KR20120135918A - Presenting media guidance search results based on relevancy - Google Patents

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for displaying search results based on relevance in an interactive media guidance application. After performing a user-initiated or automatic search for media content, the interactive media guidance application determines which hits are most relevant to the user. The guidance application then displays or visually identifies related items. Some embodiments use the step of using different display arrangements based on the number of related items. Some embodiments display items related to the recommendation lists or hot lists.

Description

Display of media guidance search results based on relevance {PRESENTING MEDIA GUIDANCE SEARCH RESULTS BASED ON RELEVANCY}

The present invention relates to search features of interactive media guidance application systems.

Modern content delivery systems provide media consumers with access to an unprecedented amount of media. For example, home media consumers can access video programming from cable and satellite systems with hundreds of channels. In addition to the media consumer's system, the possibilities for digital recorders and the consumer's access at any given time can be virtually limitless.

The enormous amount of available media content presents challenges for guiding consumers efficiently to the desired media. When a guidance application user performs a search for media content, for example, the number of search results (“hits”) can often be overwhelming. This is especially true when the guidance application retrieves multiple sources of content. Although many hits technically meet a user's search criteria, the problem is further complicated by the fact that the user is not actually looking for. Thus, there is a need for intelligent techniques to ensure that relevant search results are provided.

In accordance with the principles of the present invention, systems and methods are provided for displaying search results based on relevance in an interactive media guidance application. After performing a user-initiated or automatic search for media content, the interactive media guidance application determines which hits are most relevant to the user. This relevance determination can be based on personalization data derived from monitoring user interactions with an interactive media guidance application or from express user media preferences. In yet other embodiments, the relevance determination may be made based on what other users have selected from the results of similar searches.

After determining which results are relevant to the user, the guidance application then displays or visually identifies the relevant items. This may include, for example, displaying only relevant results, changing the color of related results, highlighting or marking related results, recommending areas or "hot lists" for related results. "Is achieved by using an area (a hot list is a type of recommendation based on the behavior of other users), or by using any other suitable approach.

In some embodiments, the guidance application determines the relevance based on the relevance threshold. The relevance threshold can be defined using any suitable approach. For example, the threshold may be a defined percentage of word counts associated with content that meets a user-supplied criterion (eg, program listings, program titles, program descriptions, scene metadata, etc.). Or, in some embodiments, the relevance threshold can be defined using a distance algorithm. The relevance threshold may be hard-programmed into the application (ie, programming logic) or may be defined in the data received by the application.

Some embodiments may use a variable relevance threshold. The threshold may change, for example, based on the number of hits that meet the threshold. When the number of hits that meet the relevance threshold is less than the minimum number, the guidance application incrementally lowers the relevance threshold until the minimum number of related hits are met. In other approaches, the threshold may change over time of day. In yet other approaches, the interactive media guidance application can receive user inputs that adjust the relevance threshold.

Search criteria can be derived using any suitable approach. In some embodiments, for example, an interactive media guidance application receives criteria from user input. In other embodiments, the interactive media guidance application generates a criterion from the user personalization data.

The interactive media guidance application can display the relevant results that match using any suitable approach. For example, the results can be represented as text, graphics, or video and can be displayed in a list or mosaic. The guide can sort the results by relevance.

The guide may change the display characteristics of the related results according to the number of related results, the relevance threshold itself, or other appropriate factors. For example, the guide may be a display area size of the guidance display module used for related results, colors of related results, a positional arrangement of results (or modules containing results), or an application module included in the display. Can change them. Display characteristics may also change over time of day.

Further features of the present invention, the nature and various advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings.

1 shows a schematic interactive media guidance application display screen according to one embodiment of the invention.
2 shows another schematic interactive media guidance application display screen according to one embodiment of the invention.
3A-3B are schematic search result displays.
4A-4D are schematic search result displays in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
5A-5B are quickview displays of a schematic module in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a quick view display of a schematic module with a search criteria input popup according to one embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 7 is a quick view display of a schematic module having search results generated from search criteria entered in the popup of FIG. 6 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a diagram of a schematic user equipment in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
9 is a diagram of a schematic media system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
10-12 are flow diagrams of schematic steps involved in performing the processes of various embodiments of the present invention.
13 is a schematic data structure for a personalized data table according to an embodiment of the present invention.
14 is a flow diagram of the schematic steps involved in providing related recommendations in one embodiment of the present invention.
15 is a schematic data structure for display definition in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

The amount of media available to users in any given media delivery system can be significant. As a result, many users desire media guidance via an interface that allows users to efficiently navigate media selections and easily identify their desired media. An application that provides such guidance is referred to herein as an interactive media guidance application, or sometimes as a media guidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications can take various forms depending on the media for which they provide guidance. One common type of media guidance application is an interactive television program guide. Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to as electronic program guides) are inter alia, among other things, where a user pays for program pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (such as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems). ), Internet content (eg, streaming media, downloadable media, webcasts, etc.), and other types of media or video content, as well as through conventional broadcast, cable, satellite, the Internet, or other means. Known guidance applications that allow for searching and discovering multiple types of media content, including conventional television programming. Guidance applications also allow a user to search and find content related to video content, including, for example, video clips, articles, advertisements, chat sessions, games, and the like.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speed wireless networks, users have conventionally used them, such as personal computers (PCs) and portable computers, personal digital terminals (PDAs), mobile phones, or other portable devices. Access other devices that do not. On these devices, users can browse and discover the same media available through the television. As a result, media guidance is likewise needed on these devices. The guidance provided may be for media content only available through a television, media content only available through such one or more devices, or television and media content available through such one or more devices. Media guidance applications may be provided as on-line applications (ie, provided on web sites) or as clients or standalone applications on portable computers, PDAs, mobile phones, or other mobile devices. Various devices and platforms that can implement media guidance applications are described in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to provide users with media listings and media information. 1-2 show schematic display screens that can be used to provide media guidance and in particular media listings. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 may be implemented on any suitable device or platform. Although the displays of FIGS. 1-2 are shown as full screen displays, they may also be overlaid in whole or in part on the media content being displayed. The user selects a selectable option (e.g. menu option, listing option, icon, hyperlink, etc.) provided on the display screen, or a dedicated button (e.g. GUIDE button on the remote control or other user input interface or device). Press) to indicate that you want to access media information. In response to the user's instructions, the media guidance application may be arranged by a channel and time arranged in a grid, by time, by channel, by media type, by category (eg, movie, sports, news, children). Or other categories of programming), or other predefined, user-defined, or by other configuration criteria, may provide media information to the display screen configured in one of a variety of ways.

