SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING AN EXECUTION PATH FOR A NATURAL LANGUAGE QUERY

BACKGROUND

In conventional systems, users have access to a wide variety of media and information such as television programs and sports scores. Often, a user may wish to search for information using a hands-free interface, such as using voice control. Conventional systems may allow a user to perform a search using a voice command. However, some systems only recognize a fixed number of search queries because input voice searches are matched directly to the fixed queries themselves. Other systems attempt to determine the user's intent regarding entities specified in the user's query using pre-specified rules or models. However, this user experience may be cumbersome and non-intuitive for a typical user.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are described to address shortcomings in conventional conversation systems by determining an execution path for a natural language query using questions and answers and selecting the path in a knowledge graph based on the entities in the questions and answers and the user's feedback. The systems and methods may be implemented via an interactive media guidance application running on a user device, a remote server, or another suitable device. The interactive media guidance application may be implemented partially on multiple devices such that some portions of the interactive media guidance application are executed on one device while other portions of the interactive media guidance application are executed on another device.

The interactive media guidance application determines a correct response of the plurality of possible responses based on feedback from the user. For example, the user is presented with the possible responses, and the user selects the correct response, i.e., “James Cameron.” The interactive media guidance application selects an execution path for the query based on the correct response. For example, the interactive media guidance application selects the execution path for the query to be the director edge from the input entity to the correct response. This learning may be generalized to answer any query of similar form such as “Who directed Batman.”

In some embodiments, the user provides partial, wrong, or ambiguous feedback on the possible responses to the query. The interactive media guidance application may present the same or similar query to multiple users and select the most probable execution path. For example, the interactive media guidance application may present the query to three different users or present the query three times to the same user at different times. Two of the user-selected responses may indicate the director edge from the input entity to the correct response to be the execution path for the query. The interactive media guidance application may select the director edge from the input entity to the correct response to be the execution path as this is the most probable option.

In some aspects, the systems and methods described provide for determining an execution path for a natural language query presented to an interactive media guidance application. The interactive media guidance application receives, from a user, a query including an input entity and an unknown term. The interactive media guidance application retrieves, from a knowledge graph, a first possible response and a second possible response for the query. The first possible response is derived via a first execution path for the query, and the second possible response is derived via a second execution path for the query. The interactive media guidance application generates for display an interactive media guidance screen including at least one of the first possible response and the second possible response. The interactive media guidance application receives input from the user indicating feedback on the at least one of the first possible response and the second possible response. The interactive media guidance application determines a correct response to the query based on the feedback. The interactive media guidance application selects one of the first execution path and the second execution path for the query based on the correct response.

For example, the interactive media guidance application may receive a query, “For which movie did Morgan Freeman win an Academy Award,” including input entities “Morgan Freeman” and “Academy Award” and unknown term “win.” The interactive media guidance application may retrieve from the knowledge graph two sets of possible responses, a first set corresponding to movies for which Morgan Freeman was a nominee for an Academy Award (e.g., “Shawshank Redemption,” “Invictus,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” and “Million Dollar Baby”) and a second set corresponding to a movie for which Morgan Freeman was a winner of an Academy Award (e.g., “Million Dollar Baby”). The interactive media guidance application may generate for display an interactive media guidance screen including the sets of possible responses. Additionally or alternatively, the interactive media guidance application may respond using natural language speech “Did you mean Shawshank Redemption.”

The interactive media guidance application may receive input from the user indicating feedback that Million Dollar Baby is the correct response. Alternatively or additionally, the interactive media guidance application may receive input from the user indicating feedback that Shawshank Redemption is not the correct response. The interactive media guidance application may determine the correct response to the query based on the feedback. The interactive media guidance application may select the execution path for this query based on the correct response, Million Dollar Baby. In this manner, the interactive media guidance application may learn how to evaluate this query and/or queries with similar form in terms of traversing the knowledge graph to retrieve the correct response.

In some embodiments, the first possible response is derived via the first execution path by traversing one or more nodes in the knowledge graph from the input entity to the first possible response. For example, a first possible response “Shawshank Redemption” may be derived via the first execution path by traversing the nominee edge from the input entity to the correct response.

In some embodiments, the second possible response is derived via the second execution path by traversing one or more nodes in the knowledge graph from the input entity to the second possible response. For example, the second possible response “Million Dollar Baby” may be derived via the second execution path by traversing the winner edge from the input entity to the correct response.

In some embodiments, the input from the user indicating feedback includes a selection of one of the first possible response and the second possible response from the interactive media guidance screen. For example, the input from the user may indicate a selection of “Million Dollar Baby” from the interactive media guidance screen displaying the first and second set of possible responses.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application determines the correct response to the query by assigning the user selection of one of the first possible response and the second possible response as the correct response. For example, the interactive media guidance application may assign the user selection of “Million Dollar Baby” as the correct response.

In some embodiments, the input from the user indicating feedback comprises one of an indication that the first possible response is correct and an indication that the first possible response is incorrect. For example, in response to “Did you mean Shawshank Redemption,” the input from the user may indicate feedback that Shawshank Redemption is an incorrect response.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application determines the correct response to the query by assigning the first response as the correct response, if the feedback comprises the indication that the first possible response is correct, and assigning the second response as the correct response, if the feedback comprises the indication that the first possible response is incorrect. For example, in response to “Did you mean Shawshank Redemption” and in the case where the other possible response is “Million Dollar Baby,” the interactive media guidance application may assign Million Dollar Baby as the correct response because the feedback from the user comprises an indication that Shawshank Redemption is an incorrect response.

