User preference information structure having multiple hierarchical structure and method for providing multimedia information using the same

• US 20060129544A1
• Filed: 02/14/2006
• Published: 06/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Yoon, Kyoung Ro, Jun, Sung Bae, Song, Jung Min
• Granted Patent: US 7,599,955 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• 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 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• 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 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• 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 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A user preference information structure having a multiple hierarchical structure in which an information is provided to a user according to a user preference in a multi-media environment consisting of an information provider and an information user, comprising user use information by using information desired by the user; user preference information of information desired by the user; and individual user preference information that is differently set depending on situations in which the user is put and positioned in a sub-tree of the user preference information. The hierarchical data structure is able to provide the user preference for providing information desired by the user is provided depending on the environment, based on which various information can be provided. The hierarchical data structure constructing the user preference makes it possible for the user to receive information fitting the situation in which he or she is put by using a proper individual user preference information, automatically or according to user'"'"'s selection.

Claims

1. A method for processing user preferences, the method comprising:

providing a user description including a user preference description and a usage history, the user preference description having a hierarchical structure to describe preferences for filtering and searching, the hierarchical structure including a parent preference element and one or more child preference elements of the parent preference element, each of the parent and child preference elements including at least one multimedia preference description to identify preferred multimedia content, the usage history describing events of multimedia consumption and specifying a respective user action type for each of the described events of multimedia consumption.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the parent preference element includes a preference condition to specify a place to which the parent preference element applies.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the parent and child preference elements has a preference value to characterize relative importance of the respective multimedia preference description.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user description includes receiving user input specifying information for at least one of the parent and child preference elements.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user description includes:

receiving information about the events of multimedia consumption; and

using the information about the events of multimedia consumption to generate at least a portion of the user preference description.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein providing the user description includes generating at least a portion of the usage history based on the information about the events of multimedia consumption.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the user action types indicates a user action including play, review, pause, fast forward, or stop.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedia preference description in one of the parent and child preference elements specifies a multimedia classification attribute.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the multimedia classification attribute includes a multimedia genre.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedia preference description in one of the parent and child preference elements specifies an actor or a director.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating the user description.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein updating the user description includes updating the usage history.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the user description.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the user description includes a user identifier specifying a name.

15. A system for processing user preferences, the system comprising:

a data storage device; and

data processing apparatus configured to perform operations comprising;

providing a user description including a user preference description and a usage history, the user preference description having a hierarchical structure to describe preferences for filtering and searching, the hierarchical structure including a parent preference element and one or more child preference elements of the parent preference element, each of the parent and child preference elements including at least one multimedia preference description to identify preferred multimedia content, the usage history describing events of multimedia consumption and specifying a respective user action type for each of the described events of multimedia consumption; and

storing the user description in the data storage device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the parent preference element includes a preference condition to specify a place to which the parent preference element applies.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the parent and child preference elements has a preference value to characterize relative importance of the respective multimedia preference description.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein providing the user description includes receiving user input specifying information for at least one of the parent and child preference elements.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein providing information about preferences for filtering and searching of multimedia content includes:

receiving information about the events of multimedia consumption; and

using the information about the events of multimedia consumption to generate at least a portion of the user preference description.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein providing the user description includes generating the usage history based on the information about of the events of multimedia consumption.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the user action types indicates a user action including play, review, pause, fast forward, or stop.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein the multimedia preference description in one of the parent and child preference elements specifies a multimedia classification attribute.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein the data processing apparatus is further configured to perform operations comprising:

updating the user description.

24. The system of claim 15, wherein the user description includes a user identifier specifying a name.

25. A computer program product for processing user preferences, the computer program comprising instructions to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

providing a user description including a user preference description and a usage history, the user preference description having a hierarchical structure to describe preferences for filtering and searching, the hierarchical structure including a parent preference element and one or more child preference elements of the parent preference element, each of the parent and child preference elements including at least one multimedia preference description to identify preferred multimedia content, the usage history describing events of multimedia consumption and specifying a respective user action type for each of the described events of multimedia consumption.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the parent preference element includes a preference condition to specify a place to which the parent preference element applies.

27. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein each of the parent and child preference elements has a preference value to characterize relative importance of the respective multimedia preference description.

28. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein providing the user description includes:

receiving information about the events of multimedia consumption; and

using the information about the events of multimedia consumption to generate at least a portion of the user preference description.

29. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein providing the user description includes generating at least a portion of the usage history based on the information about the events of multimedia consumption.

30. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein at least one of the user action types indicates a user action including play, review, pause, fast forward, or stop.

31. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the multimedia preference description in one of the parent and child preference elements specifies a multimedia genre, an actor, or a director.

32. The computer program product of claim 25, further comprising instructions to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

updating the user description.

33. The computer program product of claim 32, wherein updating the user description includes updating the usage history.

34. The computer program product of claim 25, further comprising instructions to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

storing the user description.