JP2008516505A - Recommended method and apparatus for digital program - Google Patents

Abstract

  The present invention provides a method and apparatus for recommending digital programs stored in digital program storage means, wherein the user's favorite digital programs are stored in the digital program storage means. First, the description information of the digital program being reproduced is fetched, and then the description information of the digital program being reproduced is collated with the description information of the digital program in the digital program storage means according to a predetermined matching condition. The digital program corresponding to the collation result is recommended to the user. The digital program storage means is in the local storage device. Obviously, this digital program storage means can also be placed in the server. The present invention allows users to find their stored digital programs associated with the digital program when they are watching the digital program, and can satisfy the user's preferences.

Description

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

  Metadata is often defined as “data about data”. This metadata represents an average set of characteristics for the data, but often does not include the data itself. This metadata may include a detailed list of current data, a name and definition of the data item, a name and defining keyword list, a data list index and an access keyword list, and an operational step for generating data, data collection Method, data structure and usage data model document, and data analysis step record.

  Metadata is used to describe content information, and queries that will respond are basically various aspects of the content such as who, what, when, where, why and how etc. Information about. A typical example is a catalog index for facilitating book management used for storage. The user only needs to search in this catalog and can know what information is in the bookshelf.

  There are currently various metadata formats for describing information, some of which are simple but others are complex. SMDL (Standard Music Description Language) suitable for describing music contents, CDWA (Categories for the Description of Works of Art) suitable for describing video contents, and LOM (Standard for Learning Object Metadata) suitable for describing learning contents There are various metadata description standards for various electronic content such as

  There is a need for a comprehensive format to represent metadata functions and effects in order to fully share them, especially in the network. RDF (Resource Description Framework) is one of these types of tools. RDF is a framework derived from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and developed in association with multiple metadata element sets (such as the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set). This is in accordance with another extended meta language, XML (extensible Markup Language). XML is now widely supported by industry, for example, both Netscape and Internet Explorer have announced that they each support XML.

  The TV-Anytime standard uses XML to represent its metadata. In this standard, a large amount of metadata from various digital TV programs of various broadcast providers is included in an EPG (Electronic Program Guide). For example, the metadata of a movie program includes the name of the movie, the director, and the main character Actor / actress names, producers, production dates, and a brief overview of the content. The user can find a favorite program by searching the electronic program guide. In addition, several existing program recommendation techniques can recommend programs that are being played or are to be played in the electronic program guide depending on the user's past actions.

  With the spread of digital recorders, particularly personal digital recorders (PDR), users can store their favorite programs in personal digital recorders as well as current personal video recorders (PVR). Furthermore, the memory space of the personal digital recorder is very large and the amount of digital programs stored in it can be very large, so how to recommend the digital programs stored in the personal digital recorder to the user It will be a challenge.

  Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for digital program recommendation that can easily recommend programs stored by the user to the user in a timely manner.

  One object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for digital program recommendation that can easily recommend a user's stored digital program to the user in a timely manner.

  The present invention provides a method for recommending at least one digital program stored in a digital program storage means. This method has the following steps. First, obtaining the description information of the digital program being reproduced, then collating the description information of the digital program being reproduced with the description information of the digital program in the digital program storage means according to a predetermined matching condition, and finally In this step, a digital program corresponding to the collation result is recommended to the user. The digital program storage means is in a local storage device. It is obvious that this digital storage means can be placed on the server.

  The present invention can also present description information of the digital program being played back to the user, and the user selects a part of the information as the predetermined matching condition from the presented information.

  By comparing the description information of the digital program being reproduced with the description information of the digital program in the digital program storage means, and recommending the comparison result to the user, the present invention enables the user to view the digital program when viewing the digital program. Allows you to find your stored digital program associated with the digital program. This is because the user's favorite digital program is stored in the digital program storage means and can be matched with the user's preference.

