JP2003281168A - Multimedia contents providing method, device, program and record medium recording the program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To give a label name of a select menu of multimedia contents provided to a user even if the multimedia contents are not suitably classified. <P>SOLUTION: A cluster information creating part 10 sorts the retrieved similar multimedia contents groups in the order of decreasing the similarity, and adds a cluster keyword representing the characteristics of the similar multimedia contents group to create the cluster information. A regeneration list creating part 11 creates a regeneration list by each cluster information, in which the cluster keyword is described at the beginning, and then summary description on each attribute of the multimedia contents is written in the order of decreasing the similarity. A menu screen creating part 12 extracts a cluster keyword of the regeneration list, and provides the list as a menu screen to a user terminal. The regeneration list creating part 11 presents the regeneration list linked with the cluster keyword selected by the user to the user. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing multimedia contents to a user terminal according to the taste of the user.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, stored address information of multimedia contents classified so as to form a directory structure shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 9, a list in which the category name to which the content belongs and the address information of the multimedia content are described is created, and the directory-structured category name described in the list is used as the label of the multimedia content selection menu. There is a technology for providing various selection menu screen data to a user terminal.

[0003]

However, in the prior art, it is assumed that the multimedia contents are classified in the form in which the category names are given, and the multimedia contents are properly classified. In the case of no classification, the label name of the selection menu of multimedia contents provided to the user could not be given.

An object of the present invention is to provide a multimedia content providing method and apparatus capable of giving a label name of a selection menu of multimedia contents to be provided to a user even when the multimedia contents are not properly classified. To do.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A user in which identification information of multimedia content selected after the user has browsed in the past is described based on the information for identifying the user received from the user terminal. Get a profile. A multimedia content profile, which describes the attributes of the multimedia content of the identification information of the multimedia content described in the user profile, is acquired. Based on the acquired multimedia content profile, a multimedia content similar in content to the multimedia content browsed by the user in the past is searched. The retrieved similar multimedia contents are classified into a designated number of clusters in descending order of similarity, and cluster information is created by adding a keyword characterizing each cluster to the cluster. For each cluster information, a play list is created in which, in the order of the keyword and the degree of similarity, the attribute of each multimedia content, the multimedia content ID, the title, and the outline description about the content are described. The cluster keywords of the playlist are extracted and the list is provided to the user terminal as a menu screen. When the user selects a keyword from the menu screen, the play list linked to the keyword is presented to the user.

To the clustered multimedia contents, a keyword that characterizes the cluster is given by using the contents of the multimedia contents, a playlist is created, and the keyword is used as a label of a playlist selection menu for providing to the user terminal. By giving,
Even if multimedia contents are not properly classified, the system can automatically give a label.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a multimedia contents providing apparatus of the present invention.

The multimedia content creation apparatus of the present embodiment comprises a user profile DB1, a multimedia content profile DB2, a multimedia content DB3, a playlist DB4, a storage device 5, a communication unit 6, a user profile acquisition unit 7, and a multimedia. Content profile acquisition unit 8, search unit 9, cluster information creation unit 10, playlist creation unit 11, and menu screen creation unit 1
It is composed of two.

In the user profile DB1, user identification information (user ID in this example) and identification information of selected multimedia content (multimedia content ID in this example) are described for each user. The stored user profile is stored. In the multimedia content profile DB2, address information (URL in this example) indicating a location where the entity of multimedia content is stored for each multimedia content.
And a multimedia content profile in which the identification information of the multimedia content, the title name of the multimedia content, and a brief description of the content of the multimedia content are described. The multimedia contents DB3 stores multimedia contents. A playlist created for each user is stored in the playlist DB4. Storage device 5
The created menu screen data is temporarily stored in. The communication unit 6 performs communication processing with a user terminal (not shown). The user profile acquisition unit 7 uses the user profile received from the user terminal, which describes the multimedia content ID of the multimedia content selected after the user browsed in the past based on the user ID. It acquires from person profile DB1. The multimedia content profile acquisition unit 8 acquires from the multimedia content profile DB 2 a multimedia content profile describing the attributes of the multimedia content of the identification information of the multimedia content, which is described in the user profile. The search unit 9 searches the multimedia content DB 3 for multimedia content that is similar in content to the multimedia content browsed by the user in the past based on the acquired multimedia content profile. The cluster information creating unit 10 classifies the retrieved similar multimedia contents into a designated number of clusters in descending order of similarity, and creates cluster information in which a keyword characterizing the cluster is added to each cluster. The playlist creation unit 11 sets, for each cluster information,
A playlist in which attributes of each multimedia content, multimedia content ID, title, and a brief description about the content are described in the order of keyword and similarity is created, and the created playlist is created in the playlist DB4.
Further, when the user selects a keyword from the menu screen, the playlist linked to the keyword is presented to the user via the communication unit 6. The menu screen creation unit 12 extracts the cluster keywords of the playlist and provides the list as a menu screen to the user terminal via the communication unit 6.

