Patent Application
20190200098
The present invention relates to systems and methods for enhancing user experience for a user consuming a content item, by displaying related content having a connection with the content item. In particular, the present invention relates to enhancing user experience by displaying, one after the other, a sequence of multiple content items of the related content.
When TV technology first became commercially available to the public, users could only consume video content items at their homes under fixed pre-determined schedules and in a linear way. That is—a user could only watch a movie or a news program at the time a broadcaster decided to broadcast it, and no deviation from the pre-defined program schedule was possible. The only flexibility a user had was the selection of which channel to display on one's TV screen, thus selecting between multiple video content items that are simultaneously aired.
At a later stage Video-On-Demand (VOD) was offered to the users. This service enabled them to consume content not appearing on the current programs schedule, and resulted in a significant increase in flexibility when deciding what to watch. Another boost in user flexibility was achieved when TV operators introduced Catch-Up TV services which not only allow a user to pick any program recently offered in the EPG (Electronic Program Guide), but also allows him to jump backward and forward in time within a specific program and to freeze and resume the playing of a program.
The next step in the process of increasing user flexibility and freedom of choice was reached when some advanced Set-Top Boxes (STBs) started offering means for navigation between different media content items. For example, a user currently watching (or just finishing watching) a movie which is about a crime mystery in Australia may ask the TV system to propose to him options for watching another media content item that is related to the currently watched movie or for watching other information related to that movie. He may then be presented with a list of options that includes:
a. One or more other crime mystery movies
b. One or more other movies with the plot occurring in Australia
c. One or more other movies having the same director as the current movie
d. One or more other movies with an actor or an actress that also appears in the current movie
e. A review of the current movie by the New York Times
f. A biography of the main actress of the current movie
g. A still picture of the main actress of the current movie
h. A graphic animation that is based on the plot of the current movie
The user can then select a member of the list and in response will be presented with the selected movie or with the selected other information.
This linking of media content items to related other media content items and/or to related other information brought user flexibility and freedom of choice to new levels not available before.
An additional improvement in that direction occurred when still more advanced STBs started proposing related media content items and related non-media content items that are not necessarily related to the currently played media content item as a whole, but are related to specific portions of a currently playing media content item or are related to specific entities appearing for a short period of time in a currently playing media content item. For example, a short appearance of a certain geographical location (for example the UN building in New York City) in a movie or in a news program may trigger the offering to the user of media content items and/or other information items that are related to that location. The user may for example be presented with a list of options that includes:
a. One or more movies whose plot (at least partially) occurs in the UN building.
b. One or more movies whose plot (at least partially) deals with diplomatic relations between states.
c. An article about the history of the UN organization.
d. A biography of the current General Secretary of the UN organization.
e. A still picture of the first General Secretary of the UN organization.
This linking of entities embedded within media content items to related media content items and/or to other types of related information brought user flexibility and freedom of choice to further new levels not available before.
The providing of recommendation for content items related to what a user is currently viewing is not limited to TV systems. With more and more content viewing moving from the TV screen to the computer screen and the phone screen, a similar development had occurred in the Internet browsing experience. In many websites (such as YouTube, CNN, Fox News), while a user is watching a content item, he sees recommendations for related content items.
The recommendations are presented in the form of hot links, that when selected by the user (for example by clicking them with a mouse), take the user to the linked content item. A link is typically shown together with a textual title (part or all of which may serve as the text acting as the hot link). For a video content item or a still picture content item, the link may also be shown together with a thumbnail image or with a small video window.
The recommendations may be for other content items in the same website, as is the case when other YouTube video content items are proposed during the watching of the currently watched YouTube video content item. Alternatively, the recommendations may include (or even consist only of) recommendations for other content items that are located in other websites. For example, some Internet news websites provide recommended links that are a mix of links to the same website as the currently watched content item and links to other news websites.
Regardless of the type of content item whose watching triggers the presentation of the recommendations (e.g. video, text) and regardless of the type of viewing device (e.g. TV screen, computer, phone), a triggered recommendation may point to a media content item (such as a video content item or a music content item) or to a non-media content item (such as a paragraph of text).
