Media content spatial navigation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9043839-B2
Application number	US-201113578933-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 15, 2011
Priority date	Feb 19, 2010
Publication date	May 26, 2015
Grant date	May 26, 2015

Abstract

A method and system of providing a content guide that identifies a spatial relationship between the elements in the content guide is described. A controller receives electronic program guide data. The received electronic program guide data is parsed to identify a plurality of programs listed in the electronic program guide and data corresponding to at least one program description attribute for the identified programs. A relationship is determined between each identified program based on the at least one program description attribute. At least one cluster is generated and includes at least one of the plurality of identified programs based on the determined relationship. A user interface display processor generates a user interface display image representing a clustered content guide and including the at least one generated cluster enabling the user to view the relationship of the plurality of programs.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of providing a content guide identifying a spatial relationship between the elements in the content guide, the method performed by a controller, the method comprising:
a. receiving, by the controller, electronic program guide data;
b. parsing the received electronic program guide data to identify a plurality of programs listed in the electronic program guide and data corresponding to sets of program description attributes, wherein each set of program description attributes corresponding to a respective one of the identified programs;
c. determining a relationship between each identified program based on the sets of the program description attributes;
d. generating at least one cluster including ones of the plurality of identified programs based on the determined relationship; and
e. generating, by a user interface display processor, a user interface display image representing a clustered content guide and including the at least one generated cluster enabling a user to view the relationship of the plurality of programs, wherein the user interface display image contains a sliding bar to selectively determine, in real-time, a value that corresponds to a weight of one of the sets of program description attributes enabling a changing of spacing of the at least one generated cluster.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of: displaying the content guide in a first display and displaying simultaneously a portion of the content guide in a second display.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein
a respective one of the program description attributes in the sets of the program description attributes represents one dimension of relatedness; and
the programs included in the generated at least one cluster represent an n-dimensional relationship to one another, where n is the number of program description attributes used in a clustering calculation.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of determining further comprises:
selecting attributes associated with the identified plurality of programs for use in calculating a spatial distance between respective ones of the plurality of programs based on the selected attributes, the spatial distance representing a level of relatedness of a respective program to all other programs of the plurality of programs;
generating a value representing the spatial distance based on the selected attributes; and
storing the spatial distance value for respective ones of the plurality of programs for use in a clustering calculation.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
applying a correction algorithm to the at least one generated clusters enabling the at least one generated cluster to be displayed in a two dimensional display image.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a respective cluster of the at least one generated cluster as a node;
selecting a program contained in the respective cluster as a representative program for the node; and
providing data representing the representative program for the node to the user interface generator for inclusion in the spatial content guide display image.

7. A system for providing a content guide identifying a spatial relationship between elements in the content guide, the system comprising:
a receiver that receives electronic program guide data;
an attribute processor that parses the received electronic program guide data to identify a plurality of programs listed in the electronic program guide and data corresponding to sets of program description attributes, wherein each set of program description attributes corresponding to a respective one of the identified programs;
a cluster processor that determines the relationship between each identified program based on the sets of the program description attributes and generates at least one cluster including ones of the plurality of identified programs based on the determined relationship;
a user interface display processor that generates a user interface display image representing a clustered content guide and including the at least one generated cluster enabling a user to view the relationship of the plurality of programs, wherein the user interface display image contains a sliding bar to selectively determine, in real-time, a value that corresponds to a weight of one of the sets of program description attributes enabling a changing of spacing of the at least one generated cluster.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the content guide is displayed in a first display and a subset of the content guide is displayed simultaneously in a second display.

9. The system of claim 7 :
a respective one of the program description attributes in the sets of the program description attributes represents one dimension of relatedness; and
programs included in the generated at least one cluster represent an n-dimensional relationship to one another, where n is the number of program description attributes used in a clustering calculation.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein
the attribute processor selects attributes associated with the plurality of identified programs for use in calculating a spatial distance between respective ones of the plurality of identified programs based on the selected attributes, the spatial distance representing a level of relatedness of a respective program to all other programs of the plurality of identified programs, generates a value representing the spatial distance based on the selected attributes, and stores the spatial distance value for respective ones of the plurality of identified programs for use in a clustering calculation.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the cluster processor applies a correction algorithm to the at least one generated clusters enabling the at least one generated cluster to be displayed in a two dimensional display image.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the cluster processor identifies a respective cluster of the at least one generated cluster as a node and selects a program contained in the respective cluster as a representative program for the node and provides data representing the representative program for the node to the user interface generator for inclusion in the spatial content guide display image.

Assignees

• Anthru Shemimon Manalikudy
• Cahnbley Jens
• Campana David Anthony
• Anderson David Brian
• Mandrekar Ishan
• Baishya Dhruba Jyoti
• Thomson Licensing

Inventors

• Anthru Shemimon Manalikudy
• Cahnbley Jens
• Campana David Anthony
• Anderson David Brian
• Mandrekar Ishan
• Baishya Dhruba Jyoti

Classifications

• H04N21/235

  Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors · CPC title

• H04N21/472

  End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content {(end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612)} · CPC title

• H04N21/4314

  for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid · CPC title

• H04N21/435

  Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream · CPC title

• H04N5/445 Primary

  for displaying additional information (H04N5/50 takes precedence) · CPC title