WO2004034706A1 - Building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents - Google Patents

Building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2004034706A1
WO2004034706A1 PCT/IB2003/003954 IB0303954W WO2004034706A1 WO 2004034706 A1 WO2004034706 A1 WO 2004034706A1 IB 0303954 W IB0303954 W IB 0303954W WO 2004034706 A1 WO2004034706 A1 WO 2004034706A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
agents
agent
media
media system
service provider
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/IB2003/003954
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Petrus G. Meuleman
Ruud A. Van Der Veen
Original Assignee
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. filed Critical Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
Priority to AU2003259489A priority Critical patent/AU2003259489A1/en
Publication of WO2004034706A1 publication Critical patent/WO2004034706A1/en

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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
    • H04N21/466—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
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • 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
    • H04N21/252—Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
    • 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
    • H04N21/254—Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server
    • H04N21/2543—Billing, e.g. for subscription services
    • 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
    • H04N21/25866—Management of end-user data
    • H04N21/25891—Management of end-user data being end-user 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]
    • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/27—Server based end-user applications
    • H04N21/274—Storing end-user multimedia data in response to end-user request, e.g. network recorder
    • H04N21/2743—Video hosting of uploaded data from client
    • 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
    • H04N21/462—Content or additional data management, e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end, controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabilities
    • H04N21/4622—Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet
    • 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
    • H04N21/4756—End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. personal identification number [PIN], preference data for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
    • 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
    • H04N21/478—Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
    • H04N21/4782—Web browsing, e.g. WebTV
    • 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
    • H04N21/81—Monomedia components thereof
    • H04N21/812—Monomedia components thereof involving advertisement data
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N7/00—Television systems
    • H04N7/16—Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems
    • H04N7/173—Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
    • H04N7/17309—Transmission or handling of upstream communications
    • H04N7/17318—Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a method of building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents.
  • the present invention also relates to a computer system for performing the method.
  • the present invention further relates to a computer program product for performing the method.
  • WO99/50778 discloses a system for distributing customized presentations for user sites.
  • the system uses profile information to create data objects.
  • the data objects are stored locally on the user's computer.
  • the data objects are used to create presentation of logic objects.
  • User profile information and presentation logic objects are combined to create objects for presentation of audio, video or textual elements.
  • the above prior art involves the problem that a system used to show media content is not able to suggest media content that reflects the media interest(s) of a specific user.
  • the prior art involves the problem that in such a system - when used the first time or when the user has a new interest in a certain type of media - the user has to surf through many available channels if the media system is a TN, or surf through many Web sites if the media system is an Internet PC or accessed via a server from a client PC. Surfing is a time consuming and an inconvenient way of finding media content that reflects a user's specific interest in media content.
  • the above prior art further involves the problem that the mentioned data objects are hard to access and that data objects are not easily shared among users of media systems.
  • the object of the present invention is therefore to provide a user of a media system with an easy and user selectable way of either recommending media content the first time a media system is used and or to provide a user of a media system with an easy and user selectable way of recommending media content when a new interest in a certain type of media content (e.g. opera, yachting) arises.
  • a certain type of media content e.g. opera, yachting
  • the method according to the invention is characterized in that the method comprises the steps of
  • a user of a media system is provided with an easy and user selectable way of getting media content recommended the first time a media system is used, and in the same way the user of a media system is provided with a way of getting media content recommended when the new interest in a certain type of media content arises in that an agent may be transferred to the media system based on a selection criterion from the service provider of agents, and an interest profile may be built based on the transferred agent and, the stored agents if any; and their media content may be recommended on the media system based on the interest profile.
  • Another embodiment of the method is described in claim 2.
  • the interest profile also comprises the transferred agent.
  • the interest profile may thereby better reflect the interests of the user.
  • agents may be transferred between media systems.
  • the agents may be transferred between media systems on an external storage medium or via the Internet.
  • the external storage medium may be magnetic tape, optical disc, digital video disk (DND), compact disc (CD or CD-ROM), mini-disc, hard disk, floppy disk, smart card, PCMCIA card, a siliconed flippo, etc.
  • the siliconed flippo may a plastics disc with an integrated chip like a smart card of a size similar to a coin. In other words, it is possible to read from and or write to the external storage medium by the media system to transfer agents between different or similar media systems.
  • an agent provider and or a system provider of agents may track the use and the transfers of an agent by looking at the identification code.
  • an agent provider and or a system provider of agents may identify the agent owner and reward, charge and ensure payment therefore accordingly.
  • the agent may refer to a media content, which may be presented, if presentable on the media system, the agent may also refer to links to a web site on the Internet for the purpose of advertising, giving information and or for other commercial reasons, and or the agent may refer to an address of a shop where relevant goods are sold.
  • the referral information together with the identification code identifying the agent owner are also used in another preferred embodiment of the method that is described in claim 9.
  • the agent may further be used for commercial purposes such as charging the agent provider for the presence of agents on the service provider, charging the advertiser for the presence of commercials in the agents on the service provider, charging the user for the download of agents from the service provider, and paying the user for the upload of agents to the service provider.
  • the service provider may do business in that the service provider may get profit for the providing of agents.
  • the profile of media content may comprise information about genre, type, duration, topic, title, etc., what is liked and or disliked of the user.
  • the algorithm together with the profile of media content may be used to score available media content in order to rank and thereafter to recommend media content to the user.
  • Fig. 1 shows a media system with a user, a media provider, external agents and an external storage medium
  • Fig. 2 shows computer media, media systems used to recommend media content, a service provider of agents, a public depository of agents, an agent provider and a private depository of agents;
  • Fig. 3 shows a method of building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents.
  • Fig. 1 shows a media system with a user, a media provider, external agents and an external storage medium.
  • Reference numeral 102 may be a media provider providing media content available.
  • Reference numeral 102 may comprise more than one media provider.
  • Reference numeral 102 may also contain information about media content embedded in the signal from 102.
  • Media content may be a live media content like a TN program, a video available to be seen on demand, an interactive live broadcasted TN on the Internet, Internet TN, Internet sites only available when e.g. a certain event happens, a movie, a downloadable video, radio broadcastings, or any other media which may be watched during the broadcast, or it may be a media content that may be presented on a corresponding media system.
  • the media content may further be stored for later playback and presentation on a media system.
  • the information about media content may be embedded in reference numeral 102, the signal from the media provider.
  • the information about media content may be retrieved and derived from the meta-data in the media provider information.
  • the media provider generally provides media content to the media system.
  • the meta-data may contain textual and codified information about media content.
  • the standardised DNB-Service Information contains information on electronic programme guides, which also may be information about media content.
  • the information about media content may also be derived from text TN information sent during the broadcasting of TN programs.
  • the information about media content may contain information about genre, type, duration, topic, title, begin and or end, etc. of available media content.
  • Reference numeral 101 is the media system.
  • the media system may be an intelligent set-top box, a TN, an intelligent NCR, a Personal Computer, a radio and a DND player or any other electronic device, which can present media content.
  • the media system may also be accessed from a client PC in the home, where the media system is remote-run on a server.
  • reference numeral 101 may be a system that can present the media content from the media provider either live or from a recording of media content.
  • the media system may further have a CPU or another processing power (not shown) in that it may perform retrieval of feedback from a feedback system reference numeral 109, integrated in 101 - i.e. a user's rating of the media content - and or recording of media content for a later presentation on the media system.
  • the user, reference numeral 112, or users may watch or listen to the presented and or selected media content on 101. Further the user may give feedback and interacts with the media system in various ways. It is known that the most common and reliable feedback is an explicit feedback, i.e. a user score or rating media content.
  • Reference numeral 109 is the feedback system integrated in reference numeral 101, where it may be supervised how the user or the users interact with the media system 101.
  • the users may interact with the media system 101 in the form of zapping, adjusting volume, changing the tone and the balance of tone, looking up text TN information, and modifying an agent, etc.
  • Reference numeral 113 may indicate that reference numeral 109, the feedback system, may further be used for the manipulation of agents of the interest profile as described in step 306 of figure 3.
  • the media provider, reference numeral 102, and the media system, reference numeral 101 may be connected by means of a user connection point (not shown). It may be an antenna outlet for TV or radio, a modem or ADSL connection or the like connection to the Internet, an antenna outlet from a satellite receiver, a SCART connection to a TN and or to a NCR, etc.
