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]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
• • 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]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/25—Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication, learning user preferences for recommending movies
  • H04N21/251—Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
  • G06F16/90—Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
  • G06F16/95—Retrieval from the web
  • G06F16/953—Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
  • G06F16/9535—Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• • 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]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/25—Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication, learning user preferences for recommending movies
  • H04N21/258—Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
  • H04N21/25808—Management of client data
  • H04N21/25816—Management of client data involving client authentication
• • 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
  • H04N21/442—Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk
  • H04N21/44204—Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched
• • 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]
  • H04N21/60—Network structure or processes for video distribution between server and client or between remote clients; Control signalling between clients, server and network components; Transmission of management data between server and client, e.g. sending from server to client commands for recording incoming content stream; Communication details between server and client 
  • H04N21/63—Control signaling related to video distribution between client, server and network components; Network processes for video distribution between server and clients or between remote clients, e.g. transmitting basic layer and enhancement layers over different transmission paths, setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet between remote STB's; Communication protocols; Addressing
  • H04N21/643—Communication protocols
  • H04N21/64322—IP

Definitions

• the present invention generally relates to the provision of a media service, sue! as a television transmission or video service.
• IPTV is an Internet protocol -based technology for the distribution of television an( video transmissions.
• the customer may, for example watch TV programs, store desired TV programs in a storage space in the networl and watch them at a freely determined time, and rent and watch films provided b video rental shops.
• Publication FI/EP 1 1 19972 discloses a method for controlling the selection of ⁇ video on demand service. When products are offered, the customer's owr interests, the customer's earlier orders, and the customer's earlier searches are taken into account.
• Publication US 2010/0125544 also discloses a program recommendation solutior based on the user's own usage history. Now a new solution is provided for the provision of a media service, such as ar IPTV service.
• a first aspect of the invention provides a computer implemented method fo providing a media service.
• the method comprises:
• a second aspect of the invention provides an apparatus for providing a medii service.
• the apparatus comprises at least one processor and at least one computer program stored in memory that is configured to control said apparatus with said at least one processor to:
• the apparatus in accordance with the second aspect of the invention may be adapted to perform a method in accordance with any embodiment related to the first aspect.
• a third aspect of the invention provides a computer program which comprises a computer-executable program code which, when executed, controls a device to perform the method in accordance with the first aspect or an embodiment related to it.
• the computer program in accordance with the third aspect may comprise a program code that is executable by any one of the following, for example: a general-purpose processor, a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit, and a digital signal processor.
• the computer program in accordance with the third aspect may be stored on a computer-readable medium.
• a medium be a diskette, a CD-ROM, a DVD, a BD (Bluray Disc), a memory stick, or another magnetic or optical memory medium.
• Figure 1 shows a system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention
• Figure 2 shows a device in accordance with another embodiment of the invention
• FIG. 3 shows a method in accordance with an embodiment of the invention
• Figure 4 shows a message diagram in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
• Figure 1 shows a system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. It should be noted that the figure comprises both separate physical devices and various logical components, the operations according to which may be implemented in one or several physical devices.
• the system comprises a portal 101 providing an IPTV service or the like.
• the portal 101 comprises various parts, such as widgets 102, advertisements 103, (user's) saved data 104, an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) 105, notices 106 and a Video on Demand (VOD) service 107.
• EPG Electronic Program Guide
• VOD Video on Demand
• the portal may also be some other media portal providing media contents.
• the portal 101 is connected to a data transmission network 108 and through it to customer devices 109-1 12.
• the customer device examples presented here are a computer (PC) 109, a set-top box (STB) 1 10, a tablet PC 1 1 1 , and a mobile station or another mobile device 1 12.
• the customer devices 109-1 12 may be devices using a fixed data transmission connection or wireless terminal devices. In addition to the examples presented, the customer devices 109-1 12 may be other devices suitable for watching moving images/video.
• the data transmission network 108 may consist of a number of different networks, such as the Internet and various broadband networks, such as ADSL, VDSL and Ethernet networks, and wireless networks, such as WLAN, GSM, UMTS and LTE networks.
• the portal 101 is connected to a user database (user DB) 1 13, by means of which the users of the portal 101 are identified and the access rights of the users are verified.
• the portal is also connected to a video on demand service 1 14 and contents services 1 15.
• the video on demand service 1 14 and the contents services 1 15 may be services provided by third parties, or some of them may be contents administered by the portal 101 provider itself.
