Patent Application
20090048992
The present invention relates to a system and method for reducing the repetitive reception of a media item recommendation in a media item recommendation system.
In recent years, there has been an enormous increase in the amount of digital media available online. Services, such as Apple's iTunes® for example, enable users to legally purchase and download music. Other services, such as Yahoo!® Music Unlimited and RealNetwork's Rhapsody® for example, provide access to millions of songs for a monthly subscription fee. YouTube® provides users access to video media. As a result, media items have become much more accessible to consumers worldwide. Due to the large amount of accessible digital media, recommendation technologies have emerged as an important enabler to assist users in identifying and navigating large databases of available media. Recommendations are useful to help users identify and select media items of interest for usage and/or play.
Recommendations may be programmatically-generated by a company based on the user's predefined preferences and/or profile. Recommendations also may be provided by other users. Particularly, the users may be peers on a social network. As such, a user on the social network may be both a recommender and a recipient of a media item recommendation. Moreover, applications exist that provide for the automatic generation and transmission of media item recommendations on a social network based on the occurrence of certain triggering events, such as the user playing the media item, for example. As such, a recommender may explicitly provide a recommendation to a recipient by sending the recommendation, or the recommender may implicitly provide a recommendation to a recipient by playing the media item.
In the latter case, when a first user plays a media item, the first user automatically becomes a recommender. A media item recommendation for the media item may be generated and sent to a second user acting as the recipient. The second user may be in a list of the first user's “friends” designated to receive media item recommendations from the first user. If the second user also plays the media item, then another media item recommendation for the same media item may be generated and transmitted back to the first user if the first user is in the list of “friends” of the second user. In this case, the second user becomes the recommender and the first user becomes the recipient. This type of automatic generation and transmission of media item recommendations may create a “ping-ponging” effect between users in the social network causing the users to oscillate between being recommenders and recipients of media item recommendations for the same media item. This may result in a continuous feed-back loop of the same media item recommendation.
This “ping-ponging” effect may be exacerbated if the media item is highly desirable resulting in the frequent playing of the media item by users in the media item recommendation system. This is especially problematic if the media item recommendation application is programmed to automatically selectively play a media item based on its rating. The higher the rating of the media item, the more often the media item may be played. To compound this problem, the rating may be based on how often the media item is played and/or recommended. Therefore, the more a media item is played, the more often a media item recommendation may be generated and transmitted to the users, particularly previous recommenders, and the higher the rating becomes. While there may be reasons for receiving repetitive media item recommendations, such as to communicate updated media item preferences among the users for example, the continuous reception of repetitive media item recommendations may result in the media item being played more than intended and appropriate, and as a result, artificially elevate the rating of the media item for an extended period inconsistent with its true popularity at a given time.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method and system for reducing the repetitive reception by a recipient of a media item recommendation for a media item.
The present invention is directed to a system and method for reducing the repetitive reception of a media item recommendation in a media item recommendation system. A media item recommendation is received from a recommender. The media item recommendation is designated to be sent to an intended recipient. Before the media item recommendation is sent to the intended recipient, a record of activity of the media item is reviewed and a determination is made as to whether to send the media item recommendation to the intended recipient based on the record of activity. In this manner, it can be determined if the media item recommendation is unduly repetitive and, if so, not sent to the intended recipient. This reduces the continuous feed-back loop of the same media item recommendation.
The record of activity may comprise a play history of the recipient and/or a record of recommendations of the media item. More particularly, in one embodiment, the determination whether to send the media item recommendation to the intended recipient may be based on whether the record of activity includes a recommendation withholding activity. If the record of activity does not include a recommendation withholding activity, the media item recommendation is sent to the recipient. If the record of activity includes a recommendation withholding activity, the media item recommendation is not sent to the recipient.
The recommendation withholding activity may include the recipient playing the media item. This recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on whether the recipient played a certain number of other media items since playing the media item. Or, the recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on whether a certain time has elapsed since the media item was last played by the recipient.
Alternatively or additionally, the recommendation withholding activity may include the recipient recommending the media item. In such a case, the recipient may have recommended the media item to the recommender and/or to other users, and the media item recommendation is essentially returning to the recipient in a loop. This recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on whether the recipient recommended a certain number of other media items since recommending the media item. Or, the recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on whether a certain time has elapsed since the recipient recommended the media item.