In some embodiments, the query is referenced to as a first query, the input entity is referenced to as a first input entity, and the correct response is referenced to as a first correct response. The interactive media guidance application receives, from the user, a second query similar in form to the first query and including a second input entity and the unknown term. For example, the interactive media guidance application may receive the query “For which movie did Matthew McConaughey win an Academy Award.” The interactive media guidance application retrieves, from the knowledge graph, a second correct response for the second query based on the selected execution path for the first query. For example, the interactive media guidance application may retrieve from the knowledge graph the correct response “Dallas Buyers Club” based on the selected execution path.

In some embodiments, the selected execution path comprises traversal of one or more nodes in the knowledge graph from the input entity to the correct response. For example, the selected execution path may comprise traversing the winner edge from the input entity to the correct response.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application retrieves the second correct response for the second query based on the selected execution path for the first query by traversing one or more nodes in the knowledge graph from the second input entity to the second correct response. For example, the interactive media guidance application may retrieve from the knowledge graph the correct response “Dallas Buyers Club” based on the selected execution path by traversing the winner edge from the input entity to the correct response.

Some conventional systems only recognize a fixed number of search queries because input voice searches are matched directly to the fixed queries themselves. Other conventional systems attempt to determine the user's intent regarding entities specified in the user's query using pre-specified rules or models. However, this user experience may be cumbersome and non-intuitive for a typical user. The systems and methods described address shortcomings in conventional conversation systems by determining an execution path for a natural language query using questions and answers and selecting the path in a knowledge graph based on the entities in the questions and answers and the user's feedback. Unlike conventional systems, the described systems and methods do not require determining intent of the query. Instead, the systems and methods generalize and learn the execution path for a query such as “Who directed Titanic” to answer any query of similar form such as “Who directed Batman.” In this manner, the systems and methods may learn how to evaluate this query and/or queries with similar form in terms of traversing the knowledge graph to retrieve the correct response.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen generated by an interactive media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen generated by an interactive media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows yet another illustrative example of a display screen generated by an interactive media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative visual representation of a subset of a knowledge graph in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows yet another illustrative example of a display screen generated by an interactive media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows yet another illustrative example of a display screen generated by an interactive media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for determining an execution path for a natural language query presented to an interactive media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for determining a correct response to a user query depending on feedback from the user in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are described to address shortcomings in conventional conversation systems by determining an execution path for a natural language query using questions and answers and selecting the path in a knowledge graph based on the entities in the questions and answers and the user's feedback. The systems and methods may be implemented via an interactive media guidance application running on a user device (e.g., user equipment device 700 (FIG. 7)), a remote server (e.g., server 816 or 818 (FIG. 8)), or another suitable device. The interactive media guidance application may be implemented partially on multiple devices such that some portions of the interactive media guidance application are executed on one device while other portions of the interactive media guidance application are executed on another device.

In some aspects, the systems and methods described provide for determining an execution path for a natural language query presented to an interactive media guidance application executed on control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 704 (FIG. 7)). The control circuitry receives, from a user, a query including an input entity and an unknown term. For example, the query, “Who directed Titanic,” may include input entity, “The Titanic,” and unknown term “directed.” The control circuitry retrieves, from a knowledge graph, a plurality of possible responses for the query. For example, the control circuitry may retrieve possible responses based on the entities having a graph connection with the input entity including “Leonardo DiCaprio,” “Kate Winslet,” and “James Cameron.”

The control circuitry determines a correct response of the plurality of possible responses based on feedback from the user. For example, the user is presented with the possible responses, and the user selects the correct response, i.e., “James Cameron.” The control circuitry selects an execution path for the query based on the correct response. For example, the control circuitry selects the execution path for the query to be the director edge from the input entity to the correct response. This learning may be generalized to answer any query of similar form such as “Who directed Batman.”

In some embodiments, the user provides partial, wrong, or ambiguous feedback on the possible responses to the query. The control circuitry may present the same or similar query to multiple users and select the most probable execution path. For example, the control circuitry may present the query to three different users or present the query three times to the same user at different times. Two of the user-selected responses may indicate the director edge from the input entity to the correct response to be the execution path for the query. The control circuitry may select the director edge from the input entity to the correct response to be the execution path as this is the most probable option.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen 100 generated by an interactive media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. The interactive media guidance application may receive query 102, “For which movie did Morgan Freeman win an Academy Award,” including input entities “Morgan Freeman” and “Academy Award.” In this example, the interactive media guidance application has been previously trained on a similar query and retrieves from the knowledge graph and generates for display the correct response 104, “Million Dollar Baby.” The interactive media guidance application may receive, from the user, query 102 similar in form to the previously trained on similar query and including an input entity and an unknown term. The interactive media guidance application may retrieve, from the knowledge graph, a correct response for query 102 based on the selected execution path for the previously trained on similar query. The interactive media guidance application may retrieve from the knowledge graph the correct response 104, “Million Dollar Baby,” based on the selected execution path.