• the portal 101 is adapted to distribute a media transmission, such as a TV or video transmission, to the customer devices 109-1 12 through the data transmission network 108 on the basis of IPTV technology, for example.
• the distribution may be performed, for example, by using Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) or Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
• RTSP Real Time Streaming Protocol
• RTMP Real Time Messaging Protocol
• HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• the distribution may be performed through the portal 101 , or the portal 101 may control the distribution directly from the video on demand service 1 14 or the contents services 1 15 to
• the system comprises a statistical data collection component (stat) 1 16, a statistics database (stat DB) 1 17, a random data component 1 18, a logic engine component 1 19 and a metadata database (metadata DB) 120.
• the statistical data collection component 1 16 collects usage data concerning actual use of the portal 101 from the customer devices 109-1 12.
• the statistical data collection component 1 16 may request usage data from the customer devices 109-1 12, or the customer devices 109-1 12 may be configured to deliver usage data automatically without a separate request.
• the collected usage data is stored in the statistics database 1 17.
• the usage data may be stored as relating to an individual user and/or as relating to a certain user profile.
• the random data component 1 18 comprises random, artificially formed user data. Usage data from the random data component 1 18 may be connected with the usage data in the statistics database.
• the random data component 1 18 may be a database that contains random data, or it may be a random generator that is configured to produce random data. Such a random generator may, for example, receive its threshold values from the statistics and/or metadata databases 1 17, 120, or it may be a pure random generator that generates random weight coefficients for the criteria of the logic engine 1 19.
• the logic engine component 1 19 is connected to the statistics database 1 17 and the metadata database 120.
• the metadata database 120 may be, for example, a program guide database or film guide database or other database containing auxiliary data related to the contents of the IPTV service.
• the logic engine component 1 19 is configured to analyze usage data and contents data (e.g., program data or other data available in the metadata databases) and to form user or user group-specific recommendations on the basis of them.
• usage data and contents data e.g., program data or other data available in the metadata databases
• the functionality of the portal 101 , the user database 1 13, the statistical data collection component 1 16, the statistics database 1 17, the random data component 1 18, and the logic engine component 1 19 of Figure 1 may be combined into one logical entity, which is provided by one physical device (or several parallel similar devices).
• all the intelligence of the service is located in one device, and the service utilizes contents and program data available in external sources (contents 1 15, video on demand 1 14 and metadata, such as program data 120).
• the video on demand component 1 14, the contents service component 1 15, and the metadata database 120 are located in the same physical device or at least under the control of the party providing the IPTV service of the portal 101 .
• the contents of the video on demand service component 1 14, the contents service component 1 15, and the metadata database 120 may be retrieved, downloaded or stored from some external source.
• the functionality of the different components 101 , 1 14-120 of Figure 1 may be implemented in one or several devices. As necessary, there may be several parallel devices providing an identical function, for example, for load balancing.
• the media service is implemented as a centralized cloud service, where the intelligence of the services is implemented on a server/servers controlled by the media service provider.
• a dashed line 121 illustrates components that form the functionality of such a cloud service in an embodiment.
• all the presented functionality is not part of the cloud service; rather, the cloud service may utilize external contents sources, for example.
• the media service as a whole may also function with some external party providing a media transmission.
• various parties providing a broadcast service such as digital video broadcasting (DVB) service providers may transmit a media transmission to the customer devices 109-1 12.
• Data concerning the use of this media transmission may also be utilized in various embodiments of the invention.
• DVD digital video broadcasting
• Figure 2 shows an example of a device 20 that is suited to the implementation of some embodiments of the invention.
• the device may be, for example, a general- purpose computer or server, and it may be adapted to provide, for example, the functionality of one or several of the components 101 , 1 13-120 of Figure 1 .
• the device 20 comprises a processor 21 for controlling the operation of the device and a memory 22 comprising a computer program/software 23.
• the computer software 23 may comprise instructions for the processor to control the device 20, such as an operating system and various applications.
• the computer software 23 may comprise an application that comprises instructions for controlling the device 20 so that the functionality of some embodiment of the invention is produced.
• the processor 21 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a graphics processor, or similar.
• CPU central processing unit
• DSP digital signal processor
• graphics processor or similar.
• One processor is shown in the figure, but the device may have several processors.
• the memory may be, for example, a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electronically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a random-access memory (RAM), a flash memory, an optical or magnetic memory, or comparable.