1 shows a schematic grid program listings display 100 arranged by channel and time that also enables access to different types of media content in a single display. Display 100 may include (1) a column 104 of channel / media type identifiers, each channel / media type identifier (cell in column) identifying a different channel or media type available; And (2) a grid 102 with a row 106 of time identifiers, each time identifier (cell in the row) identifying a time block of programming. Grid 102 further includes cells of program listings, such as program listing 108, each listing providing the title of a program provided on the associated channel and time of listing. With the user input device, the user can select program listings by moving the highlight area 110. Information related to the program listing selected by the highlight area 110 may be provided in the program information area 112. Area 112 may include, for example, a program title, a program description, a time at which the program is provided (if applicable), a channel that broadcasts the program (if applicable), a rating of the program, and other desired information. .

In addition to providing access to linear programming provided on a schedule, the media guidance application also provides access to nonlinear programming not provided on a schedule. Non-linear programming can include on-demand media content (eg, VOD), Internet content (eg, streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored media content (eg, digital video recorders (DVR), Video content stored on digital video discs (DVDs), video cassettes, compact discs (CDs, etc.), or other media sources including media content that is not time-dependent. The on-demand content may include original media content and movies provided by specific media providers (eg, HBO On Demand providing "The Sopranos" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm"). HBO ON DEMAND, THE SOPRANOS, and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM are trademarks owned by Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content may include web events such as chat sessions or webcasts, or content available on demand as streaming media or streaming media downloadable via an Internet website or other Internet access (eg, FTP). Can be.

Grid 102 may provide listings for non-linear programming including on-demand listing 114, recorded media listings 116, and internet content listings 118. A display that combines listings for content from different types of media sources is sometimes referred to as a "mixed media" display. Various variations of the types of listings that can be displayed that are different from the display 100 are in a user selection or guidance application definition (eg, a display of only recorded and broadcast listings, only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). Can be based. As shown, listings 114, 116 and 118 are shown over the entire time block displayed in grid 102 such that the selection of these listings is individually dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings, or internet listings. Indicates that it can provide access to the display. In other embodiments, listings for these media types may be included directly in grid 102. Additional listings may be displayed in response to a user selection for one of the navigation icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on the user input device can affect the display in a manner similar to selecting navigation icons 120.)

The display 100 may further include a video area 122, an advertisement 124, and an options area 126. Video area 122 may allow a user to view / view or preview programs that are currently available, available, or available to the user. The content of video region 122 may correspond to or be independent of one of the listings displayed in grid 102. Grid displays that include a video region are sometimes called picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionality are described in detail in US Pat. No. 6,564,378, filed May 13, 2003 by Satterfield et al., And US Pat. No. 6,239,794, filed May 29, 2001 by Yuen et al. The contents are incorporated herein by reference. PIG displays may be included in other media guidance application display screens of the present invention.

Advertisement 124 may provide advertisements for media content that is currently viewable, future viewable, or never viewable, depending on the viewer's access rights, and correspond to or relate to one or more of the media listings of grid 102. It may not be. Advertisement 124 may also be for services or products related to or not associated with media content displayed on grid 102. The advertisement 124 is selectable to provide additional information about the media content, to provide information about the product or service, to enable the purchase of the media content, the product or service, or to provide media content related to the advertisement. And the like. The advertisement 124 may be targeted based on the user's profile / preferences, the monitored user's behavior, the type of display provided, or based on other suitable targeted advertisement base.

The advertisement 124 is shown in the form of a rectangle or banner, but the advertisements can be provided in any suitable size, shape, and position in the guidance application display. For example, the advertisement 124 may be provided in the form of a rectangle horizontally adjacent to the grid 102. This is sometimes called panel advertising. The advertisements may also be overlaid on the media content or guidance application display, or embedded within the display. Advertisements may also include text, images, rotated images, video clips, or other type of media content. Advertisements may be stored in a user equipment having a guidance application, in a database connected to the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming media servers), or in other storage means or a combination of these locations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application is described in U. S. Patent No. 6,756, 997, filed June 29, 2004 by Ward, III, US Patent Application No. 10 / 347,673, filed Jan. 17, 2003, by Knudson et al. And US Patent No. 6,388,714, filed May 14, 2002 by Schein et al., All of which are incorporated herein by reference. It will be appreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidance application display screens of the present invention.

The options area 126 may allow a user to access different types of media content, media guidance application displays, and / or media guidance application features. The options area 126 is part of the display 100 (and other display screens of the present invention), or by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignable button on the user input device. It can be invoked by the user. Selectable options in the options area 126 may take into account features associated with the program listings of the grid 102, or may include options available from the main menu display. Features related to program listings include: searching for other broadcast times or ways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling a series recording of a program, or favoriteing a program and / or channel. setting as a favorite, purchasing a program, or other features. The options available from the main menu display may include search operations, VOD options, parental control options, access to various types of listing displays, subscription to premium services, editing a user's profile, accessing a browse overlay, or Other options may be included.

The media guidance application can be personalized based on the user's preferences. The personalized media guidance application allows a user to customize the displays and features to create a personalized "experience" using the media guidance application. This personalized experience can be generated by having a user enter such customizations, or by a media guidance application that monitors user behavior to determine various user preferences. Users can access their personalized guidance application by logging in or otherwise verifying themselves against the guidance application. Customization of the media guidance application may be made according to the user profile. Customization may be based on display modes (eg, color scheme of displays, font size of text, etc.), aspects of media content listings displayed (eg, only HDTV programming, favorite channel selections). Broadcast channels, rearrangement of the display of channels, recommended media content, etc.), desired recording features (eg, recording or series recordings for specific users, recording quality, etc.), parental control settings, and other desired customizations May include changing them.