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/149,175, titled “Providing Enrichment Data that is a Video Segment” and filed Oct. 2, 2018, which is fully incorporated herein by reference, further extends the scope of recommendation systems by disclosing a recommendation system in which a recommendation may be for a video segment which is a portion of a larger video content item, where the larger video content item is strictly larger than the video segment. In other words, accepting a recommendation may lead to the playing of only a portion of a video content item.
In prior art systems providing recommendations of related content items, after a user selects one recommendation from the multiple recommendations proposed to him by the system, a single content item is displayed—the content item picked by the user.
This behavior is not always the optimal behavior from the user's point of view. For example, the user may be watching or has just watched a video news item about an ISIS terror attack in Iraq. Consequently, the recommendations system is proposing the following three content items: (i) a video news item about an ISIS terror attack in Yemen, (ii) a video news item about an ISIS terror attack in Syria, and (iii) a documentary movie about Iraq's history. As expected, all three proposed content items are related to what the user is watching or has just watched.
The user may review the list of recommendations and decide that all three of them are of interest to him and he would like to watch them all. He now picks the Yemen item to be the first to be watched. When finished with the Yemen item, the user now wants to watch the Iraq history documentary. However, the recommendations now presented to him are all related to the Yemen terror attack item. They include: (i) the previously-proposed video news item about an ISIS terror attack in Syria, (ii) a video news item about an ISIS terror attack in France, and (iii) a documentary movie about Yemen's history.
The user now wants to watch the documentary movie about Iraq's history that was proposed to him earlier. However, that recommendation is not offered now and is not available for selection, as it is not related to the most recently watched item—the news item about the ISIS terror attack in Yemen. The best the user can now do is to select the video news item about the ISIS terror attack in Syria, which is still available. But after watching the Syria item, the user would still not be able to select the Iraq documentary, as it will not be proposed to him because it is not related to the recently watched item about Syria.
In the above case, the user could conveniently watch two of the three recommendations he was interested in, but this is not always the case. Suppose the user had initially picked the Iraq documentary movie as the first item to watch out of the three items of interest. When finished with that documentary, the recommendations now presented to him may be: (i) a documentary movie about the history of Iran, (ii) a video news item about Iraq's economic recovery, and (iii) a documentary movie about the cultural relations between Iraq and Iran throughout history. The user now realizes that both of the two initial recommendations he has not watch yet (the ISIS terror attacks in Yemen and Syria) are not available now, because the recommendations system does not find them to be related to the most recently watched item about Iraq's history. So in this case, once the user had made his initial selection, all the other proposals in the list become unavailable to him.
One may argue that the above issue may be resolved by the user going back to the watching the initial content item (the video news item about the ISIS terror attack in Iraq, in this example), and then all the initial recommendations would become available again. The going back may be achieved by the user selecting the “Back” arrow in his browser.
However, even if this would have always worked, it would be an inconvenience for the user, especially if the initial content item is a video content item and the user has to watch it to its end before the desired recommendations show up. But in reality the solution of going back does not always work—the list of recommendations proposed when returning to a previously-watched content item is not always the same list that was proposed when the user previously watched that content item.
First, many recommendation systems are adaptive—attempting to learn the user's preferences based on his selections and adjusting their recommendations accordingly. For example, in the above first case of the user initially selecting the item about the ISIS terror attack in Iraq, the recommendations system may conclude from the selection that the user's main interest lies in ISIS terror attacks rather than in historical documentaries, and therefore, when the user comes back to the initial item of ISIS attack in Iraq, the recommendations now proposed to him might be: (i) the initially-proposed video news item about an ISIS attack in Syria, (ii) the previously-proposed video news item about an ISIS attack in France, and (iii) a newly-proposed video news item about an ISIS terror attack in the UK. So in spite of going back to the initial item, the user can still not access the Iraqi history documentary.
