Media systems for temporally and contextually relevant recommendations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017195731-A1
Application number	US-201615179771-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 10, 2016
Priority date	Dec 30, 2015
Publication date	Jul 6, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Multimedia systems and related methods and devices are provided for recommending media programs to a user. Viewing characteristics of the user are determined based on usage information detailing preceding viewing sessions for the user. In one or more embodiments, the user's current interest in one or more currently available media programs that originated after the user's preceding viewing session is predicted based on the user's viewing characteristics and the current viewing context, and media programs having the highest predicted current interest are indicated to the user as being recommended.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A media system comprising:
a client device coupled to a network; a database maintaining usage information associated with a user of the client device, the usage information pertaining to one or more preceding viewings of media content by the user; and a server coupled to the client device via the network and to the database to:
identify a current viewing context;
determine viewing characteristics of the user based on the usage information;
identify a plurality of available media programs;
predict a current interest of the user in a first media program of the plurality of available media programs based at least in part on the viewing characteristics of the user and the current viewing context; and
provide indication of the first media program to the client device based on the predicted current interest.

2 . The media system of claim 1 , wherein the server identifies the plurality of available media programs based on the usage information associated with a preceding viewing session for the user, wherein the plurality of available media programs comprise recent media programs originating after the preceding viewing session.

3 . The media system of claim 1 , the database maintaining additional usage information associated with a plurality of other users, wherein:
the viewing characteristics comprise a group of similar users of the plurality of other users, the group of similar users being determined based on the usage information associated with the user and the additional usage information associated with the plurality of other users; the plurality of available media programs comprise a plurality of broadcast media programs currently viewed by one or more users of the group of similar users.

4 . The media system of claim 3 , wherein the server determines a real-time popularity metric for the first media program of the plurality of broadcast media programs among the group of similar users and predicts the current interest in the first media program based on the real-time popularity metric and the viewing characteristics.

5 . The media system of claim 3 , the viewing characteristics including content preferences for the user, wherein the server predicts the current interest in the first media program based on the content preferences for the user.

6 . The media system of claim 1 , the viewing characteristics indicating program type preferences for the user, wherein the server predicts the current interest in the first media program based on a program type associated with the first media program corresponding to a preferred program type for the user indicated by the program type preferences.

7 . The media system of claim 6 , wherein providing the indication comprises populating a display on the client device with one or more media programs of the plurality of available media programs having the preferred program type based on the program type preferences.

8 . The media system of claim 7 , wherein a first number of the one or more media programs of the plurality of available media programs relative to a second number of other media programs of the plurality of available media programs having other program types corresponds to a relative distribution of the program type preferences across a plurality of program types.

9 . The media system of claim 1 , the viewing characteristics of the user indicating a preferred program type for the current viewing context for the user, wherein the server predicts the current interest in the first media program based on a program type associated with the first media program corresponding to the preferred program type.

10 . The media system of claim 1 , the viewing characteristics of the user including metadata indicating preferred program content for the current viewing context for the user, wherein the server predicts the current interest in the first media program based on metadata associated with the first media program corresponding to the metadata associated with the preferred program content.

11 . The media system of claim 1 , the current viewing context comprising a current time of day and the viewing characteristics of the user indicating a preferred program type associated with the current time of day, wherein the server predicts the current interest in the first media program based on a program type associated with the first media program corresponding to the preferred program type.

12 . The media system of claim 1 , the current viewing context comprising a device type associated with the client device and the viewing characteristics of the user indicating a preferred program type associated with the device type, wherein the server predicts the current interest in the first media program based on a program type associated with the first media program corresponding to the preferred program type.

13 . A multimedia distribution system comprising:
a client device; a database maintaining usage information associated with a user of the client device, the usage information pertaining to one or more preceding viewings of media content by the user; a first source of one or more broadcast media programs coupled to the client device; a second source of one or more recorded media programs coupled to the client device; and a server coupled to the client device, the database, the first source and the second source to:
identify a current viewing context for the user;
determine viewing characteristics of the user based on the usage information;
identify a plurality of available media programs from one or more of the first source and the second source;
identify one or more media programs of the plurality of available media programs having a highest predicted current interest to the user based at least in part on the viewing characteristics and the current viewing context; and
provide indication of the one or more media programs to the client device.

14 . The multimedia distribution system of claim 13 , wherein the server identifies the one or more recorded media programs from the second source as the plurality of available media programs when the usage information indicates a preference for recorded programming for the current viewing context.

15 . The multimedia distribution system of claim 13 , the viewing characteristics of the user including metadata indicating preferred program content for the current viewing context for the user, wherein the server identifies the one or more media programs from among the one or more recorded media programs based on metadata associated with the one or more media programs corresponding to the metadata associated with the preferred program content.

16 . The multimedia distribution system of claim 13 , wherein:
the usage information indicates a preference for broadcast programming for the current viewing context; the viewing characteristics include indication of similar users; the server identifies the one or more broadcast media programs from the first source as the plurality of available media programs when the usage information indicates a preference for broadcast programming for the current viewing context; the one or more broadcast media programs comprise a plurality of broadcast media programs currently viewed by one or more of the similar users; and the server identifies the one or more media programs of the plurality of broadcast media programs having the highest predicted current interest to the user based on a real-time popularity metric for the one or more media programs.

17 . A method of recommending a media program to a user of

Assignees

• Echostar Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Girlando Davide
• Dimov Dmitry
• Rehiman Kalleri Faizel
• Raveendran Sooraj
• Lee Chih Jen Ken

Classifications

• H04N21/4668 Primary

  for recommending content, e.g. movies · CPC title

• H04N21/251

  Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies (details of learning user preferences for the retrieval of video data in a video database G06F16/739; computer systems using learning methods G06N3/08) · CPC title

• H04N21/4667

  Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections · CPC title

• H04N21/44224

  Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing · CPC title

• H04N21/4826

  using recommendation lists, e.g. of programmes or channels sorted out according to their score · CPC title