The media guidance application may allow the user to provide user profile information or may automatically compile the user profile information. The media guidance application may, for example, monitor the media that the user accesses and / or other interactions the user may have with the guidance application. In addition, the media guidance application obtains all or some of the other user profiles associated with a particular user (e.g., from other websites on the Internet that the user accesses, such as www.tvguide.com). Information may be obtained from other media guidance applications, from other interactive applications that the user accesses, from the user's handheld device, etc.) and / or from other sources that the media guidance application may access. . As a result, the user may be provided with an integrated guidance application experience through the user's different devices. This type of user experience is described in detail below in conjunction with FIG. Additional personalized media guidance application features are described in US patent application Ser. No. 11 / 179,710, filed July 11, 2005 by Ellis et al., US Patent Application No. 09 / 437,604, filed November 9, 1999 by Boyer et al. And US Patent Application No. 10 / 105,128, filed February 21, 2002, by Ellis et al., All of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown in FIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 for media content information that are configured based on media type, genre, and / or other configuration criteria. In the display 200, the television listings option 204 is selected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210 and 212 as broadcast program listings. Unlike the listings from FIG. 1, the listings in display 200 are not limited to simple text (eg, program title) and icons for describing the media. Rather, listings in display 200 may include graphical images including cover art, still images from media content, video clip previews, live video from media content, or Other types of media may be provided that direct the user to media content being disclosed by the listing. Each graphical listing may also carry text to provide additional information about the media content associated with the listing. For example, the listing 208 may include two or more portions, including the media portion 214 and the text portion 216. Media portion 214 and / or text portion 216 may be used to view video on a full-screen, or to view program listings associated with the video displayed in media portion 214 (eg, to the channel on which the video is being displayed). May be optional).

The listings of display 200 may be of different sizes (ie, listing 206 is larger than listings 208, 210, and 212), if desired, all listings may be the same size. The listings may be of different sizes, or may be graphically highlighted to indicate the degree of interest of the user to highlight specific content as required by the media provider or based on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphically highlighting media listings are discussed, for example, in US patent application Ser. No. 11 / 324,202, filed December 29, 2005 by Yates, all of which is herein incorporated by reference. Incorporated by reference.

The interactive media guidance application can provide other features including media search features using the intelligent results displays of the present invention. 3A and 3B show two schematic types of search results displays. In the search display of FIG. 3A, the interactive media guidance application receives user keywords as search criteria. In FIG. 3B, the interactive media guidance application receives user category and subcategory identifiers as search criteria. In such embodiments, television programs and videos on demand are a search target, but in other embodiments the media guidance application may search for any one or more types of other media content.

Each of the search displays of FIGS. 3A and 3B demonstrates a defect using prior art searches; They actually give more results than the user can preview (there are 1328 matches in FIG. 3A and 6023 in FIG. 3B). 4A and 4B show the effect of determining which results are most relevant and displaying only those results, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. In both cases, the number of matches displayed was significantly reduced.

4C shows another display arrangement for providing related results. In this embodiment, all matching results are displayed in area 410. Related results are provided in the recommendations area 420. In this embodiment, the interactive media guidance application used personalization data for the user to determine the relevance of the results. 4D discloses another embodiment in which the “hot list” area 430 is used to identify results related to popular choices based on what other users wanted.

4A-4D are merely schematic. In other approaches (not shown), the entire result set can be displayed and the most relevant results can be displayed in different ways or visually separated. For example, relevant results may be highlighted, marked, or colored differently than unrelated hits. In some approaches, a range of colors, or a set of marks, or icons (eg, one star, two stars, etc.) can be used to distinguish related results.

Another schematic interactive media guidance application display is shown in FIG. 5A. Display 500 is a module that can be personalized by a user, for example, as disclosed in US application _____ (Agent Dock No. UV-421) filed September 29, 2006, by Shannon et al. Is a QuickView dashboard display, all of which is incorporated herein by reference. Each module of the display 500 may provide access to different types of media content in different arrangements. However, multiple modules of display 500 provide the user with quick access to these different types of media on a single integrated display screen. Module display types are, for example, Grid Guide, Program Information, Suggested Programming, Watch List, Purchased VOD, Recorded Programs, Programs Scheduled for Recording, Most popular / highest rated lists, search, program / movie browsers, editorial reviews, video previews, TV planners, or any other suitable guidance application features. In certain implementations, only a limited number of modules are provided simultaneously in the display screen due to space constraints. For example, on the display 500 of FIG. 5A, a “Suggested Programming” module 502, a “Top On Demand” module 504, a “Grid guide” Module 550, and the "My Video Vault" module 524 are displayed to the user.

The “top on demand” module 504 includes graphical listings for nonlinear on-demand programming. Similarly, the “limited programming” module 502, which suggests current and future programming options that may be of interest to the user, also includes listings for linear programming. On the other hand, the “grid guide” module 550 can provide listings for linear programming, nonlinear programming, and any combination thereof. Thus, through the use of multiple guidance modules, it can be seen that listings for multiple media types can be provided in a convenient format. A more detailed description of these specific modules is provided in Attorney Docket No. UV-421, filed September 29, 2006, by Shannon et al., All of which are already incorporated herein by reference Incorporated by reference.

In addition to providing personalized guidance for media content from countless media sources and countless combinations, display 500 may also display media listings in various display arrangements. Modules such as the “suggested programming” module 502, the “top on demand” module 504, and the “my video repository” module 524 display listings for media content in a video mosaic display. On the other hand, the “proposed programming” module 502 is configured as a video mosaic display in a multi-column manner. The "top on demand" module 504 also provides a video mosaic display, but in a single-column display manner. In addition, modules such as “grid guide” 550 display listings for media content in a grid display and use only textual information about the media content.