  • Reference numeral 101 may have a CPU or a processing power as it may perform different manipulations on agents, manipulations on an interest profile, matching of information about media content; the terms agent and interest profile are described in more detail in the following.
  • the CPU or the processing power may further handle the manipulations on agents and the transfers of agents to reference numeral 111, a database for agents. Especially, agents not part of the interest profile may be stored in the database of agents. The handling of agents in various forms will be described in more detail in the next figure.
  • the processing power or the CPU may further handle the transfers from an agent generator, reference numeral 108, or agents to be read from or written to an external storage medium, reference numeral 104.
  • the processing power or the CPU of the media system may further receive feedback from a feedback system, reference numeral 109. This information may be stored in reference numeral 111, a database.
  • Reference numeral 111 the database in the media system, may be a database for a collection of agents and for reference numeral 106, an interest profile.
  • the database may further be a database for agents available at start up, reference numeral 105.
  • agent and the term interest profile will be described in more detail at the end of the description of this figure.
  • Reference numeral 103 maybe input of external agents to reference 101, the media system.
  • the external agents may come from an external website, or the external agents may come from the depositories mentioned in the following figure.
  • the external agents may be received by the CPU or the processing power of the media system before they may be released and put into actual use by the media system.
  • An agent may further be transferred to the media system on reference numeral 104, an external storage medium.
  • the external storage medium may be read by the media system in that the media system may receive an agent from the external storage medium.
  • the external storage medium may be written by the media system as the media system may be used to transport agent or agents to another media system or the media system may be used just to take a backup of the agents of the media system. Agents may be received by the processing power or the CPU of the media system before they may be released and put into actual use by the media system.
  • Reference numeral 104 the external storage medium, may be magnetic tape, optical disc, digital video disk (DVD), compact disc (CD or CD-ROM), mini-disc, hard disk, floppy disk, smart card, PCMCIA card, a siliconed flippo, etc.
  • the siliconed flippo may a plastics disc with an integrated chip like a smart card of a size similar to a coin.
  • the media system may be used for reading from and or writing the external storage medium.
  • Reference numeral 105 is the agent(s) available at start up.
  • the agent(s) may be available on the media system during start up.
  • the agent may be delivered with a default profile for e.g. lovers of opera, football fans, etc. or an agent may be customized at the point of sale with a profile reflecting the media content interests of the buyer of a media system.
  • the profile settings of the agents on the media system will be used by the media system when the media system is used.
  • An agent may further be delivered on an external storage medium together with the media system. Such an agent may then be installed on the media system in that the external storage medium may read by the media system if the user of the media system should wish to use such an agent.
  • Reference numeral 106 is an interest profile.
  • the interest profile may comprise a set of agents i.e. at least one agent. These agents may have been selected by the user on the basis of some kind of criterion, which by way of example may be a textual description of the agent on the Web site of the service provider, a list of hypothetically selected content on the Web site of the service provider or any other agent provider, or the agent may have been recommended by a friend.
  • the agent may have been downloaded from a service provider of agents (see reference numeral 204 of figure 2), stored in the media system, and only then will it take part in the recommendation process. If the recommendation is not satisfying to the user, the agent may be deleted or deactivated from use. Agents may also be provided to the media system, as explained in figure 2, transferred on an external storage media, and again such agents may previously have been selected by the user.
  • reference numeral 101 the media system, with the shown integrated components may be considered as a media system with the use of agents, an interest profile, with a feedback system, with a database and a build in or integrated software module for generating and modifying agents and for matching of a user profile, with the functionality of reading and writing agents on an external storage medium and with the functionality of transferring external agents by means of a connection to the Internet for an easy and quick exchange of agents.
  • the media system with the mentioned functionality and modules etc. may be manufactured as one box comprising the media system, as it may be convenient for the user to buy the whole system as one box of electronics.
  • the media system may also be part of a distributed system in that the media system on a server may be accessed from a client PC in the home, where the media system is remote- run on the server.
  • the agent may comprise a profile of media content preferred and or an algorithm. It may be the case that the agent only comprises a profile of media content.
  • the algorithm may be used for the scoring of media content available, based on the preferences in the profile.
  • Reference numeral 107 the match of the interest profile with information about media content, may be performed in a preferred embodiment of the invention as explained in the following by the CPU or the processing power of the media system.
  • Reference numeral 107 may be a software module for processing the match.
  • the interest profile may comprise a set of agents, i.e. at least one agent.
  • the information about media content comprises the information as shown in the following table:
  • the example of information about media content may be like the attribute based content description shown in pseudo DVB-SI format.
  • the algorithm for matching the profile of media content may be stored in a set of logical rules on the agent.
  • the rules may comprise logical constructions in the format: rule: IF antecedent_clause [AND antecedent_clause] THEN consequent_clause
  • rule: attribute attribute value
  • DEFAULT score 0.3
  • bbc* may refer to any bbc channel - i.e. bbcl, bbc2, etc.
  • Reference numeral 110 may be the recommendations of media content. Continuing the foregoing example, the recommendations of media content may be described as discussed in the following:
  • score 0.85 (as 0.2 is added to 0.65) which is the resulting recommendation score for this media content of the agent used.
  • the above example shows how the agent may comprise a profile of media content preferred (i.e. sport, soccer and bbcl) and or an algorithm (if- and - then, etc.) for matching the profile of media content with the information about media content.
  • a profile of media content preferred i.e. sport, soccer and bbcl
  • an algorithm if- and - then, etc.
  • the "if- and - then" construction is part of the rule, not the algorithm.
  • the algorithm may be able to reason with the rules, i.e. check whether the antecedent_ clauses of a rule are true, in order to perform the result of a true statement, i.e. to make the consequent clause true.
  • Any result of a rule may cause evaluation of further rules.
  • the way of doing such evaluations may be embodied in the algorithm, which may be called an inference engine or reasoning engine.
  • the example may further be extended with more sophisticated rules to be combined into the algorithm of matching and with more field names and more attribute values for the field names.
  • the scored media content maybe put on a list of recommendation for media content, reference numeral 110 which may be presented to the user of the media system and may then be preferred by the user of the media system.
  • more agents - i.e. the interest profile like reference numeral 106 of figure 1 - are involved in the above-mentioned description more scores of the matching may be computed.
  • the score of a given media content available may be computed as the average score of the given media content of all agents matching the given media content available. This also makes the interest profile give a better and more reliable score than the score of one single agent.
  • any agent of the interest profile on the media system may be used to recommend media, and thereby all the agents of the interest profile may be used to recommend media. It has the advantage that all the agents of the interest profile may be taken into account, so that the most recommended media content — e.g. the media content with the highest score - may be recommended to the user of the media system with a suggested highest priority.
  • the results of such matching for each agent for all the agents of the interest profile - i.e. the total matching of the agents of the interest profile like reference numeral 106 of figure 1 - may be presented in a sorted and or ranked list to the user of the media system.
  • the agent(s) - and thereby the interest profile - may comprise such dislike information. This will have the effect that such genres, etc. are given a low score and thereby ranked low.
  • Reference numeral 110 may therefore be a listing of recommended media content. It may be further in the form of a list and or in a form that can be understood by other electronic devices like 101.
  • Figure 2 shows computer media, media systems used to recommend media content, a service provider of agents, a public depository of agents, an agent provider and a private depository of agents.
  • Reference numerals 201, 202 and 203 are media systems which are used to recommend media content, and which may be defined as explained in the foregoing figure. More media systems used to recommend media content, more service providers of agents, more public depositories of agents, more agent providers and more private depositories of agents than shown may be involved in the invention.
  • the media system may be able to read and write agents for the transfer of agents to and from an external storage medium and from other means such as an Internet connection integrated or as a module in the media system.
  • Reference numeral 212 is an external storage medium
  • reference numeral 213 is the transfer to and from the external storage medium from any of reference numerals 201, 202 and 203, the media systems used to recommend media content.
  • the transfer of agents can be compared to and may be similar to the transfer of files to an external storage medium.
  • Reference numeral 204 is the service provider of agents.
  • the service provider of agents may provide agents and or transfer agents to all the arrow connections shown in the figure.
  • the hardware for the implementation of the service provider of agents may be a web server, accessible through the Internet.
