WO2009082944A1

WO2009082944A1 - A method and apparatus for information output based on interactive television

Info

Publication number: WO2009082944A1
Application number: PCT/CN2008/073601
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yu Chen
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2007-12-26
Filing date: 2008-12-19
Publication date: 2009-07-09
Also published as: CN101227591A

Abstract

A method for information output based on interactive television, comprising: receiving a request message involving a content identifier; analyzing a prestored content-associated information according to said content identifier and obtaining other contents associated with said content; outputting the information of said other contents. The association between the user's viewing habits and the contents being played is fully considered, and then the association between the contents is fully considered according to the analysis of the associated level without solely considering the times of the content being played in the embodiment of present invention. Since the contents to be played and the associated content information in the system are presented to the user at the same time, the pertinence of the content recommendation is improved in maximum and the user's viewing performance is enhanced.

Description

Information output method and device based on interactive television

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 200710160663.X, filed on December 26, 2007, entitled "Interactive TV-based Information Output Method and Apparatus", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference. In this application.

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to an information output method and apparatus based on interactive television.

Background technique

Interactive TVs typically include IPTV (Internet Protocol Television), DTV (Digital Television), and MTV (Mobile Television). Among them, IPTV is a broadband network media service application, which is a TV broadcast service of IP protocol, which uses a television or a personal computer as a display terminal to provide digital broadcast television, video service, information service, and interaction to users through a broadband network. Broadband services such as community, interactive entertainment, e-commerce, etc. The main features of IPTV are interactivity and real-time.

A typical IPTV system consists of a head terminal subsystem, a content management subsystem, a background management subsystem, an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) subsystem, and a terminal subsystem. The head terminal subsystem is responsible for completing the introduction, encoding and forwarding of the live channel; the content service subsystem completes the introduction, storage and service of the on-demand content; the background management subsystem is used to publish the content information and manage the user information; The EPG subsystem browses the content information published by the background management subsystem and obtains the URI (Universal Resource Identifier) information corresponding to the content information; the terminal subsystem uses the URI information to perform media playback, and during the media playback, the terminal subsystem receives Data forwarded by the head terminal system or requested by the content service subsystem to deliver data. In the IPTV system, the EPG subsystem is the portal for the user to enter the IPTV system. Usually, the EPG subsystem sends content and service information to the terminal subsystem through the generated HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) page; The system can also encapsulate the content and service information into formatted text, and the formatted text is parsed by the terminal subsystem to form a corresponding page for the user to browse and select.

The existing EPG subsystem mainly has two functions of program search and content recommendation. For the program search function, since the IPTV system can provide a large amount of media content for the user to use, the user searches for the content required by the user from the EPG page through the search function, and the user inputs a keyword request during the search. The EPG subsystem queries the content database for content information similar to the keyword and displays it. The search includes an exact search, ie the EPG subsystem outputs content information that exactly matches the user input; and a fuzzy search, ie the EPG subsystem will search for content information that matches the user input portion. Although the search can quickly find the content that needs it to a certain extent, it cannot provide the user with other content related to the content that is needed, which limits the scope of the user to obtain the content.

For content recommendation functions, the EPG subsystem is usually done by manual definition and viewing ranking. The operator can manually specify certain videos to recommend videos for specific columns, and users can see the above recommended videos in the column homepage; the EPG subsystem can also display the most on-demand videos in the column homepage according to the playback of the videos. As a recommended movie. However, since the above video information is displayed based on the columns in the EPG subsystem, and the user's viewing habits are not considered, the content that is of interest to the user cannot be recommended, which reduces the relevance of the content recommendation, and because of the above recommendation manner Only on-demand programs are considered, and there is no reference to how to recommend programs to users in live broadcast services.

Summary of the invention

An object of the embodiments of the present invention is to provide an information output method and apparatus based on an interactive television. For the purpose of implementing the embodiments of the present invention, the embodiments of the present invention provide the following technical solutions: An information output method based on an interactive television, including:

Receiving a request message including a content identifier;

And analyzing the pre-stored content association information according to the content identifier, and acquiring other content related to the content;

The information of the other content is output.

An information output device based on interactive television, comprising:

a storage unit, configured to pre-store content association information;

a receiving unit, configured to receive a request message that includes a content identifier;

An analyzing unit, configured to analyze pre-stored content association information according to the content identifier, and acquire other content related to the content;

An output unit, configured to output information of the other content.

According to the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, after receiving the request message including the content identifier, the content association information stored in advance is analyzed according to the content identifier, and other content related to the content is obtained, and then The information of the other content is output. Fully embodiment of the present invention Considering the viewing habits of the users using interactive TV and the association of the playback content, the correlation between the content is fully considered by the analysis of the association level, instead of simply considering the number of times the content is played, since the content and the system can be simultaneously played. The related content information is displayed to the user, which greatly improves the pertinence of the content recommendation and enhances the user's viewing experience.

