WO2006040700A1

WO2006040700A1 - Method and apparatus for recommending digital program

Info

Publication number: WO2006040700A1
Application number: PCT/IB2005/053182
Authority: WO
Inventors: Simon Blanchard; Jun Shi; Jingwei Tan; Liang Gan
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV
Current assignee: Koninklijke Philips NV
Priority date: 2004-10-11
Filing date: 2005-09-27
Publication date: 2006-04-20
Anticipated expiration: 2007-04-11
Also published as: JP2008516505A; CN101040517A

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for recommending a digital program, the digital program being stored in a digital program storage, and the user's favorite digital programs are stored in the digital program storage. Firstly, acquiring the description information of a digital program being played; next, matching the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in the digital program storage according to a pre-determined matching condition; finally, recommending the digital program corresponding to the result of matching to the user. The digital program storage is on a local storage apparatus. It is apparent that said digital program storage could also be in a server. The present invention enables the user to find out his stored digital program associated with a digital program when he is watching the digital program, so that the user's favor can be met.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECOMMENDING DIGITAL PROGRAM

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for recommending digital program, and in particular, relates to a method and apparatus for recommending digital program using metadata.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Metadata is often defined as "data about data". The metadata describes a set of typical characteristics about data, but usually not contains the data itself. The metadata may include: detailed list of existing data, name and definition of data item, name and defined keyword listing, data listing index and access keyword listing, and operation steps record for generating data, which include how to collect data, data structure and data model document used, and steps record of data analysis, etc.. Metadata is used to describe content information, and the questions it would answer are essentially the information on various aspects about the content, such as who, what, when, where, why, and how etc.. A typical example is a catalog index to facilitate the book management used by storage. A user only needs to search in the catalog, and then he can know what information is presented on the bookshelf. Presently, there are a variety of metadata formats for the description of information, some of which are simple, but others are complicated. There are different metadata description standards for different electronic contents, such as Standard Music Description Language (SMDL) suited for music content description, Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA) suited for video content description, and Standard for Learning Object Metadata (LOM) suited for study content description, etc..

In order to sufficiently share the functions and benefits of metadata, in particular share in the network, there is needed for a general format to represent it. Resource Description Framework (RDF) is one of such kind of tool. RDF is a framework led by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and developed in conjunction with a plurality of metadata element sets (such as Dublin Core Metadata Element Set), and this framework follows another Meta-language-XML (extensible Markup Language) spread by W3C in terms of syntax. XML has been currently supported by the industry broadly, for example, both Netscape and Internet Explorer have announced to support XML respectively. TV Anytime standard employs XML to represent the metadata thereof. In this standard, a great amount of metadata from different digital TV programs of different broadcast providers are contained in Electronic Program Guide (EPG), for example, the metadata of a movie program may include the name of movie, the names of director and leading actors/ actresses, producer, date of production, brief introduction of content, etc.. A user can find his/her favorite program by searching the electronic program guide. Additionally, with some existing program recommendation technologies, it is possible to recommend the program(s) being/to be played in the electronic program guide according to the past behavior of the user. Along with the popularization of digital recorder, especially Personal Digital

Recorder (PDR), a user can store his/her favorite program in the personal digital recorder similar to the existing Personal Video Recorder (PVR). Furthermore, since the memory space of the personal digital recorder may be very large, and the amount of digital programs stored therein may be also very large, how to recommend the digital program stored in the personal digital recorder to the user becomes a problem.

Accordingly, there is needed for a method and apparatus for recommending digital programs, which can conveniently recommend the user's stored program to the user at appropriate time.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is one object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for recommending digital programs, which can conveniently recommend the user's stored digital program to the user at appropriate time.

The present invention provides a method for recommending at least one digital program, said digital program being stored in a digital program storage. The method comprises following steps: first, acquiring the description information of a digital program being played; next, matching the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in the digital program storage according to a pre-determined matching condition, and; finally, recommending the digital program corresponding to the result of matching to the user. Said digital program storage is in a local storage apparatus. It is obvious that said digital program storage could also be in a server. The invention can also present the description information of said digital program being played to the user, and the user selects part of the information from the presented information as said pre-determined matching condition.

By matching the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in a digital program storage and recommending the result of matching to the user, the invention enables the user to find his stored digital program associated with a digital program when he is watching this digital program, since the user's favorite digital programs are stored in the digital program storage, so that the user's favor can be met. The present invention also provides an apparatus for recommending at least one digital program, said digital program being stored in a digital program storage. The apparatus includes an acquiring means for acquiring the description information of a digital program being played, a matching means for matching the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in the digital program storage according to a pre-determined matching condition, and a recommending means for recommending the digital program corresponding to the result of matching to the user.