  • the service provider of agents may further handle various payments, charges, fees, etc., for uploading and downloading of agents, for the use of depositories. The service provider's charging and ensuring of payment will be described in the following figure.
  • the user may pay the service provider of agents for the downloading of agents.
  • An advertiser or any agent provider may pay the service provider for having the advertiser's specialized agents on the system of the service provider of agents.
  • An advertiser may further pay the service provider for having commercials integrated in the advertiser's specialized agents.
  • the commercials may inform the user that a new media content or other related content in the form of a new movie, a new pop song, media event, etc. is available.
  • a merchant or even a content provider, who sells content or physical goods, may pay the service provider of agents for referring to his goods, his point of sale and or to the address of his Website on the Internet.
  • the service provider of agents is the controlling and integrating part in the system regarding the content of the agents delivered; it may be content or links to Web-pages, agents requested, delivered, updated, manipulated and deleted and transferred to and from the service provider of agents.
  • Reference numeral 205 is the public depository of agents.
  • the public depository of agents may be a centralized storage medium for agents, accessible for everyone interested. Downloading and uploading of agents may be open to everyone interested. It maybe accessible through means of the Internet comprising websites with access to the downloading and or uploading of agents.
  • the hardware may be a web server, accessible through the Internet. But it is worth noting that reference numeral 204, the service provider of agents may control, charge and ensure payment accordingly for such downloads and uploads of agents.
  • the service provider of agents may make money (and may pass money to the owner of the agent) for recommendations and referral to content (television shows, web sites, etc.) and to goods.
  • the agent ID or the identification code of the agent is a very import issue both to enable the service provider of agents to keep track of agents and to make money in return for its services.
  • Reference numeral 206 is the private depository of agents.
  • a private depository may be similar to reference numeral 205, the public depository of agents, but with limited or conditional access. Only a selected group of users may be allowed to store or retrieve the agents on this depository (for instance through paying a fee).
  • the hardware may be comparable to the hardware of the public depository. It may be thought of as a private space of a consumer or a user, for the storage of his or her private agents. Only friends of the user may have access to this space.
  • Reference numerals 207 and 212 are an external storage medium.
  • the external storage medium may be physical transportable and may be used to carry, by hand or by a postal system, agents from anybody or any hardware using an agent (including reference numeral 204) to and from reference numerals 201, 202, and or 203, any media system used to recommend media content, so even without involvement of the service provider of agents, an external storage medium with agents may be transferred between users and consumers.
  • An advertiser may provide a physical exchangeable computer media with agents as a promotion gift delivered as part of another product or simply as a gift given as part of an advertising campaign. Even the media systems used to recommend media content, reference numeral 201, 202 or 203, them-selves may write or read agents to and from the external storage medium, for the exchange of agents.
  • the bi-directional arrow, reference numeral 218, between reference numeral 207, the external storage medium, and reference numeral 217, a transfer of agents to any of the media systems may indicate that the agent provider, reference numeral 214, may deliver agent(s) by means of an external storage medium to any one of reference numerals 201, 202 or 203, any one of the media systems.
  • an identification code on the agent may be used to ensure correct handling of the fees and charging by the service provider, when the service provider is notified of the transfer of the agent provider.
  • Reference numeral 208 is the transfer of agents between reference numeral 204, the service provider of agents, and any media systems used to recommend media content such as reference numeral 201, 202 or 203.
  • reference numeral 209 is the transfer of agents between reference numeral 204, the service provider of agents, and reference numeral 205, the public depository of agents.
  • reference numeral 210 is the transfer of agents between reference numeral 204, the service provider of agents, and reference numeral 205, the private depository of agents.
  • Reference numeral 211 is the transfer of agents to an external storage medium from reference numeral 204, the service provider of agents.
  • Reference numeral 214 is the agent provider, which may create agents with a dedicated tool for doing so and may allow a user to copy agents (as shown in the arrow of reference numeral 217) to any of the media systems used to recommend media content.
  • the hardware for the implementation of the agent provider may be a web server, accessible through the Internet.
  • the agent provider may further send agents to reference numeral 205, the public depository, by means of an Internet or network connection or by means of an external storage medium like reference numerals 207 and 212.
  • the service provider of agents may control this transfer, as the service provider of agents may need to know the agents available in the system that the service provider controls. As the service provider of agents controls charges, fees, etc. for up-, downloads, transfer of agents, it may generally know the flow of agents to be able to maintain the agents and to charge for the use of them.
  • Reference numeral 215 may be the transfer of agents to the public depository from reference numeral 214, the agent provider.
  • Reference numeral 216 may be the transfer of agents to an external storage medium from reference numeral 214, the agent provider.
  • Reference numeral 217 may be the transfer of agents to any of the media systems used to recommend media content from reference numeral 214, the agent provider.
  • the transfer may be performed by means of the external storage medium.
  • the transfers of agents in reference numerals 215, 216 and 217 may be controlled by the service provider of agents.
  • the service provider of agents may also here control, charge and ensure payment accordingly for such uploads and downloads of agents, e.g. through issuing licenses to use the agent API interface definition, which may enable a plug-in of agents in the media system.
  • the idea of the service provider of agents is on one hand to provide and control the transfer of agents, and on the other hand it is a business idea to charge and to ensure payments to and from the suppliers and the users of agents.
  • Figure 3 shows a method of building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents.
  • the steps of the service provider of the methods are shown.
  • the steps of the media system of the method are shown.
  • step 301 the method is started. Here different initialisations of the variables of the service provider and of the media system are performed. After this starting step, the method proceeds to step 302.
  • an agent may be transferred from the service provider to the media system, e.g. by means of an Internet connection.
  • the transfer of an agent to the media system may further be performed by use of the external storage medium as previously defined. This transfer of agents may take place on the external storage medium between users of the media systems without involving the service provider.
  • the user of the media system wants an agent to recommend some media of the user's preferred interest, the user may surf on the Internet site of the service provider to see whether the service provider has any usable agents.
  • the user may set up a selection criterion (title, topic, genre, duration, etc.) on the Internet site of the service provider and may thereafter download a preferred agent.
  • the user may wish to have the agent(s) selected transferred to him by means of an external storage medium.
  • the external storage medium with agent(s) may be transferred to the user by any available postal service.
  • the charging and payment for the transfer of agents to and from between the service provider and the users of the media systems, etc. are described in the steps 308 and 310 of this method.
  • the media system may build an interest profile based on the transferred agent(s) and the agents, if any, previously stored on the system.
  • the database, reference numeral 111 of figure 1 of the media system is updated with agents, when agents are transferred to the media system.
  • This step corresponds to the description of reference numeral 106, the interest profile of the media system of figure 1, where the interest profile comprises at least one agent.
  • a recommendation of media content to watch may be given.
  • the recommendation may be based on the agents of the interest profile.
  • the recommendation of this step may be computed as discussed in reference numeral 107 of figure 1, the match, and of reference numeral 110 of the same figure, the recommendation of the media system.
  • all the agents of the interest profile may score available media content.
  • the scores of all agents may then be ranked and put into a recommendation for the user of the media system. On the basis of this, the user may select media content to watch.
  • the agent transferred to the media system may be stored on the database of the media system or transferred agent(s) may directly be stored in the interest profile.
  • the user may determine to reject an agent, and in that case the agent is not stored in the interest profile.
  • the agent(s) may be rejected for several reasons: the user changed his interests, wrong agents were selected, the media content of the agent have become obsolete etc.
  • the user of the media system may modify the agent(s) and thereafter store the agent(s) to be incorporated in the interest profile.
  • the interest profile may be modified by the user of the media system.
  • the user may select an agent or agents of the interest profile to modify.
  • the agent the user may choose to modify the content of any field name, it may be the field name title, channel, start time, duration, genre, sub-genre, country of origin, original language, production year, director or any other information in the field names.
  • the field names may further comprise information such as the previously mentioned meta-data of the media provider information.
  • Experienced users - who understand the idea of the rules of the algorithms of the agent - may further modify these.
  • the idea of giving the user of the media system this possibility is on the one hand to facilitate the modification of the agent of the interest profile and on the other hand to create new agents or new user profiles on the basis of old agents or old user profiles.
  • the user may further modify agents or user profiles to be used by other users.