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen 200 generated by an interactive media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. The interactive media guidance application may receive query 202, “For which movie did Morgan Freeman win an Academy Award,” including input entities “Morgan Freeman” and “Academy Award.” In this example, the interactive media guidance application has not yet been trained on a similar query. The interactive media guidance application may retrieve, from a knowledge graph, a first possible response and a second possible response for the query. The first possible response is derived via a first execution path for the query, and the second possible response is derived via a second execution path for the query (described further with respect to FIG. 4 below). The interactive media guidance application may retrieve from the knowledge graph two sets of possible responses, a first set corresponding to movies for which Morgan Freeman was a nominee for an Academy Award (e.g., “Shawshank Redemption,” “Invictus,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” and “Million Dollar Baby”) and a second set corresponding to a movie for which Morgan Freeman was a winner of an Academy Award (e.g., “Million Dollar Baby”).

The interactive media guidance application may generate for display an interactive media guidance screen including one of the possible responses 204, e.g, “Million Dollar Baby.” Additionally or alternatively, the interactive media guidance application may respond using natural language speech “Did you mean Million Dollar Baby.” The interactive media guidance application may receive input from the user indicating feedback that Million Dollar Baby is the correct response. The interactive media guidance application may determine a correct response to the query based on the feedback. The interactive media guidance application may select the execution path for the query corresponding to the correct response. In this manner, the interactive media guidance application may learn how to evaluate this query and/or queries with similar form in terms of traversing the knowledge graph to retrieve the correct response.

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative example of a display screen 300 generated by an interactive media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. The interactive media guidance application may receive query 302, “For which movie did Morgan Freeman win an Academy Award,” including input entities “Morgan Freeman” and “Academy Award.” In this example, the interactive media guidance application has not yet been trained on a similar query. The interactive media guidance application may retrieve, from a knowledge graph, a first possible response and a second possible response for the query. The first possible response is derived via a first execution path for the query, and the second possible response is derived via a second execution path for the query (described further with respect to FIG. 4 below). The interactive media guidance application may retrieve from the knowledge graph two sets of possible responses, a first set corresponding to movies for which Morgan Freeman was a nominee for an Academy Award (e.g., “Shawshank Redemption,” “Invictus,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” and “Million Dollar Baby”) and a second set corresponding to a movie for which Morgan Freeman was a winner of an Academy Award (e.g., “Million Dollar Baby”).

The interactive media guidance application may generate for display an interactive media guidance screen including the possible responses 304 and 306. The interactive media guidance application may receive input from the user indicating feedback on the possible responses. The input from the user indicating feedback may include a selection of one of the first possible response and the second possible response from the interactive media guidance screen. The user may confirm his or her selection via option 308 or cancel his or her selection via option 310. For example, the input from the user may indicate a selection of “Million Dollar Baby” from the interactive media guidance screen displaying the first and second possible responses. The interactive media guidance application may determine a correct response to the query based on the feedback. The interactive media guidance application may determine the correct response to the query by assigning the user selection of one of the possible responses as the correct response. For example, the interactive media guidance application may assign the user selection of “Million Dollar Baby” as the correct response. The interactive media guidance application may select the execution path for the query corresponding to the correct response.

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative visual representation of a subset of a knowledge graph 400 including nodes 402-416 in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. One or more possible responses to a user query are derived via execution paths by traversing one or more of nodes 402-416 in the knowledge graph from the input entity to the first possible response. Taking the example query discussed with respect to FIGS. 1-3, “For which movie did Morgan Freeman win an Academy Award,” a first possible response “Shawshank Redemption” may be derived via the execution path by traversing the nominee edge from the input entity “Morgan Freeman” 404 to possible response “Shawshank Redemption” via intermediate node 410. Similarly, a second possible response “Million Dollar Baby” may be derived via the execution path by traversing the winner edge from the input entity “Morgan Freeman” 404 to possible response “Million Dollar Baby” via intermediate node 402. The selected execution path corresponding to the correct response for the query may comprise traversal of one or more of nodes 412-416 in the knowledge graph from the input entity to the correct response. For example, the selected execution path may comprise traversing the winner edge from the input entity to the correct response.

In some embodiments, the natural language query, “For which movie did Morgan Freeman win an Academy Award,” can be represented as a SPARQL query. SPARQL (a recursive acronym for SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language) is an RDF (Resource Description Framework) query language that is a semantic query language for databases. SPARQL is able to retrieve and manipulate data stored in RDF format. Additional information is described in greater detail at the SPARQL website, www.w3.org/TR/sparq111-query, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

In this illustrative example, there are two sets of possible responses, Possibility 1 (Million Dollar Baby) and Possibility 2 (Shawshank Redemption, Driving Miss Daisy, Invictus, Million Dollar Baby). The SPARQL query for each set of possible responses may represent an execution path corresponding to the set of possible responses. The SPARQL queries for each set of possible answers may be represented as:

Possibility 1: Million Dollar Baby

Select ?awarded_movie where

{

?uri://mogran_freeman ?winner ?intermediate_node

?intermediate_node ?award ?uri://academy_award

?intermediate_node ?movie ?uri://million_dollar_baby

}

Possibility 2: Shawshank Redemption, Driving Miss Daisy, Invictus, Million Dollar Baby