The quickview display of the embodiment of FIG. 5A is displayed by the guidance application in response to the user-selected quickview tab 514. The guidance application may provide different displays for other tabs, such as Guide 516, Recorded TV 518, On Demand 520, Search 522, and the like. have. Guide tab 516 displays modules with grid guides for personalized media content listings. The recorded TV tab 518 displays modules with listings for the media content recorded by the user household. The on-demand tab 520 displays modules with listings for the most popular or highest viewership on-demand programs currently available through the media guide application.

In quick view mode, the guidance application displays the summarized versions of the aforementioned modules from which complete listings can be viewed from one or more other tabs. For example, the quick view display of FIG. 5A (displayed by the guide in response to a user selection of the quick view tab 514) is part of the “suggested programming” module 502 that can be normally represented in the guide tab 516. It includes. The quickview tab 514 further includes a portion of the “top on demand” module 504 and a portion of the “my video store” module 524, the complete listings of which are on-demand tab 520 and recorded TV tab, respectively. 518 may be selectable. The media guidance application selects media for the QuickView modules by searching for matching content based on the search criteria and by determining the media content that is most relevant to the user.

Comparing FIGS. 5A and 5B will describe how an interactive media guidance application can intelligently select relevant search results, change display arrangements, and change modules included in the guidance display based on the related results. By searching the guidance database for now, next, and later content, the media guidance application generates the proposed programming module 502. After finding all matching hits (the search criteria are related time slots), the application filters the hits to display only those that meet the relevance threshold. In this embodiment, the proposed programming module 502 has a room for only the two hits that are most relevant for each time slot. Thus, only these hits are selected for display. However, the program grid module 550 can fit more hits in the allocated space, which includes the four most relevant hits for the current time slot (in this embodiment, the grid also shows past programs). ).

In the embodiment of FIG. 5B, the user and broadcast time have changed, and the relevance determination yields a different set of related results. In this embodiment, there are only three related results for "proposed programming." The guide also changed the modules displayed; In the present embodiment, since there are no relevant current programs to display, the program grid has been deleted. Also, the "suggested programming" module 502 has been resized to accommodate fewer results. If the number of relevant results requires it, it can be remade to a larger size and the grid 550 can move further down (not shown).

Another embodiment of a guidance application that changes the displayed modules is described by comparing the modules 504 of FIGS. 5A and 5B. In this embodiment, the relevance threshold yields different result sets for the “on-demand” search since the user changes from adult to child (which can be determined based on the change in broadcast time as described below). Thus, instead of selecting the "top on demand" module, the guidance application selects the "Kids On Demand" module. However, because there is only a place for displaying six results in each custom module, the guide selects only the six most relevant results.

The guidance application can use any suitable approach to obtain search criteria for QuickView modules. For example, the guidance application may generate search criteria based on user personalization data derived from or supplied by the user interactions. In other approaches, the guidance application may receive search criteria from the user. 6 shows a schematic popup 600 that an interactive media guidance application may display in response to a user indication to supply search criteria for a module (searching for "up" from the top element of the module, Highlighting the module, pressing Select, etc.). In the embodiment of FIG. 6, keyword input or any suitable search type may be used (eg, by category, source, etc.). In response to the user's search criteria input, the guidance application may populate the relevant results in the module. FIG. 7 is an embodiment of a “top on demand” module that locates relevant on-demand results based on user input of the keyword “Lord”. Will have). The embodiment of FIG. 7 also shows how the “top on demand” module is resized based on the number of hits involved.

4A-7 illustrate that a guidance application restricts (or visually identifies) search results to those associated with a user and, in some embodiments, selects location arrangements and modules for modules based on the number of hits involved. It is provided to prove how it can. In addition, results that meet the relevance threshold may be classified according to relevance (not shown). In other embodiments, these embodiments are schematic only because other modules and relevance thresholds, arrangements, classifications, and other variables may be used.

In some embodiments, the relevance determination may also affect the advertisement selection for guidance displays. For example, FIGS. 5A and 5B include an advertisement 532. The guidance application may select the advertisement 532, for example, because it is for related media that is not included on the display due to space constraints.

Users can access media content and media guidance applications (and their display screens, described above and below) from one or more of their user equipment devices. 8 shows a generalized embodiment of a schematic user equipment device 800. More specific implementations of user equipment devices are discussed below in conjunction with FIG. 9. The user equipment device 800 may receive media content and data via an input / output ("I / O") path 802. I / O path 802 may provide media content (eg, broadcast programming, on-demand programming, internet content, and other video or audio) and data to control circuitry circuitry 804. Includes processing circuitry 806 and storage 808. Control circuitry 804 may be used to send and receive commands, instructions, and other appropriate data using I / O path 802. I / O path 802 may connect control circuitry 804 (and more specifically processing circuitry 806) to one or more communication paths (discussed below). I / O functions may be provided by one or more of these communication paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 8 to avoid complexity in the drawing.

Control circuitry 804 may be based on any suitable processing circuitry 806, such as a processing circuitry, based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, programmable logic devices, or the like. In some embodiments, control circuitry 804 executes instructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (ie, storage 808). In client-server based embodiments, the control circuitry 804 may comprise a communication circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidance application server or other networks or servers. Communication circuitry may include a cable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL), a telephone modem, or a wireless modem for communicating with other equipment. Such communications may include the Internet or any other suitable communications networks or routes (disclosed in more detail with FIG. 9). The communication circuitry also includes circuitry that enables peer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communication (described in more detail below) of user equipment devices at remote locations from one another. It may include.

(E.g., a random access memory, a read-only memory, or any other suitable memory, hard drives, optical drives, or any other suitable fixed or erasable storage devices A CD recorder, a video cassette recorder, or other suitable recording device) may be provided as a storage 808 that is part of the control circuitry 804. The storage 808 may store one or more of the above types of storage devices The user equipment device 800 may include a DVD recorder as a hard drive and a secondary storage device for a DVR (sometimes called a personal video recorder or PVR) May be used to store various types of media and guidance application data as disclosed herein, Includes program information, guidance application settings, user preferences or profile information, or other data used to operate the guidance application Non-volatile memory may also be used (eg, boot-up routines and other instructions). To start listening).