Second, many recommendation systems are not deterministic in their recommendations. The potential list of recommendations that are related to a given content item is typically much longer that the list of recommendations proposed to the user, due to screen space limitations or due to human-interface considerations. Therefore, many recommendation systems show only a subset of the recommendations they find relevant to a given content item, and when the user comes back to the same given content item, they pick a different subset. This is done in order to expose the user to recommendations he could not see before. The two different subsets can be disjoint or can have some items in common, but in both cases there is no guarantee that a recommendation that was proposed during or after a first consumption of a given content item will be proposed again during or after a second consumption of that given content item.
One may again argue that the above issue of repeatability of recommendations may be resolved by the user opening a new window for watching each recommendation, so that the original list of recommendations remains available in the previous window in which the initial content item had been watched. However, this requires the user to either set up his browser to always open a new window whenever a link is selected, or to explicitly instruct his browser to open a given link in a new window, for example by pressing the central mouse button instead of the usually-used left button. This in turn adds to the inconvenience, as the user has to maneuver between different windows and employ multiple mouse buttons, instead of using the natural way of selecting links by pressing the left mouse button and staying within a single window. Moreover, this option is not necessarily available in non-browser-based distribution channels.
There is thus a need to provide a way for a user to watch multiple recommendations related to a currently watched or just watched content item in a natural and convenient way.
Some prior art recommendation systems can display multiple recommended content items or segments of content items, for example in the case of multiple episodes of a TV series or weekly radio program. A similar example is the case of recommending multiple highlight segments of a specific video content item. However, these examples address special cases where the multiple recommendations are not independent from each other. There is still a need for a general solution for continuously watching in a natural and convenient way a sequence of recommended content items and/or segments of content items, all of which are related to a currently-watched or just-watched content item, where the items in the sequence are not related to each other but are rather independently-recommended items.
A method is disclosed, according to embodiments, for enhancing user experience for a user consuming a content item by displaying a sequence of multiple content units related to the content item. The method comprises (a) causing the content item to be displayed by a content playing device; (b) during the displaying of the content item by the content playing device, determining related content having a connection to the displayed content item, the determined related content including multiple content units, where each content unit (i) is either a content item or a video segment that is a portion of a larger video content item, (ii) has a connection to the displayed content item, (iii) is independent of all other content units included in the related content, and (iv) is not included in the displayed content item; (c) causing an option to display the related content to be presented to the user; and (d) in response to acceptance of the option by the user, causing the related content to be displayed by the content playing device, where the displaying of the related content includes displaying all of the plurality of content units included in the related content one after another.
In some embodiments, the displaying of all the content units included in the related content one after another can include displaying all of the content units in sequence, without receiving any input from the user between the displaying of successive content units. In such embodiments, it can be that one of the content units included in the related content is a textual content item, and during the displaying of the related content, the textual content item is displayed for a pre-defined time interval. Also in such embodiments, it can be that one of the content units included in the related content is a textual content item, and, during the displaying of the related content, the textual content item is displayed for a time interval that depends on one or more characteristics of the textual content item.
In some embodiments, the displaying of all the content units of the related content one after another can include receiving confirmation from the user between the displaying of successive content units.
In some embodiments, the method can further comprise additionally causing at least one option to display only one of the multiple content units included in the related content to be displayed to the user.
In some embodiments, at least one of the multiple content units included in the related content can be a video segment. In some embodiments, all the multiple content units included in the related content can be video segments.
In some embodiments, for at least one content unit included in the related content, the connection of the one content unit to the displayed content item can be a connection of the one content unit to the displayed content item as a whole. In some embodiments, it can be that: (i) the content item is a video content item, and (ii) for at least one content unit included in the related content, the connection of the one content unit to the displayed content item is a connection of the one content unit to a scene in the displayed content item. In some embodiments, for at least one content unit included in the related content, the connection of the one content unit to the displayed content item can be a connection of the one content unit to a named entity identified in the displayed content item.
