System and method for managing a content catalogue

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9432736-B2
Application number	US-201113996965-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2011
Priority date	Dec 23, 2010
Publication date	Aug 30, 2016
Grant date	Aug 30, 2016

Abstract

The present invention related to the domain of audio/video content distribution, where a catalog of available content is made available to end users. An aim of the invention is to ensure that the catalog has a high quality in that a search within the catalog will have a high probability of yielding a result. The invention provides a method and a system for creating useful links between elements in the catalog whenever it is deemed that such links be useful. The links between the elements are created either by adding new content to the catalog or new metadata which can be associated with the new content and existing content in the catalog.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-based automated method for improving a quality of a content catalogue, the content catalogue comprising a plurality of elements and at least one piece of metadata associable according to predetermined association criteria with at least one element, a link between two elements in the content catalogue being created when a piece of metadata is associated according to the predetermined association criteria with two elements in the content catalogue, each element being associable with one or more pieces of metadata, the metadata being useful for searching the content catalogue for one or more particular elements, said method comprising:
a) measuring, by a content catalogue quality measurement module executed by a processor, the quality of the content catalogue by assessing at least one of a quantity of links in the catalogue, a variety of the elements, diversity of the metadata, a distribution of the metadata among the elements or a connectivity of a network comprising elements and links in the content catalogue;
b) if the measured quality is below a predetermined threshold defining an insufficient quality level, then identifying, by a metadata acquisition module executed by the processor, at least one additional piece of metadata associable with two elements in the content catalogue;
c) acquiring for the content catalogue, by a content acquisition module executed by the processor, the identified additional piece of metadata, such acquisition creating at least one additional link in the content catalogue; and
d) repeating steps a)-c) if the measured quality is below the predetermined threshold, thereby controlling, by a controller module, the metadata acquisition module to acquire further metadata to associate with the existing content or to associate with existing metadata within the catalogue, and making the content catalogue distributable.

2. The computer-based method according to claim 1 , wherein said identified additional piece of metadata is acquired.

3. The computer-based method according to claim 1 , wherein step c) includes acquiring at least one additional element from outside of the content catalogue, said at least one additional element being associable with the identified additional metadata.

4. The computer-based method according to claim 3 , wherein said at least one additional element from outside of the content catalogue is associable with the additional metadata.

5. The computer-based method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one additional link involves a poorly-described element in the content catalogue, said poorly-described element being not associated with any metadata or associated with few pieces of metadata.

6. An automated system for improving a quality of a content catalogue, the content catalogue comprising a plurality of elements and at least one piece of metadata associable according to predetermined association criteria with at least one element, a link between two elements in the content catalogue being created when a piece of metadata is associated according to the predetermined association criteria with two elements in the content catalogue, each element being associable with one or more pieces of metadata, the metadata being useful for searching the content catalogue for one or more particular elements, said system comprising:
a memory for storing the content catalogue;
a content acquisition module executed by a processor and being configured to acquire at least one additional element;
a catalogue quality measurement module executed by said processor and being configured to measure a quality of the content catalogue by assessing at least one of a quantity of links in the catalogue, a variety of the elements, diversity of the metadata, a distribution of the metadata among the elements or a connectivity of a network comprising elements and links in the content catalogue;
a metadata acquisition module executed by said processor and being configured to acquire at least one additional piece of metadata, said additional metadata adding at least one additional link to the content catalogue; and
a controller module executed by a processor and being configured to control the metadata acquisition module to acquire further metadata to associate with the existing content or to associate with existing metadata within the catalogue as long as the catalogue quality measurement module indicates that the measured quality is below a predetermined threshold defining an insufficient quality level, and making the content catalogue distributable.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one additional piece of metadata is acquired.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one additional link involves a poorly-described element in the content catalogue, said poorly-described element being not associated with any metadata or associated with few pieces of metadata.

9. The computer-based method according to claim 2 , further comprising acquiring at least one additional element, said at least one additional element being associable with the additional metadata.

10. The computer-based method according to claim 2 , wherein the at least one additional link involves a poorly-described element in the content catalogue, said poorly-described element being an element not associated with any metadata or an element associated with few pieces of metadata.

11. The computer-based method according to claim 3 , wherein the at least one additional link involves a poorly-described element in the content catalogue, said poorly-described element being an element not associated with any metadata or an element associated with few pieces of metadata.

12. The computer-based method according to claim 4 , wherein the at least one additional link involves a poorly-described element in the content catalogue, said poorly-described element being an element not associated with any metadata or an element associated with few pieces of metadata.

13. The computer-based method according to claim 9 , wherein the at least additional link involves a poorly-described element in the content catalogue, said poorly-described element being an element not associated with any metadata or an element associated with few pieces of metadata.

Assignees

• Dagaeff Thierry
• Nagravision Sa

Inventors

• Dagaeff Thierry

Classifications

• H04N21/2353

  specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata · CPC title

• H04N21/47202 Primary

  for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand · CPC title

• H04N21/23109 Primary

  by placing content in organized collections, e.g. EPG data repository (details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739) · CPC title