The control circuitry 804 may comprise one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2 decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, fixed tuners, or any other suitable tuning or video circuits, or a combination of such circuits. The same tuning circuitry and video generation circuitry may be included. Encoding circuitry (eg, for converting broadcast, analog, or digital signals into MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided. The control circuitry 804 may further comprise a scaler circuitry for upconverting and downconverting the media to the desired output format of the user equipment 800. The circuit element 804 may further include a digital-analog converter circuit element and an analog-digital converter circuit element for converting between digital and analog signals. Tuning and encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment to receive, display, play, or record media content. Tuning and encoding circuitry can also be used to receive guidance data. For example, circuit elements disclosed herein, including tuning, video generation, encoding, decoding, scalers, and analog / digital circuit elements, may be implemented using software running on one or more general purpose or specialized processors. Can be. Multiple tuners may be provided to handle concurrent tuning functions (eg, viewing and recording functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multi-tuner recording, etc.). If storage 808 is provided as a separate device from user equipment 800, tuning and encoding circuitry (including multiple tuners) may be associated with storage 808.

The user can control the control circuit element 804 using the user input interface 810. The user input interface 810 can be any suitable user interface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard, touch screen, touch pad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognition interface, or other user input interfaces. Display 812 may be provided as a standalone device or integrated with other elements of user equipment device 800. The display 812 may be one or more of a monitor, television, liquid crystal display (LCD) for mobile device, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images. In some embodiments, display 812 may have the performance of an HDTV. Speaker 814 may be provided to be integrated with other elements of user equipment device 800 or may be standalone units. Audio components of other media content and videos displayed on display 812 may be played through speakers 814. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to a receiver (not shown) that processes the audio and outputs it through the speakers 814.

The user equipment device 800 of FIG. 8 is any other type suitable for accessing media such as user television equipment 902, user computer equipment 904, wireless user communication device 906, or a non-portable gaming machine. May be implemented in the system 900 of FIG. For simplicity, these devices may be collectively referred to herein as user equipment or user equipment devices. The user equipment devices on which the media guidance application is implemented may function as a standalone device, or may be part of a network of devices. Various network configurations of devices can be implemented and are discussed in more detail below.

User television equipment 902 may be a set top box, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for processing satellite television, a television set, a digital storage device, a DVD recorder, a video-cassette recorder (VCR), a local media server, or other user television equipment. It may include. One or more such devices can be integrated to be a single device if desired. User computer equipment 904 may include a laptop, tablet, webTV box, personal computer television (PC / TV), PC media server, PC media center, or other user computer equipment. WebTV is a trademark owned by Microsoft Corp. The wireless user communication device 906 may include PDAs, cell phones, portable video players, portable music players, portable game machines, or other wireless devices.

It should be noted that with the advent of television tuner cards for the PC, webTV, and the integration of video into user equipment devices, the lines are blurred when attempting to classify the device as one of the devices. Indeed, each of the user television equipment 902, user computer equipment 904, and wireless user communication device 906 may utilize at least some of the system features disclosed above in conjunction with FIG. 8, resulting in use on the device. Includes flexibility regarding the type of media content that is possible. For example, user television equipment 902 may be Internet-enabled to allow access to Internet content, while user computer equipment 904 may include a tuner to allow access to television programming. It may include. The media guidance application may also have the same layout on various different types of user equipment, or be tailored to the display capabilities of the user equipment. For example, on a user computer device, the guidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a web browser. In another embodiment, the guidance application may be scaled down for the wireless user communication devices.

In system 900, there are typically two or more respective types of user equipment devices, but only one of each of them is shown in FIG. 9 in order to avoid overly complex drawings. In addition, each user may have two or more types of user equipment devices (eg, the user may have a television set and a computer), and two or more respective types of user equipment devices (eg, the user may have a PDA and a portable computer). May have a telephone and / or multiple television sets).

The user can also set various settings to maintain consistent media guidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices. Settings include channel and program favorites, programming preferences that the guidance application uses to make programming recommendations, display preferences, and other desired guidance settings, as well as those disclosed herein. For example, if a user sets a channel as a favorite, for example, on the web site www.tvguide.com on his personal computer in the office, the same channel is not only in the user's mobile devices but also in the user's home, if necessary. Will appear as a favorite on devices (eg, user television equipment and user computer equipment). Thus, changes made on one user equipment device may change the guidance experience on another user equipment device regardless of whether they are the same or different types of user equipment device. In addition, the changes made may be based on user inputs monitored by the guidance application, as well as settings entered by the user.

User equipment devices may be coupled to the communication network 914. That is, user television equipment 902, user computer equipment 904, and wireless user communication device 906 are coupled to communication network 914 via communication paths 908, 910, and 912, respectively. The communication network 914 may be a network of telecommunications networks or telecommunication networks of the Internet, cellular telephone networks, mobile device (eg, BlackBerry) networks, cable networks, public switched telephone networks, or other times. There may be one or more networks comprising the combination. BlackBerry is a trademark owned by Research In Motion Limited Corp. The paths 908, 910, and 912 may be used for satellite paths, fiber optic paths, cable paths, paths that support Internet communications (eg, IPTV), free space connections (eg, for broadcast or other wireless signals). ), Or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths, individually or together. Path 912 is drawn in dashed lines to indicate that it is a wireless path in the example embodiment shown in FIG. 9, and paths 908 and 910 are drawn in solid lines to indicate that they are wired paths (these paths are Even though it may be wireless paths). Communications using user equipment devices may be provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 9 to avoid undue complexity of the drawing.

Communication paths are not shown between user equipment devices, but these devices may be connected to other devices such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wireless paths (eg, Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.). As with near-field point-to-point communication paths, or other near-field communication via wired or wireless paths, each other through communication paths such as those disclosed above with paths 908, 910 and 912. You can communicate directly. Bluetooth is a brand name owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipment devices may also communicate with each other directly via an indirect path through the communication network 914.

