection being made based on determining whether the one or more future programs to be broadcast, other than one of the identified one or more broadcast video programs that have been viewed on the presentation device, has at least one attribute that is the same as one of the stored attributes of one of the identified one or more broadcast video programs that have been viewed on the presentation device during the first time period and determining whether the one or more future programs to be broadcast has at least one attribute that is the same as one of the stored attributes of one of the identified one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording; and

in response to a received user input, provide electronic program guide information for the first time period on the presentation device, the electronic program guide including scheduling information for the selected one or more future programs for the first time period.

2. The receiving device of claim 1 wherein the receiving device is a set-top box operable to receive digital program content from a communications network and to present the received digital program content on the presentation device.

3. The receiving device of claim 1 wherein, for at least one of the selected one or more future programs, the one attribute of the future program is an approximate string match of the one stored attribute of the one of the identified one or more broadcast video programs.

4. The receiving device of claim 1 wherein the stored one or more attributes include at least one of a genre, a rating, an actor, a director, a producer, a keyword, a production date, or a title.

5. A method for presenting information about available programming, comprising:

storing one or more attributes of a plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on a presentation device;

storing one or more attributes of one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording;

selecting, for a first time period, one or more future programs to be broadcast, each program of the one or more future programs scheduled for broadcast during the first time period, and the selecting based on determining whether the one or more future programs to be broadcast, other than one of the plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on the presentation device, has at least one attribute that is identical to one of the stored attributes of one of the plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on the presentation device and determining whether the one or more future programs to be broadcast has at least one attribute that is identical to one of the stored attributes of the one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording;

generating an electronic program guide for the first time period for presentation on the presentation device, the electronic program guide including scheduling information for the selected one or more future programs.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the selecting of the one or more future programs to be broadcast is based at least in part on, for each of the one or more future programs, the one of the plurality of broadcast video programs having been viewed during a time of day that corresponds to the first time period.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the selecting of the one or more future programs to be broadcast comprises:

identifying at least one of the plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on the presentation device, the at least one broadcast video program having been viewed during a time of day that corresponds to the first time period; and

determining, for each program of the one or more future programs, a measure of similarity between the future program and the identified at least one of the plurality of broadcast video programs.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein, for each of the one or more future programs, the determining for each program of the one or more future programs a measure of similarity includes determining whether the one attribute of the future program is identical to the one stored attribute of the plurality of broadcast video programs or identical to the one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the method is performed for multiple distinct time periods, and wherein the generated electronic program guide for each of the multiple distinct time periods includes scheduling information about one or more future programs, based on the one or more future programs being similar to other programs that have been previously viewed at a time of day corresponding to the distinct time period or similar to the one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the method is performed at a current time that is within the first time period, and wherein the method is performed automatically in response to a received request to present an electronic program guide for the current time.

11. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving from a user indications of one or more attributes of programs of interest, and wherein at least one of the selected programs has an attribute that matches one of the indicated one or more attributes of programs of interest.

12. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

selecting, for a second time period that is different from the first time period, one or more future programs to be broadcast, each program of the one or more future programs for the second time period being scheduled for broadcast during the second time period, and having at least one attribute that is identical to one of the stored attributes of one of the plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on the presentation device during a time of day that corresponds to the second time period or having at least one attribute that is identical to one of the stored attributes of the one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording, at least some of the one or more future programs for the second time period being different from the one or more future programs for the first time period; and

presenting on the presentation device an electronic program guide for the second time period.

13. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the electronic program guide is to operate as a lock by presenting only programs presented by the electronic program guide, the electronic program guide including only programs that are child friendly based on a maturity or genre attribute.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a maturity attribute, wherein each program of the one or more future programs has a maturity attribute that is less than or equal to the indicated maturity attribute.

15. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a type of program that is not to be considered in the selection of the one or more future programs.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing system to present information about available programming, by performing a method comprising:

storing one or more attributes of a plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on a presentation device;

storing one or more attributes of one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording;

selecting, for a first time period, one or more future programs to be broadcast, each program of the one or more future programs scheduled for broadcast during the first time period, and the selecting based on determining whether the one or more future programs to be broadcast, other than one of the plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on the presentation device, has at least one attribute that is identical to one of the stored attributes of one of the plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on the presentation device and determining whether the one or more future programs to be broadcast has at least one attribute that is identical to one of the stored attributes of the one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording;

generating an electronic program guide for the first time period for presentation on the presentation device, the electronic program guide including scheduling information for the selected one or more future programs.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying at least one of the plurality of broadcast video programs that have been viewed on the presentation device, the at least one broadcast video programs having been viewed during a time of day that corresponds to the first time period; and

determining, for each program of the of one or more future programs, a measure of similarity between the future program and the identified at least one of the plurality of broadcast video programs or between the future program and the one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the method is performed for multiple distinct time periods, and wherein the generated electronic program guide for each of the multiple distinct time periods includes scheduling information about one or more future programs, based on the one or more future programs being similar to other programs that have been previously viewed at a time of day corresponding to the distinct time period or similar to the one or more programs of interest that have been selected for recording.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory in the computing system, and wherein the contents are instructions that when executed cause the computing system to perform the method.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the computer-readable medium is part of a set-top box operable to receive digital program content from a communications network and to present the received digital program content on the presentation device.