Method and system for mass customization of digital television broadcasts

A method comprising:

• receiving a digital television broadcast comprising a plurality of synchronized sub-streams wherein said sub-streams are divided into segments of equal length, and wherein each of said segments further comprise time stamps as well as sub-stream keywords indicative of the content of said segments;
• reading said time stamps;
• accessing said sub-stream keywords;
• accessing viewer-entered keywords;
• comparing said sub-stream keywords and said viewer-entered keywords;
• deriving a match score from said comparing of said keywords;
• based on the best value of said match score, selecting one of said segments for presentation on a display;
• and
• switching to the selected segment at a point of abrupt change within said broadcast, wherein the time elapsed between said step of reading and said step of switching is less than a fixed amount of time dt.

A method comprising:

• broadcasting a plurality of synchronized sub-streams;
• receiving a digital television broadcast comprising said plurality of synchronized sub-streams wherein said sub-streams are divided into segments of equal length, and wherein each of said segments further comprise time stamps as well as sub-stream keywords indicative of the content of said segments;
• reading said time stamps;
• accessing said sub-stream keywords;
• accessing viewer keywords;
• comparing said sub-stream keywords and said viewer keywords;
• deriving a match score from said comparing of said keywords;
• based on the value of said match score, selecting one of said segments for presentation on a display that displays a combined stream comprising segments from said sub-streams;
• and
• switching to the selected segment at a point of abrupt change within said broadcast, wherein the time elapsed between said step of reading and said step of switching is less than a fixed amount of time dt.

A system comprising:

• a plurality of digital television broadcast sub-streams comprising segments of equal length, said segments each beginning with a time stamp and having a point of abrupt change at dt seconds after the time stamp;
• a plurality of sub-stream keywords indicative of the content of said segments, said sub-stream keywords being contained within said sub-streams;
• a plurality of viewer keywords representing viewer preferences;
• a broadcast rendering device for receiving said broadcast sub-streams and said viewer keywords, said broadcast rendering device performing a comparison between said sub-stream keywords and said viewer keywords and, based upon a match score that said rendering device determines from said comparison, selecting one of said segments for presentation within a combined stream, said presentation occurring at said point of abrupt change;
• and
• a display coupled to said broadcast rendering device for displaying said combined stream.

A system enabling the mass customization of a DTV broadcast without sending viewer information back to the server, and wherein the total number of custom broadcasts of said system grows exponentially with the number of broadcast sub-streams and sub-stream segments, said system comprising:

• a plurality of digital television broadcast sub-streams transmitted by a television service provider, said sub-streams being multiplexed in accordance with MPEG format, said sub-streams comprising segments of equal length, said segments each beginning with a time stamp that is followed by a point of abrupt change dt seconds after the time stamp, said point of abrupt change being followed by a header, said header being followed by video content;
• a plurality of sub-stream keywords indicative of the content of said segments, said sub-stream keywords being contained within said header of said sub-streams;
• a plurality of viewer-entered keywords representing viewer preferences;
• a set-top box that receives said broadcast sub-streams and said viewer-entered keywords, said set-top box being also configured to perform a comparison between said sub-stream keywords and said viewer-entered keywords and, based upon a best match score that said set-top box determines from said comparison, select one of said segments for presentation within a combined stream, said presentation occurring at said point of abrupt change;
• and
• a display coupled to said set-top box for displaying said combined stream.