  • the easy exchange and modification of agents and or user profiles may enhance the use of these in groups of users with the same tastes etc. of media content.
  • step 307 the transfer of agents from the media system to another media system may take place. Agents may further be transferred back to the service provider, which may give a reward to the user for doing so.
  • the agents and or user profiles may have been modified or created on the media system for the use by others.
  • the agents and or user profiles may be transferred by means of the external storage medium and or by means of the Internet.
  • other users of other media systems may take advantage of the agents, hi a group, a school class, or an association of people sharing the same interest(s) these people may hereby get a quick and convenient exchange of interests by the use of agents.
  • the people exchanging or transferring agents may have different selection criterion like title, topic, genre, duration, type of Internet site, pop-song, music style, etc.
  • the service provider charges its users for the use of agents in various forms, etc.
  • the service provider of agents provides and controls agents, it may on the other hands charge its users for the transfer and use of agents; as an example, the content provider may be charged by the service provider for following any link, recommended or referred to (via a "referral", see next step) by one or more agents.
  • the service provider can pass money to the agent owner as a reward for making a successful link or a successful referral.
  • the charging for transferred agent e.g. the agent may have been downloaded by means of the Internet, may take place prior to, during, or immediately after downloading of the agent by the user.
  • the service provider may provide the agent with an identification code to keep track of where agents may have been created, used, transferred etc.
  • the identification code may be thought of as a unique fingerprint on the agent separating that agent from any other agent.
  • the identification code may also ensure a more secure and reliable way of identifying payments for the agents flowing in the system. Thereby the identification code may be used to identify the agent owner. Any other creator of an agent than the service provider may also give the agent an identification code.
  • the identification code may be used to trace the original owner of the agent so that the user of the agent may be charged accordingly by the agent owner.
  • the service provider of agents may further charge an agent provider for the presence of agents on the service provider.
  • the agent provider may be a commercial creator of agents, an advertiser who hired somebody to create agents and or even a private user or consumer who has agents which may be interesting or useful to exploit for other users.
  • the agent provider may be any provider of agent who may foresee that agents can be used for business purposes. Consequently, the service provider of agents may charge the agent provider, e.g. an advertiser for the presence of commercials in the agents transferred to the service provider.
  • the service provider of agents may also charge a user for the download of agents from the service provider.
  • the agent provider may pay the service provider for upload of agents, and for the use of the depository of the service provider, the user may pay the service provider for downloading agents, the advertiser may pay the service provider for putting commercials anywhere on the infrastructure e.g. preferably in the agents on the depository of the service provider.
  • the merchants may pay the service provider for referral information in the agent and or the merchants may also pay content providers for referral to their media content.
  • the referral or the referral information may be described as the following paragraph:
  • Agents may thereby direct the user's attention to the content. If the user is interested and establishes a transaction e.g. via a link to a Website or buys some goods, the merchant may reward the creator of the agent.
  • the service provider may use the identification code to track the agent creator, and to reward the creator on behalf of the merchant.
  • the agent provider reference numeral 214 of figure 2
  • the identification code and money are passed by the merchant or content provider to the service provider, who pays the owner of the agent some of the money.
  • the identification code may be passed by the media system to the service provider, together with information about the followed link(s) and the established transaction, and then the service provider may now charge to the merchant for the service.
  • an agent may show or generate a score for recommendation for media content and or the agent may link to a merchant's web site for the display of goods and or recommendations. The user may activate a link to the Web site of the merchant and thereby the user may perform a transaction (e.g.
  • the identification code(s) of agent(s) responsible and used on these situations may be sent along with the referral information.
  • the merchant may notify the service provider of successful transaction(s) and may therefore send the corresponding identification code(s) to the service provider.
  • Another option may be that the service provider detects transaction and identification code automatically, and thereafter charges and or rewards the agent provider accordingly. If multiple agents made the referral, e.g. recommended a link and or initiated any other commercial transaction, the reward may be divided between these.
  • the referral information may link to any content not only media content.
  • the referral information may link to a Web site with promotional videos, information about artists and newspapers with articles; the referral information may also link to a non virtual world, i.e.
  • the distinction between (media) content referred to by the referral information and normally recommended media content is not sharp.
  • Normally recommended media content is created through the normal recommendation procedure as explained in step 304 of this method, while the referral information may be made during the playing or presentation of media content, e.g. during the playing and or the presentation of given media content, a pop up menu, a voice, etc. may give the referral information: "if you are interested in this, we (the media system) can offer (recommend) you the following interesting links. The difference can be seen, if the context is considered, too.
  • a link to the special brand will not be recommended.
  • a recommendation of a show may be given, the recommendation of their show may give a link to a Music Hall, a link to the pop-group's homepage with a promotion article about the show, or a link for downloading media content in the form of a new pop-group promotion DVD.
  • referral information may be a brand's Web site, the nearest shop selling the brand, media content like a television show about the brand's life style, etc.
  • These referrals may be hard-coded in the agent recommending the pop- group; as an example the agent may contain information as referral information to be executed "during the playing of the pop-group's programmes, refer to the brand".
  • the agent provider may provide referral information to agents and the referral information may comprise a link to at least one of a media content presentable on the media system, a web site on the Internet and a shop.
  • the service provider may ensure payment for its suppliers for the supply of agents. For example the service provider may pay a user for the upload of agents to the service provider, as these uploaded agents may be useful to the service provider for doing business. The service provider may further pay other platform owners for use of their software routines and or interfaces, e.g. API.
  • the service provider may pay the agent provider for referral on the basis of one of their agents.
  • the service provider may further pay users for making their agents available to others, e.g. through uploading to the public depository, reference numeral 205, like the uploading to reference numeral 206 in figure 2.
  • the payment may take the form of cash, coupons, points, vouchers, reduction of fees, discount rights for the buying of other goods such as agents on a computer media or discount rights for the buying of other media system related goods. Payment may be commissions, temporary fees and or one time fees. Payment may further take the form of payment for subscription for the use of agents.
  • the media system and or the service provider may be system(s) running parallel processes, where each step shown may be one of more processes running in parallel.
  • the step of building (step 303) and the step of storing (step 305) may be integrated in one another, in that a stored agent may afterwards be activated by switching the agent on, i.e. the agent may be built into the interest profile during the storage.
  • step of modifying may take place before the step of recommending (step 304) or even before the step of storing (step 305); the modifying step (step 306) may take place at any moment after the steps of transferring (step 302), building (step 303) or storing (step 305).
  • the service provider and the media system are turned on and have the possibility of communicating on the Internet or by means of transferring agent(s) on the external storage medium, the method will proceed and return to step 302. Otherwise the method will proceed to an end in step 311.
  • the service provider and the media system are again able to communicate and or to transfer agent(s) the method may proceed from step 302.

Abstract

A method and a system for building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents. The agent comprises a profile of media content, and possibly also an algorithm. The media system can be a VCR, TV, set-top box, a server, a radio, DVD player. The method includes the steps of transferring (302) an agent to the media system based on a selection criterion from a service provider of agents, building (303) an interest profile based on the transferred agent and the stored agents, if any; and recommending (304) media content on the media system based on the interest profile. The method further includes the steps of storing (305) the transferred agent on the media system to incorporate the transferred agent in the interest profile, transferring an agent from a media system based on a selection criteria to another media system and modifying (306) the interest profile on the media system. The agent is given an identification code (309) to identify the agent owner. The agent is provided with referral information with a link to media content, to a web site on the Internet and or a link to a shop. The method further includes the steps of charging (308) and ensuring payment (310) for the use of agents.

Description

Building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents
This invention relates to a method of building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents.
The present invention also relates to a computer system for performing the method. The present invention further relates to a computer program product for performing the method.
WO99/50778 discloses a system for distributing customized presentations for user sites. The system uses profile information to create data objects. The data objects are stored locally on the user's computer. The data objects are used to create presentation of logic objects. User profile information and presentation logic objects are combined to create objects for presentation of audio, video or textual elements.
However, the above prior art involves the problem that a system used to show media content is not able to suggest media content that reflects the media interest(s) of a specific user. In other words the prior art involves the problem that in such a system - when used the first time or when the user has a new interest in a certain type of media - the user has to surf through many available channels if the media system is a TN, or surf through many Web sites if the media system is an Internet PC or accessed via a server from a client PC. Surfing is a time consuming and an inconvenient way of finding media content that reflects a user's specific interest in media content.