In some embodiments, the determining of the related content having a connection to the displayed content item can include analyzing a video channel of the content item. In some embodiments, the determining of the related content having a connection to the displayed content item can include analyzing an audio channel of the content item. In some embodiments, the determining of the related content having a connection to the displayed content item can include analyzing subtitles of the content item. In some embodiments, the determining of the related content having a connection to the displayed content item can include analyzing metadata of the content item. In some embodiments, the determining of the related content having a connection to the displayed content item can include analyzing text included in the content item.
In some embodiments, the determining of the related content having a connection to the displayed content item can be based on a user preference obtained by analyzing viewing history of the user. In some embodiments, the determining of the related content having a connection to the displayed content item can be based on a user preference manually provided by the user.
In some embodiments, the displaying of the related content can be done during the displaying of the displayed content item by the content playing device. In some embodiments, for at least one point in time, the displayed content item and the related content are being displayed simultaneously.
In some embodiments, the method can further comprise: (e) during the displaying of the displayed content item by the content playing device, receiving a request from the user to propose related data that is connected to the displayed content item, wherein the option is presented in response to the receiving of the request.
In some embodiments, the displayed content item can include a media content item. In such embodiments, the media content item can include a video content item, in which case the content playing device can be one of a TV screen, a computer screen and a phone screen.
In some embodiments, the displayed content item can include a non-media content item. In such embodiments, the non-media content item can include a paragraph of text, in which case the content playing device can be one of a computer screen and a phone screen.
A system for distributing video content is disclosed, wherein the system comprises (a) a content-item distribution module; (b) a visual-enrichment-data distribution module; (c) one or more computer processors; and (d) a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions for execution by the one or more computer processors, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein: (i) first program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the content-item distribution module to cause the content item to be displayed by a content playing device; (ii) second program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the visual-enrichment-data distribution module to determine, during the displaying of the content item by the content playing device, related content having a connection to the displayed content item, the determined related content including multiple content units, where each content unit (A) is either a content item or a video segment that is a portion of a larger video content item, (B) has a connection to the displayed content item, (C) is independent of all other content units included in the related content, and (D) is not included in the displayed content item; (iii) third program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the visual-enrichment-data distribution module to cause an option to display the related content to be presented to the user; and (iv) fourth program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the visual-enrichment-data distribution module to cause the related content to be displayed by the content playing device in response to acceptance of the option by the user, where the displaying of the related content includes displaying all of the plurality of content units included in the related content one after another.
A method is disclosed, according to embodiments, for enhancing user experience for a user consuming a content item by displaying a sequence of multiple content units related to the content item. The method comprises (a) causing the content item to be displayed by a content playing device; (b) during the displaying of the content item by the content playing device, determining multiple related content units, where each related content unit of the multiple related content units (i) is either a content item or a video segment that is a portion of a larger video content item, (ii) has a connection to the displayed content item, (iii) is independent of all other related content units of the multiple related content units, and (iv) is not included in the displayed content item; (c) for each of at least two related content units of the multiple related content units, causing an option to display the respective related content unit to be presented to the user; (d) receiving from the user, for at least two of the related content units for which an option was presented, a positive decision to activate the respective option; and (e) causing the at least two related content units for which a positive decision to activate the respective option was received to be displayed one after another by the content playing device.
In some embodiments, the displaying of all of the at least two related content units one after another can include displaying all of the at least two related content units in sequence, without receiving any input from the user between the displaying of successive related content units. In such embodiments, it can be that one of the at least two displayed related content units is a textual content item and is displayed for a pre-defined time interval. Also in such embodiments, it can be that one of the at least two displayed related content units is a textual content item and is displayed for a time interval that depends on one or more characteristics of the textual content item.
In some embodiments, the displaying of the at least two related content units one after another can include receiving confirmation from the user between the displaying of successive related content units.
In some embodiments, at least one of the at least two displayed related content units can be a video segment. In some embodiments, all of the at least two displayed related content units can be video segments.