  The present invention also provides an apparatus for recommending at least one digital program stored in the digital program storage means. This apparatus has an acquisition means for acquiring description information of a digital program being reproduced, and a verification means for collating the description information of the digital program being reproduced with the description information of the digital program in the digital program storage means in accordance with a predetermined matching condition And recommending means for recommending a digital program corresponding to the collation result to the user.

  Other objects and attainments of the invention will become apparent and more fully understood by referring to the following detailed description and claims when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

  The invention and its associated advantages are explained in greater detail by means of exemplary embodiments and the accompanying drawings.

  In each figure, the same reference numerals indicate similar items.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system of a digital program recommendation device according to an embodiment of the present invention. This digital program is stored in the digital program storage means. The apparatus 100 includes an acquisition apparatus 110, a collation apparatus 120, and a recommendation apparatus 130.

  The acquisition device 110 is used to acquire description information of the digital program being played. The description information is digital program metadata.

  The collation device 120 collates the description information obtained by the acquisition device 110 with the description information of the digital program in the digital program storage means according to a predetermined collation condition. Such predetermined matching conditions can be from user input.

  The recommendation device 130 is used to recommend a digital program corresponding to the collation result from the collation device 120 to the user.

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

  Device 100 includes a data communication device 150 for performing data communication with a server via a network. The digital program storage means is provided in the server. The server may be a local server at the user's home or a remote commercial server that provides a backup service.

  The device 100 can be part of an existing personal digital recorder. Some functions of the apparatus can be realized by software. Those skilled in the art can implement the above-described devices included in device 100 with a variety of current devices as long as the combination can achieve the functions of the present invention.

  FIG. 2 shows the operation flow of the apparatus 100 in detail.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow for recommending a digital program according to an embodiment of the present invention. This digital program is stored in the digital program storage means.

  First, description information of a digital program being reproduced is fetched (step S210). The digital program is from the TV program channel being played, and of course can be from a local storage device as long as the digital program is associated with associated description information. The description information exists in a metadata format.

  The following is an example of the movie “Star Wars Episode III”, the metadata of which is shown as follows.

Table 1: Digital program metadata

  This metadata includes the name of the movie “Star Wars Episode III”, the genre “Science Fiction (SF)”, the cast “Hayden Christensen”, “Ewan McGregor”, “Natalie Portman” and the keyword “Clone War” Contains descriptive information.

  Next, this description information is presented to the user (step S220), and a user selection of this description information is accepted (step S230). The descriptive information presented in step S220 represents some or all of the descriptive information captured in step S210 in a certain way depending on the manufacturer or user settings of the device. The following table shows an example.

Table 2: User interface for selecting description information

  The table above provides five choices for the user to choose from: genre “Science Fiction”, Casting “Hayden Christensen”, Casting “Ewan McGregor”, Casting “Natalie Portman”, Keyword “Clone” "War". The user can select one or more options as the matching condition.

  Then, the program description information is collated in the digital program storage means using the user's selection as a matching condition (step S240). The program storage means is located in the local storage device and contains the user's favorite digital program stored by the user in the past. Obviously, a program storage means can be provided in a server (such as a server for remote backup).

  In this embodiment, the user selects “casting: Hayden Christensen” as a matching condition and performs a search for collation in the digital program storage means, which contains a number of favorite movies of the user. The result of matching is shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Matching results

  This matching condition can be selected by the user that is accepted when collation is performed each time. After the user sets a default condition, the collation is performed according to the default condition every time. For example, collation is performed according to the first male cast, and at this time, steps S220 and S230 can be saved.

  Matching can also be done using fuzzy logic methods. By performing verification by fuzzy logic, the user's actions can be estimated well, so that a digital program adapted to the needs of the user can be found.

  Next, the collation result is recommended to the user (step S250). This collation result may be recommended to the user in the form of a list. For example, the collation result can be dynamically rolled to the lower edge of the screen in a caption format. Such a recommendation process may further include a determination process. For example, the recommendation process may be recommended only when the matching result matches a specific condition. For example, the condition includes only the top five programs in the list. May be recommended to the user.

