Method and apparatus for generating television program recommendations based on prior queries

A method and apparatus are disclosed that generate television program recommendations based on queries that have previously been performed by a user on an electronic program guide. A conventional program recommender score for a given program is adjusted according to the degree of correlation between the attribute-value pairs that define the program and the attribute-value pairs that have previously been searched by the user. A historical search database indicates the number of times each attribute-value pair appears in a user query and provides additional information regarding the preferences of the user. Higher frequency counts for certain attribute-value pairs imply the user's preference for programs conforming to such criteria.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to television program recommenders, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for generating television program recommendations based on the queries that have been performed by a user on an electronic program guide.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As the number of channels available to television viewers has increased, along with the diversity of the programming content available on such channels, it has become increasingly challenging for television viewers to identify television programs of interest. Historically, television viewers identified television programs of interest by analyzing printed television program guides. Typically, such printed television program guides contained grids listing the available television programs by time and date, channel and title. As the number of television programs has increased, it has become increasingly difficult to effectively identify desirable television programs using such printed guides.

More recently, television program guides have become available in an electronic format, often referred to as electronic program guides (EPGs). Like printed television program guides, EPGs contain grids listing the available television programs by time and date, channel and title. Some EPGs, however, allow television viewers to sort or search the available television programs in accordance with personalized preferences. In addition, EPGs allow for on-screen presentation of the available television programs.

While EPGs allow viewers to identify desirable programs more efficiently than conventional printed guides, they suffer from a number of limitations, which if overcome, could further enhance the ability of viewers to identify desirable programs. For example, many viewers have a particular preference towards, or bias against, certain categories of programming, such as action-based programs or sports programming. Thus, the viewer preferences can be applied to the EPG to obtain a set of recommended programs that may be of interest to a particular viewer.

Thus, a number of tools have been proposed or suggested for recommending television programming. The Tivo™ system, for example, commercially available from Tivo, Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., allows viewers to rate shows using a “Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down” feature and thereby indicate programs that the viewer likes and dislikes, respectively. Thereafter, the TiVo receiver matches the recorded viewer preferences with received program data, such as an EPG, to make recommendations tailored to each viewer.

Such tools for generating television program recommendations provide selections of programs that a viewer might like, based on their prior viewing history. Even with the aid of such program recommenders, however, it is still difficult for a viewer to identify programs of interest from among all the options. Furthermore, currently available tools that search the electronic program guide based on a user-defined query require several button clicks before the user can review the list of programs satisfying the query. In addition, there is currently no way to integrate the explicit information ascertained from the queries performed by a user on the electronic program guide with the implicit information ascertained from the user's viewing habits.

A need therefore exists for a method and apparatus for recommending television programs based on the queries that have been performed by a user on the electronic program guide.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Generally, a method and apparatus are disclosed for generating television program recommendations based on the queries that have been performed by a user on an electronic program guide. The present invention adjusts a conventional program recommender score based on the previous searches that have been executed by the user. In particular, the conventional program recommender score for a given program is adjusted according to the degree of correlation between the attribute-value pairs that define the program and the attribute-value pairs that have previously been searched by the user.

A historical search database is maintained to indicate the number of times each attribute-value pair appears in a user query. Each time a manual or automatic search is initiated by the user, the query is decomposed to identify the attribute-value pairs specified by the user. The historical search database captures the search activity of a user and provides additional information regarding the preferences of the user. Higher frequency counts for certain attribute-value pairs imply the user's preference for programs conforming to such criteria.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1illustrates a television programming recommender100in accordance with the present invention. As shown inFIG. 1, the television programming recommender100evaluates each of the programs in an electronic programming guide (EPG)110to identify programs of interest to a particular viewer. The set of recommended programs can be presented to the viewer, for example, using a set-top terminal/television180using well known on-screen presentation techniques.

According to one feature of the present invention, the television programming recommender100generates television program recommendations based on the queries that have been performed by a user on the electronic program guide110. As discussed further below, the program recommender score generated in accordance with conventional techniques is adjusted based on previous searches that have been executed by the user. In particular, the conventional program recommender score for a given program is adjusted according to the degree of correlation between the attributes of the program and the attributes that have previously been searched by the user.