Select ?nominated_movie where

{

?uri://mogran_freeman ?nominee ?intermediate_node

?intermediate_node ?award ?uri://academy_award

?intermediate_node ?movie ?uri://million_dollar_baby

?intermediate_node ?movie ?uri://driving_miss_daisy

?intermediate_node ?movie ?uri://shawshank_redemption

?intermediate_node ?movie ?uri://invictus

}

For example, in FIG. 3, subsequent to input from the user indicating a selection of “Million Dollar Baby” from the interactive media guidance screen, the interactive media guidance application may determine the correct response to the query to be “Million Dollar Baby.” The interactive media guidance application may select the execution path for the query corresponding to the correct response by selecting the SPARQL query corresponding to the correct response “Million Dollar Baby.”

The amount of content available to users in any given content delivery system can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form of media guidance through an interface that allows users to efficiently navigate content selections and easily identify content that they may desire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to herein as an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, an interactive media guidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms depending on the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type of interactive media guidance application is an interactive television program guide. Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to as electronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that, among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many types of content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications may generate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigate among, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms “media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean an electronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information, pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/or combination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term “multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at least two different content forms described above, for example, text, audio, images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded, played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also be part of a live performance.

The interactive media guidance application and/or any instructions for performing any of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computer readable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable of storing data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including, but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals, or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processor caches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speed wireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment devices on which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase “user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronic device,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “media device” should be understood to mean any device for accessing the content described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-top box, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellite television, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), a digital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, a BLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PC media server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationary telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a portable video player, a portable music player, a portable gaming machine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computing equipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screen and a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angled screens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipment devices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same content available through a television. Consequently, media guidance may be available on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be for content available only through a television, for content available only through one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or for content available both through a television and one or more of the other types of user equipment devices. The interactive media guidance applications may be provided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a website), or as stand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Various devices and platforms that may implement interactive media guidance applications are described in more detail below.

One of the functions of the interactive media guidance application is to provide media guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “media guidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any data related to content or data used in operating the guidance application. For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidance application settings, user preferences, user profile information, media listings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parental control ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information, actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D, etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type of guidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locate desired content selections.

FIGS. 5-6 show illustrative display screens that may be used to provide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 5-6 may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While the displays of FIGS. 5-6 are illustrated as full screen displays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access content information by selecting a selectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user input interface or device. In response to the user's indication, the interactive media guidance application may provide a display screen with media guidance data organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories of programming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organization criteria.

FIG. 5 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 500 arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different types of content in a single display. Display 500 may include grid 502 with: (1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 504, where each channel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column) identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers 506, where each time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 502 also includes cells of program listings, such as program listing 508, where each listing provides the title of the program provided on the listing's associated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can select program listings by moving highlight region 510. Information relating to the program listing selected by highlight region 510 may be provided in program information region 512. Region 512 may include, for example, the program title, the program description, the time the program is provided (if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), the program's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., content that is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipment devices at a predetermined time and is provided according to a schedule), the interactive media guidance application also provides access to non-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipment device at any time and is not provided according to a schedule). Non-linear programming may include content from different content sources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content (e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above or other storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demand content may include movies or any other content provided by a particular content provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time Warner Company L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM are trademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc.

Internet content may include web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or content available on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content through an Internet website or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 502 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programming including on-demand listing 514, recorded content listing 516, and Internet content listing 518. A display combining media guidance data for content from different types of content sources is sometimes referred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of the types of media guidance data that may be displayed that are different than display 500 may be based on user selection or guidance application definition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings, only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings 514, 516, and 518 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayed in grid 502 to indicate that selection of these listings may provide access to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings, or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings for these content types may be included directly in grid 502. Additional media guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selecting one of the navigational icons 520. (Pressing an arrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a similar manner as selecting navigational icons 520.)

Display 500 may also include video region 522, and options region 526. Video region 522 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs that are currently available, will be available, or were available to the user. The content of video region 522 may correspond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 502. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referred to as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other interactive media guidance application display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 526 may allow the user to access different types of content, interactive media guidance application displays, and/or interactive media guidance application features. Options region 526 may be part of display 500 (and other display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignable button on a user input device. The selectable options within options region 526 may concern features related to program listings in grid 502 or may include options available from a main menu display. Features related to program listings may include searching for other air times or ways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling series recording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite, purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a main menu display may include search options, VOD options, parental control options, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronization options, second screen device options, options to access various types of media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premium service, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browse overlay, or other options.

The interactive media guidance application may be personalized based on a user's preferences. A personalized interactive media guidance application allows a user to customize displays and features to create a personalized “experience” with the interactive media guidance application. This personalized experience may be created by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by the interactive media guidance application monitoring user activity to determine various user preferences. Users may access their personalized guidance application by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to the guidance application. Customization of the interactive media guidance application may be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations may include varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays, font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g., only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channels based on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display of channels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g., recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality, etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internet content (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail, electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desired customizations.