System 900 includes a media content source 916 and a media guidance data source 918 coupled to the communication network 914 via communication paths 920 and 922, respectively. The paths 920 and 922 can include any of the communication paths disclosed above in conjunction with the paths 908, 910, and 912. Communications with media content source 916 and media guidance data source 918 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 9 to avoid undue complexity of the drawing. There may also be two or more respective media content sources 916 and media guidance data sources 918, but only one of each of them is shown in FIG. 9 to avoid undue complexity of the drawings. (Each of these sources of different types are discussed below.) If necessary, media content source 916 and media guidance data source 918 may be integrated as one source device. Although communications between sources 916 and 918 with user equipment devices 902, 904, and 906 are shown through communication network 914, in some embodiments, sources 916 and 918 are routed. Communication with the user equipment devices 902, 904, and 906 via communication paths (not shown) such as those disclosed above with the devices 908, 910, and 912.

Media content source 916 may include television distribution equipment, cable system headends, phase distribution equipment, programming sources (e.g., television broadcasters such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediate distribution ( intermediate distribution) equipment and / or one or more types of media distribution equipment including servers, Internet providers, on-demand media servers, and other media content providers. NBC is a trademark owned by National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by ABC, INC. And HBO is a trademark owned by Home Box Office, Inc. Media content source 916 may be the creator of media content (eg, a television station, webcast provider, etc.) or may not be the creator of media content (eg, on-demand media content provider, for download). Internet provider of video content of broadcast programs, etc.). Media content source 716 may include cable sources, satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers, or other media content providers. Media content source 916 may also include a remote media server used to store different types of media content (including video content selected by a user) at locations remote from any user equipment devices. Systems and methods for remote storage of media content and providing media content remotely stored on user equipment are discussed in detail with US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 332,244, filed June 11, 1999 by Ellis et al. The contents are incorporated herein by reference.

Media guidance data source 918 may include media listings, media-related information (eg, broadcast times, broadcast channels, media titles, media descriptions, rating information (eg, parental control ratings, critics). Ratings, etc.), genre or category information, actor information, logo of the station's logo or provider's logo, etc., media format (eg, standard resolution, high resolution, etc.), advertising information (eg, text, image , Media clips, etc.), on-demand information, display resolutions, any other type of guidance data that helps users navigate and discover desired media selections, and other ways of generating interactive media guidance application displays. Media guidance data, such as any other data that may be provided.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data source 918 may view hot-list information (ie, data viewed by another user as a result of searches) used by the media guidance application to provide hot list displays of relevant search results. to provide. In such embodiments, the interactive media guidance application sends search information to the media guidance data source 918 via the communication network 914 and the path 908, 910 or 912. The search information identifies the search criteria of the search performed by the interactive media guidance application, and the media selected for access by the user from the search results display. This information is used by the source 918 to create a database of hot lists. When the interactive media guidance application performs a search, it sends the search criteria to the source 918. In response, source 918 provides the identifiers of the media that other users have seen from the database as a result of similar searches. The interactive media guidance application displays the identifiers in a hot list display, such as hot list display 430 of FIG. 4D.

Media guidance application data may be provided to user equipment devices using any suitable approach. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be a standalone interactive television program that receives program guide data via a data supply (eg, a continuous supply, trickle supply, or vertical blanking interval data of a channel). It may be a guide. Program schedule data and other guidance data may be used in an in-band digital signal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or at any vertical blanking interval of a television channel. May be provided to the user equipment on the television channel sideband by other suitable data transmission techniques. Program schedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the user equipment on multiple analog or digital television channels. Program schedule data and other guidance data may be stored in user equipment at any suitable period (e.g., continuously, daily, at user-specific time periods, at system-specific time periods, in response to requests from user equipment, etc.). Can be provided. In some approaches, guidance data from the media guidance data source 918 may be provided to the user's equipment using a client-server approach. For example, the guidance application client residing on the user equipment may initiate sessions with source 918 to obtain guidance data when needed. The media guidance data source 918 can provide a media guidance application to the user equipment devices 902, 904, 906, or provide software updates for the media guidance application.

Media guidance applications may be standalone applications implemented on user equipment devices, for example. In other embodiments, the media guidance applications may only be client-server applications where the client resides on user equipment devices. For example, the media guidance applications are partly as a client application (FIG. 8) on the processing circuitry 806 of the user equipment device 804, and partly as a server application (eg, the media guidance data source 918). Can be implemented on a remote server. Guidance application displays may be generated by the media guidance data source 918 and sent to user equipment devices. The media guidance data source 918 can also send data for storage on the user equipment, which then generates guidance application displays based on the instructions processed by the control circuitry.

The media guidance system 900 is intended to describe multiple approaches, or network configurations, whereby user equipment devices and sources of media content and guidance data are associated with each other for the purpose of accessing the media and providing media guidance. Can communicate. The invention can be applied in any one or subset of these approaches, or in systems that use other approaches for delivering media and providing media guidance. The following three approaches provide specific descriptions of the generalized embodiment of FIG. 9.

In one approach, user equipment devices can communicate with each other within a home network. User equipment devices may communicate with each other directly through the short-range point-to-point communication designs disclosed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similar device provided on a home network, or via communications network 914. Can be. Each of the multiple entities in a single home can operate different user equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may be desirable for various media guidance information or settings to be communicated between different user equipment devices. For example, as disclosed in detail in US patent application Ser. No. 11 / 179,710, filed Jul. 11, 2005 by Ellis et al., Users may have consistent media guidance application settings on different user equipment devices in the home network. It may be desirable to maintain. Different types of user equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with each other to transmit media content. For example, a user can transfer media content from a user computer equipment to a portable video player or a portable music player.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment that they access media content and obtain media guidance. For example, some users may have home networks accessed in the home and by mobile devices. Users can control home devices through a media guidance application implemented on a remote device. For example, users can access an online media guidance application on a website from their office through a personal computer or a mobile device such as a PDA or web-enabled mobile phone. Users can set various settings on the online guidance application (eg, recordings, reminders, or other settings) to control the user's home equipment. The online guide can control the user's equipment either directly or by communicating with a media guidance application on the user's home equipment. Various systems and methods for communication of user equipment devices in which user equipment devices are remote from each other are discussed, for example, in US patent application Ser. No. 10 / 927,814, filed Aug. 26, 2004 by Ellis et al. The entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outside the home can use their media guidance application to communicate directly with the media content source 916 to access the media content. In particular, within a home, users of user television equipment 904 and user computer equipment 906 can access a media guidance application to search for and discover desired media content. Users may also use wireless user communications devices 906 to access a media guidance application outside the home to search for and discover desired media content.