Generally, each time a manual or automatic search is initiated by the user using one or more query commands, the television programming recommender100decomposes the query to identify the attribute-value pairs specified by the user. A historical search database400, discussed below in conjunction withFIG. 4, is maintained to indicate the number of times each attribute-value pair has appeared in a user query. Thus, the corresponding count value is incremented in the historical search database400for each attribute-value pair appearing in the decomposed query. In this manner, the historical search database400captures the user's search activity and thus provides additional information regarding the user's preferences. Higher frequency counts for certain attribute-value pairs imply the user's preference for programs conforming to such criteria.

The television program recommender100may be embodied as any computing device, which includes a computer readable medium containing computer readable code, such as a personal computer or workstation, containing a processor150, such as a central processing unit (CPU), and memory160, such as RAM and ROM. In addition the television programming recommender100may be the Tivo® system, commercially available from Tivo, Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., or the television program recommenders described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,727,914 to Gutta and U.S. Pat. No. 7,051,352 to Schaffer, or any combination thereof, as modified herein to carry out the features and functions of the present invention.

As shown inFIG. 1, and discussed further below in conjunction withFIGS. 2 through 5, respectively, the memory160of the television programming recommender100includes one or more viewer profile(s)200, a program database300, a historical search database400and a program recommendation process500. Generally, the illustrative viewer profile200indicates a viewer's relative level of interest for each program attribute. The program database300records information for each program that is available in a given time interval. The historical search database400indicates the number of times each attribute-value pair has appeared in a user query. Finally, the program recommendation process500generates recommendation scores for each program in a particular time interval, taking into account previous queries that have been performed on the electronic program guide (EPG)110in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2is a table illustrating an exemplary viewer profile200. It is noted that the viewer profile200may be associated with a specific user or a group of individuals, such as a household, as would be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art. It is noted further that the viewer profile200may be generated explicitly, based on responses to a survey, or implicitly, based on the set of shows that were watched (and/or not watched) by the viewer over a period of time, or a combination of the foregoing.

As shown inFIG. 2, the viewer profile200contains a plurality of records205-213each associated with a different program attribute. In addition, for each attribute set forth in column240, the viewer profile200provides a numerical representation in column250, indicating the relative level of interest of the viewer in the corresponding attribute. As discussed below, in the illustrative viewer profile200set forth inFIG. 2, a numerical scale between 1 (“hate”) and 7 (“love”) is utilized. For example, the viewer profile200set forth inFIG. 2has numerical representations indicating that the user particularly enjoys programming on the Sports channel, as well as late afternoon programming.

Although the viewer profile200is illustrated using an explicit viewer profile, the viewer profile200may also be embodied using an implicit profile, or a combination of implicit and explicit profiles, as would be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art. For a discussion of a television program recommender100that employs both implicit and explicit profiles to obtain a combined program recommendation score, see, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/666,401, filed Sep. 20, 2000, entitled “Method And Apparatus For Generating Recommendation Scores Using Implicit And Explicit Viewing Preferences,”, incorporated by reference herein.

In an exemplary embodiment, the numerical representation in the viewer profile200includes an intensity scale such as:

FIG. 3is a sample table from the program database300ofFIG. 1that records information for each program that is available in a given time interval. The data that appears in the program database300may be obtained, for example, from the electronic program guide110. As shown inFIG. 3, the program database300contains a plurality of records, such as records305through320, each associated with a given program. For each program, the program database300indicates the date/time and channel associated with the program in fields340and345, respectively. In addition, the title and genre for each program are identified in fields350and355. Additional well-known attributes (not shown), such as actors, duration, and description of the program, can also be included in the program database300.

The program database300may also optionally record an indication of the recommendation score (R) assigned to each program by the television programming recommender100in field370. In addition, the program database300may also optionally indicate in field370the adjusted recommendation score (A) assigned to each program by the television programming recommender100in accordance with the present invention. In this manner, the numerical scores, as adjusted by the present invention, can be displayed to the user in the electronic program guide with each program directly or mapped onto a color spectrum or another visual cue that permits the user to quickly locate programs of interest.