The above prior art further involves the problem that the mentioned data objects are hard to access and that data objects are not easily shared among users of media systems.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a user of a media system with an easy and user selectable way of either recommending media content the first time a media system is used and or to provide a user of a media system with an easy and user selectable way of recommending media content when a new interest in a certain type of media content (e.g. opera, yachting) arises.
It is a further object of the invention to give users an easy access to a media recommendation and a way of sharing interests with other users. To achieve these objects, the method according to the invention is characterized in that the method comprises the steps of
- transferring an agent to the media system based on a first selection criterion from a service provider of agents;
- building an interest profile based on the transferred agent and, the stored agents if any; and
- recommending media content on the media system based on the interest profile.
Hereby a user of a media system is provided with an easy and user selectable way of getting media content recommended the first time a media system is used, and in the same way the user of a media system is provided with a way of getting media content recommended when the new interest in a certain type of media content arises in that an agent may be transferred to the media system based on a selection criterion from the service provider of agents, and an interest profile may be built based on the transferred agent and, the stored agents if any; and their media content may be recommended on the media system based on the interest profile. Another embodiment of the method is described in claim 2.
Hereby, the interest profile also comprises the transferred agent. The interest profile may thereby better reflect the interests of the user.
Another preferred embodiment of the method is described in claim 3.
Hereby, users of media systems are provided with an easy way of sharing interests with other users in that agents may be transferred between media systems. The agents may be transferred between media systems on an external storage medium or via the Internet. The external storage medium may be magnetic tape, optical disc, digital video disk (DND), compact disc (CD or CD-ROM), mini-disc, hard disk, floppy disk, smart card, PCMCIA card, a siliconed flippo, etc. The siliconed flippo may a plastics disc with an integrated chip like a smart card of a size similar to a coin. In other words, it is possible to read from and or write to the external storage medium by the media system to transfer agents between different or similar media systems.
Another preferred embodiment of the method is described in claim 4. Hereby, users are provided with a way of modifying their interest profile to fine-tune the results of the interest profile when used to recommend media.
Another preferred embodiment of the method is described in claim 5. Hereby, an agent provider and or a system provider of agents may track the use and the transfers of an agent by looking at the identification code.
Another preferred embodiment of the method is described in claim 6. Hereby, an agent provider and or a system provider of agents may identify the agent owner and reward, charge and ensure payment therefore accordingly.
Other preferred embodiments of the method are described in claim 7 and claim 8.
Hereby, the agent may refer to a media content, which may be presented, if presentable on the media system, the agent may also refer to links to a web site on the Internet for the purpose of advertising, giving information and or for other commercial reasons, and or the agent may refer to an address of a shop where relevant goods are sold. The referral information together with the identification code identifying the agent owner are also used in another preferred embodiment of the method that is described in claim 9.
Hereby, the agent may further be used for commercial purposes such as charging the agent provider for the presence of agents on the service provider, charging the advertiser for the presence of commercials in the agents on the service provider, charging the user for the download of agents from the service provider, and paying the user for the upload of agents to the service provider. By doing so the service provider may do business in that the service provider may get profit for the providing of agents.
Yet another preferred embodiment of the invention is described in claim 10. The profile of media content may comprise information about genre, type, duration, topic, title, etc., what is liked and or disliked of the user.
Another preferred embodiment of the invention is described in claim 11. The algorithm together with the profile of media content may be used to score available media content in order to rank and thereafter to recommend media content to the user.
Other preferred embodiments of the invention are described in claims 12 to 14. Hereby, the objects of the invention previously stated and achieved can help users of media systems such as NCRs, TVs, set-top boxes, personal computers, radios and DND players and even when the media system is on a server accessed via a client pc to share recommendations and to get quicker and better recommendations.
The invention will be explained more fully below in connection with preferred embodiments and with reference to the drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 shows a media system with a user, a media provider, external agents and an external storage medium;
Fig. 2 shows computer media, media systems used to recommend media content, a service provider of agents, a public depository of agents, an agent provider and a private depository of agents; and
Fig. 3 shows a method of building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents.
Fig. 1 shows a media system with a user, a media provider, external agents and an external storage medium. Reference numeral 102 may be a media provider providing media content available. Reference numeral 102 may comprise more than one media provider. Reference numeral 102 may also contain information about media content embedded in the signal from 102.
Media content may be a live media content like a TN program, a video available to be seen on demand, an interactive live broadcasted TN on the Internet, Internet TN, Internet sites only available when e.g. a certain event happens, a movie, a downloadable video, radio broadcastings, or any other media which may be watched during the broadcast, or it may be a media content that may be presented on a corresponding media system. The media content may further be stored for later playback and presentation on a media system. The information about media content may be embedded in reference numeral 102, the signal from the media provider. The information about media content may be retrieved and derived from the meta-data in the media provider information. The media provider generally provides media content to the media system. The meta-data may contain textual and codified information about media content. In the television world the standardised DNB-Service Information contains information on electronic programme guides, which also may be information about media content. The information about media content may also be derived from text TN information sent during the broadcasting of TN programs. The information about media content may contain information about genre, type, duration, topic, title, begin and or end, etc. of available media content.
Reference numeral 101 is the media system. The media system may be an intelligent set-top box, a TN, an intelligent NCR, a Personal Computer, a radio and a DND player or any other electronic device, which can present media content. The media system may also be accessed from a client PC in the home, where the media system is remote-run on a server. Generally, reference numeral 101 may be a system that can present the media content from the media provider either live or from a recording of media content. The media system may further have a CPU or another processing power (not shown) in that it may perform retrieval of feedback from a feedback system reference numeral 109, integrated in 101 - i.e. a user's rating of the media content - and or recording of media content for a later presentation on the media system.
The user, reference numeral 112, or users may watch or listen to the presented and or selected media content on 101. Further the user may give feedback and interacts with the media system in various ways. It is known that the most common and reliable feedback is an explicit feedback, i.e. a user score or rating media content.
Reference numeral 109 is the feedback system integrated in reference numeral 101, where it may be supervised how the user or the users interact with the media system 101. The users may interact with the media system 101 in the form of zapping, adjusting volume, changing the tone and the balance of tone, looking up text TN information, and modifying an agent, etc.
Reference numeral 113 may indicate that reference numeral 109, the feedback system, may further be used for the manipulation of agents of the interest profile as described in step 306 of figure 3. The media provider, reference numeral 102, and the media system, reference numeral 101, may be connected by means of a user connection point (not shown). It may be an antenna outlet for TV or radio, a modem or ADSL connection or the like connection to the Internet, an antenna outlet from a satellite receiver, a SCART connection to a TN and or to a NCR, etc.
Reference numeral 101 may have a CPU or a processing power as it may perform different manipulations on agents, manipulations on an interest profile, matching of information about media content; the terms agent and interest profile are described in more detail in the following. The CPU or the processing power may further handle the manipulations on agents and the transfers of agents to reference numeral 111, a database for agents. Especially, agents not part of the interest profile may be stored in the database of agents. The handling of agents in various forms will be described in more detail in the next figure. The processing power or the CPU may further handle the transfers from an agent generator, reference numeral 108, or agents to be read from or written to an external storage medium, reference numeral 104. The processing power or the CPU of the media system may further receive feedback from a feedback system, reference numeral 109. This information may be stored in reference numeral 111, a database.
Reference numeral 111, the database in the media system, may be a database for a collection of agents and for reference numeral 106, an interest profile. The database may further be a database for agents available at start up, reference numeral 105. The term agent and the term interest profile will be described in more detail at the end of the description of this figure.
Reference numeral 103 maybe input of external agents to reference 101, the media system. The external agents may come from an external website, or the external agents may come from the depositories mentioned in the following figure. The external agents may be received by the CPU or the processing power of the media system before they may be released and put into actual use by the media system.
An agent may further be transferred to the media system on reference numeral 104, an external storage medium. On the one hand, the external storage medium may be read by the media system in that the media system may receive an agent from the external storage medium. On the other hand, the external storage medium may be written by the media system as the media system may be used to transport agent or agents to another media system or the media system may be used just to take a backup of the agents of the media system. Agents may be received by the processing power or the CPU of the media system before they may be released and put into actual use by the media system.