While the discussion of media content has focused on video content, it can be appreciated that the principles of media guidance can be applied to other types of media content such as music, images, and the like.

10-12 are flowcharts of processes for various embodiments of the present invention. These flow diagrams are merely schematic, in which various steps may be deleted, other steps added, or rearranged in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

The process 1000 of FIG. 10 describes exemplary steps involved in some embodiments for obtaining a search criteria, searching for matching items, and identifying related matches. Steps 1010-1030 are directed to obtaining search criteria in various embodiments. In step 101, the interactive media guidance application receives search criteria from a user. In some embodiments, for example, an interactive media guidance application (implemented on processing circuitry 806 (FIG. 8)) receives search criteria from user input interface 810. The search criteria may be entered, for example, by a user's keyword input, or by the category search displays of FIGS. 4A-4D or the search input keyboard of the popup 600 of FIG. 6.

Steps 1020-1040 are used by the interactive media guidance application of embodiments where the search criteria are generated by an application (which may be other than the search criteria from the user). In step 1020, the interactive media guidance application monitors user behavior to generate personalization data (such techniques are known to those skilled in the art). In step 1030, the user enters clear user preferences (such as by rating content, genres, categories, etc.). Both approaches can be implemented. In step 1040, the interactive media guidance application generates search criteria from personalization data / preferences (as used herein, "personalization data" refers to both data generated through user behavior monitoring and explicit user preferences). can do).

The following embodiments may serve to explain the operation of step 1040. For example, assume that user behavior monitoring or clear user preferences suggest that the user likes an action movie. The interactive media guidance application can generate an "action" text string for using the search criteria to retrieve action movies or programs or related advertisements from internal data structures that define categories. In another embodiment, the guidance application assumes that the user has determined that he likes a particular actor, such as "Sylvester Stallone." From this personalization information, the interactive media guidance application can generate "Stallone" as a search criterion, for example, to search for movies of the proposed Stallone, search related advertisements, or do any other suitable search.

Steps 1050 and 1060 are alternative steps, one or both of which may be performed in any given embodiment. In step 1050, the interactive media guidance application receives clear user instructions to perform a search. This clear indication may be to initiate a search with a selection of keywords (eg, FIG. 3A), a sub-category selection (eg, FIG. 3B), or a search criteria generated by the interactive media guidance application at step 1040. It may be of any suitable type, such as by user selection of an option. In step 1060, the interactive media guidance application automatically detects in response to a timer function or in any other manner (e.g., when generating programming suggestions for subsequent use) or the like that is not tied to user action. Determine whether this should be done.

In response to a user indication or determination that the search should be performed from steps 1050 and 1060, the interactive media guidance application retrieves media information to find matching items (step 1070). Media information may be stored, for example, in a database in storage 808 (FIG. 8) or in a media guidance data source 918 (FIG. 9) (such as in client-server based architectures). The items retrieved may be any suitable guidance application data associated with the media being searched for. The media may be retrieved based on associated program listings, titles, information in media descriptions, metadata describing scenes of video media, or any other suitable items.

In step 1080, the interactive media guidance application determines whether each item is associated with a user, which in this embodiment is whether the item is greater than (or equal to) the relevance threshold (more fully described below). Determining a. It should be noted that the determination of step 1080 may be performed on each hit after it is found or when the entire search is complete. These steps will be described in detail below. At step 1090, the interactive media guidance application identifies the item as relevant (this may be accomplished, for example, by setting a flag associated with the item of the data structure representing the result set).

The process continues in FIG. 11, and in step 1110 of FIG. 11, the interactive media guidance application determines whether a minimum number of related items have been found. If not, the application reduces the relevance threshold (step 1120) and returns to step 1080 of FIG. 10 to determine if the items meet the new relevance threshold.

If a relevance threshold is set and a minimum number of related items is found, the interactive media guidance application of the present embodiment selects modules for display based on the related items (step 1130). For example, an interactive media guidance application may determine whether a "top on demand" or "child on demand" (FIGS. 5A and 5B, respectively) module is suitable for display based on whether items are associated with a child or adult. Can be. Alternatively, the interactive media guidance application may determine whether the recommendations area (eg, area 420 of FIG. 4C) or a hot list area (eg, area 430 of FIG. 4D) is used. .

After the selection of the relevant modules, the process continues to one of steps 1140 or 1150 (some embodiments use both steps, but only one will be performed in a given embodiment). At step 1140, the interactive media guidance application selects a graphical display definition based on the number of related results (i.e., items that satisfy the relevance threshold). The graphical display definition defines the look and feel of the module for guidance application display or guidance application display. In this step, the interactive media guidance application retrieves display definitions from storage 808 (FIG. 8) and places it with the relevant results.

In an alternative approach, the interactive media guidance application generates display definitions at run time (step 1150). For example, an interactive media guidance application may be an object-oriented application having objects representing each module, such as the modules of FIGS. 5A and 5B. Each module object may have associated methods for creating an object for display. The methods of the module may generate different appearances of the modules based on the number of relevant results. In step 1160, the interactive media guidance application generates a display of relevant results according to the display definitions selected and generated in steps 1140 and 1150. In some embodiments, only relevant results are displayed. In other embodiments, related results are visually differentiated from unrelated (or less related) results. This can be accomplished by color processing, highlighting, or using icons.