Alternatively or additionally, the recommendation withholding activity may include the recipient receiving a recommendation for the media item from the recommender or another user. This recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on the number of other recommendations received by the recipient since receiving a recommendation for the media item. Or, the recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on whether a certain time has elapsed since the recipient received the recommendation for the media item.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the present invention and realize additional aspects thereof after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments in association with the accompanying drawing figures.
The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part of this specification illustrate several aspects of the invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.
The embodiments set forth below represent the necessary information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention and illustrate the best mode of practicing the invention. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the invention and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure and the accompanying claims.
The present application is related to commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed Aug. 13, 2007, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REDUCING THE MULTIPLE LISTING OF A MEDIA ITEM IN A PLAYLIST,” which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention is directed to a system and method for reducing the repetitive reception of a media item recommendation in a media item recommendation system. A media item recommendation is received from a recommender. The media item recommendation is designated to be sent to an intended recipient. Before the media item recommendation is sent to the intended recipient, a record of activity of the media item is reviewed and a determination is made as to whether to send the media item recommendation to the intended recipient based on the record of activity. In this manner, it can be determined if the media item recommendation is unduly repetitive and, if so, not sent to the intended recipient. This reduces the continuous feed-back loop of the same media item recommendation.
The record of activity may comprise a play history of the recipient and/or a record of recommendations of the media item. More particularly, in one embodiment, the determination whether to send the media item recommendation to the intended recipient may be based on whether the record of activity includes a recommendation withholding activity. If the record of activity does not include a recommendation withholding activity, the media item recommendation is sent to the recipient. If the record of activity includes a recommendation withholding activity, the media item recommendation is not sent to the recipient.
The recommendation withholding activity may include the recipient playing the media item. This recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on whether the recipient played a certain number of other media items since playing the media item. Or, the recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on whether a certain time has elapsed since the media item was last played by the recipient.
Alternatively or additionally, the recommendation withholding activity may include the recipient recommending the media item. In such a case, the recipient may have recommended the media item to the recommender and/or to other users, and the media item recommendation is essentially returning to the recipient in a loop. This recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on whether the recipient recommended a certain number of other media items since recommending the media item. Or, the recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on whether a certain time has elapsed since the recipient recommended the media item.
Alternatively or additionally, the recommendation withholding activity may include the recipient receiving a recommendation for the media item from the recommender or another user. This recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on the number of other recommendations received by the recipient since receiving a recommendation for the media item. Or, the recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on whether a certain time has elapsed since the recipient received the recommendation for the media item.
The user in the media item recommendation system may be a recommender, a recipient, or both. For purposes of the present invention, when describing a user that transmits a media item recommendation message, the term “recommender” may be used. When describing a user that receives a media item recommendation message, the term “recipient” may be used.
As backdrop for the present invention,
Turning to
The user accounts 14 contain a record of accounts for each user known to the central server 12 and information concerning aspects of the user's activities in the media item recommendation system 10. In addition to the play history 16, which stores a record of the media item play activity of the user, the information in the user accounts 14 may include user profiles, preferences, and other information about the user and the user's media collection. The recommendation database 18 stores a record of each media item recommendation that is provided on the media item recommendation system 10. The media item recommendation may be recorded in the recommendation path table 20. The recommendation manager 22 is a program, algorithm, or control mechanism that interacts with the user accounts 14 and the recommendation database 18 to manage and control the sending of the media item recommendation to the recipient. The recommendation manager 22 may store recommendation withholding activity information provided by the user and may review the record of activity of the media item being recommended to determine if a media item recommendation received from a recommender is to be sent to a recipient.
The media item recommendation system 10 also includes a number of user devices 26A-26N which may communicate with the central server 12 and each other via the network 24. Note that while three user devices 26A, 26B, 26N are illustrated, the present invention may be used with any number of user devices 26. In the particular example of
The user device 26 may be any type of computing device that is capable of performing communications over the network 24 (
The user device 26 may also contain a recommendation engine 30. The recommendation engine 30 is a program, algorithm, or control mechanism that handles sending and/or receiving media item recommendations over the network 24. The recommendation engine 30 may also score media items and/or media item recommendations based on user preferences for the different media categories, for example genre, artist, title, album, lyrics, date of release, or the like, and then filters media item recommendations from the other user devices 26 based on such preferences.