Reference numeral 104, the external storage medium, may be magnetic tape, optical disc, digital video disk (DVD), compact disc (CD or CD-ROM), mini-disc, hard disk, floppy disk, smart card, PCMCIA card, a siliconed flippo, etc.
The siliconed flippo may a plastics disc with an integrated chip like a smart card of a size similar to a coin. In other words, generally, the media system may be used for reading from and or writing the external storage medium.
Reference numeral 105 is the agent(s) available at start up. The agent(s) may be available on the media system during start up. The agent may be delivered with a default profile for e.g. lovers of opera, football fans, etc. or an agent may be customized at the point of sale with a profile reflecting the media content interests of the buyer of a media system. The profile settings of the agents on the media system will be used by the media system when the media system is used. An agent may further be delivered on an external storage medium together with the media system. Such an agent may then be installed on the media system in that the external storage medium may read by the media system if the user of the media system should wish to use such an agent.
Reference numeral 106 is an interest profile. The interest profile may comprise a set of agents i.e. at least one agent. These agents may have been selected by the user on the basis of some kind of criterion, which by way of example may be a textual description of the agent on the Web site of the service provider, a list of hypothetically selected content on the Web site of the service provider or any other agent provider, or the agent may have been recommended by a friend. The agent may have been downloaded from a service provider of agents (see reference numeral 204 of figure 2), stored in the media system, and only then will it take part in the recommendation process. If the recommendation is not satisfying to the user, the agent may be deleted or deactivated from use. Agents may also be provided to the media system, as explained in figure 2, transferred on an external storage media, and again such agents may previously have been selected by the user.
Generally, reference numeral 101, the media system, with the shown integrated components may be considered as a media system with the use of agents, an interest profile, with a feedback system, with a database and a build in or integrated software module for generating and modifying agents and for matching of a user profile, with the functionality of reading and writing agents on an external storage medium and with the functionality of transferring external agents by means of a connection to the Internet for an easy and quick exchange of agents. The media system with the mentioned functionality and modules etc. may be manufactured as one box comprising the media system, as it may be convenient for the user to buy the whole system as one box of electronics. The media system may also be part of a distributed system in that the media system on a server may be accessed from a client PC in the home, where the media system is remote- run on the server.
The agent may comprise a profile of media content preferred and or an algorithm. It may be the case that the agent only comprises a profile of media content. The algorithm may be used for the scoring of media content available, based on the preferences in the profile.
Reference numeral 107, the match of the interest profile with information about media content, may be performed in a preferred embodiment of the invention as explained in the following by the CPU or the processing power of the media system. Reference numeral 107 may be a software module for processing the match.
In the following it is worth having in mind that the interest profile may comprise a set of agents, i.e. at least one agent.
As an example, assume that the information about media content comprises the information as shown in the following table:
Figure imgf000010_0001
The example of information about media content may be like the attribute based content description shown in pseudo DVB-SI format.
The algorithm for matching the profile of media content may be stored in a set of logical rules on the agent. The rules may comprise logical constructions in the format: rule: IF antecedent_clause [AND antecedent_clause] THEN consequent_clause Most clauses may be made of the same attributes as the content description above, an example may be: clause: attribute = attribute value
An example of a rule-based profile may look like this: DEFAULT score = 0.3
IF genre = sport AND sub_genre = soccer THEN score = 0.65 IF preferred_channel = true THEN score = score + 0.2 IF channel = bbc* THEN preferred_channel = true
bbc* may refer to any bbc channel - i.e. bbcl, bbc2, etc.
Reference numeral 110 may be the recommendations of media content. Continuing the foregoing example, the recommendations of media content may be described as discussed in the following:
In the case that the above-mentioned profile of the agent is matched with the information about media content, as the following example genre = sport, sub_genre = soccer and channel = bbcl.
the result may be: score = 0.85 (as 0.2 is added to 0.65) which is the resulting recommendation score for this media content of the agent used.
The above example shows how the agent may comprise a profile of media content preferred (i.e. sport, soccer and bbcl) and or an algorithm (if- and - then, etc.) for matching the profile of media content with the information about media content.
The "if- and - then" construction is part of the rule, not the algorithm. The algorithm may be able to reason with the rules, i.e. check whether the antecedent_ clauses of a rule are true, in order to perform the result of a true statement, i.e. to make the consequent clause true. Any result of a rule may cause evaluation of further rules. The way of doing such evaluations may be embodied in the algorithm, which may be called an inference engine or reasoning engine. The example may further be extended with more sophisticated rules to be combined into the algorithm of matching and with more field names and more attribute values for the field names.
In other words, when available media content - in the form of information about media content - matches the profile on the agent considered in the interest profile, i.e. media content available or media content to be sent in the near future on the media system which has the same or a similar genre, sub-genre, keywords, language, preferred duration, etc. as the agent, the scored media content maybe put on a list of recommendation for media content, reference numeral 110 which may be presented to the user of the media system and may then be preferred by the user of the media system. When more agents - i.e. the interest profile like reference numeral 106 of figure 1 - are involved in the above-mentioned description more scores of the matching may be computed. The score of a given media content available may be computed as the average score of the given media content of all agents matching the given media content available. This also makes the interest profile give a better and more reliable score than the score of one single agent.
Generally, any agent of the interest profile on the media system may used to recommend media, and thereby all the agents of the interest profile may be used to recommend media. It has the advantage that all the agents of the interest profile may be taken into account, so that the most recommended media content — e.g. the media content with the highest score - may be recommended to the user of the media system with a suggested highest priority. The results of such matching for each agent for all the agents of the interest profile - i.e. the total matching of the agents of the interest profile like reference numeral 106 of figure 1 - may be presented in a sorted and or ranked list to the user of the media system. However, to ensure that a recommendation is not given on a media content with a particular genre, sub-genre, keyword, language, etc. which the user dislikes, the agent(s) - and thereby the interest profile - may comprise such dislike information. This will have the effect that such genres, etc. are given a low score and thereby ranked low.
Reference numeral 110 may therefore be a listing of recommended media content. It may be further in the form of a list and or in a form that can be understood by other electronic devices like 101.
Figure 2 shows computer media, media systems used to recommend media content, a service provider of agents, a public depository of agents, an agent provider and a private depository of agents. Reference numerals 201, 202 and 203 are media systems which are used to recommend media content, and which may be defined as explained in the foregoing figure. More media systems used to recommend media content, more service providers of agents, more public depositories of agents, more agent providers and more private depositories of agents than shown may be involved in the invention. In this figure it is worth noting that the media system may be able to read and write agents for the transfer of agents to and from an external storage medium and from other means such as an Internet connection integrated or as a module in the media system.
Reference numeral 212 is an external storage medium, and reference numeral 213 is the transfer to and from the external storage medium from any of reference numerals 201, 202 and 203, the media systems used to recommend media content. In a technical sense the transfer of agents can be compared to and may be similar to the transfer of files to an external storage medium.
Reference numeral 204 is the service provider of agents. The service provider of agents may provide agents and or transfer agents to all the arrow connections shown in the figure. The hardware for the implementation of the service provider of agents may be a web server, accessible through the Internet. The service provider of agents may further handle various payments, charges, fees, etc., for uploading and downloading of agents, for the use of depositories. The service provider's charging and ensuring of payment will be described in the following figure.