Depending on whether display definitions are retrieved from storage 808 (FIG. 8) or generated at run time (as in the object-oriented approach disclosed above), they provide various desirable effects on the display of related search results. Used. For example, the display area size of a module with related results may be affected. The colors used to display the relevant results can be affected. The positional arrangement of the modules can be affected. Any other suitable display effects may also be used.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application can allow a user to adjust the relevance threshold. In step 1170, the interactive media guidance application receives a user indication from the user history interface 810 (FIG. 8) instructing the applications to reduce the relevance threshold (the user may also increase the threshold, which is a figure) Not shown). In response, the process returns to step 1120.

12 is a flow diagram of a schematic process 1200 for providing relevance information to step 1080 of FIG. One of steps 1210 and 1220 is used to identify a user for the purpose of defining a relevance threshold (both steps may be used at different times in some embodiments). In step 1210, the interactive media guidance application receives user login information that uniquely identifies the user from the user input interface 810 (FIG. 8). In step 1220, the interactive media guidance application determines the user based on the monitored user action (performed by the user using the user input interface 810 FIG. 8). For example, an interactive media guidance application can associate actions with a particular user profile. Or, in some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application is, for example, those disclosed in U.S. Provisional Application No. _____ (Agent Dock No. UV-423 Prov.), Filed September 29, 2006 by Ferrone. It is possible to associate user profiles with the same specific broadcast times, which are incorporated herein by reference.

In step 1230, the interactive media guidance application retrieves user personalization data for the user profile or user identified in step 1210 or 1220 from storage 806 (FIG. 8). This data represents the user's media interests and is the basis for determining relevance for search results. Leaving FIG. 12 and temporarily going to FIG. 13, the schematic personalization data table 1300 is maintained by an interactive media guidance application and stored in storage 806 (FIG. 8). The interactive media guidance application may, for example, use the user input interface 810 (FIG. 8) in response to explicit user media preferences entered by the user, or to monitor user behavior or to alert the user or user's interest (s). After the determination, the entries into the table 1300 are recorded or changed.

Personalization table 1300 includes five fields. Field 1310 identifies the user or user profile when the user is not explicitly identified. Field 1320 identifies media attributes of interest, such as genre, actor, media type, or any other media attribute. Field 1330 identifies the values for attribute 1320 of the record. For example, the attribute "genre" may have an associated value of action or child as shown. The relevance value field 1340 is a number that identifies how important the attribute-value pair is to the user. In one of the example records of the table 1300, for example, the action is an attribute value that is very important to User 1 (as indicated by the relevance value of 10). Field 1350 specifies the broadcast time for four sets of user-attribute-value-relevance values. In the first row, for example, one set of four applies at times from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

Returning to FIG. 12, process 1200 continues with step 1240 where the interactive media guidance application determines the current broadcast time (such as by calling the system clock of processing circuitry 806 (FIG. 8), and the like. In step 1250, the interactive media guidance application determines relevance data for step 1080 of FIG. 10 by selecting only records from table 1300 that are associated with the identified user and broadcast time. This relevance data is fed to step 1080 of FIG.

Returning to step 1080 of FIG. 10, a determination as to how search results can be determined to be sufficiently relevant for some embodiments can now be described. For each search result, the interactive media guidance application compares the attributes of the result with the relevance data from step 1250 (FIG. 12). Any suitable algorithm can then be used to determine whether the result is sufficiently relevant. In some embodiments, the relevance threshold is the percentage of words from the item that match the search criteria.

In other embodiments, a weighted distance algorithm is used where the output d of the algorithm is the square root of the sum of squares of v1V1, ... vnVn; Where v = the relevance value of the field 1340 of the personalization table 1300 (FIG. 13), and V is the value of the attribute from the field 1330 of the personalization table 1300 (FIG. 13) and the value of the resulting attribute. The distance vector between them. The distances between the attribute values may be maintained in a table by the interactive media guidance application of storage 808 (FIG. 8). The interactive media guidance application determines whether d for the result is above the relevance threshold, which is a variable stored by the interactive media guidance application and is set to an initial amount based on the amount of relevance that the system provider of the interactive media guidance application wants to provide. do. This amount may be reduced to incremental amounts (such as amounts equal to one distance vector amount) in step 1120 (FIG. 11) when the number of associated hits does not meet a predefined minimum number (in this embodiment). The threshold will actually be increased to allow larger distances d).

14 is a flow diagram of another schematic process 1400 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, where the interactive media guidance application is a program guide. In step 1410 the interactive program guide receives keywords from the user for title retrieval. The user can enter keywords using an on-screen keyboard (eg as shown in FIG. 4A) using any remote control or any other suitable interface. In step 1420, the program guide performs a title search by searching for program titles with keywords in the database of guidance data from source 918 (FIG. 9). In step 1430, the program guide determines whether the results are relevant as described above, and generates a recommendation or hot list (step 1440). Recommendations may be generated based on user personalization information as disclosed above. Hot lists may be generated based on hot list information from source 918 (FIG. 9) as disclosed above. At step 1450, the program guide displays a program guide display with recommendations or hot list.

15 is a schematic data structure 1500 for a display definition. In this embodiment, the data structure is a table, and a "top on demand" module ("top on demand" in FIGS. 5A and 7) for a given number of related results (6 and 3 results respectively in this embodiment). Three display characteristics (such as a module). The table defines the size of the module, the element size of the individual relevant results, and the colors used. This table can be retrieved by the interactive media guidance application as part of step 1140 of Figure 11 to display search results of different display configurations based on the number of related results. The table 1500 is merely schematic, and any other suitable data structure and set of display characteristics may be used to change the display configurations based on the number of results involved.

In accordance with the foregoing, systems and methods are provided for providing search displays of related media listings. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention may be practiced by other embodiments than the disclosed embodiments, the embodiments of the invention are for purposes of illustration and not limitation, and the invention is only by the claims. Will be limited.

Claims (1)

A method for restricting search results based on the relevance of an interactive media guidance application,
Searching a database of media guidance application data to find items that match the search criteria;
Determining whether items matching the search criteria meet a relevance threshold; And
Generating a display having only matching items of the matching items that are determined to meet or exceed the relevance threshold;
Including, method of limiting search results.

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