In some embodiments, for at least one of the at least two displayed related content units, the connection to the displayed content item is a connection to the displayed content item as a whole. In some embodiments, it can be that: (i) the displayed content item is a video content item, and (ii) for at least one of the at least two displayed related content units, the connection to the displayed content item is a connection to a scene in the displayed content item. In some embodiments, for at least one of the at least two displayed related content units, the connection to the displayed content item can be a connection to a named entity identified in the displayed content item.
In some embodiments, the determining of the multiple related content units can include analyzing a video channel of the displayed content item. In some embodiments, the determining of the multiple related content units can include analyzing an audio channel of the displayed content item. In some embodiments, the determining of the multiple related content units can include analyzing subtitles of the displayed content item. In some embodiments, the determining of the multiple related content units can include analyzing metadata of the displayed content item. In some embodiments, the determining of the multiple related content units can include analyzing text included in the displayed content item.
In some embodiments, the determining of the multiple related content units can be based on a user preference obtained by analyzing viewing history of the user. In some embodiments, the determining of the multiple related content units can be based on a user preference manually provided by the user.
In some embodiments, the displaying of the at least two related content units can be done during the displaying of the displayed content item by the content playing device. In some embodiments, for at least one point in time the displayed content item and one of the at least two displayed related content units can be displayed simultaneously.
In some embodiments, the method can further comprise: (f) during the displaying of the displayed content item by the content playing device, receiving a request from the user to propose related data that is connected to the displayed content item, wherein, for at least one related content unit of the multiple related content units, the corresponding option is presented in response to the receiving of the request.
In some embodiments, the receiving from the user of each positive decision to activate the respective option can include receiving a state of a respective checkbox.
In some embodiments, the order according to which the at least two displayed related content units are displayed can be determined according to the order of receiving the respective positive decisions from the user.
In some embodiments, the order according to which the at least two displayed related content units are displayed can be automatically determined, without being affected by user inputs. In such embodiments, the order according to which the at least two displayed related content units are displayed can be determined based on corresponding length values associated with the at least two displayed related content units. Also in such embodiments, the order according to which the at least two displayed related content units are displayed can be determined based on corresponding size values associated with the at least two displayed related content units. Also in such embodiments, the order according to which the at least two displayed related content units are displayed can be determined based on corresponding calendar times associated with the at least two displayed related content units. Also in such embodiments, the order according to which the at least two displayed related content units are displayed can be randomly determined.
In some embodiments, the displayed content item can include a media content item. In such embodiments, the media content item can include a video content item, in which case the content playing device can be one of a TV screen, a computer screen and a phone screen.
In some embodiments, the displayed content item can include a non-media content item. In such embodiments, the non-media content item can include a paragraph of text, in which case the content playing device can be one of a computer screen and a phone screen.
A system for distributing video content is disclosed, wherein the system comprises: (a) a content-item distribution module; (b) a visual-enrichment-data distribution module; (c) one or more computer processors; and (d) a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions for execution by the one or more computer processors, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein: (i) first program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the content-item distribution module to cause the content item to be displayed by a content playing device; (ii) second program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the visual-enrichment-data distribution module to determine, during the displaying of the content item by the content playing device, multiple related content units, where each related content unit of the multiple related content units (A) is either a content item or a video segment that is a portion of a larger video content item, (B) has a connection to the displayed content item, (C) is independent of all other related content units of the multiple related content units, and (D) is not included in the displayed content item; (iii) third program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the visual-enrichment-data distribution module to cause at least two options to be presented to the user, each option of the at least two options being an option to display one respective related content unit of the multiple related content units; (iv) fourth program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the visual-enrichment-data distribution module to receive from the user, for at least two of the presented options, a positive decision to activate the respective option; and (v) fifth program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the visual-enrichment-data distribution module to cause the at least two related content units for which a positive decision to activate the respective option was received to be displayed one after another by the content playing device.