The interactive media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profile information or may automatically compile user profile information. The interactive media guidance application may, for example, monitor the content the user accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with the guidance application. Additionally, the interactive media guidance application may obtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to a particular user (e.g., from other websites on the Internet the user accesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other interactive media guidance applications the user accesses, from other interactive applications the user accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that the interactive media guidance application may access. As a result, a user can be provided with a unified guidance application experience across the user's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience is described in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 8. Additional personalized interactive media guidance application features are described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown in FIG. 6. Video mosaic display 600 includes selectable options 602 for content information organized based on content type, genre, and/or other organization criteria. In display 600, television listings option 604 is selected, thus providing listings 606, 608, 610, and 612 as broadcast program listings. In display 600 the listings may provide graphical images including cover art, still images from the content, video clip previews, live video from the content, or other types of content that indicate to a user the content being described by the media guidance data in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also be accompanied by text to provide further information about the content associated with the listing. For example, listing 608 may include more than one portion, including media portion 614 and text portion 616. Media portion 614 and/or text portion 616 may be selectable to view content in full-screen or to view information related to the content displayed in media portion 614 (e.g., to view listings for the channel that the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 600 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 606 is larger than listings 608, 610, and 612), but if desired, all the listings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes or graphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user or to emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider or based on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphically accentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the interactive media guidance application (and its display screens described above and below) from one or more of their user equipment devices. FIG. 7 shows a generalized embodiment of illustrative user equipment device 700. More specific implementations of user equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 8. User equipment device 700 may receive content and data via input/output (hereinafter “I/O”) path 702. I/O path 702 may provide content (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, content available over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 704, which includes processing circuitry 706 and storage 708. Control circuitry 704 may be used to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable data using I/O path 702. I/O path 702 may connect control circuitry 704 (and specifically processing circuitry 706) to one or more communications paths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 704 may be based on any suitable processing circuitry such as processing circuitry 706. As referred to herein, processing circuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may include a multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or any suitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments, processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separate processors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same type of processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multiple different processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Core i7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 704 executes instructions for an interactive media guidance application stored in memory (i.e., storage 708). Specifically, control circuitry 704 may be instructed by the interactive media guidance application to perform the functions discussed above and below. For example, the interactive media guidance application may provide instructions to control circuitry 704 to generate the media guidance displays. In some implementations, any action performed by control circuitry 704 may be based on instructions received from the interactive media guidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 704 may include communications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidance application server or other networks or servers. The instructions for carrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on the guidance application server. Communications circuitry may include a cable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card, or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or any other suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involve the Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths (which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 8). In addition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enables peer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communication of user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (described in more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 708 that is part of control circuitry 704. As referred to herein, the phrase “electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood to mean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, or firmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives, optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD) recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders, digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal video recorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gaming consoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storage devices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 708 may be used to store various types of content described herein as well as media guidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used (e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-based storage, described in relation to FIG. 8, may be used to supplement storage 708 or instead of storage 708.

Control circuitry 704 may include video generating circuitry and tuning circuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2 decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, or any other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of such circuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog, or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided. Control circuitry 704 may also include scaler circuitry for upconverting and downconverting content into the preferred output format of the user equipment 700. Circuitry 704 may also include digital-to-analog converter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and to display, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encoding circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or more general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may be provided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and record functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording, etc.). If storage 708 is provided as a separate device from user equipment 700, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multiple tuners) may be associated with storage 708.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 704 using user input interface 710. User input interface 710 may be any suitable user interface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard, touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognition interface, or other user input interfaces. Display 712 may be provided as a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of user equipment device 700. For example, display 712 may be a touchscreen or touch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 710 may be integrated with or combined with display 712. Display 712 may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature poly silicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images. In some embodiments, display 712 may be HDTV-capable. In some embodiments, display 712 may be a 3D display, and the interactive media guidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. A video card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 712. The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be any processing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry 704. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 704. Speakers 714 may be provided as integrated with other elements of user equipment device 700 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component of videos and other content displayed on display 712 may be played through speakers 714. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to a receiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers 714.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitable architecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone application wholly-implemented on user equipment device 700. In such an approach, instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage 708), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodic basis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, or using another suitable approach). Control circuitry 704 may retrieve instructions of the application from storage 708 and process the instructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based on the processed instructions, control circuitry 704 may determine what action to perform when input is received from input interface 710. For example, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated by the processed instructions when input interface 710 indicates that an up/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application is a client-server based application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented on user equipment device 700 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests to a server remote to the user equipment device 700. In one example of a client-server based guidance application, control circuitry 704 runs a web browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. For example, the remote server may store the instructions for the application in a storage device. The remote server may process the stored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 704) and generate the displays discussed above and below. The client device may receive the displays generated by the remote server and may display the content of the displays locally on equipment device 700. This way, the processing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server while the resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 700. Equipment device 700 may receive inputs from the user via input interface 710 and transmit those inputs to the remote server for processing and generating the corresponding displays. For example, equipment device 700 may transmit a communication to the remote server indicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 710. The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that input and generate a display of the application corresponding to the input (e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display is then transmitted to equipment device 700 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application is downloaded and interpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (run by control circuitry 704). In some embodiments, the guidance application may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received by control circuitry 704 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 704. For example, the guidance application may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 704. In some of such embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital media encoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encoded and transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio and video packets of a program.