The user device 26 typically contains a playlist manager 32, a playlist 34, and a media item player 36. The playlist manager 32 is a program, algorithm, or control mechanism that controls the storing of media item recommendation information in the playlist 34 and the downloading and rendering or playing of the media items listed in the playlist 34. The media item player 36 allows the user to use or play back any media item desired. Examples of media item players 36 include, but are not limited to, Apple® iTunes®, Apple® iPOD®, and the like. The media items selected for use and/or play include those stored locally at the user device 26 in a user's media item collection 38 and/or any media item accessed from the central server 12, another user device 26, subscription service(s) (not shown), and/or any other system accessible by or coupled to the network 24.
The process begins when the central server 12 receives recommendation withholding activity information from a recipient (step 200). The recipient may provide the recommendation withholding activity information to specify the activities that, if previously occurring, would keep the media item recommendation message 40 (
The central server 12 then receives a media item recommendation message 40 from a recommender intended for the recipient (step 202). A record of activity of the media item is reviewed (step 204). The record of activity may include the intended recipient's play history 16 and/or the media item's record of recommendation, which may be in the recommendation path table 20.
The purpose for reviewing the record of activity is to determine whether a recommendation withholding activity occurred (step 206). A decision may then be made based on whether the recommendation withholding activity occurred (step 208). If the recommendation withholding activity occurred, the media item recommendation message 40 may be withheld from the recipient (step 210). If the recommendation withholding activity did not occur, the media item recommendation message 40 may be sent to the recipient (step 212).
The recommendation manager 22 (
The recommendation withholding activity may be directed to the recipient's activity involving the media item and may identify one or more criteria and/or conditions applying to the recipient's activity. For example, the recipient may not want to receive a recommendation for the media item if the recipient previously played the media item, recommended the media item, and/or received a recommendation for the media item. As such, the central server 12 will withhold from the recipient, or, in other words, not send the media item recommendation message 40 to the recipient if the recommendation withholding activity occurred. Further, the recipient may not want the central server 12 to withhold all such media item recommendations but may condition the withholding of the media item recommendation. For example, the condition may be that the recipient played the media item within a certain time period or within a certain number of other media items played. In such a case, the recipient may direct the central server 12 to withhold the media item recommendation message 40 if the recipient, for example, played less than sixty other media items since playing the media item, or that less than ninety minutes has elapsed since the recipient played the media item.
As another example, the recipient may direct the central server 12 to withhold the media item recommendation message 40 based on the number of recommendations of other media items the recipient has sent or received since the last time the recipient sent or received a recommendation for the media item. Alternatively, the recommendation withholding activity may be conditioned on the time that has elapsed since the recipient has sent or received a recommendation for the media item. The above examples should not be understood to limit the present invention in any manner.
Additionally, although not shown in
However, the user may decide to send a media item recommendation message 40 to the recipient without, or at least not at the same time as, playing the media item. In such a case, the media item recommendation message 40 may be identified as explicit. The central server 12 may send such explicit media item recommendation messages 40 to the recipient without reviewing the record of activity to determine if a recommendation withholding activity had occurred.
In addition to the media item identifier 42, the play history 16 also comprises a ‘TIMESTAMP’ 44 column which lists a record of the time that the media item was played by the user device 26. The play histories 16 list the media items played in reverse chronological order, with the most recently played media item listed first, or at the top, and the other media items listed in descending order according to their play time. For purposes of explaining this embodiment of the present invention,
The play history 16A in
The information as recorded in the media item (1) recommendation table 20 includes information that may not be available by reviewing only the play histories 16. For example, the recommendation withholding activity may be based on the timing of the playing of the media item by a user device 26. As such, the information in the play histories 16, as shown in
Accordingly, for purposes of discussing this embodiment of the present invention, the time of the receipt of each media item (1) recommendation message 40 from the respective user devices 26A, 26B, 26N is shown as the same time as the respective user devices 26A, 26B, 26N played the media item (1), as shown in
The media item (1) recommendation path table 20 in
The recommendation path identifier 46 may be any unique identifier. In
The oldest, or least recent, recommendation is shown as being from the user device 26A. The user device 26A initially recommended the media item (1) and, accordingly, the media item (1) recommendation message 40A from the user device 26A was sent to the user device 26B and the user device 26N at 11:00. This is indicated by “1A” as the recommendation path identifier 46, “A” as the recommender identifier 48, “B” and “N” as the recipient identifiers 50, and 11:00 as the ‘TIMESTAMP’ 44 at the bottom of the media item (1) recommendation path table 20.