By reference to the following detailed description and the claim, when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the other objects and achievements of the present invention will be apparent, and can be more fully understood.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention and related advantages thereof will be further described by way of the exemplary embodiments and accompanying drawings, in which: Fig.1 is a block diagram showing a system of an apparatus for recommending a digital program according to one embodiment of the invention;

Fig.2 is a flow chart showing the flow of recommending a digital program according to one embodiment of the invention;

Fig.3 is a block diagram showing a system of a personal digital recorder according to one embodiment of the invention.

The same reference number indicates the like feature in each drawing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Figs.1 is a block diagram showing a system of an apparatus for recommending a digital program according to one embodiment of the invention. The digital program is stored in a digital program storage. An apparatus 100 includes an acquiring apparatus 110, a matching apparatus 120 and a recommending apparatus 130. The acquiring apparatus 110 is used for acquiring the description information of a digital program being played. The description information is the metadata of the digital program.

The matching apparatus 120 is used for matching the description information acquired by the acquiring apparatus 110 to the description information of the digital programs in the digital program storage according to a pre-determined matching condition.

The pre-determined matching condition may come from the user's input.

The recommending apparatus 130 is used for recommending the digital program corresponding to the result of matching from the matching apparatus 120 to the user.

The apparatus 100 may further include a storage apparatus 140 for storing the digital program storage.

The apparatus 100 may further include a data communication apparatus 150 for data communicating with a server via a network. The digital program storage is stored on the server. The server may be either a local server at user's home, or a remote commercial server that provides the backup service. The apparatus 100 can be a part of the existing personal digital recorder. The functions of a part of the apparatus can be implemented by software. For a person skilled in the art, the above-mentioned apparatus included in the apparatus 100 can be implemented through a variety of existing apparatus, as long as the combination thereof can achieve the function of the invention. Fig.2 illustrates the operating flow of the apparatus 100 in detail.

Fig.2 is a flow chart showing a flow of recommending a digital program according to one embodiment of the invention. The digital program is stored in a digital program storage.

First, the description information of a digital program being played is acquired (step S210). The digital program comes from a TV program channel being played, and of course, it may come from a local storage apparatus, as long as the digital program is associated with the related description information. The description information exists in metadata form. The following is an example of movie "Star Wars: Episode III", anil the metadata thereof is shown as follows:

Table 1. The metadata of the digital program

<META_DATA_TABLE>

<!--

— >

<DESCRIPTION> Box office top 10.

</DESCRIPTION>

Two years after Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala are married, The Republic is at war with Count Dooku's Confederacy of Independent Systems, and Darth Sidious is preparing to make the final move that will ensure him control of the galaxy...

</SYNOPSIS>

<GENRE> Science Fiction </GENRE>

<FORMAT> Movie </FORMAT>

</PERSONNEL>

"Clone War" "the Dark Side of the Force" Species

</KEYWORDS>

</META DATA TABLE> The metadata include the description information such as the name of the movie "Star Wars: Episode III", the genre "Science Fiction", the person role "Hayden Christensen", "Ewan McGregor", "Natalie Portman", and the keywords "Clone War", etc..

Next, the description information is presented to the user (step S220), and the user's selection of the description information is received (step S230). The description information presented in step S220 presents some or all of the description information acquired in step S210 in a certain manner according to the manufacturer of the apparatus or the user's setting. An example is shown in the following table.

Table 2. The user's interface for description information selection

GENRE: Science Fiction

¹⁷ PERSON ROLE="Anakin Skywalker" NAME="Hayden Christensen" ^r PERSON ROLE="Obi-Wan Kenobi" NAME="Ewan McGregor" \> ^r PERSON ROLE="Senator Amidala" NAME="Natalie Portman" \> ^r KEYWORDS: Clone War

The above table provides five options for the user to select, and these are genre Science Fiction, person role Hayden Christensen, person role Ewan McGregor, person role Natalie Portman, and the keywords Clone War. The user can select one or more options as the matching condition.

Then, with the user's selection being the matching condition, the matching of the program description information is performed in a digital program storage (step S240). The program storage is within a local storage apparatus, which includes the user's favorite digital programs that were stored by the user in the past. It is obvious that the program storage can also be in a server, such as a server for remote backup.

