US 9,286,294 B2Granted

Video and digital multimedia aggregator content suggestion engine

AssigneeComcast IP Holdings I, LLC

InventorsMichael L. Asmussen, John S. Mccoskey, William D. Swart

Life of this patent

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Abstract

To allow a user to maximize use of a video and digital multimedia aggregator, a search suggestion engine and corresponding method may be used to provide suggestions of available content. The search suggestion engine starts by constructing a database of metadata elements or word items. The metadata element database may be constructed by using a crawler that periodically or continually crawls a content metadata database and extracts word items from the content metadata database. The word items are then processed according to a number of factors, including part-of-speech, entries in dictionaries and thesaurus and other factors. The thus-processed word items are indexed, and may be provided with a vector value. A subsequent search request submitted by the user may include search criteria that may be provided vector values. A processor within the search suggestion engine compares the vector values to determine if an indexed word item should be considered for retrieving the indexed word item's associated content. A list of suggested content is then generated. The list of suggested items may be ranked and filtered before being provided to the user.

Claims26

Dependent claims

A method, comprising:

calculating, by at least one processor of a computing device, a plurality of values, each value of the plurality of values corresponding to a degree of similarity between a keyword of one or more keywords input by a user and a related term of plurality of related terms identified by the at least one processor;
utilizing, by the at least one processor, the plurality of values to identify a portion of the plurality of related terms, each term of the portion of the plurality of related terms being associated with a value of the plurality of values that is within an adjustable suggestion range comprising a range of values that corresponds to a degree of similarity associated with and indicated by the user;
initiating, by the at least one processor, a search of a plurality of metadata elements using search request criteria comprising the one or more keywords and the portion of the plurality of related terms;
and
generating, by the at least one processor and based on results of the search, a list of digital content accessible to the user, the list comprising a result portion and a suggested portion, the result portion comprising one or more items of the digital content identified based on the one or more keywords, and the suggested portion comprising one or more items of the digital content identified based on the portion of the plurality of related terms.

2 more elements

A method, comprising:

extracting, by a computing device comprising at least one processor, a plurality of words from a plurality of metadata elements that describe one or more aspects of digital content accessible to a user device;
receiving, by the computing device and from the user device, user search criteria comprising one or more keywords;
identifying, by the at least one processor, a plurality of related terms, wherein each term of the plurality of related terms is related to at least one of the one or more keywords;
calculating, by the at least one processor, a plurality of values, each value of the plurality of values corresponding to a degree of similarity between a keyword of the one or more keywords and a related term of the plurality of related terms;
identifying, by the at least one processor, based on the plurality of values and an adjustable suggestion range comprising a range of values that corresponds to a degree of similarity associated with and indicated by a user of the user device, a portion of the plurality of related terms that are within the degree of similarity;
searching, by the at least one processor, the plurality of words for one or more occurrences of at least one of the one or more keywords or one or more terms of the portion of the plurality of related terms;
and
generating, by the at least one processor, a list of a portion of the digital content accessible to the user device, wherein the list comprises a search result portion comprising one or more items of the digital content identified based on the one or more keywords and a suggestion portion comprising one or more items of the digital content identified based on the one or more terms of the portion of the plurality of related terms.

5 more elements

A method, comprising:

receiving, by a computing device comprising at least one processor and from a user device, search request criteria for identifying one or more items of digital content accessible to the user device, the search request criteria comprising one or more keywords;
identifying, by the at least one processor and based on the one or more keywords, a plurality of related terms;
calculating, by the at least one processor, a plurality of values, each value of the plurality of values corresponding to a degree of similarity between a keyword of the one or more keywords and a related term of the plurality of related terms;
determining, by the at least one processor and based on a number of times a user of the user device has previously accessed one or more items of suggested digital content, a range of values indicating a degree of similarity associated with the user;
utilizing, by the at least one processor, the plurality of values to identify a portion of the plurality of related terms, each term of the portion of the plurality of related terms being associated with a value of the plurality of values that is within the range;
utilizing, by the at least one processor, the one or more keywords and at least one term of the portion of the plurality of related terms to identify a plurality of items of the digital content;
and
generating, by the at least one processor, a list of the plurality of items of the digital content, wherein the list comprises a search result portion comprising one or more items of the digital content identified based on the one or more keywords and a suggestion portion comprising one or more items of the digital content identified based on the at least one term.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/921,057Filed 3 Aug 2001
Published: US 2002/0042923 A111 Apr 2002
Granted: 15 Mar 2016
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification86 codes

G06F 16/40
Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor: of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and…
G06F 16/735
Querying: filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
G06F 16/78
Of video data: retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
H04H 20/42
Arrangements for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast: arrangements for resource management