As previously indicated, the historical search database400indicates the number of times each attribute-value pair has appeared in a manual or automatic user query. As shown inFIG. 4, the historical search database400is comprised of a plurality of records, such as records405through415, each associated with a given attribute-value pair. For each attribute-value pair, the historical search database400indicates the corresponding number of times the attribute-value pair has appeared in a user query (frequency of usage). As previously indicated, each time a manual or automatic search is initiated by the user, the television programming recommender100decomposes the query and increments the counter in the historical search database400for each attribute-value pair appearing in the decomposed query.

In addition, in order to facilitate the calculations performed by the program recommendation process500, discussed below, the historical search database400optionally indicates a normalized frequency of usage term, N, in field470. For example, the normalized score, N, indicated in field470can be obtained by performing a linear mapping of the actual frequency of usage term to a value between zero and one for each of the various attribute-value pairs associated with an attribute. In an exemplary embodiment, the normalization in the historical search database400includes a frequency of usage scale such as:

ActualNormalizedValueValue000.2 (MAX0.2VALUE)0.4 (MAX0.4VALUE)0.6 (MAX0.6VALUE)0.8 (MAX0.8VALUE)MAX VALUE1.0
In an alternate implementation, the normalization in the historical search database400can be obtained by plotting a curve through the various frequency count values for each of the various attribute-value pairs associated with an attribute, in a known manner.

FIG. 5is a flow chart describing an exemplary program recommendation process500embodying principles of the present invention. As shown inFIG. 5, the program recommendation process500initially obtains the electronic program guide (EPG)110during step520. Thereafter, the program recommendation process500calculates the program recommendation score, R, during step520for each program in the time period of interest in a conventional manner (or obtains the program recommendation score, R, from a conventional recommender).

Thereafter, the program recommendation process500calculates the adjusted program recommendation score, A, during step530for each program in the time period of interest, as follows:

A=MIN⁢{R+R⁡(∑i=1k⁢Ni·WEIGHT1),1.35⁢R}
where k is the total number of attribute-value pairs indicated in the field470of the historical search database400. Generally, the calculation performed during step530ensures that the adjustment to the conventional program recommendation score, R, does not exceed an exemplary value of 35%, i.e., a maximum of 135% of the conventional recommender score, R. In addition, the adjustment to the conventional program recommendation score assigned to a given program is obtained by summing the weighted normalized frequency of usage term, N, for each attribute-value pair associated with the program that has been previously searched by the user.

The WEIGHTicontribution of each attribute within a television program may be established by the user, or empirically determined. For example, the date/time attribute can be assigned a weight of 5%, the genres attribute can be assigned a weight of 20%, and the channel attribute can be assigned a weight of 10%. Thus, if a given program is a comedy, the adjustment to the conventional program recommendation score, R, attributable to the “genre=comedy” attribute value pair will be 0.8 (N) multiplied by 20%, the weight assigned to the genre attribute.

The program recommendation process500calculates the combined program recommendation score, C, during step540for each program in the time period of interest, as follows:
C=MIN {A,100}
Thus, in addition to ensuring that the adjustment to the conventional program recommendation score, R, does not exceed an exemplary value of 35% (see step530above), the exemplary program recommendation process500also ensures during step540that the combined program recommendation score, C, does not exceed 100% (the maximum score).

Finally, the program recommendation process500provides the combined program recommendation scores (C) for the programs in the time period of interest to the user during step550, before program control terminates.

In further variations of the program recommendation process500, the adjusted program recommendation score, A, may be calculated during step530using a bonus scoring system, wherein a predefined or fixed bonus is determined, for example, based on the number of attribute-value pairs that define the program that have previously been searched by the user. In other words, a bonus can be determined based on the number of attribute-value pairs that match the current program with those in the historical search database400. For example, if four attribute-value pairs in the historical search database400match attribute-value pairs of the current program, then a bonus of, e.g., 10% may be awarded to increase the conventional program recommender score, R, by 10%.