In this embodiment, the user selects "person role: Hayden Christensen" as a matching condition, and performs search of the matching in the digital program storage, and which storage includes a large amount of user's favorite movies. The result of matching is shown in Table 3. Table 3. The result of matching

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

3. Life as a House (2001)

This matching condition may be the user's selection received when performing the matching in every time, or after the user sets a default condition, the matching is performed according to the default condition in each time. For example, the matching is performed according to the first male person role, and at this time, the steps S220 and S230 can be omitted.

The matching can also be performed using the way of fuzzy logic. Performing the matching with fuzzy logic can better simulate the user's behavior, so that the digital program, which conforms to the user's need better, could be found.

Next, the result of matching is recommended to the user (step S250). The result of matching may be recommended to the user in a form of list, for example, it may be dynamically rolled on the lower edge of the screen in a form of caption. The recommending process may further include a process of determining, for example, the result of matching could be recommended only when it conforms to a specific condition, for instance, the condition may be that only the top five programs in the list could be recommend to the user.

Finally, the user's selection of the recommended content is received, and the selected program is presented to the user (step S260). The presentation may be in a form of picture-in-picture, so that the user could watch the digital program being played and the recommended digital program simultaneously. This embodiment uses a digital video program, i.e. movie, as an example. It is obvious that the invention can also be applied to the digital program content in other forms, such as the digital music, as long as it is associated with the metadata describing the content.

Figs.3 is a block diagram showing a system of a personal digital recorder according to one embodiment of the invention. The digital recorder 300 includes a receiver 310 for receiving the digital program. The digital program can be transmitted to the digital recorder 300 using one of the following various manners, for example, via cable broadcasting, via terrestrial broadcasting, or via satellite broadcasting, etc., and it is clear that it can also be transmitted via Internet network broadcasting. The digital recorder 300 has a memory unit 320 for storing the digital program in a digital program storage on a memory media 330. The memory media 330 is a hard disk, but it can be other types of suitable media, such as DVD+RW. It is apparent that the memory unit 320 could also store the digital programs in a digital program storage in a server (not shown in the figure). The digital recorder 300 further includes a retrieving unit 340 for retrieving the digital program from the memory media 330. The retrieving unit 340 is used for replaying the program stored in memory unit 320.

Additionally, The digital recorder 300 further includes an above-mentioned program recommending apparatus 100. The program recommending apparatus 100 matches the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in a digital program storage stored in the memory media 330, and recommends the result of matching to the user. The recommended result may be presented to the user in a certain manner, such as in the form of a program list. After the user selects a digital program from the recommended result, the retrieving unit 330 will acquire the digital program from the memory media 330, and transmit the digital program to a display device (not shown in figure) to display. It is apparent that if there is only one recommended result, this recommended digital program can be presented to the user directly.

While having described the present invention taken in conjunction with particular embodiments, it will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that many replacements, modifications, and variations can be made according to the description above. Accordingly, the replacements, modifications, and variations should be covered by the present invention when falling within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method for recommending at least one digital program, said digital program being stored in a digital program storage, the method comprising: acquiring the description information of a digital program being played; matching the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in the digital program storage according to a pre-determined matching condition; and recommending the digital program corresponding to the result of matching to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said digital program storage is stored in a local storage apparatus.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said digital program storage is stored in a server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said description information is metadata.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of: presenting said description information of the digital program being played to the user, wherein said pre-determined matching condition comes from the user's input.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said digital program is a digital video program.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said digital program is a digital audio program.

8. An apparatus for recommending at least one digital program, said digital program being stored in a digital program storage, the apparatus comprising: an acquiring means for acquiring the description information of a digital program being played; a matching means for matching the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in the digital program storage according to a pre-determined matching condition; and a recommending means for recommending the digital program corresponding to the result of matching to the user.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a local storage apparatus for storing said digital program storage.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein said digital program storage is in a server, and the apparatus further includes a data communication apparatus for data communicating with the server via a network.

1 LA digital recorder for storing and recommending a digital program, including: a receiver for receiving a digital program; a storage apparatus for storing the digital program in a digital program storage; a program recommending apparatus, which comprises: an acquiring means for acquiring the description information of a digital program being played, a matching means for matching the description information of the digital program being played to the description information of the digital programs in the digital program storage according to a pre-determined matching condition; and a recommending means for recommending the digital program corresponding to the result of matching to the user; and a retrieving means for retrieving the recommended digital program from the memory media.