Recommender system with consistent profile application

• US 9,445,152 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2011
• Issued: 09/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Funke TV Guide GmbH
• Original Assignee: Funke Digital Tv Guide GmbH (Axel Springer SE)
• Inventors: Proidl, Adolph, Dvorak, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Chokshi, Pinkal R
• Application Number:
  US13/807,430
• Publication Number:
  US 20130104168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,845 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/88 Mark-up to mark-up conversion conversion for visualization in web browsing G06F16/9577
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program product for controlling distribution and processing of content-related metadata of different content sources (101-1 to 101-n), wherein extracted metadata are transformed at from a received format of the extracted metadata into a predetermined common format used by a recommender engine. Additionally or alternatively, it is checked for an overlap between a detected classification parameter and at least one stored classification parameter, and non-overlapping metadata is enriched by adding at least one new classification parameter derived from an ontology-based processing of the non-overlapping metadata.

Claims

1. A method of controlling distribution of content-related metadata from different content-related sources, said method comprising:

a) receiving said metadata at an intermediate location between said content-related sources and a recommender engine, wherein said metadata is metadata of a content item to be played out on a personalized content channel;

b) processing the received metadata at said intermediate location to transform a received format of said received metadata into a predetermined common format used by said recommender engine, wherein the recommender engine is associated with the personalized content channel;

c) forwarding the processed metadata to a metadata base, wherein the metadata base is connected to the recommender engine via a pre-selection filter for filtering content items; and

d) checking whether said received format of said received metadata is a known format, and if said received format is an unknown format, discarding said received metadata, sending information about the unknown format to a source of said received metadata and prompting said source to use a different format for said metadata of said content item.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said received format of said received metadata is an extended markup language format.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said processing step is adapted to use an extensible stylesheet language transformation.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising creating a dedicated extensible stylesheet language transformation document that describes how to automatically transform metadata of said received format into metadata of said predetermined common format.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising receiving a new content item, checking based on received metadata related to said new content item whether said new content item belongs to a dedicated scope of a recommendation group of said recommender engine, and using said received new content item to establish a new scope or adding said received new content item to an existing scope, if said received new content item does not belong to any dedicated scope.

7. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory medium for storing a computer program, which when executed on a computer device produces the steps of method claim 1.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said processing step is adapted to use an extensible stylesheet language transformation.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising creating a dedicated extensible stylesheet language transformation document that describes how to automatically transform metadata of said received format into metadata of said predetermined common format.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving a new content item, checking based on received metadata related to said new content item whether said new content item belongs to a dedicated scope of a recommendation group of said recommender engine, and using said received new content item to establish a new scope or adding said received new content item to an existing scope, if said received new content item does not belong to any dedicated scope.

6. An automatic apparatus for controlling distribution of content-related metadata from different content-related sources, said apparatus configured to:

a) receive said metadata at an intermediate location between said content-related sources and a recommender engine, wherein said metadata is metadata of a content item to be played out on a personalized content channel;

b) process the received metadata at said intermediate location to transform a received format of said received metadata into a predetermined common format used by said recommender engine, wherein the recommender engine is associated with the personalized content channel;

c) forward the processed metadata to a metadata base, wherein the metadata base is connected to the recommender engine via a pre-selection filter for filtering content items; and

d) check whether said received format of said received metadata is a known format, and if said received format is an unknown format, discard said received metadata, send information about the unknown format to a source of said received metadata and prompt said source to use a different format for said metadata of said content item.