Note: Throughout this disclosure, subscripted reference numbers (e.g., 101) may be used to designate multiple separate appearances of elements in a single drawing, e.g. 101 is a single appearance (out of a plurality of appearances) of element 10. The same elements can alternatively be referred to without subscript (e.g., 10 and not 101) when not referring to a specific one of the multiple separate appearances.
The proposed solution provides recommendation of related content units, such that multiple recommended units may be conveniently watched.
As defined in the Definitions section, a “content unit” is a content item or a video segment. For the definitions of “content item” and “video segment”, see the Definitions section.
In a first embodiment of the proposed solution the recommendations system provides at least one recommendation that, when selected, results in the user immediately watching in a continuous way a sequence of content units that includes multiple content units. It should be noted that the terms ‘first embodiment’ and ‘second embodiment’ as used herein refer more precisely to respective families of embodiments of the invention which have several key features in common including, inter alia, whether related content units are presented to users as a collection of recommended content units or as individually selectable recommendations.
The multiple content units included in the sequence are arbitrary content units, the requirement being that they are all somehow related to the currently watched or just watched content item. Each member of the sequence may be a different program, movie, news item, etc., and there are not direct connections between different members of the sequence (such as being taken from the same TV series or from the same weekly radio program). Thus, the proposed solution is applicable to all the examples above, and as an example can play as a continuous sequence the items: (i) a video news item about an ISIS terror attack in Yemen, (ii) a video news item about an ISIS terror attack in Syria, and (iii) a documentary movie about Iraq's history.
Taking the above example of the user initially watching the video news item about the ISIS terror attack in Iraq, the list of recommendations may include a recommendation, that when selected, plays all three recommended items (the video news item about the ISIS terror attack in Yemen, the video news item about the ISIS terror attack in Syria, and the documentary movie about Iraq's history) as a continuous sequence that does not require user input until the end of the last included content item. In response to the selection, the system first plays the first recommendation (the Yemen item). Once this item gets to its end, the system automatically switches to the second recommendation (the Syria item) without waiting for user input. Once that item gets to its end, the system automatically switches to the third recommendation (the Iraq history documentary item), again without waiting to user input. Only when finishing playing all three recommendations, will the system stop playing and wait for user instructions.
The recommended sequence may be proposed to the user as an extra recommendation, in addition to providing one or more single-item recommendations (e.g. in addition to providing the three single-item recommendations of the above example). Alternatively, the recommendations list may include only recommendations to sequences of multiple content unit. For example, the recommendations system may identify four related content units—A, B, C and D. The system may then propose to the user the following options: (1) Watch A+B+C+D, (2) Watch A+B, and (3) Watch C+D. Optionally, the system may also include options for (4) Watch A+C and (5) Watch B+D, where partially-overlapping combinations are proposed as available options.
The proposed solution provides clear advantages when the recommended sequence contains content units that have a natural ending time, such as video content items and audio content items. For such content units, when included in a recommended sequence they are played up to their end, and then the next content unit in the sequence is automatically started.
However, the proposed solution may also be used when the recommended sequence contains content units that do not have a natural ending time, such as news items including only text. In such case the system may use a default time interval (e.g. one minute), and display each content unit for that time interval before automatically switching to the next content unit in the sequence. The length of the default time interval may be pre-defined by the system without providing the user any means of controlling it, or it may be settable by the user using the GUI or remote controller by which he controls the system.
Alternatively, the system may assign a specific time interval for each textual content item, based on its specific characteristics. For example, a textual content item that contains 50 words is assigned a 30 seconds time interval, while a textual content item that contains 200 words is assigned a 90 seconds time interval.
The continuous displaying of the content units of a sequence selected by the user may be fully automatic, without any user intervention. In other words, once one unit comes to an end (or reaches the end of its pre-assigned time interval for textual content item), the next unit of the sequence is automatically started, without requiring any additional input from the user. Alternatively, when one unit comes to end, the user is prompted for confirming that the displaying of the sequence should be continued. The user then has an option to confirm (in which case the displaying of the next unit starts) and an option to refuse to confirm (in which case the displaying of the sequence is stopped).