The next oldest, or least recent, recommendation is shown as being from the user device 26B as a follow-on recommendation in the series initiated by the user device 26A. The media item (1) recommendation message 40B from the user device 26B was then sent to the user device 26N at 12:15. This is indicated by “1A” as the recommendation path identifier 46, “B” as the recommender identifier 48, “N” as the recipient identifier 50, and 12:15 as the ‘TIMESTAMP’ 44.
Notably, the media item (1) recommendation path table 20 does not indicate that the media item (1) recommendation message 40B from the user device 26B was sent to the user device 26A. This may reflect the recommendation withholding activity information provided by the user device 26A to the central server 12. For example, and as discussed above with respect to
The next oldest, or least recent, recommendation is shown as being from the user device 26C. The media item (1) recommendation message 40C was sent to the user device 26D at 12:30. As discussed above, the recommendation from the user device 26C is a separate recommendation path and not a follow-on recommendation in the series initiated by the user device 26A. This is indicated by “1C” as the recommendation path identifier 46, “C” as the recommender identifier 48, “D” as the recipient identifier 50, and 12:30 as the ‘TIMESTAMP’ 44.
The youngest, or most recent, recommendation is shown as being from the user device 26N as a follow-on recommendation in the series initiated by the user device 26A. The media item (1) recommendation message 40N from the user device 26N was then sent to the user device 26A at 13:00. This is indicated by “1A” as the recommendation path identifier 46, “N” as the recommender identifier 48, “A” as the recipient identifier 50, and 13:00 as the ‘TIMESTAMP’ 44.
Notably,
Conversely, the central server 12 withheld the media item (1) recommendation message 40N from the user device 26B. As with the user device 26A, the user of the user device 26B may have directed the central server 12 to withhold the media item (1) recommendation message 40 if the time of the media item (1) recommendation message 40 is within ninety minutes of the user device 26B playing the media item (1). Because the ‘TIMESTAMP’ 44 for the media item (1) recommendation message 40N, 13:00, is less than ninety minutes from the ‘TIMESTAMP’ 44B identifying the last time the user device 26B played the media item (1), 12:15, as shown in
Although in this embodiment the media item recommendation path table 20 is shown in reverse chronological order and comprising the information discussed above, the present invention is not limited to any order or structure of the media item (1) recommendation path table 20, and/or the amount or type of information included in the media item (1) recommendation path table 20.
The GUI 52 may include a field for establishing a recommendation withholding activity based on ‘NUMBER OF OTHER MEDIA ITEMS PLAYED’ 54, which may include a media items played actuator 56 and a media items played selector 58. The media items played actuator 56 may be in the form of a radio button, and the media items played selector 58 may be in the form of a sliding bar with a media items played pointer 60. The media items played selector 58 conditions the recommendation withholding activity on the user playing a certain number of other media items since playing the media item. The GUI 52 may also include a field for providing a recommendation withholding activity based on ‘MINUTES SINCE MEDIA ITEM WAS PLAYED’ 62, which includes a time media item played actuator 64 and a time media item played selector 66. The time media item played actuator 64 may be in the form of a radio button, and the time media item played selector 66 may be in the form of a sliding bar with a time media item played pointer 68. The time media item played selector 66 conditions the recommendation withholding activity on a certain amount of time elapsing since the user of the user device 26 played the media item.
The user may establish the recommendation withholding activity by selecting the ‘NUMBER OF OTHER MEDIA ITEMS PLAYED’ 54 by actuating the media items played actuator 56 and selecting the number of media items played by setting the media items played pointer 60 on the media items played selector 58. Alternatively, the user may establish the recommendation withholding activity by selecting ‘MINUTES SINCE MEDIA ITEM WAS PLAYED’ 62 by actuating the time media item played actuator 64 and selecting the time that has elapsed since the media item was played by setting the time media item played pointer 68 on the time media item played selector 66.
