Computational recommendation engine

A content distributor, comprising:

• an interface configured to receive viewing vectors from television client devices, a viewing vector indicating which ranked programs have been displayed for viewing at a television client device, the viewing vector including a binary digit string where each binary digit corresponds to a single ranked program;
• at least a memory and a processor to implement a computational recommendation engine that is configured to:
• identify one or more of the binary digit strings that represent a subset of the television client devices with similar viewing vectors by at least measuring bit variances between the viewing vectors, the bit variances between the viewing vectors being measured by at least counting a number of binary digit flips that would change one binary digit string to match another binary digit string;
• create one or more client devices groups based on the viewing vectors that are received from respective ones of the television client devices, a client devices group including the subset of the television client devices;
• determine which of the one or more client devices groups represent candidate strings that are similar to the viewing vector of the television client device and indicate at least one program recommendation;
• determine one or more ranked programs that have not been displayed for viewing by some of the television client devices in the client devices group by at least traversing a sorted list of the candidate strings and extracting the one or more ranked programs;
• merge the extracted ranked programs into a recommended program list;
• and
• send the recommended program list to the television client devices in the client devices group that have not had the extracted ranked programs displayed for viewing.

One or more computer-readable storage media devices comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, initiate a computational recommendation engine to:

• receive viewing vectors from television client devices, a viewing vector indicating which ranked programs have been displayed for viewing at a television client device, the viewing vector including a binary digit string where each binary digit corresponds to a single ranked program;
• calculate mathematical distances between the viewing vectors by at least counting a number of binary digit flips that would change one binary digit string to match another binary digit string;
• identify, based on the mathematical distances between the viewing vectors, one or more of the binary digit strings that represent a subset of the television client devices with similar binary digit strings;
• create a client devices group that includes the subset of the television client devices based on the viewing vectors that are received from respective ones of the television client devices;
• and
• determine a ranked program that has not been displayed for viewing by some of the television client devices in the client devices group.