Interactive media guidance application with intelligent navigation and display features

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9749693-B2
Application number	US-201414181102-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 14, 2014
Priority date	Mar 24, 2006
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed that allow a user to efficiently navigate media selections in an interactive media guidance application and easily identify media for viewing. The disclosed methods and systems provide an environment wherein video assets are displayed according to a user preference on a mosaic page with multiple cells. A subset of the assets appropriate for display in a particular cell is determined based on the user preference. Relevance scores of the assets meeting the user preference are computed, and the asset having the greatest relevance for the user is selected and displayed the corresponding cell. The relevance scores can be computed based on the user's historic viewing habits, user interaction with a media guidance application, or on specific user input.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
generating for display a mosaic page including a plurality of cells;
retrieving a user preference from a memory;
comparing, using control circuitry, data, associated with each of a plurality of categories, with the user preference, wherein each of the plurality of categories describes a plurality of media assets;
in response to determining, based on the comparison, that the data associated with a respective one of the plurality of categories matches the user preference, adding the respective one of the plurality of categories to a subset of categories;
associating each cell of the plurality of cells, in which video is displayed, with a respective category of content of the subset of categories of content that match the user preference, such that a first of the plurality of cells displays a first video associated with a first of the plurality of categories and a second of the plurality of cells displays a second video associated with a second of the plurality of categories;
determining, using control circuitry, for each respective cell of the plurality of cells, a respective media asset, from the plurality of media assets associated with the category associated with the respective cell, that is most relevant to the user based on the retrieved user preference wherein the plurality of media assets include the first and second videos; and
generating for display the respective relevant media asset in each respective cell of the plurality of cells.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relevance of the media asset to the user is associated with the user's viewing frequency of the media asset.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a display, on the mosaic page, of information associated with the displayed media asset.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a layout of the plurality of cells on the mosaic page is selected from at least one template.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising associating a cell of the plurality of cells with interactive features.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the interactive features are selected from a group consisting of a shopping opportunity, a program promotion, a selection of additional program content, a recording button, and availability of interactive program snipes.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a plurality of mosaic pages, said plurality of mosaic pages arranged hierarchically, with each mosaic page containing at least one cell having the greatest score indicative of relevance to the user.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising making information about the mosaic page on a first user device available on a second user device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein making the information available comprises storing the information on a portable medium, storing the information at a central location accessible to the first and second user device, or transmitting the information from the first to the second user device via a network connection, or a combination thereof.

10. A system comprising:
a user input device;
control circuitry configured to:
generate for display a mosaic page including a plurality of cells;
retrieve a user preference from a memory;
compare data, associated with each of a plurality of categories, with the user preference, wherein each of the plurality of categories describes a plurality of media assets;
in response to determining, based on the comparison, that the data associated with a respective one of the plurality of categories matches the user preference, add the respective one of the plurality of categories to a subset of categories;
associate each cell of the plurality of cells, in which video is displayed, with a respective category of content of the subset of categories of content that match the user preference such that a first of the plurality of cells displays a first video associated with a first of the plurality of categories and a second of the plurality of cells displays a second video associated with a second of the plurality of categories;
determine, for each respective cell of the plurality of cells, a respective media asset, from the plurality of media assets associated with the category associated with the respective cell, that is most relevant to the user based on the retrieved user preference, wherein the plurality of media assets include the first and second videos; and
generate for display the respective relevant media asset in each respective cell of the plurality of cells.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the relevance of the media asset to the user is associated with the user's viewing frequency of the media asset.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user equipment further generates a display, on the mosaic page, of information associated with the displayed media asset.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein a layout of the plurality of cells on the mosaic page is selected from at least one template.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user equipment is configured to associate a cell of the plurality of cells with interactive features.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the interactive features are selected from a group consisting of a shopping opportunity, a program promotion, a selection of additional program content, a recording button, and availability of interactive program snipes.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein the user equipment is configured to provide a plurality of mosaic pages, said plurality of mosaic pages arranged hierarchically, with each mosaic page containing at least one cell having the greatest score indicative of relevance to the user.

17. The system of claim 10 wherein the user equipment is configured to make information about the mosaic page on a first user device available on a second user device.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the information is made available by storing the information on a portable medium, storing the information at a central location accessible to the first and second user device, or transmitting the information from the first to the second user device via a network connection, or a combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from a user input device, a selection of a cell;
ranking the media assets associated with the respective category of the selected cell based on their relevance to the user, and
generating for display a mosaic page including a plurality of cells, wherein each cell is associated with a media asset associated with the category of the selected cell, and wherein the cells are ordered based on their ranking.

20. The system of claim 10 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:
receive, from the user input device, a selection of a cell;
rank the media assets associated with the respective category of the selected cell based on their relevance to the user, and
generate for display a mosaic page including a plurality of cells, wherein each cell is associated with a media asset associated with the category of the selected cell, and wherein the cells are ordered based on their ranking.

21. A method comprising:
generating for display a mosaic page including a plurality of cells;
retrieving a user preference from a memory;
associating each cell of the plurality of cells, in which video is displayed, with a respective category of content of a plurality of categories of content that match the user preference, such that a first of the plurality of cells displays a first video

Assignees

• Rovi Guides Inc

Inventors

• Yates Doug

Classifications

• H04N21/44222

  Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programmes or purchase activity (monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33) · CPC title

• H04N5/44543

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N21/472 Primary

  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

• H04N21/4755

  for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre (retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306) · CPC title

• H04N21/4828

  for searching programme descriptors (retrieval of video data G06F16/739) · CPC title