The user may pay the service provider of agents for the downloading of agents. An advertiser or any agent provider may pay the service provider for having the advertiser's specialized agents on the system of the service provider of agents. An advertiser may further pay the service provider for having commercials integrated in the advertiser's specialized agents. The commercials may inform the user that a new media content or other related content in the form of a new movie, a new pop song, media event, etc. is available. A merchant or even a content provider, who sells content or physical goods, may pay the service provider of agents for referring to his goods, his point of sale and or to the address of his Website on the Internet. Generally, the service provider of agents is the controlling and integrating part in the system regarding the content of the agents delivered; it may be content or links to Web-pages, agents requested, delivered, updated, manipulated and deleted and transferred to and from the service provider of agents. Reference numeral 205 is the public depository of agents. The public depository of agents may be a centralized storage medium for agents, accessible for everyone interested. Downloading and uploading of agents may be open to everyone interested. It maybe accessible through means of the Internet comprising websites with access to the downloading and or uploading of agents. The hardware may be a web server, accessible through the Internet. But it is worth noting that reference numeral 204, the service provider of agents may control, charge and ensure payment accordingly for such downloads and uploads of agents. In general, the service provider of agents may make money (and may pass money to the owner of the agent) for recommendations and referral to content (television shows, web sites, etc.) and to goods. The agent ID or the identification code of the agent is a very import issue both to enable the service provider of agents to keep track of agents and to make money in return for its services. Reference numeral 206 is the private depository of agents. A private depository may be similar to reference numeral 205, the public depository of agents, but with limited or conditional access. Only a selected group of users may be allowed to store or retrieve the agents on this depository (for instance through paying a fee). The hardware may be comparable to the hardware of the public depository. It may be thought of as a private space of a consumer or a user, for the storage of his or her private agents. Only friends of the user may have access to this space.
Reference numerals 207 and 212 are an external storage medium. The external storage medium may be physical transportable and may be used to carry, by hand or by a postal system, agents from anybody or any hardware using an agent (including reference numeral 204) to and from reference numerals 201, 202, and or 203, any media system used to recommend media content, so even without involvement of the service provider of agents, an external storage medium with agents may be transferred between users and consumers. An advertiser may provide a physical exchangeable computer media with agents as a promotion gift delivered as part of another product or simply as a gift given as part of an advertising campaign. Even the media systems used to recommend media content, reference numeral 201, 202 or 203, them-selves may write or read agents to and from the external storage medium, for the exchange of agents.
The bi-directional arrow, reference numeral 218, between reference numeral 207, the external storage medium, and reference numeral 217, a transfer of agents to any of the media systems, may indicate that the agent provider, reference numeral 214, may deliver agent(s) by means of an external storage medium to any one of reference numerals 201, 202 or 203, any one of the media systems. In such delivery of agents an identification code on the agent may be used to ensure correct handling of the fees and charging by the service provider, when the service provider is notified of the transfer of the agent provider. Reference numeral 208 is the transfer of agents between reference numeral 204, the service provider of agents, and any media systems used to recommend media content such as reference numeral 201, 202 or 203.
Correspondingly, reference numeral 209 is the transfer of agents between reference numeral 204, the service provider of agents, and reference numeral 205, the public depository of agents.
In a comparable way, reference numeral 210 is the transfer of agents between reference numeral 204, the service provider of agents, and reference numeral 205, the private depository of agents. Reference numeral 211 is the transfer of agents to an external storage medium from reference numeral 204, the service provider of agents.
Reference numeral 214 is the agent provider, which may create agents with a dedicated tool for doing so and may allow a user to copy agents (as shown in the arrow of reference numeral 217) to any of the media systems used to recommend media content. The hardware for the implementation of the agent provider may be a web server, accessible through the Internet.
The agent provider may further send agents to reference numeral 205, the public depository, by means of an Internet or network connection or by means of an external storage medium like reference numerals 207 and 212. The service provider of agents may control this transfer, as the service provider of agents may need to know the agents available in the system that the service provider controls. As the service provider of agents controls charges, fees, etc. for up-, downloads, transfer of agents, it may generally know the flow of agents to be able to maintain the agents and to charge for the use of them.
Reference numeral 215 may be the transfer of agents to the public depository from reference numeral 214, the agent provider.
Reference numeral 216 may be the transfer of agents to an external storage medium from reference numeral 214, the agent provider.
Reference numeral 217 may be the transfer of agents to any of the media systems used to recommend media content from reference numeral 214, the agent provider. The transfer may be performed by means of the external storage medium.
However, it is worth noting that the transfers of agents in reference numerals 215, 216 and 217 may be controlled by the service provider of agents. The service provider of agents may also here control, charge and ensure payment accordingly for such uploads and downloads of agents, e.g. through issuing licenses to use the agent API interface definition, which may enable a plug-in of agents in the media system.
Generally, the idea of the service provider of agents is on one hand to provide and control the transfer of agents, and on the other hand it is a business idea to charge and to ensure payments to and from the suppliers and the users of agents.
Figure 3 shows a method of building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents. On the left hand side of this figure, the steps of the service provider of the methods are shown. On the right hand side of the figure, the steps of the media system of the method are shown. In step 301, the method is started. Here different initialisations of the variables of the service provider and of the media system are performed. After this starting step, the method proceeds to step 302.
In step 302, an agent may be transferred from the service provider to the media system, e.g. by means of an Internet connection. The transfer of an agent to the media system may further be performed by use of the external storage medium as previously defined. This transfer of agents may take place on the external storage medium between users of the media systems without involving the service provider. When the user of the media system wants an agent to recommend some media of the user's preferred interest, the user may surf on the Internet site of the service provider to see whether the service provider has any usable agents. The user may set up a selection criterion (title, topic, genre, duration, etc.) on the Internet site of the service provider and may thereafter download a preferred agent. The user may wish to have the agent(s) selected transferred to him by means of an external storage medium. In that case the external storage medium with agent(s) may be transferred to the user by any available postal service. The charging and payment for the transfer of agents to and from between the service provider and the users of the media systems, etc. are described in the steps 308 and 310 of this method.
In step 303 - on the basis of the transferred agent(s) the media system may build an interest profile based on the transferred agent(s) and the agents, if any, previously stored on the system. In other words the database, reference numeral 111 of figure 1 of the media system, is updated with agents, when agents are transferred to the media system. This step corresponds to the description of reference numeral 106, the interest profile of the media system of figure 1, where the interest profile comprises at least one agent.
In step 304, a recommendation of media content to watch may be given. The recommendation may be based on the agents of the interest profile. The recommendation of this step may be computed as discussed in reference numeral 107 of figure 1, the match, and of reference numeral 110 of the same figure, the recommendation of the media system. Briefly, all the agents of the interest profile may score available media content. The scores of all agents may then be ranked and put into a recommendation for the user of the media system. On the basis of this, the user may select media content to watch.
In step 305, the agent transferred to the media system may be stored on the database of the media system or transferred agent(s) may directly be stored in the interest profile. The user may determine to reject an agent, and in that case the agent is not stored in the interest profile. The agent(s) may be rejected for several reasons: the user changed his interests, wrong agents were selected, the media content of the agent have become obsolete etc. As will be discussed in the next step of this method, the user of the media system may modify the agent(s) and thereafter store the agent(s) to be incorporated in the interest profile.
In step 306, the interest profile may be modified by the user of the media system. The user may select an agent or agents of the interest profile to modify. In the agent the user may choose to modify the content of any field name, it may be the field name title, channel, start time, duration, genre, sub-genre, country of origin, original language, production year, director or any other information in the field names. The field names may further comprise information such as the previously mentioned meta-data of the media provider information. Experienced users - who understand the idea of the rules of the algorithms of the agent - may further modify these. The idea of giving the user of the media system this possibility is on the one hand to facilitate the modification of the agent of the interest profile and on the other hand to create new agents or new user profiles on the basis of old agents or old user profiles. The user may further modify agents or user profiles to be used by other users. The easy exchange and modification of agents and or user profiles may enhance the use of these in groups of users with the same tastes etc. of media content.
In step 307, the transfer of agents from the media system to another media system may take place. Agents may further be transferred back to the service provider, which may give a reward to the user for doing so. As just mentioned in the foregoing step, the agents and or user profiles may have been modified or created on the media system for the use by others. The agents and or user profiles may be transferred by means of the external storage medium and or by means of the Internet. Hereby other users of other media systems may take advantage of the agents, hi a group, a school class, or an association of people sharing the same interest(s) these people may hereby get a quick and convenient exchange of interests by the use of agents. The people exchanging or transferring agents may have different selection criterion like title, topic, genre, duration, type of Internet site, pop-song, music style, etc.
In step 308, the service provider charges its users for the use of agents in various forms, etc. As, on the one hand, the service provider of agents provides and controls agents, it may on the other hands charge its users for the transfer and use of agents; as an example, the content provider may be charged by the service provider for following any link, recommended or referred to (via a "referral", see next step) by one or more agents. On the contrary - belonging to step 310 - the service provider can pass money to the agent owner as a reward for making a successful link or a successful referral. The charging for transferred agent, e.g. the agent may have been downloaded by means of the Internet, may take place prior to, during, or immediately after downloading of the agent by the user.
