Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N7/00—Television systems
  • H04N7/08—Systems for the simultaneous or sequential transmission of more than one television signal, e.g. additional information signals, the signals occupying wholly or partially the same frequency band, e.g. by time division
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
  • H04H60/00—Arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linking to broadcast information or broadcast space-time; Broadcast-related systems
  • H04H60/61—Arrangements for services using the result of monitoring, identification or recognition covered by groups H04H60/29-H04H60/54
  • H04H60/65—Arrangements for services using the result of monitoring, identification or recognition covered by groups H04H60/29-H04H60/54 for using the result on users' side
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/431—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/45—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
  • H04N21/4508—Management of client data or end-user data
  • H04N21/4532—Management of client data or end-user data involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/45—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
  • H04N21/466—Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies
  • H04N21/4662—Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies characterized by learning algorithms
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/47—End-user applications
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/47—End-user applications
  • H04N21/482—End-user interface for program selection
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/80—Generation or processing of content or additional data by content creator independently of the distribution process; Content per se
  • H04N21/83—Generation or processing of protective or descriptive data associated with content; Content structuring
  • H04N21/84—Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/434—Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream
  • H04N21/4345—Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream

Definitions

• the invention relates to a apparatus for receiving a plurality of programs, comprising: decoding means for receiving and decoding attribute values relating to attributes of said programs, including program title and program category, user profile means for storing user preferences with respect to said program title and/or said program category, and producing ratings for said programs in accordance with said user preferences, presentation means for presenting said ratings to the user.
• the invention further relates to a method of advising a user about receivable programs, comprising the steps of: receiving and decoding attribute values relating to attributes of said programs, including program title and program category, storing user preferences with respect to said program title and/or said program category, and producing ratings for said programs in accordance with said user preferences, presenting said ratings to the user,
• known television receivers and set-top boxes comprise an electronic program guide (EPG) which are capable of receiving and decoding program data, such as program title and program category, related to programs which will be transmitted in the near future.
• EPG electronic program guide
• program data such as program title and program category
• the known method and apparatus have the feature of keeping record of the users preferences and interests. This kind of information can be stored in a so called user profile.
• a possible way to visualize such a profile is the use of a visual agent. For example if a large amount of content or information is available to the user, such an agent can give advice, suggest or help in another way to find the information of interest.
• the apparatus according to the invention is characterized in that the user profile means are adapted to relate said ratings to human emotions, e.g. enthusiasm or apathy, the presentation means being adapted to present an agent capable of expressing said emotions.
• An agent can express its advice or opinion in many ways, but most of the time it will have some sort of metaphor with human behavior and expression: so called anthropomorphic characteristics.
• a very important anthropomorphic characteristic is the expression of emotions. Emotions are easily perceived and understood by most users, and therefore enhance the information communication (here the opinion or advice of the agent).
• this advice or opinion and corresponding emotional behavior can be a mismatch with the actual content it is referring to. For example if one regularly watches the news, the agent will be enthusiastic about news content, but if a particular news item contains shocking news (e.g. a tornado with many casualties) it is out of place to be very enthusiastic.
• shocking news e.g. a tornado with many casualties
• An embodiment of the method and apparatus according to the invention is characterized in that the advice or opinion, and thus the emotional state, of an agent is not only based on the user profile, but also on information available on the content, the agent is referring to.
• This additional content information can either be found on the internet, via some sort of service subscription or via metadata which is sent along with the content itself.
• this metadata for television programs is the so called Digital Video Broadcast - Service Information, DVB-SI.
• intelligence must be integrated in the system beforehand.
• This intelligence can be implemented in the form of for example if-then rules, or a look-up table.
• Figure 1 shows a diagram of a television receiver as an embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention
• Figure 2 shows a flowchart of generating a presentation of an agent in accordance with an embodiment of the method according to the invention.
• FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a digital television receiver as an embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention.
• Digital broadcast streams modulated upon radio frequency (RF) signals, are received from the ether by an antenna 1 or, alternatively, from a cable network.