User equipment device 700 of FIG. 7 can be implemented in system 800 of FIG. 8 as user television equipment 802, user computer equipment 804, wireless user communications device 806, or any other type of user equipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gaming machine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to herein collectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may be substantially similar to user equipment devices described above. User equipment devices, on which an interactive media guidance application may be implemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of a network of devices. Various network configurations of devices may be implemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system features described above in connection with FIG. 7 may not be classified solely as user television equipment 802, user computer equipment 804, or a wireless user communications device 806. For example, user television equipment 802 may, like some user computer equipment 804, be Internet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while user computer equipment 804 may, like some television equipment 802, include a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The interactive media guidance application may have the same layout on various different types of user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of the user equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 804, the guidance application may be provided as a website accessed by a web browser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled down for wireless user communications devices 806.

In system 800, there is typically more than one of each type of user equipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 8 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize more than one type of user equipment device and also more than one of each type of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user television equipment 802, user computer equipment 804, wireless user communications device 806) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example, a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first user equipment device. The content presented on the second screen device may be any suitable content that supplements the content presented on the first device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides an interface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the first device. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured for interacting with other second screen devices or for interacting with a social network. The second screen device can be located in the same room as the first device, a different room from the first device but in the same house or building, or in a different building from the first device.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent interactive media guidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices. Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and program favorites, programming preferences that the guidance application utilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, and other desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channel as a favorite on, for example, the website www.allrovi.com on their personal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as a favorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipment and user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, if desired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can change the guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless of whether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device. In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user, as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 814. Namely, user television equipment 802, user computer equipment 804, and wireless user communications device 806 are coupled to communications network 814 via communications paths 808, 810, and 812, respectively. Communications network 814 may be one or more networks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a 4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, or other types of communications network or combinations of communications networks. Paths 808, 810, and 812 may separately or together include one or more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths. Path 812 is drawn with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 8 it is a wireless path and paths 808 and 810 are drawn as solid lines to indicate they are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, if desired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 8 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipment devices, these devices may communicate directly with each other via communication paths, such as those described above in connection with paths 808, 810, and 812, as well as other short-range point-to-point communication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wireless paths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or other short-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is a certification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipment devices may also communicate with each other directly through an indirect path via communications network 814.

System 800 includes content source 816 and media guidance data source 818 coupled to communications network 814 via communication paths 820 and 822, respectively. Paths 820 and 822 may include any of the communication paths described above in connection with paths 808, 810, and 812. Communications with the content source 816 and media guidance data source 818 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 8 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of content source 816 and media guidance data source 818, but only one of each is shown in FIG. 8 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The different types of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, content source 816 and media guidance data source 818 may be integrated as one source device. Although communications between sources 816 and 818 with user equipment devices 802, 804, and 806 are shown as through communications network 814, in some embodiments, sources 816 and 818 may communicate directly with user equipment devices 802, 804, and 806 via communication paths (not shown) such as those described above in connection with paths 808, 810, and 812.

Content source 816 may include one or more types of content distribution equipment including a television distribution facility, cable system headend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demand media servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned by the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by the American Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Content source 816 may be the originator of content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) or may not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand content provider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs for downloading, etc.). Content source 816 may include cable sources, satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers, over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Content source 816 may also include a remote media server used to store different types of content (including video content selected by a user), in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems and methods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely stored content to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connection with Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 818 may provide media guidance data, such as the media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may be provided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-alone interactive television program guide that receives program guide data via a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Program schedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the user equipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digital signal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitable data transmission technique. Program schedule data and other media guidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog or digital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 818 may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. For example, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from a server, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipment device. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing on the user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 818 to obtain guidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of date or when the user equipment device receives a request from the user to receive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment with any suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specified period of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to a request from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 818 may provide user equipment devices 802, 804, and 806 the interactive media guidance application itself or software updates for the interactive media guidance application.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data. For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical user activity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches, what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interacts with a social network, at what times the user interacts with a social network to post information, what types of content the user typically watches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information, etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. For example, the subscription data may identify to which sources or services a given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the given user has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g., whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user has added a premium level of services, whether the user has increased Internet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or the subscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period of more than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., a survivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihood a given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, the interactive media guidance application may process the viewer data with the subscription data using the model to generate a value or score that indicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate access to a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score may indicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminate access to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the interactive media guidance application may generate promotions that entice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Interactive media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, the interactive media guidance application may be implemented as software or a set of executable instructions which may be stored in storage 708, and executed by control circuitry 704 of a user equipment device 700. In some embodiments, interactive media guidance applications may be client-server applications where only a client application resides on the user equipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. For example, interactive media guidance applications may be implemented partially as a client application on control circuitry 704 of user equipment device 700 and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., media guidance data source 818) running on control circuitry of the remote server. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such as media guidance data source 818), the interactive media guidance application may instruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance application displays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipment devices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry of the media guidance data source 818 to transmit data for storage on the user equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry of the receiving user equipment to generate the guidance application displays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices 802, 804, and 806 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT content delivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any user equipment device described above, to receive content that is transferred over the Internet, including any content described above, in addition to content received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content is delivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet service provider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP may not be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, or redistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets provided by the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers include YOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IP packets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is a trademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu, LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively provide media guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or media guidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute interactive media guidance applications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications), or the content can be displayed by interactive media guidance applications stored on the user equipment device.