In step 309, the service provider may provide the agent with an identification code to keep track of where agents may have been created, used, transferred etc. The identification code may be thought of as a unique fingerprint on the agent separating that agent from any other agent. The identification code may also ensure a more secure and reliable way of identifying payments for the agents flowing in the system. Thereby the identification code may be used to identify the agent owner. Any other creator of an agent than the service provider may also give the agent an identification code. The identification code may be used to trace the original owner of the agent so that the user of the agent may be charged accordingly by the agent owner.
Referring back to step 308 in the following, the service provider of agents may further charge an agent provider for the presence of agents on the service provider. The agent provider may be a commercial creator of agents, an advertiser who hired somebody to create agents and or even a private user or consumer who has agents which may be interesting or useful to exploit for other users. Generally, the agent provider may be any provider of agent who may foresee that agents can be used for business purposes. Consequently, the service provider of agents may charge the agent provider, e.g. an advertiser for the presence of commercials in the agents transferred to the service provider. The service provider of agents may also charge a user for the download of agents from the service provider. The agent provider may pay the service provider for upload of agents, and for the use of the depository of the service provider, the user may pay the service provider for downloading agents, the advertiser may pay the service provider for putting commercials anywhere on the infrastructure e.g. preferably in the agents on the depository of the service provider. Further, the merchants may pay the service provider for referral information in the agent and or the merchants may also pay content providers for referral to their media content. The referral or the referral information may be described as the following paragraph:
Merchants may provide commercial content or a link to commercial content in the referral information. Agents may thereby direct the user's attention to the content. If the user is interested and establishes a transaction e.g. via a link to a Website or buys some goods, the merchant may reward the creator of the agent. The service provider may use the identification code to track the agent creator, and to reward the creator on behalf of the merchant. Assume that the agent provider, reference numeral 214 of figure 2, provides an agent to the media system, either through the service provider of agent or direct. Thereafter the agent on the media system recommends or makes a referral to content, e.g. recommends a pay per view broadcasting on a television or cable network, or links to goods. If the recommendation or the linking is followed and a transaction is established (the user watches the pay per view broadcasting, or buys goods on the linked address), the identification code and money are passed by the merchant or content provider to the service provider, who pays the owner of the agent some of the money. Alternatively, the identification code may be passed by the media system to the service provider, together with information about the followed link(s) and the established transaction, and then the service provider may now charge to the merchant for the service. Generally, an agent may show or generate a score for recommendation for media content and or the agent may link to a merchant's web site for the display of goods and or recommendations. The user may activate a link to the Web site of the merchant and thereby the user may perform a transaction (e.g. watch pay-per-view media content, order product on web site, etc.). The identification code(s) of agent(s) responsible and used on these situations may be sent along with the referral information. The merchant may notify the service provider of successful transaction(s) and may therefore send the corresponding identification code(s) to the service provider. Another option may be that the service provider detects transaction and identification code automatically, and thereafter charges and or rewards the agent provider accordingly. If multiple agents made the referral, e.g. recommended a link and or initiated any other commercial transaction, the reward may be divided between these. The referral information may link to any content not only media content. The referral information may link to a Web site with promotional videos, information about artists and newspapers with articles; the referral information may also link to a non virtual world, i.e. the physical world in the form of pictures of a shop or just the address of a shop in a textual form, showrooms and or simply to addresses of shopping centres or other places. In fact, the distinction between (media) content referred to by the referral information and normally recommended media content is not sharp. Normally recommended media content is created through the normal recommendation procedure as explained in step 304 of this method, while the referral information may be made during the playing or presentation of media content, e.g. during the playing and or the presentation of given media content, a pop up menu, a voice, etc. may give the referral information: "if you are interested in this, we (the media system) can offer (recommend) you the following interesting links. The difference can be seen, if the context is considered, too. If the user is for example not interested in a special brand a link to the special brand will not be recommended. However, if the interest profile of the user reveals interest in for example a pop-group, a recommendation of a show may be given, the recommendation of their show may give a link to a Music Hall, a link to the pop-group's homepage with a promotion article about the show, or a link for downloading media content in the form of a new pop-group promotion DVD. As an example, during the playing of a show or the promotion DVD, it may become clear that one of the members wears the shoes of the brand so then a link to the general brand's content may be referred to in the referral information, it may be a brand's Web site, the nearest shop selling the brand, media content like a television show about the brand's life style, etc. These referrals may be hard-coded in the agent recommending the pop- group; as an example the agent may contain information as referral information to be executed "during the playing of the pop-group's programmes, refer to the brand". Generally speaking, the agent provider may provide referral information to agents and the referral information may comprise a link to at least one of a media content presentable on the media system, a web site on the Internet and a shop.
In step 310 - as opposed to step 308 - the service provider may ensure payment for its suppliers for the supply of agents. For example the service provider may pay a user for the upload of agents to the service provider, as these uploaded agents may be useful to the service provider for doing business. The service provider may further pay other platform owners for use of their software routines and or interfaces, e.g. API.
Moreover the service provider may pay the agent provider for referral on the basis of one of their agents. The service provider may further pay users for making their agents available to others, e.g. through uploading to the public depository, reference numeral 205, like the uploading to reference numeral 206 in figure 2.
The payment may take the form of cash, coupons, points, vouchers, reduction of fees, discount rights for the buying of other goods such as agents on a computer media or discount rights for the buying of other media system related goods. Payment may be commissions, temporary fees and or one time fees. Payment may further take the form of payment for subscription for the use of agents.
Even though the steps of building, recommending, storing, modifying, transferring forth and back, charging, providing the agent with an identification code and ensuring payment are graphically shown in succession, the method may deviate from the shown sequence. On the one hand the media system and or the service provider may be system(s) running parallel processes, where each step shown may be one of more processes running in parallel. As an example, the step of building (step 303) and the step of storing (step 305) may be integrated in one another, in that a stored agent may afterwards be activated by switching the agent on, i.e. the agent may be built into the interest profile during the storage. On the other hand, the step of modifying (step 306) may take place before the step of recommending (step 304) or even before the step of storing (step 305); the modifying step (step 306) may take place at any moment after the steps of transferring (step 302), building (step 303) or storing (step 305). As long as the service provider and the media system are turned on and have the possibility of communicating on the Internet or by means of transferring agent(s) on the external storage medium, the method will proceed and return to step 302. Otherwise the method will proceed to an end in step 311. When the service provider and the media system are again able to communicate and or to transfer agent(s) the method may proceed from step 302.

Claims

CLAIMS:
1. A method of building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents, characterized in that the method comprises the steps of:
- transferring an agent to the media system based on a first selection criterion from a service provider of agents; - building an interest profile based on the transferred agent and the stored agents, if any; and
- recommending media content on the media system based on the interest profile.
2. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the method further comprises the step of
- storing the transferred agent on the media system to incorporate the transferred agent in the interest profile.
3. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises the step of:
- transferring an agent from the media system based on a second selection criterion to another media system.
4. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the method further comprises the step of:
- modifying the interest profile on the media system.
5. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises the step of - giving the agent an identification code.
6. A method according to claim 5, characterized in that the identification code is used to identify the agent owner.
7. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises the step of:
- providing the agent with referral information.
8. A method according to claim 7, characterized in that referral information comprises
- a link to at least one of a media content presentable on the media system, a web site on the Internet and a shop.
9. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the method further comprises the steps of:
- charging an agent provider for the presence of agents on the service provider;
- charging an advertiser for the presence of commercials in the agents on the service provider; - charging a user for the download of agents from the service provider; and
- paying a user for the upload of agents to the service provider.
10. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the agent comprises a profile of media content.
11. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the agent further comprises an algorithm.
12. A method according to any one of claims 1 through 11, characterized in that the media system is one from the group comprising VCR, TV, set-top box, personal computer, server, radio and DVD player.
13. A computer system for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 through 12.
14. A computer program product comprising program code means stored on a computer medium for performing the method of any one of claims 1 through 12 when said computer program is run on a computer.
PCT/IB2003/003954 2002-10-09 2003-09-12 Building an interest profile on a media system with stored agents WO2004034706A1 (en)

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