Classifications

• • 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
  • H04N21/4668—Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies for recommending content, e.g. movies
• • 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
  • H04N21/475—End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. personal identification number [PIN], preference data
  • H04N21/4755—End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. personal identification number [PIN], preference data for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre
• • 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

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for recommending digital program, and in particular, relates to a method and apparatus for recommending digital program using metadata.
• Metadata is often defined as "data about data”.
• the metadata describes a set of typical characteristics about data, but usually not contains the data itself.
• the metadata may include: detailed list of existing data, name and definition of data item, name and defined keyword listing, data listing index and access keyword listing, and operation steps record for generating data, which include how to collect data, data structure and data model document used, and steps record of data analysis, etc..
• Metadata is used to describe content information, and the questions it would answer are essentially the information on various aspects about the content, such as who, what, when, where, why, and how etc..
• a typical example is a catalog index to facilitate the book management used by storage. A user only needs to search in the catalog, and then he can know what information is presented on the bookshelf.
• Metadata Standard Music Description Language
• CDWA Categories for the Description of Works of Art
• LOM Standard for Learning Object Metadata
• RDF Resource Description Framework
• W3C World Wide Web Consortium
• XML Exensible Markup Language
• XML has been currently supported by the industry broadly, for example, both Netscape and Internet Explorer have announced to support XML respectively.
• TV Anytime standard employs XML to represent the metadata thereof.
• EPG Electronic Program Guide
• the metadata of a movie program may include the name of movie, the names of director and leading actors/ actresses, producer, date of production, brief introduction of content, etc..
• a user can find his/her favorite program by searching the electronic program guide.
• it is possible to recommend the program(s) being/to be played in the electronic program guide according to the past behavior of the user.
• digital recorder especially Personal Digital
• PDR Personal Video Recorder
• PVR Personal Video Recorder
• the present invention provides a method for recommending at least one digital program, said digital program being stored in a digital program storage.
• the method comprises following steps: first, acquiring the description information of a digital program being played; next, matching the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in the digital program storage according to a pre-determined matching condition, and; finally, recommending the digital program corresponding to the result of matching to the user.
• Said digital program storage is in a local storage apparatus. It is obvious that said digital program storage could also be in a server.
• the invention can also present the description information of said digital program being played to the user, and the user selects part of the information from the presented information as said pre-determined matching condition.
• the invention By matching the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in a digital program storage and recommending the result of matching to the user, the invention enables the user to find his stored digital program associated with a digital program when he is watching this digital program, since the user's favorite digital programs are stored in the digital program storage, so that the user's favor can be met.
• the present invention also provides an apparatus for recommending at least one digital program, said digital program being stored in a digital program storage.
• the apparatus includes an acquiring means for acquiring the description information of a digital program being played, a matching means for matching the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in the digital program storage according to a pre-determined matching condition, and a recommending means for recommending the digital program corresponding to the result of matching to the user.
• FIG.1 is a block diagram showing a system of an apparatus for recommending a digital program according to one embodiment of the invention
• Fig.2 is a flow chart showing the flow of recommending a digital program according to one embodiment of the invention.
• Fig.3 is a block diagram showing a system of a personal digital recorder according to one embodiment of the invention.
• FIGs.1 is a block diagram showing a system of an apparatus for recommending a digital program according to one embodiment of the invention.
• the digital program is stored in a digital program storage.
• An apparatus 100 includes an acquiring apparatus 110, a matching apparatus 120 and a recommending apparatus 130.
• the acquiring apparatus 110 is used for acquiring the description information of a digital program being played.
• the description information is the metadata of the digital program.
• the matching apparatus 120 is used for matching the description information acquired by the acquiring apparatus 110 to the description information of the digital programs in the digital program storage according to a pre-determined matching condition.
• the pre-determined matching condition may come from the user's input.
• the recommending apparatus 130 is used for recommending the digital program corresponding to the result of matching from the matching apparatus 120 to the user.
• the apparatus 100 may further include a storage apparatus 140 for storing the digital program storage.
• the apparatus 100 may further include a data communication apparatus 150 for data communicating with a server via a network.
• the digital program storage is stored on the server.
• the server may be either a local server at user's home, or a remote commercial server that provides the backup service.
• the apparatus 100 can be a part of the existing personal digital recorder.
• the functions of a part of the apparatus can be implemented by software.