As a method of classifying into clusters, for example, as a characteristic of multimedia contents, normalization processing is performed so that the size is 1 with the number of appearances of words in the outline explanation sentence of multimedia contents as an element. A vector space represented by the vector Vc is created, and the vector Vc representing each multimedia content located on this space is calculated by a K-means algorithm (reference: "Iwanami Course Multimedia Informatics 2 Organization of Information" Iwanami There is a method of classifying clusters by using (the description is omitted because it is described in a bookstore).

FIG. 2 is an example of a user profile. In this example, a user ID that is information that identifies the user,
The selected multimedia content ID, which is the identification information of the multimedia content that the user has browsed in the past and is interested and selected, is described.

FIG. 3 shows an example of cluster information output to the playlist creating unit 11 as a result of clustering processing of a plurality of multimedia content IDs input by the cluster information creating unit 10. In this figure, the multimedia content ID list classified into each cluster is sorted in descending order of similarity, and the last line of the multimedia content IDs belonging to each cluster is a clustering keyword indicating the characteristics of the multimedia content included in each cluster. Is described.

FIG. 4 is an example of a multimedia content profile. In the multimedia content profile, a URL of the multimedia content, a multimedia content ID, a title name of the multimedia content, and a brief description about the content of the multimedia content are described.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a play list created by the play list creating section 11. The cluster keyword in the figure is the same as the cluster keyword in FIG. In the playlist, the multimedia content attributes (text, audio, still image, moving image, etc.) information, multimedia content ID, multimedia content title, and multimedia content contents are listed in order of descending similarity. The outline description of is described in a format separated by tags.

FIG. 6 shows an example in which menu screen data created by the menu screen creating unit 12 and provided to the user terminal is displayed. The label of each menu is a cluster keyword for each playlist shown in FIG. 5, and a link to the playlist stored in the playlist DB 4 is provided.
The user can load the playlist by selecting a menu item. A logout button is also provided, and the user can perform the logout process by selecting this button.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the overall processing of the multimedia contents providing apparatus of this embodiment.

The communication unit 6 receives the user ID transmitted from the user terminal when the user performs a login operation (step 101). User profile acquisition unit 7
Acquires the user ID from the communication unit 6 and acquires the user profile of the user ID from the user profile DB1 (step 102). Next, the multimedia content profile acquisition unit 8 acquires an arbitrary number of recently selected multimedia content IDs from the acquired user profile (step 103), and uses the acquired multimedia content IDs to acquire the multimedia content. The multimedia content profile describing the attributes of the multimedia content such as the URL, the multimedia content ID, the title name, and the outline description about the content of the multimedia content is acquired from the multimedia content profile DB2 (step 104). Next, based on the obtained multimedia content profile, the search unit 9 searches the multimedia content DB 3 for multimedia content that is similar in content to the multimedia content that the user selected after browsing in the past, and searches. As a result, the list data in which the ID and the degree of similarity of the similar multimedia contents are described is output (step 10).
5). The cluster information creation unit 10 inputs the above-mentioned list data and classifies the list of similar multimedia content IDs into a designated number of clusters (the multimedia content IDs in each cluster are sorted in descending order of similarity). , Is output to the playlist creation unit 11 as the cluster information shown in FIG. 3 to which the keywords characterizing the cluster are added (step 106). From the received cluster information, the playlist creating unit 11 creates an empty playlist in which nothing is described for the number of clusters (step 10).
7). Extract the cluster keyword from the cluster information,
The cluster keyword is written in the empty playlist according to a predetermined format (step 108). From the cluster information, the multimedia content ID that belongs to each cluster
4 is acquired from the multimedia content profile DB2 in descending order of similarity in each cluster (step 109). From the acquired multimedia content profiles, multimedia content attributes, multimedia content IDs, multimedia content URLs, multimedia content titles, and general explanatory texts about the multimedia content are extracted, as shown in FIG. The multimedia contents are described in the playlist in descending order of similarity. The playlist whose description has been completed is stored in the playlist DB 4 (step 110). However, in the present embodiment, an example is described in which all the multimedia content IDs belonging to the cluster described in the cluster information are described in the play list, but the number of multimedia contents described in the list in advance is set to, for example, This also includes a case where the number of multimedia contents to be described in the play list is limited by designating that the multimedia contents to which the multimedia content belongs have the highest similarity, such as the top 10. Steps 108 to 110 are repeated until all empty playlists are described (the number of clusters) (step 111).

The menu screen data creating section 12 is created in steps 108 to 110, and the playlist DB 4 is created.
The URL of each playlist and cluster keyword stored in the playlist are acquired from the playlist DB 4 (step 11
2), using the cluster keyword described in each acquired playlist as the label of the selection menu, linking the URL of the corresponding playlist, and providing the user terminal provided menu screen data (H
TML format) is created (step 113). The created user terminal providing menu screen data is stored in the storage device 5 (step 114). The menu screen data creation unit 12 acquires the user terminal providing menu screen data stored in the storage device 5, and transmits it from the communication unit 6 to the user terminal (step 115). When the user selects a cluster keyword on the menu screen, the playlist creation unit 1
1 reads out the play list linked to the cluster keyword from the play list DB 4, transmits it to the user terminal through the communication unit 6, and presents it to the user (step 116).