The GUI 70 may include a field for establishing a recommendation withholding activity based on ‘NUMBER OF OUTGOING RECOMMENDATIONS SENT’ 72, which may include an outgoing recommendations sent actuator 74 and an outgoing recommendations sent selector 76. The outgoing recommendations sent actuator 74 may be in the form of a radio button, and the outgoing recommendations sent selector 76 may be in the form of a sliding bar with an outgoing recommendations sent pointer 78. The outgoing recommendations sent selector 76 conditions the recommendation withholding activity on the user of the user device 26 recommending a certain number of other media items. The GUI 70 also may include a field for providing a recommendation withholding activity based on ‘MINUTES SINCE OUTGOING RECOMMENDATION SENT’ 80, which may include a time outgoing recommendation sent actuator 82 and a time outgoing recommendation sent selector 84. The time outgoing recommendation sent actuator 82 may be in the form of a radio button, and the time outgoing recommendation sent selector 84 may be in the form of a sliding bar with a time outgoing recommendation sent pointer 86. The time outgoing recommendation sent selector 84 conditions the recommendation withholding activity on a certain amount of time elapsing since the user of the user device 26 recommended the media item.
The user may select the recommendation withholding activity by selecting ‘NUMBER OF OUTGOING RECOMMENDATIONS SENT’ 72 by actuating the outgoing recommendations sent actuator 74 and establishing the number of outgoing recommendations sent by setting the outgoing recommendations sent pointer 78 on the outgoing recommendations sent selector 76. Alternatively, the user may select the recommendation withholding activity condition by selecting ‘MINUTES SINCE OUTGOING RECOMMENDATION SENT’ 80 by actuating the time outgoing recommendation sent actuator 82 and establishing the time that has elapsed since the outgoing recommendation was sent by setting the time outgoing recommendation sent pointer 86 on the time outgoing recommendation sent selector 84.
The GUI 88 may include a field for establishing a recommendation withholding activity based on ‘NUMBER OF INCOMING RECOMMENDATIONS RECIEVED’ 90, which may include an incoming recommendations received actuator 92 and an incoming recommendations received selector 94. The incoming recommendations received actuator 92 may be in the form of a radio button, and the incoming recommendations received selector 94 may be in the form of a sliding bar with an incoming recommendations received pointer 96. The incoming recommendations received selector 94 conditions the recommendation withholding activity on the user of user device 26 receiving a certain number of recommendations for other media items. The GUI 88 also may include a field for providing a recommendation withholding activity based on ‘MINUTES SINCE INCOMING RECOMMENDATION RECEIVED’ 98, which includes a time incoming recommendation received actuator 100 and a time incoming recommendation received selector 102. The time incoming recommendation received actuator 100 may be in the form of a radio button, and the time incoming recommendation received selector 102 may be in the form of a sliding bar with a time incoming recommendation received pointer 104. The time incoming recommendation received selector 102 conditions the recommendation withholding activity on a certain amount of time elapsing since the user of user device 26 received the media item recommendation message 40.
The user may establish the recommendation withholding activity based on ‘NUMBER OF INCOMING RECOMMENDATIONS RECIEVED’ 90 by actuating the incoming recommendations received actuator 92 and selecting the number of incoming recommendations received by setting the incoming recommendations received pointer 96 on the incoming recommendations received selector 94. Alternatively, the user may select the recommendation withholding activity based on ‘MINUTES SINCE INCOMING RECOMMENDATION RECEIVED’ 98 by actuating the time incoming recommendation received actuator 100 and selecting the time that has elapsed since the incoming recommendation was received by setting the time incoming recommendation received pointer 104 on the time incoming recommendation received selector 102.
To further discuss the determination whether to send or withhold the media item recommendation message 40 based on a recommendation withholding activity,
The central server 12 determines from the review of the record of activity that no recommendation withholding activity occurred involving the user device 26B and the user device 26N (step 314). The central server 12 then sends the media item (1) recommendation message 40A to the user device 26B (step 316) and the user device 26N (step 318).
The central server 12 determines from the review of the record of activity that a recommendation withholding activity occurred involving the user device 26A, but that no recommendation withholding activity occurred involving the user device 26N (step 334). The central server 12 then sends the media item (1) recommendation message 40B to the user device 26N (step 336). Notably, the central server 12 does not send the media item (1) recommendation message 40B to the user device 26A.
The central server 12 determines from the review of the record of activity that no recommendation withholding activity occurred involving the user device 26A, but that a recommendation withholding activity occurred involving the user device 26B (step 352). The central server 12 then sends the media item (1) recommendation message 40N to the user device 26A (step 354). Notably, the central server 12 does not send the media item (1) recommendation message 40N to the user device 26B.