• the above-mentioned apparatus included in the apparatus 100 can be implemented through a variety of existing apparatus, as long as the combination thereof can achieve the function of the invention.
• Fig.2 illustrates the operating flow of the apparatus 100 in detail.
• Fig.2 is a flow chart showing a flow of recommending a digital program according to one embodiment of the invention.
• the digital program is stored in a digital program storage.
• the description information of a digital program being played is acquired (step S210).
• the digital program comes from a TV program channel being played, and of course, it may come from a local storage apparatus, as long as the digital program is associated with the related description information.
• the description information exists in metadata form. The following is an example of movie "Star Wars: Episode III", anil the metadata thereof is shown as follows:
• the metadata include the description information such as the name of the movie "Star Wars: Episode III", the genre “Science Fiction”, the person role “Hayden Christensen”, “Ewan McGregor”, “Natalie Portman”, and the keywords “Clone War”, etc..
• step S220 the description information is presented to the user (step S220), and the user's selection of the description information is received (step S230).
• the description information presented in step S220 presents some or all of the description information acquired in step S210 in a certain manner according to the manufacturer of the apparatus or the user's setting. An example is shown in the following table.
• the above table provides five options for the user to select, and these are genre Science Fiction, person role Hayden Christensen, person role Ewan McGregor, person role Natalie Portman, and the keywords Clone War.
• the user can select one or more options as the matching condition.
• the program storage is within a local storage apparatus, which includes the user's favorite digital programs that were stored by the user in the past. It is obvious that the program storage can also be in a server, such as a server for remote backup.
• the user selects "person role: Hayden Christensen” as a matching condition, and performs search of the matching in the digital program storage, and which storage includes a large amount of user's favorite movies.
• the result of matching is shown in Table 3. Table 3. The result of matching
• This matching condition may be the user's selection received when performing the matching in every time, or after the user sets a default condition, the matching is performed according to the default condition in each time. For example, the matching is performed according to the first male person role, and at this time, the steps S220 and S230 can be omitted.
• the matching can also be performed using the way of fuzzy logic. Performing the matching with fuzzy logic can better simulate the user's behavior, so that the digital program, which conforms to the user's need better, could be found.
• the result of matching is recommended to the user (step S250).
• the result of matching may be recommended to the user in a form of list, for example, it may be dynamically rolled on the lower edge of the screen in a form of caption.
• the recommending process may further include a process of determining, for example, the result of matching could be recommended only when it conforms to a specific condition, for instance, the condition may be that only the top five programs in the list could be recommend to the user.
• the user's selection of the recommended content is received, and the selected program is presented to the user (step S260).
• the presentation may be in a form of picture-in-picture, so that the user could watch the digital program being played and the recommended digital program simultaneously.
• This embodiment uses a digital video program, i.e. movie, as an example. It is obvious that the invention can also be applied to the digital program content in other forms, such as the digital music, as long as it is associated with the metadata describing the content.
• Figs.3 is a block diagram showing a system of a personal digital recorder according to one embodiment of the invention.
• the digital recorder 300 includes a receiver 310 for receiving the digital program.
• the digital program can be transmitted to the digital recorder 300 using one of the following various manners, for example, via cable broadcasting, via terrestrial broadcasting, or via satellite broadcasting, etc., and it is clear that it can also be transmitted via Internet network broadcasting.
• the digital recorder 300 has a memory unit 320 for storing the digital program in a digital program storage on a memory media 330.
• the memory media 330 is a hard disk, but it can be other types of suitable media, such as DVD+RW.
• the memory unit 320 could also store the digital programs in a digital program storage in a server (not shown in the figure).
• the digital recorder 300 further includes a retrieving unit 340 for retrieving the digital program from the memory media 330.
• the retrieving unit 340 is used for replaying the program stored in memory unit 320.
• the digital recorder 300 further includes an above-mentioned program recommending apparatus 100.
• the program recommending apparatus 100 matches the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in a digital program storage stored in the memory media 330, and recommends the result of matching to the user.
• the recommended result may be presented to the user in a certain manner, such as in the form of a program list.
• the retrieving unit 330 will acquire the digital program from the memory media 330, and transmit the digital program to a display device (not shown in figure) to display. It is apparent that if there is only one recommended result, this recommended digital program can be presented to the user directly.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
• Two-Way Televisions, Distribution Of Moving Picture Or The Like (AREA)

Priority Applications (2)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

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Family Applications (1)

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Cited By (3)

Families Citing this family (3)

Citations (3)

• 2005
  • 2005-09-27 JP JP2007535289A patent/JP2008516505A/ja not_active Withdrawn
  • 2005-09-27 CN CNA2005800345434A patent/CN101040517A/zh active Pending
  • 2005-09-27 WO PCT/IB2005/053182 patent/WO2006040700A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation

Patent Citations (3)

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