Intelligent peer-to-peer system and method for collaborative suggestions and propagation of media

• US 9,866,920 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2015
• Issued: 01/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: TiVo Solutions Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: TiVo Solutions Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Van Stam, Wijnand J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheleheda, James R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Andramuno, Franklin
• Application Number:
  US14/716,363
• Publication Number:
  US 20150256897A1
• Time in Patent Office: 966 Days
• Field of Search: 725105, 725 46, 725 32
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1834 implemented based on peer-to-peer networks, e.g. gnutella p2p communication protocols H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/437 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialisation, adaptation, distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/35 Arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time, e.g. for identifying broadcast stations or for identifying users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25 Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication, learning user preferences for recommending movies maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• 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 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/442 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00
• 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 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/45 Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies, resolving scheduling conflicts
• 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 21/4663 : involving probabilistic networks, e.g. Bayesian networks
• 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 21/4756 : for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• 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 21/485 : End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 : using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 : for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 : Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 : on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 : Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

In a network-based system for recommending media content items based on user preferences, clients contact a server on a periodic basis, independent of the user. In addition to client-server interaction, clients also interact with one another in peer-to-peer fashion. Peers query one another and evaluate their similarity to each other in an interactive comparison of user preferences. When two clients are sufficiently similar, the interaction culminates in the originating client downloading content listings from the targeted peer to generate suggestions for their user. If the two clients are dissimilar, the query may be terminated, or the targeted peer may route the query to a second targeted peer. In addition to the lists of preferences, the originating client may download actual content items from the targeted peers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

comparing first preference data of a first user of a first client device with second preference data of a second user of a second client device, the first client device and the second client device each being user-operated video devices configured to store and play media contents;

generating a similarity value, based on the comparing of the first preference data with the second preference data, the similarity value indicating a number of common preferences between the first preference data and the second preference data;

determining whether the similarity value is greater or equal to a similarity threshold;

in response to determining that the similarity value is not greater or equal to the similarity threshold, transmitting the second preference data to a third user of a third client device;

in response to determining that the similarity value is greater or equal to the similarity threshold;

identifying one or more suggested media items for the second client device based on the comparison; and

responsive to identifying the one or more suggested media items, causing the first client device to send to the second client device playable contents of the one or more suggested media items;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first client device and the second client device are different video recording devices.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the second client device requesting to download the one or more suggested media items from the first client device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the first client device is similar to the second client device;

upon determining that the first client device is similar to the second client device, identifying the one or more suggested media items.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing, identifying, and causing are performed by one or both of the first client device and the second client device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the first client device and the second client device receiving grouping data from a central server identifying client devices in a group of client devices;

wherein the comparing, identifying, and causing are performed in response to determining, based on the grouping data, that the first client device and the second client device are in the group of client devices.

7. A system comprising:

a first subsystem, implemented at least partially by hardware, configured to perform comparing first preference data of a first user of a first client device with second preference data of a second user of a second client device, the first client device and the second client device each being user-operated video devices configured to store and play media contents;

a second subsystem, implemented at least partially by hardware, configured to generate a similarity value, based on the comparing of the first preference data with the second preference data, the similarity value indicating a number of common preferences between the first preference data and the second preference data;

a third subsystem, implemented at least partially by hardware, configured to determine whether the similarity value is greater or equal to a similarity threshold;

a fourth subsystem, implemented at least partially by hardware, configured to, in response to determining that the similarity value is not greater or equal to the similarity threshold, transmit the second preference data to a third user of a third client device;

a fifth subsystem, implemented at least partially by hardware, configured to, in response to determining that the similarity value is greater or equal to the similarity threshold, perform identifying one or more suggested media items for the second client device based on the comparison; and

a sixth subsystem, implemented at least partially by hardware, configured to perform, responsive to identifying the one or more suggested media items, causing the first client device to send to the second client device playable contents of the one or more suggested media items.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first client device and the second client device are different video recording devices.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the second client device is configured to request to download the one or more suggested media items from the first client device.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

an eighth subsystem, implemented at least partially by hardware, configured to perform determining whether the first client device is similar to the second client device;

wherein the eighth subsystem configured to perform said identifying is configured to do so upon determining that the first client device is similar to the second client device.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the comparing, identifying, and causing are performed by one or both of the first client device and the second client device.

12. The system of claim 7:

wherein the first client device and the second client device are configured to receive grouping data from a central server identifying client devices in a group of client devices;

wherein the comparing, identifying, and causing are performed in response to determining, based on the grouping data, that the first client device and the second client device are in the group of client devices.

13. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause performance of:

comparing first preference data of a first user of a first client device with second preference data of a second user of a second client device, the first client device and the second client device each being user-operated video devices configured to store and play media contents;

generating a similarity value, based on the comparing of the first preference data with the second preference data, the similarity value indicating a number of common preferences between the first preference data and the second preference data;

determining whether the similarity value is greater or equal to a similarity threshold;

in response to determining that the similarity value is not greater or equal to the similarity threshold, transmitting the second preference data to a third user of a third client device;

in response to determining that the similarity value is greater or equal to the similarity threshold;

identifying one or more suggested media items for the second client device based on the comparison; and

responsive to identifying the one or more suggested media items, causing the first client device to send to the second client device playable contents of the one or more suggested media items.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the first client device and the second client device are different video recording devices.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further cause performance of the second client device requesting to download the one or more suggested media items from the first client device.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further cause performance of:

determining whether the first client device is similar to the second client device;

upon determining that the first client device is similar to the second client device, identifying the one or more suggested media items.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the comparing, identifying, and causing are performed by one or both of the first client device and the second client device.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further cause performance of:

the first client device and the second client device receiving grouping data from a central server identifying client devices in a group of client devices;

wherein the comparing, identifying, and causing are performed in response to determining, based on the grouping data, that the first client device and the second client device are in the group of client devices.