System and method for personalized TV

• US 9,781,478 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2006
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Klarfeld, Kenneth A., Humpleman, Richard, Bentolila, Isaac (Ariel), Zhou, Yiming
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Ricky
• Application Number:
  US11/370,156
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206912A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,229 Days
• Field of Search: 725 88, 725 89, 725 8, 725 32- 35, 725 45- 46, 725 4, 725 28
• 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 displaying a TV program to a viewer, comprising:

allowing the viewer to select one of a plurality of available TV programs for viewing;

receiving a plurality of video segments constituting the selected TV program;

receiving information describing each received video segment;

assembling the plurality of received video segments in accordance with the segment information and with previously predicted yiewing preferences of the viewer; and

displaying the received video segments in accordance with the segment information and with the previously predicted viewing preferences of the viewer, wherein all the received video segments are displayed and wherein the viewer is notified on the display when one of the received video segments to be displayed exhibits a content rating that exceeds a permissible threshold associated with said previously predicted viewing preferences.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the information comprises:

receiving the information together with each respective video segment.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information received comprises any one or more of video segment content, length, rating, title, subject, category, or target audience characteristics.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling the display comprises:

selecting a subset of the received segments in accordance with the segment information and with previously predicted viewing preferences of the viewer; and

displaying the selected segments.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving an alternative video segment for replacing a specific received video segment, the specific segment not in the subset of selected segments,

wherein selecting the subset comprises selecting the alternative video segment.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

storing the received segments not in the subset of selected segment for subsequent viewing.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a command from the viewer to display the stored received segments; and

displaying the stored received segments.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

notifying the viewer during said displaying that a subset of the received segments are displayed.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a command from the viewer to display all received segments, wherein selecting the subset comprises selecting all received segments.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein upon detecting that a video segment runs longer than originally scheduled due to the viewer'"'"'s interaction with the video segment, automatically recording subsequent video segments.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the predicted viewing preferences are based on viewing behavior heuristics.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the predicted viewing preferences are based on previously viewed programming.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of received video segments are assembled without viewer interaction.