The multimedia content providing apparatus according to the present embodiment is not only realized by dedicated hardware, but also a program for realizing the function is recorded in a computer-readable recording medium, and this recording is performed. The program recorded on the medium may be read by a computer system and executed. The computer-readable recording medium refers to a recording medium such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, or a storage device such as a hard disk device built in a computer system. Further, the computer-readable recording medium dynamically holds the program for a short time (transmission medium or transmission wave) such as when transmitting the program via the Internet, and serves as a server in that case. It also includes a volatile memory that holds a program for a certain period of time, such as a volatile memory inside a computer system.

The multimedia content DB may be located outside the device (multimedia content providing device), in which case the retrieval unit 9 will access the multimedia content DB via the communication unit 6.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention,
For multimedia contents that have been clustered,
Providing keywords that characterize the cluster by using the contents of the multimedia content, creating a playlist, and attaching the keyword as a label of the selection menu of the playlist provided to the user terminal, the multimedia contents are properly It is possible to automatically give a label by the system side even when the label is not classified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a multimedia content providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a user profile.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of cluster information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a multimedia content profile.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a playlist.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of selection menu screen data provided to a user terminal.

7 is a flowchart showing a flow of overall processing in the multimedia content providing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a storage state of multimedia contents according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a selection screen of multimedia contents desired to be provided in the conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 User profile DB 2 Multimedia content profile DB 3 multimedia content DB 4 playlist DB 5 storage devices 6 Communication unit 7 User profile acquisition section 8 Multimedia content profile acquisition unit 9 Search Department 10 Cluster information creation unit 11 Play list creation section 12 Menu screen creation section 101-116 steps

Continued front page    (72) Inventor Shinji Abe             2-3-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo             Inside Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Yasuhito Hayashi             2-3-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo             Inside Telegraph and Telephone Corporation F term (reference) 5B075 KK07 ND16 NK02 NK04 NK06                       NR10 NR12 NR20 PP03 PP13                       PP22 PQ02 PQ46 PR08                 5C064 BA01 BB10 BC18 BC23 BD03                       BD08

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A user profile in which the identification information of the multimedia content selected after the user has browsed in the past is described based on the information identifying the user received from the user terminal. A step of acquiring a multimedia content profile describing the attributes of the multimedia content of the multimedia content identification information described in the user profile, and using the acquired multimedia content profile The step of searching for multimedia contents that are similar in content to the multimedia contents browsed in the past, and classifying the searched similar multimedia contents into the designated number of clusters in descending order of similarity, and Characterize it in A step of creating cluster information to which a keyword is added, and an attribute of each multimedia content, a multimedia content ID, a title, and a brief explanation about the content are described for each cluster information in the order of keyword and similarity. Creating a playlist, extracting cluster keywords from the playlist and providing the list to the user terminal as a menu screen, and when the user selects a keyword from the menu screen, the keyword A method for providing multimedia contents, which comprises the step of presenting a playlist linked to the user to a user. 2. A user profile that stores a user profile in which information for identifying each user and identification information of multimedia contents selected after the user has browsed in the past are stored. DB, multimedia content profile DB that stores multimedia content profiles describing attributes of each multimedia content, playlist DB that stores playlists, and storage device that stores menu screen data, Based on the information for identifying the user received from the user terminal, the user profile in which the identification information of the multimedia content selected after the user has browsed in the past is described is acquired from the user profile DB. Means described in the user profile Means for acquiring the multimedia content profile describing the attributes of the multimedia content of the identification information of the multimedia content from the multimedia content profile DB, and based on the acquired multimedia content profile, the user has A means for searching the multimedia contents DB for multimedia contents that are similar in content to the browsed multimedia contents, and classifying the searched similar multimedia contents into a designated number of clusters in descending order of similarity, A method of creating cluster information by adding keywords that characterize it to a cluster, and an attribute of each multimedia content and a multimedia context in order of keyword and similarity for each cluster information. Means for creating a playlist in which a summary description of the ID, title, and contents is described, and storing the created playlist in the playlist DB; and extracting cluster keywords of the playlist to extract them. Means for temporarily storing the list in the storage device and providing it to the user terminal as a menu screen; and when a user selects a keyword from the menu screen, a playlist linked to the keyword is displayed as the playlist. An apparatus for providing multimedia contents, which has means for reading out from a DB and presenting it to the user. 3. A multimedia content providing program for causing a computer to execute the multimedia content providing method according to claim 1. 4. A recording medium recording a multimedia content providing program for causing a computer to execute the multimedia content providing method according to claim 1.