Media guidance system 800 is intended to illustrate a number of approaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devices and sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each other for the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. The embodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset of these approaches, or in a system employing other approaches for delivering content and providing media guidance. The following four approaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example of FIG. 8.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each other within a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with each other directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemes described above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similar device provided on a home network, or via communications network 814. Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate different user equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may be desirable for various media guidance information or settings to be communicated between the different user equipment devices. For example, it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent interactive media guidance application settings on different user equipment devices within a home network, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types of user equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with each other to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content from user computer equipment to a portable video player or portable music player.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment by which they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, some users may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobile devices. Users may control in-home devices via an interactive media guidance application implemented on a remote device. For example, users may access an online interactive media guidance application on a website via a personal computer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA or web-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g., recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidance application to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guide may control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with an interactive media guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Various systems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where the user equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, is discussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issued Oct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outside a home can use their interactive media guidance application to communicate directly with content source 816 to access content. Specifically, within a home, users of user television equipment 802 and user computer equipment 804 may access the interactive media guidance application to navigate among and locate desirable content. Users may also access the interactive media guidance application outside of the home using wireless user communications devices 806 to navigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloud computing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computing environment, various types of computing services for content sharing, storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networking sites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing and storage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloud can include a collection of server computing devices, which may be located centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-based services to various types of users and devices connected via a network such as the Internet via communications network 814. These cloud resources may include one or more content sources 816 and one or more media guidance data sources 818. In addition or in the alternative, the remote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such as user television equipment 802, user computer equipment 804, and wireless user communications device 806. For example, the other user equipment devices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamed video. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in a peer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, content sharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well as access to any content described above, for user equipment devices. Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing service providers, or through other providers of online services. For example, the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, a content sharing site, a social networking site, or other services via which user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others on connected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipment device to store content to the cloud and to receive content from the cloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-stored content.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders, digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, and handheld computing devices, to record content. The user can upload content to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, for example, from user computer equipment 804 or wireless user communications device 806 having content capture feature. Alternatively, the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, such as user computer equipment 804. The user equipment device storing the content uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmission service on communications network 814. In some embodiments, the user equipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipment devices can access the content directly from the user equipment device on which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, for example, a web browser, an interactive media guidance application, a desktop application, a mobile application, and/or any combination of access applications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloud client that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or the user equipment device may have some functionality without access to cloud resources. For example, some applications running on the user equipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications delivered as a service over the Internet, while other applications may be stored and run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user device may receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. For example, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource while downloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device can download content from multiple cloud resources for more efficient downloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloud resources for processing operations such as the processing operations performed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 7.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as a result of. For example, a first action being performed in response to a second action may include interstitial steps between the first action and the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly in response to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action being performed directly in response to a second action may not include interstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an illustrative process 900 for control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 704) to determine an execution path for a natural language query presented to an interactive media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In some embodiments, this algorithm may be encoded on to non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 708) as a set of instructions to be decoded and executed by processing circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry 706). Processing circuitry may, in turn, provide instructions to other sub-circuits contained within control circuitry 704, such as the tuning, video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaling, analog/digital conversion circuitry, and the like.

At step 902, control circuitry 704 initiates the process for selecting an execution path for a natural language query.

At step 904, control circuitry 704 receives, from a user, a query including an input entity and an unknown term. For example, control circuitry 704 may receive a query, “For which movie did Morgan Freeman win an Academy Award,” including input entities “Morgan Freeman” and “Academy Award” and unknown term “win.”

At step 906, control circuitry 704 retrieves, from a knowledge graph, a first possible response and a second possible response for the query. The first possible response is derived via a first execution path for the query, and the second possible response is derived via a second execution path for the query. For example, control circuitry 704 may retrieve from the knowledge graph two sets of possible responses, a first set corresponding to movies for which Morgan Freeman was a nominee for an Academy Award (e.g., “Shawshank Redemption,” “Invictus,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” and “Million Dollar Baby”) and a second set corresponding to a movie for which Morgan Freeman was a winner of an Academy Award (e.g., “Million Dollar Baby”).

At step 908, control circuitry 704 generates for display an interactive media guidance screen including at least one of the first possible response and the second possible response. For example, control circuitry 704 may generate for display an interactive media guidance screen including the sets of possible responses. Additionally or alternatively, control circuitry 704 may respond using natural language speech “Did you mean Shawshank Redemption.”

At step 910, control circuitry 704 receives input from the user indicating feedback on the at least one of the first possible response and the second possible response. For example, control circuitry 704 may receive input from the user indicating feedback that Million Dollar Baby is the correct response. Alternatively or additionally, control circuitry 704 may receive input from the user indicating feedback that Shawshank Redemption is not the correct response.

