Taste profile attributes

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon one or more sequences of instructions for causing one or more processors to perform:

• accessing a taste profile associated with a first user containing a plurality of entries defining a representation of media content activity, each entry being associated to at least one corresponding item of a plurality of items, and at least two of the entries of the plurality of entries being action variables defining actions relating to the at least one corresponding item, a first of the actions being playback of the corresponding item associated with the first user, a second of the actions being playback of the corresponding item associated with a plurality of second users other than the first user;
• retrieving at least one term from a plurality of term-weight pairs contained in a document, the at least one term being (i) indexed to a corresponding entry of the plurality of entries in the taste profile and (ii) weighted by a weight indicating the closeness of the term to the corresponding entry;
• generating statistics corresponding to the media content activity based in part by combining the action variables and one or more of the plurality of term-weight pairs, the statistics including:
• i) an affinity statistic;
• and ii) a familiarity statistic, the affinity statistic being, for each of the plurality of items, based at least in part on counting a number of playbacks of the item associated with the first user, and the familiarity statistic being, for each of the plurality of items, based at least in part on calculating a probability that the plurality of second users other than the first user know of the item;
• and
• generating taste profile attributes by using at least one of the statistics, the taste profile attributes including:
• i) a passion attribute;
• and ii) an adventurousness attribute, the passion attribute being based on the affinity statistic and the familiarity statistic and being generated in part by measuring an amount of passion of the first user for each of the plurality of items, a value of the passion attribute being inversely proportional to a value of the familiarity statistic, and the adventurousness attribute being based on the affinity statistic and the familiarity statistic and being generated in part by measuring an amount of adventurousness of the first user;
• wherein generating each of the taste profile attributes includes calculating an average of the corresponding one or more statistics across the plurality of items.

A method for summarizing user activity associated with media content, comprising the steps of:

• accessing a taste profile associated with a first user containing a plurality of entries defining a representation of media content activity, each entry being associated to at least one corresponding item of a plurality of items, and at least some of the entries of the plurality of entries being action variables defining actions relating to the at least one corresponding item, a first of the actions being playback of the corresponding item associated with the first user, a second of the actions being playback of the corresponding item associated with a plurality of second users other than the first user;
• retrieving at least one term from a plurality of term-weight pairs contained in a document, the at least one term being (i) indexed to a corresponding entry of the plurality of entries in the taste profile and (ii) weighted by a weight indicating the closeness of the term to the corresponding entry;
• generating statistics corresponding to the media content activity based in part by combining the action variables and one or more of the plurality of term-weight pairs, the statistics including:
• i) an affinity statistic;
• and ii) a familiarity statistic, the affinity statistic being, for each of the plurality of items, based at least in part on counting a number of playbacks of the item associated with the first user, and the familiarity statistic being, for each of the plurality of items, based at least in part on calculating a probability that the plurality of second users other than the first user know of the item;
• and
• generating taste profile attributes by using at least one of the statistics, the taste profile attributes including at least:
• i) a passion attribute;
• and ii) an adventurousness attribute, the passion attribute being based on the affinity statistic and the familiarity statistic and being generated in part by measuring an amount of passion of the first user for each of the plurality of items, a value of the passion attribute being inversely proportional to a value of the familiarity statistic, and the adventurousness attribute being based on the affinity statistic and the familiarity statistic and being generated by measuring an amount of adventurousness of the first user;
• wherein generating each of the taste profile attributes includes calculating an average of the corresponding one or more statistics across the plurality of items.