When the single-item recommendations are recommendations for video content units, the teachings of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/149,175 may be used for also including video segments in the proposed sequences. In other words, a recommended sequence of video content units may include any of the following:
Multiple video content items
Multiple video segments
One or more video content items and one or more video segments
The segments included in a sequence are arbitrary segments that are not directly related to each other. For example, each segment is extracted from a different movie.
The ability to recommend a sequence of video segments and automatically display it in full provides a significant improvement in the viewing experience of the user. For example, a user may watch a movie that includes a car chase scene. In prior art systems, he may get several recommendations, each of which pointing to a car chase video segment in a different movie. In the proposed solution, the user may (additionally) get a recommendation for a sequence containing all the individual car chase video segments. When selecting that recommendation, the user will see the full collection of car chase segments being continuously played without requiring any additional involvement on his part.
In some implementations of this embodiment, once a recommended sequence is selected and starts being displayed, the user cannot interrupt it until it ends. In other implementations, the user cannot interrupt the sequence in the middle of a content unit, but is given an ability to interrupt it between units. In still other implementations, the user may interrupt the sequence at any time, including in the middle of displaying a content unit within the sequence.
In cases in which the user may interrupt the displaying of a sequence, he may pause and resume the displaying, abort the sequence, abort the current content unit and immediately jump to the next one, restart displaying the current content unit and jump back to the previously displayed content unit. Each of the above operations may have its own limitations on time of use, according to the above implementations. For example, the user may be able to pause and resume the displaying of the sequence at any time, including in the middle of a content unit. But he may be able to jump to the next or previous content units only during a short window of time between the end of one unit to the beginning of the next unit.
While video content units are being played within a recommended sequence of video content units, the recommendation system may provide the user with other recommendations that are related to the currently playing video content unit. Those recommendations may be related to the specific video content unit that is currently playing, in which case the recommendation may automatically change when the system switches from one unit of the playing sequence to the next, or even within a single unit. Alternatively, those recommendations may be related to a topic that is a common denominator of the whole sequence of video content units, in which case the recommendations may stay the same throughout the playing of the sequence.
The user may have an option to enable or disable the feature of providing recommendations of sequences of content units. This option may be activated or deactivated by the user using the GUI or remote controller by which he controls the system.
In a second embodiment of the proposed solution the recommendations system provides the user with an ability to manually instruct the system to create a sequence of content units and continuously display it.
The list of the single-item recommendations is presented to the user with a small check-box attached to each recommendation. The user checks those recommendations he wants to watch, by checking the boxes of all the desired recommendations. After doing that, the user tells the system (e.g. by pressing a button in the remote controller or by pressing a button on the screen using the mouse) to start displaying. The system then displays the group of checked recommended items as if it is an automatically-generated sequence, according to the description provided above for the first embodiment.
For the above example of the user watching the video news item about the ISIS terror attack in Iraq, and the system providing three single-item recommendations (the video news item about the ISIS terror attack in Yemen, the video news item about the ISIS terror attack in Syria, and the documentary movie about Iraq's history), there will be three check-boxes, one per recommendation. The user checks the boxes corresponding to the second and the third recommendations (but not the check box corresponding to the first recommendation), and when the sequence is played, only those two items are played and not the first one.
The check-boxes described above are just an example, and any other means of providing selection input to the system may be used.
The order according to which the marked content units are displayed within the sequence may be according to the selection order by which the user marked the check-boxes. So in the above example, if the user first marked the third item and then marked the second item, the third item will be displayed before the second item.
Alternatively, the order according to which the marked content units are displayed within the sequence may be according to the order of presenting the proposals to the user. So in the above example, even if the user first marked the third item and then marked the second item, the second item will be displayed before the third item.
In such case, the order according to which the marked content units are displayed within the sequence may be automatically determined by the system according to some criteria. For example, the order may be from the oldest item to the newest, from the newest item to the oldest, from the shortest item to the longest, from the longest item to the shortest, etc. Alternatively, the order may be automatically set according to a random rule, resulting in different order for each case.