At step 912, control circuitry 704 determines a correct response to the query based on the feedback. For example, control circuitry 704 may determine Million Dollar Baby to be the correct response to the query based on the feedback.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 704 determines the correct response to the query by assigning the user selection of one of the first possible response and the second possible response as the correct response. For example, control circuitry 704 may assign the user selection of “Million Dollar Baby” as the correct response.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 704 determines the correct response to the query by assigning the first response as the correct response, if the feedback comprises the indication that the first possible response is correct, and assigning the second response as the correct response, if the feedback comprises the indication that the first possible response is incorrect. For example, in response to “Did you mean Shawshank Redemption” and in the case where the other possible response is “Million Dollar Baby,” control circuitry 704 may assign Million Dollar Baby as the correct response because the feedback from the user comprises an indication that Shawshank Redemption is an incorrect response.

At step 914, control circuitry 704 selects one of the first execution path and the second execution path for the query based on the correct response. For example, control circuitry 704 may select the execution path for this query based on the correct response, Million Dollar Baby.

In this manner, control circuitry 704 may learn how to evaluate this query and/or queries with similar form in terms of traversing the knowledge graph to retrieve the correct response.

In some embodiments, the query is referenced to as a first query, the input entity is referenced to as a first input entity, and the correct response is referenced to as a first correct response. Control circuitry 704 receives, from the user, a second query similar in form to the first query and including a second input entity and the unknown term. For example, control circuitry 704 may receive the query “For which movie did Matthew McConaughey win an Academy Award.” Control circuitry 704 retrieves, from the knowledge graph, a second correct response for the second query based on the selected execution path for the first query. For example, control circuitry 704 may retrieve from the knowledge graph the correct response “Dallas Buyers Club” based on the selected execution path.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 704 retrieves the second correct response for the second query based on the selected execution path for the first query by traversing one or more nodes in the knowledge graph from the second input entity to the second correct response. For example, control circuitry 704 may retrieve from the knowledge graph the correct response “Dallas Buyers Club” based on the selected execution path by traversing the winner edge from the input entity to the correct response.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 9 may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptions described in relation to the algorithm of FIG. 9 may be done in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. For example, conditional statements and logical evaluations may be performed in any order or in parallel or simultaneously to reduce lag or increase the speed of the system or method. As a further example, in some embodiments, several instances of a variable may be evaluated in parallel, using multiple logical processor threads, or the algorithm may be enhanced by incorporating branch prediction. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 9 may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured software and hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 7-8 could be used to implement one or more portions of the process.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of an illustrative process 1000 for control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 704) to determine a correct response to a user query depending on feedback from the user in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In some embodiments, this algorithm may be encoded on to non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 708) as a set of instructions to be decoded and executed by processing circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry 706). Processing circuitry may in turn provide instructions to other sub-circuits contained within control circuitry 704, such as the tuning, video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaling, analog/digital conversion circuitry, and the like.

At step 1002, control circuitry 704 initiates the process for determining a correct response to the query based on the user's feedback.

At step 1004, control circuitry 704 determines whether only the first possible response was generated for display. In this embodiment, the user provides feedback including an indication that the first possible response is correct or an indication that the first possible response is incorrect. Alternatively, the first possible response and the second possible response may both be generated for display to the user.

If only the first possible response was generated for display, at step 1006, control circuitry 704 determines whether the user's feedback indicates the first possible response as the correct response. If the first possible response is indicated to be the correct response, at step 1008, control circuitry 704 assigns the first possible response as the correct response. If the first possible response is indicated to be the incorrect response, at step 1010, control circuitry 704 assigns the second possible response as the correct response. In other words, control circuitry 704 determines the correct response to the query by assigning the first response as the correct response, if the feedback comprises the indication that the first possible response is correct, and assigning the second response as the correct response, if the feedback comprises the indication that the first possible response is incorrect. For example, in response to “Did you mean Shawshank Redemption” and in the case where the other possible response is “Million Dollar Baby,” control circuitry 704 may assign Million Dollar Baby as the correct response because the feedback from the user comprises an indication that Shawshank Redemption is an incorrect response.

If the first possible response and the second possible response are generated for display, at step 1012, control circuitry 804 receives a user selection of one of the possible responses as being the correct response. At step 1014, control circuitry 704 assigns the user-selected response as the correct response. control circuitry 704 receives input from the user indicating feedback on the at least one of the first possible response and the second possible response. In other words, the input from the user indicating feedback includes a selection of one of the first possible response and the second possible response from the interactive media guidance screen. For example, the input from the user may indicate a selection of “Million Dollar Baby” from the interactive media guidance screen displaying the first and second set of possible responses.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 10 may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptions described in relation to the algorithm of FIG. 10 may be done in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. For example, conditional statements and logical evaluations, such as those at 1004 and 1006, may be performed in any order or in parallel or simultaneously to reduce lag or increase the speed of the system or method. As a further example, in some embodiments several instances of a variable may be evaluated in parallel, using multiple logical processor threads, or the algorithm may be enhanced by incorporating branch prediction. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 10 may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured software and hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 7-8 could be used to implement one or more portions of the process.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and not limiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of the processes discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/or rearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departing from the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure is meant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow are meant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes. Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitations described in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may be performed in real time. It should also be noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING AN EXECUTION PATH FOR A NATURAL LANGUAGE QUERY

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