Chunzhi Wang

US Patent:

7716704, May 11, 2010

Filed:

Jun 12, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/879573

Inventors:

Chunzhi Wang - Indianapolis IN, US
Darrel Wayne Randall - Danville IN, US
Marc Aaron Kiefer - Indianapolis IN, US
Wanda G. Thompson - Indianapolis IN, US
Carolynn Rae Johnson - Indianapolis IN, US

Assignee:

Thomson Licensing - Issy les Moulineaux

International Classification:

H04N 5/445
G06F 3/00
G06F 13/00
H04N 60/32
G06F 7/00
G06F 17/00

US Classification:

725 46, 725 14, 725 61, 707102, 7071041

Abstract:

A television program selection system and method for selecting television programs for viewing or recording utilizing a guide schedule list which is received from a cable or satellite broadcaster for example, and comprises characteristics such as topic-theme, relevancy, and broadcast time data. The user can select a time period and optionally in addition a selection mode, which corresponds to one of the alternative algorithms used to sort the programs in the schedule and generate a list of suggested television programs to be displayed for the user to select a program. The default selection mode can use a conventional selection algorithm, and the optional selection mode can eliminate all programs which have any characteristics having a zero weighting.

US Patent:

7380262, May 27, 2008

Filed:

Jun 12, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/879288

Inventors:

Chunzhi Wang - Indianapolis IN, US
Darrel Wayne Randall - Danville IN, US
Michael Joseph McLane - Indianapolis IN, US

Assignee:

Thomson Licensing - Boulogne Billancourt

International Classification:

G06F 3/00
G06F 13/00
H04N 5/445

US Classification:

725 46, 725 39, 725 45, 725 50

Abstract:

A system and method for generating a list of suggested scheduled television programs wherein television schedule guide data which comprises characteristics of scheduled programs and optionally relevancy of those characteristics is obtained from broadcast information. User profiles comprising characteristics of television programs previously viewed, the cumulative amount of time programs having those characteristics has been previously viewed, and optionally the relevancy of the previously viewed characteristics is stored. The user is allowed to manually adjust the weights assigned to characteristics so as to override the system assigned weight values. The system calculates the suggested program list from the schedules it receives from broadcast or other means, using the characteristic weights in the user profiles. The user interface displays percentage values currently assigned to characteristics in that user's profile, but smoothes the percentage values by calculating them based on a ratio of characteristic weights to the greater of a preset value such as 500 or the actual weight of the highest weighted characteristic in that user's profile.