As discussed above, reducing the repetitive reception of a media item recommendation may be effected, additionally and/or alternatively, by reducing the generation and transmission of implicit media item recommendation messages 40. Implicit media item recommendation messages 40 may be automatically generated and transmitted as a result of the user device 26 playing the media item. The user device 26 may automatically play the media item based on the order in which the media item is listed in the playlist 34. However, if the media item is listed multiple times in the playlist 34, the media item may be played multiple times based on each time the media item is listed in the playlist 34. Thus, the present invention can also include systems and methods to reduce and/or prevent the multiple listings of a media item in the playlist 34 even if the generation and transmission of media item recommendation messages 40 are not monitored and/or reduced. Also, both systems and methods may be used to reduce and/or prevent the multiple listings of a media item in the playlist 34. In this regard,
The process starts with the user device 26 receiving the media item recommendation message 40 for a media item from a recommender (step 400). The playlist 34 is then reviewed to determine whether there is a current listing of the media item in the playlist 34 (step 402). Information associated with the media item may also be listed in the playlist 34. The information may include, but not be limited to, the criteria discussed above, the identity of the recommender, the recommendation score, and the time the media item recommendation message 40 was received. A decision may then be made based on whether there is a current listing of the media item in the playlist 34 (step 404). If there is no current listing of the media item in the playlist 34, the media item recommendation and associated information, including, but not limited to, the identity of the recommender, the recommendation score, and the time of receipt of the media item recommendation message 40, may be stored in the playlist 34 (step 406). This is because adding the media item to the playlist 34 will not result in duplicative entries. However, if there is a current listing of the media item in the playlist 34, a resultant listing of the media item in the playlist 34 may be provided (step 408). As discussed above, a resultant listing is a listing of the media item in the playlist 34 that reduces and/or prevents duplication in the playlist 34. There are several methods of providing a resultant listing. Some are discussed by example below.
For example, if the current listing is based on a recommendation previously made by the recommender, the media item recommendation may be disregarded. This may prevent the recommender's playlist 34 from including media items resulting from previous recommendations to a user that are then forwarded back to the recommender, such as by a result of an automatic recommendation system based on play and/or usage. Because the current listing is based on a recommendation from the recommender of the media item recommendation message 40, the media item recommendation message may not include any new or additional information, and, therefore, the information associated with the media item may be redundant. In addition to the information being redundant, the redundant information could include a recommendation score that may inappropriately affect the media item score in the playlist 34. In such a case, the resultant listing in the playlist 34 would comprise the current listing without inclusion and/or adjustment of information in the playlist 34 based on the received media item recommendation.
Disregarding a media item recommendation may be an effective method of reducing and/or avoiding multiple listings of a media item in a playlist 34, but also may have the effect of disregarding information in the received media item that may be useful for other processing. This processing could include the time of receipt of the media item recommendation message 40, the storing of any presence information, and/or annotation that may be associated with the media item recommendation message 40. Thus, in an alternative embodiment, the resultant listing may be provided such that the information in the media item recommendation replaces the information in the current listing. The current listing may be based on a recommendation for the media item received a considerable amount of time in the past. As such, the information in the current listing may be old enough that, in effect, the information in the current listing may be stale and may have very little or no value.
Further, providing the resultant listing may comprise removing all information in the current listing if the media item is removed from the playlist 34. The playlist 34 may automatically remove media items for the playlist 34 due to certain conditions or criteria. One such exemplary condition may be the number of media items to be listed in the playlist 34. One such criteria may be genre, for example. The genre preferences of a recipient may have changed such that recommendations for media items in that genre are not scored as high as previously. Over time, the media items in that genre may start moving to the bottom of the playlist 34. If the media item recommendation message 40 is for a media item in that genre, a resultant listing may be outside of the allowed number of listings condition, particularly in view of other media item recommendation messages 40 received at about the same time for media items of a more preferred genre.
Another method of reducing and/or avoiding multiple listings of a media item in the playlist 34 may comprise merging information in the media item recommendation message 40 with information in the current listing in the playlist 34. Merging the information associated with the media item recommendation message 40 with the information currently listed in the playlist 34 may be performed in various ways. For example, the resultant listing in the playlist 34 may comprise updating the current listing to reflect the time of receiving the media item recommendation message 40.