• ROM read-only memory
• PROM programmable read only memory
• EPROM erasable programmable read-only memory
• EEPROM electronically erasable programmable read-only memory
• RAM random-access memory
• flash memory an optical or magnetic memory, or comparable.
• the device may have several memories.
• the memory may be part of the device 20, or it may be a separate module that can be connected to the device 20.
• the memory may only be intended for storing data, or it may also be used for data processing.
• the device 20 comprises a communication unit 25.
• the communication unit provides an interface for communicating with other devices.
• the interface may be a fixed, wired connection, such as an Ethernet connection or an ADSL/VDSL connection, or a wireless connection, such as a WLAN, Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS, CDMA, WCDMA or LTE connection.
• the communication interface module may be integrated into the device 20, or it may be part of an adapter, card, or comparable, which may be connected to the device 20.
• the communication unit may support one or several communication technologies, or the device may have several communication units.
• the device 20 may also comprise a user interface unit (not shown in the figure), which may comprise, for example, a display and a keyboard (not shown in the figure), which may be an integrated part of the device 20 or independent parts that can be connected to the device 20.
• a user interface is not necessarily needed, or the user interface may be implemented as a remote connection through the communication unit 25.
• the device 20 may also comprise one or several databases 24 (shown with a dashed line).
• the databases may comprise, for example, one or some of the databases 1 13, 1 17, 1 18, 120 of Figure 1 or parts of them.
• the device 20 may also comprise other elements.
• FIG. 3 shows a method in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, which may be applied, for example, in the system of Figure 1 and the device 20 of Figure 2.
• usage data concerning actual use of an IPTV service is collected. This may be implemented by, for example, requesting usage data from terminal devices connected to the service, or the terminal devices may be configured to deliver usage data automatically without a separate request. Usage data may be collected in real time.
• the terminal device may, for example, send usage data always when a predetermined event occurs, such as, for example, start of watching, change of the active television program, change of channel, turn-off of the device, change of connection quality to poorer/better.
• the usage data may also be sent at certain intervals.
• the collected usage data may contain, for example, one or several of the following: the active television channel, the active television program, an individual identifier of the service, an indicator of the activity or loading of the customer device, the quality of the data transmission connection (e.g., IP connection), one or several most recently used functions of the customer device (e.g., start-up of the device, turn-off of the device, start-up/turn-off of a certain application, change of channel), a time stamp, an identifier of the customer device/customer.
• the active television channel e.g., the active television program
• an individual identifier of the service e.g., an indicator of the activity or loading of the customer device
• the quality of the data transmission connection e.g., IP connection
• one or several most recently used functions of the customer device e.g., start-up of the device, turn-off of the device, start-up/turn-off of a certain application, change of channel
• a time stamp e.g., a time stamp
• artificially formed usage data is combined with the collected usage data.
• the artificial usage data may be, for example, fully random data or random weight coefficients for the collected usage data.
• the purpose of the artificial usage data is to make the usage data more diverse and to add surprising alternatives. In this manner, it may be possible to faster form a better usage profile of the target customers.
• the artificial usage data may also be artificial usage data obtained from a third party, which may concern, for example, certain contents or service awareness of which is desired to be improved. Such usage data concerning certain contents may also be quasi-random usage data formed by the media service or IPTV service provider by assignment of a third party. Thus, the third party need not deliver artificial usage data in a form ready for use.
• customer-specific recommendations are formed on the basis of the combination of collected usage data and the artificial usage data.
• the recommendations may concern, for example, TV programs, films to be rented, advertisements, demonstration of new features and/or other services available through the IPTV service.
• the collected usage data concerning the own use of the customer in question or the usage data of other customers included in a certain profile or customer group may be taken into account.
• the artificial usage data may be similar regardless of the target customer or the profile of the target customer, or it may be formed in a customer- specific or profile-specific manner.
• the customer-specific recommendations may be shown, for example, in the recommendations part 103 of the portal 101 of Figure 1 .
• the genres of TV programs watched on the user's customer device are collected in a statistics database.
• the system forms recommendations for the user on the basis of the usage data collected from the user.
• the actual usage data collected from the user shows that the user favors 80% action, 10% comedy and 10% other genres.
• the system recommends six action films to the user in a VOD shop, as the user mainly watches action films or the like.
• the user's own actual usage data is combined with 50 the most popular TV programs of all users as artificial usage data.