The user may have an option to enable or disable the feature of manually selecting multiple recommendations for creating sequences of content units. This option may be activated or deactivated by the user using the GUI or remote controller by which he controls the system. When deactivated, no check-boxes or other GUI selection means are available to the user.
Except for what is explicitly said here about the second embodiment, the second embodiment may employ any feature and method of the first embodiment and may operate in the same manner as the first embodiment, as described above for the first embodiment.
Referring now to the figures, and in particular to
In the preceding paragraph and in other examples in this disclosure, the presenting of options to the user for the display and/or sequencing of related content units is described as being done by the content playing device, i.e., the options are presented on the same screen that displays the video content item. This convention has been adopted in the disclosure only for convenience, and any such options can alternatively (or, in some embodiments, additionally) be presented to the user on a secondary device such as a smartphone or a tablet. For example, a smartphone or tablet can be running an app that is in communication with the visual-enrichment-data distribution module, and allows the secondary device to serve as an input/output device for user decisions and selections with respect to the displaying of related content on the primary display device, i.e., the display device used by the content playing device for displaying the content item that is being displayed.
If the visual-enrichment-data distribution module 120 offers the user a choice of sequences—which in some cases it does not, but instead displays all of the presented RCUs 286 of the related content 285 in a predetermined sequence—it most likely cannot offer every possible sequence as an option if more than two recommended RCUs are involved. Therefore it can be useful to have the visual-enrichment-data distribution module 120 select a manageable number of pre-determined sequence options for offering as sequence options to the user. In a non-limiting example, the visual-enrichment-data distribution module 120 offers the sequences ‘1-2-3-4’, ‘2-3-4-1’, ‘3-4-2-1’ and ‘4-1-2-3’. In this example, all of the sequences present the same 4 recommendations for RCUs in the same order, but each option starts at a different place in the sequence. In some examples, the logic employed by the visual-enrichment-data distribution module 120 in ‘winnowing down’ the possible sequences to a manageable number can vary from user to user, or be specific to a type of displayed content item 201. In some examples, the offering of sequence options is itself optional, and only the go/no-go buttons 282 are present on the screen 142 so as to enable the user either to ‘launch’ (go) the displaying of the sequence of all proposed related content units in a pre-determined default order (go) or cancel (no go) the entire sequence.
We now refer to
Referring now to
Any of the steps in the method, and in fact any of the steps in any of the methods disclosed herein, can be implemented in a system 100 for distributing video content as disclosed herein.
The method of
Referring now to
In some examples, the visual-enrichment-data distribution module 120 may begin to (a) display all RCUs 286 as soon as the user has selected all of them, and/or (b) display only those RCUs 286 selected so far by the user (if fewer than the total number recommended on-screen) after a predetermined amount of time has passed since the last selection operation by the user of an RCU 286, for example 5 seconds or 10 seconds. Such features may be provided in addition to providing the “Go/no go” buttons or instead of them. It will be obvious to the skilled artisan that other combinations of onscreen controls and options are possible in accordance with the technical capabilities of the visual-enrichment-data distribution module 1202.
We now refer to
Referring now to
The method of
The present invention has been described using detailed descriptions of embodiments thereof that are provided by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. The described embodiments comprise different features, not all of which are required in all embodiments of the invention. Some embodiments of the present invention utilize only some of the features or possible combinations of the features. Variations of embodiments of the present invention that are described and embodiments of the present invention comprising different combinations of features noted in the described embodiments will occur to persons skilled in the art to which the invention pertains.
This disclosure should be interpreted according to the definitions below.
In case of a contradiction between the definitions in this Definitions section and other sections of this disclosure, this section should prevail.
In case of a contradiction between the definitions in this section and a definition or a description in any other document, including in another document included in this disclosure by reference, this section should prevail, even if the definition or the description in the other document is commonly accepted by a person of ordinary skill in the art.
This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/610,242 filed on Dec. 25, 2017, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62610242 | Dec 2017 | US |