In another example, merging the information to provide the resultant listing may be accomplished using an algorithm. The algorithm may be applied to the recommendation score in the media item recommendation message 40. The recommendation score may be based on various criteria and weighting applied to the criteria. The criteria may comprise title, author, date of release, genre, the number of times the media item was played, and the number of times the media item was recommended, for example. An example of a method and system for scoring or rating media items is described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/484,130, entitled “P2P NETWORK FOR PROVIDING REAL TIME MEDIA RECOMMENDATIONS,” filed Jul. 11, 2006, which was incorporated herein by reference in its entirety above. Another example of a method and system for scoring or rating media items is described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/695,327, entitled “RATING MEDIA ITEM RECOMMENDATIONS USING RECOMMENDATION PATHS AND/OR MEDIA ITEM USAGE,” filed Apr. 2, 2007, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Different algorithms may be used to compute a merged score based on the following:
The merit amount may be included to take into account the reception of multiple recommendation scores of certain values to provide a merged score more representative of the media item being recommended than may result from using one of the other algorithms. For example, averaging three equal recommendation scores may not result in a merged score that accurately reflects the popularity of the media item.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, if there are three or more recommendation scores to be merged, and the recommendation scores are all equal or a majority of the recommendation scores are above a midrange value, then the merged score will be a score based on the highest recommendation score received increased by a predetermined merit amount, but not to exceed an absolute maximum which may be allowed. The midrange value may be defined as the highest recommendation score plus the lowest recommendation score divided by 2 ((max. score+min. score)/2). The predetermined amount may be any amount or value including, but not limited to, a percentage, such as ten percent (10%) of the highest recommendation score, for example. The predetermined amount may be selected by the user or may be a default value. For example, if three recommendation scores of 80, 80, and 20 are received, the midrange value may be calculated as (80+20)/2=50. Because a majority of the three received recommendation scores are above the midrange value of 50, the highest recommendation score of 80 may be increased by 10%, or 8, for a merged score of 88.
In this manner, multiple listings of the same media item and redundant information from media item recommendation messages 40 are not included in the playlist 34, but new and/or updated information in the media item recommendation message 40 may be included in the playlist 34. The above examples are not intended to be inclusive of all the ways to merge the associated information of the media item recommendation message 40 in a playlist 34 and, accordingly, the present invention is not limited to the above examples.
The above table shows that the user device 26A received three media item (1) recommendation messages 40 ‘MI(1),’ one each from the user B, the user N, and the user C. The table also shows that the user device 26A received one media item (2) recommendation message 40 ‘MI(2)’ from the user B and two media item (3) recommendation messages 40 ‘MI(3)’ from the user C.
The time column 110 shows only the time of the last received recommendation for that media item. The score column 112 shows the merged score of the media item. The user device 26A received three media item recommendations for media item (1) from recommenders ‘B,’‘C,’ and ‘N.’ The user of the user device 26A elected the algorithm that averages the recommendation scores of the received media item (1) recommendation messages 40 to compute the merged score listed in the playlist 34A. The merged score is shown in the score column 112 for the media item (1) as ‘90,’ which is the average of the three scores received for the media item (1). The playlist 34A lists the media items in the order of their merged scores, with the highest merged score first, which is ‘90’ for media item (1), descending to the lowest merged score, which is ‘80’ for media item (2).
Fields for six different algorithms for computing the merged score from multiple media item recommendation messages 40 are shown. Each of the fields include a selector associated with that field which may be in the form of a radio button. The user may select: ‘HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION SCORE’ 116 by actuating a highest score selector 118; ‘MEDIAN RECOMMENDATION SCORE’ 120 by actuating a median score selector 122; ‘AVERAGE RECOMMENDATION SCORE’ 124 by actuating an average score selector 126; ‘FIRST RECOMMENDATION SCORE’ 128 by actuating a first score selector 130; ‘LAST RECOMMENDATION SCORE’ 132 by actuating a last score selector 134; and ‘HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION SCORE PLUS MERIT AMOUNT’ 136 by actuating a highest recommendation score plus merit amount selector 138. If the ‘HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION SCORE PLUS MERIT AMOUNT’ 136 is selected, the merged score may be higher than the highest recommendation score to provide a merged score more representative of the media item being recommended.
The functionality of the present invention can be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with a computer-related system or method. In the context of the present invention, a computer-readable medium is an electronic, magnetic, optical, semiconductor, or other device or means that can transmit, contain, or store computer instructions, programs, or data for use by or in connection with a computer-related system or method.
Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the preferred embodiments of the present invention. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.
The present application is related to commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed Aug. 13, 2007, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REDUCING THE MULTIPLE LISTING OF A MEDIA ITEM IN A PLAYLIST,” which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