• the combined usage data obtained in this way contains no more than 60% action, 5% comedy and 5% others, but 30% fantasy.
• the system recommends four action films and two fantasy films to the user in a VOD shop.
• the system shows one or several recommendations to the user. As stated above, it is possible that the system forms and shows both of the recommendations presented above or only one of them to the user.
• FIG. 4 shows a message diagram in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
• a contact 41 comes from a customer device to a portal.
• the portal sends a request 42 through a statistics database to form program recommendations for the customer in question.
• the statistics database retrieves usage history data associated with the customer in question or the user profile of the customer in question and combines artificial usage data to it to form combined usage data. Such combined usage data may be generated each time on the fly, or it may be readily formed and stored in the statistics database.
• the statistics database sends the combined usage data 43 to a logic engine, which analyses it in step 44.
• the logic engine then sends the program or content recommendations 45 formed on the basis of the analysis to the portal.
• the portal shows the received program or content recommendations as an advertisement 46 to the customer.
• the portal could, for example, request program recommendations directly from the logic engine, in which case the logic engine would retrieve the necessary usage data from a statistics database or some other source.
• the logic engine may form recommendations either on demand and/or as a predetermined batch run, such as once a day or every other day or more often or rarely than this.
• FIG. 5 shows a system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
• the system comprises a media service 521 .
• the media service may be, for example, an IPTV service.
• the interactive service 521 comprises the functionalities of the entity 121 of Figure 1 .
• the media service 521 is connected to a data transmission network 108 and through it to customer devices 109-1 12.
• the customer device examples presented here are a computer (PC) 109, a set-top box (STB) 1 10, a tablet PC 1 1 1 , and a mobile station or another mobile device 1 12.
• the customer devices 109-1 12 may be devices using a fixed data transmission connection or wireless terminal devices In addition to the examples presented, the customer devices 109-1 12 may be other devices suitable for watching moving images/video.
• the data transmission network 108 may consist of a number of different networks, such as the Internet and various broadband networks, such as ADSL, VDSL and Ethernet networks, and wireless networks, such as WLAN, GSM, UMTS and LTE networks.
• the system comprises a digital video broadcasting (DVB)/broadcast service 522.
• the broadcast service 522 provides a media transmission to one or several of the customer devices 109-1 12. In the figure, an example is presented where the broadcast service 522 provides a media transmission to the set-top box customer device 1 10.
• the broadcast service 522 may also send a media transmission to the computer 109 or the tablet PC 1 1 1 (e.g., by using DVB- T technology) or to the mobile station 1 12 (e.g., by using DVB-H technology).
• the broadcast service 522 may be in connection with the media service 521 , but this is not necessary.
• the user of the set-top box 1 10 receives a media transmission 51 from the broadcast service 522.
• Information on the media transmission transmitted or to be transmitted may also be delivered from the broadcast service 522 to the media service 521 .
• Information 53 on the watching of the media transmission is transmitted from the set-top box 1 10 through the data transmission network 108 to the media service 521 .
• the media service 521 then provides recommendations to the set-top box 1 10 (or another device of the user).
• the system provides users with a broader spectrum of different alternatives. In this way, the user may find interesting contents that differ from his or her earlier preferences. In addition, it may be possible to improve the learning of the system. Selecting or not selecting the provided alternatives may guide the system to learn to correspond to the preferences of the user in question better.
• the artificial usage data By means of the artificial usage data, it is also possible to adapt the user's usage habits in a desired direction.
• By adding artificial usage data concerning a certain program or service it is possible to highlight the program or service in the recommendations provided by the system, whereby the program or service can be easily brought to the attention of the users and made available for the users. This may be sought for, for example, in the marketing of service packages provided by the service provider and/or third parties, particularly in the launching of a new service package, for example.
• the different embodiments of the invention also enable bringing new contents to the attention of users when artificial usage data concerning the new contents in question is used.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
• Computer Graphics (AREA)
• Data Mining & Analysis (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Computing Systems (AREA)
• Two-Way Televisions, Distribution Of Moving Picture Or The Like (AREA)
• Financial Or Insurance-Related Operations Such As Payment And Settlement (AREA)
• Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)

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Citations (4)

• 2010
  • 2010-11-03 FI FI20106151A patent/FI124534B/fi active IP Right Grant
• 2011
  • 2011-10-26 WO PCT/FI2011/050938 patent/WO2012059634A1/en active Application Filing

Patent Citations (4)

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