  Finally, the user's selection of the recommended content is accepted, and the selected program is presented to the user (step S260). Such presentation may be in picture-in-picture format so that the user can watch the digital program being played and the recommended digital program at the same time.

  This embodiment uses a digital video program, that is, a movie as an example. Obviously, the present invention is applicable to other types of digital program content, such as digital music, as long as it is associated with metadata describing the content.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a system of a personal digital recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention. The digital recorder 300 includes a receiver 310 for receiving a digital program. This digital program can be transmitted to the digital recorder 300 using one of various methods such as cable broadcasting, terrestrial broadcasting, or satellite broadcasting, and can also be transmitted by Internet network broadcasting. it is obvious.

  The digital recorder 300 has a memory unit 320 for storing the digital program in the digital program storage means in the memory medium 330. The memory medium 330 is a hard disk, but can be other types of suitable media such as DVD + RW. It will be apparent that the memory unit 320 can also store digital programs in digital program storage means in a server (not shown).

  The digital recorder 300 further includes a search unit 340 for searching for digital programs from the memory medium 330. The search unit 340 is used for reproducing a program stored in the memory unit 320.

  The digital recorder 300 further includes the program recommendation device 100 described above. The program recommendation device 100 collates the description information of the digital program being reproduced with the description information of the digital program in the digital program storage means stored in the memory medium 330, and recommends the collation result to the user. Such recommendation results can be presented to the user in a certain manner, such as in the form of a program listing. After the user selects a digital program from the collation result, the search unit 330 takes in the digital program from the memory medium 330 and transmits the digital program to a display device (not shown) for display. Obviously, if there is only one recommendation, this recommended digital program can be presented to the user immediately.

  Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many substitutions, modifications, and variations may be made in accordance with the above description. Accordingly, such substitutions, modifications and variations are intended to be encompassed by the present invention when within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

1 is a block diagram showing a system of an apparatus for recommending a digital program according to an embodiment of the present invention. The flowchart which shows the flow which recommends the digital program by one Example of this invention. 1 is a block diagram showing a system of a personal digital recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (11)

A method of recommending at least one digital program stored in the digital program storage means,
Capturing the description information of the digital program being played;
Checking the description information of the digital program being reproduced with the description information of the digital program in the digital program storage means according to a predetermined matching condition;
Recommending a digital program corresponding to the matching result to the user;
Having a method.   2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the digital program storage means is stored in a local storage device.   2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the digital program storage means is stored on a server.   The method of claim 1, wherein the descriptive information is metadata.   2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of presenting description information of the digital program being played back to a user, wherein the predetermined matching condition is based on user input.   The method of claim 1, wherein the digital program is a digital video program.   The method of claim 1, wherein the digital program is a digital audio program. An apparatus that recommends at least one digital program stored in the digital program storage means,
Obtaining means for capturing description information of the digital program being reproduced;
Collation means for collating the description information of the digital program being reproduced with the description information of the digital program in the digital program storage means according to a predetermined matching condition;
A recommended means for recommending a digital program corresponding to the matching result to the user;
Having a device.   9. Apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a local storage device for storing the digital program storage means.   9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the digital program storage means is in a server and further includes a data communication device for performing data communication with the server via a network. A digital recorder for storing and recommending digital programs,
A receiver for receiving a digital program;
A storage device for storing the digital program in a digital program storage means;
Acquisition means for capturing description information of the digital program being reproduced, verification means for verifying the description information of the digital program being reproduced with the description information of the digital program in the digital program storage means according to a predetermined matching condition, and the verification A program recommendation device having a recommendation means for recommending a digital program corresponding to the result to the user;
Search means for searching for the recommended digital program from the memory medium;
Including digital recorder.

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