• the broadcast streams may be formatted, for example, in accordance with the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard.
• a tuner 2 comprises a standard analog RF receiving device which is capable of receiving said RF signals and selecting one of them to be output to a demodulator 3. Which signal tuner 2 selects is dependent upon control data received from a central processing unit (CPU) 5.
• CPU central processing unit
• This packet stream is then output to a demultiplexer 4, which selects packets belonging to a particular program in accordance with control data received from the CPU 5, and decomposes the packet stream into elementary video, audio or data streams.
• the television receiver may be adapted to receive signals from other sources too, for example, from a (digital) video recorder or DVD, from Internet, or from a digital subscriber line.
• Programs and program attributes need not be obtained from the same source.
• attributes and attribute values relating to broadcast programs may be obtained from an internet site.
• a video processor 8 decodes the video stream received from the demultiplexer
• Decoded video data is then transmitted to a display screen 9.
• An audio processor 6 decodes the audio stream received from the demultiplexer 4. Decoded audio data is then transmitted to a speaker system 7.
• the demultiplexer 4 outputs the elementary data stream to the CPU 5.
• the elementary data stream has two types of data: control data and content data.
• Content refers to, for example, interactive programs; control refers to tables in the multiplex which specify matters like the structure of the multiplex, the (RF) frequencies at which the channels are modulated, and the addresses at which the various content components and the (other) tables in the multiplex can be found.
• the CPU 5 comprises one or more microprocessors capable of executing program instructions stored in a read-only memory (ROM) 12. These program instructions comprise parts of software modules including, inter alia, a command module 13, and a user profile module 14. Data processed by said software modules, e.g. DVB-SI data and user profile information, may be stored in a non- volatile memory 11.
• the command module 13 is capable of controlling functions of the TV-set, like tuning and demultiplexing selection, and transmitting data to the video processor 8 to be presented on the screen 9.
• a user command unit 10 receives user commands, e.g. through a remote control (not shown), and transmits them to the command module 13 to be processed. For example, when the user enters a channel number, the command module 13 controls the tuner 2 and the demultiplexer 4 to select the corresponding broadcast stream and data packets therein, and sends graphical data to the video processor 8 to present feedback on the screen 9, e.g. the preset number, the channel name being displayed for a few seconds.
• the user profile module 14 interprets the DVB-SI data received from the demultiplexer 4 to collect information about the channels ('services' in DVB terminology) available in the received broadcast streams and about the programs ('events' in DVB terminology) scheduled for those channels. Subsequently, the user profile module 14 produces ratings in a way as described below.
• Figure 2 shows a flowchart of generating a presentation of an agent in accordance with an embodiment of the method according to the invention. Program ratings are produced in accordance with a user profile 22, based on user preferences and program titles and categories.
• a rule base (or look-up table) 23 relates said program ratings to content information 21 which includes the actual subject items of the programs.
• the rule base determines which kind of emotion is most suitable to convey an opinion about the program to the user. Then, a presentation 24 of an agent is composed and presented to the user in an audible or visual way. For example, if a program's subject is a natural disaster, such as a tornado, with many casualties, and the program category is 'news', the agent will be in favor of the program if the user regularly watches the news, but not in an enthusiastic manner; more in a serious and interested manner. On the other hand, if the program category is 'movie' and if this category is one of the user's preferred categories, the agent will react in an enthusiastic manner.
• the invention relates to a method of and apparatus for advising a user about receivable programs.
• Programs are rated in accordance with a user profile and information about program categories.
• An agent presents opinions and advises about the receivable programs based on these ratings.
• the agent is capable of expressing human-like emotions. These emotions are based on the program ratings on the one hand, and information about subject items of the programs on the other hand.
• the information about subject items may be encoded and decoded in a predetermined format, or may be extracted in an informal way, e.g. by means of keyword matching.
• the rule-base determining the suitable emotions of the agent may be user supplied or provided by the manufacturer of the TV or by a service provider via a network or data carrier.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
• Two-Way Televisions, Distribution Of Moving Picture Or The Like (AREA)
• Testing, Inspecting, Measuring Of Stereoscopic Televisions And Televisions (AREA)
• Circuits Of Receivers In General (AREA)

Priority Applications (1)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=8240620

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (5)

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• 2000
  • 2000-08-31 CN CNB008026777A patent/CN1163063C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2000-08-31 JP JP2001524353A patent/JP2003509976A/ja active Pending
  • 2000-08-31 KR KR1020017005845A patent/KR20010092727A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2000-08-31 EP EP00960564A patent/EP1129574A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2000-08-31 WO PCT/EP2000/008498 patent/WO2001020904A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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