DRAWINGS

1 is a flowchart of an embodiment of an information output method based on an interactive television according to the present invention; FIG. 2 is a flowchart of another embodiment of an IPTV-based information output method according to the present invention; FIG. 3 is a flowchart of generating a content association table according to the present invention; Flow chart

4 is a flowchart of maintaining a content association table in an embodiment of the method according to the present invention; FIG. 5 is a flowchart of still another embodiment of an IPTV-based information output method according to the present invention; A flowchart of a plurality of content association tables; FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an information output device based on an interactive television according to the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of another embodiment of an information output apparatus based on an interactive television according to the present invention.

detailed description

An embodiment of the present invention provides an information output method and apparatus based on an interactive television, receiving a request message including a content identifier, analyzing pre-stored content association information according to the content identifier, acquiring other content related to the content, and outputting the content. Information about other content.

The technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention are further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

An embodiment of the information output method of the present invention is shown in Figure 1:

Step 101: Receive a request message including a content identifier.

Step 102: Analyze pre-stored content association information according to the content identifier, and obtain other content related to the content.

The content association information may be a content association table, where the content association table includes an association level between each content and other content; or the content association information is a user habit table and a plurality of content association tables, where the user habit table includes The degree of interest of the user for each type of content, and the plurality of content association tables contain the level of association between the contents of each type of subcategory. Step 103: Output information of the other content.

Wherein, the content requested by the user can be sent for the user to play, and at the same time, the information of the other content related to the content can be output; the information of the requested content and the information of other content can also be output, and then the user selects a content for playing.

A flow of another embodiment of the information output method of the present invention is shown in FIG. 2. This embodiment uses IPTV as an example to show an information output process when the content association information is a content association table, which is assumed to be completed by the EPG subsystem in the IPTV system. Information output:

Step 201 The EPG subsystem receives a request message containing a content identification.

Step 202: Find a content association table according to the content identifier.

Step 203: acquiring other content whose association level with the content is greater than the preset association level

Step 204 outputs information of content and other content.

Step 205 The EPG subsystem obtains the playback of the output content and other content.

Step 206: Update the association corresponding to the play content in the content association table according to the content play situation. When the number of content in the IPTV system is small, another embodiment of the method of the present invention is applied to output content information, that is, the content in this embodiment. The association information is specifically a content association table, and the content association table corresponds to the association situation of content played by all users in the system, and the content association table stores two-dimensional information for indicating the association weight between different contents, and the IPTV system is assumed. There are N contents in the content, and the content is identified from the content 1 to the content N according to the ID, and the generated content association table is as shown in Table 1 below: Table 1

^Level, can be used

[Content m, content n] to represent, where m and n take values from 1 to N, [content m, content n] The larger the value, the stronger the correlation between the two contents. When the value is 0, there is no correlation between the two contents. For example, the association level between the same content is 0, indicating that a certain content cannot be with itself. Make an association.

In order to generate the content association table in the IPTV system described above, it is necessary to perform association analysis on the case where all users use the content in the system. In the case of initialization, one user uses one of the contents to update the content association table as an example. The flow of the content correlation analysis is as shown in FIG. 3: Step 301: Initialize the content association table, and assign the association level between all contents to 0. Step 302: When the user receives a request message for playing a certain content information, the content ID is assigned to PID_I.

Step 303: Search for M content that the user has viewed.

Step 304: Read one content ID that is not read in the M contents in order, and each content ID is assigned to PID[i], and the value of i ranges from 1 to M.

Step 305: Determine whether PID_I is consistent with PID[i], and if yes, return to step 304; otherwise, go to step 306.

Step 306: Add 1 to the correlation level of [PID — I, PID[i]] and [PID[i] , PID — I].

Step 307: Determine whether the current i and M are equal. If yes, execute step 308; otherwise, return to step 304.

Step 308: Save the content association table and end the current process.

Establishing the association between content in the IPTV system is to achieve efficient recommendation. Only when an effective association is established between the content, can the user obtain other content related to the content when the user selects the specific content, and pass the content and other content. The identifier of the content finds corresponding metadata information, and in the output metadata information including the content and the detailed information page of the sea, further enters entry information of other content related to the content and most interested by the user, and the portal information may include The name of the content, the link address, or the attribute of the content, etc., the user can jump to the detailed information page of other content according to the entry information.

The following describes the association level corresponding to the content played in the content association table according to the content playing condition in combination with Table 1. It is assumed that the content association table includes four contents of content 1 to content 4. At this time, a request message for requesting to play the content 1 is received. If the preset association level is 2, the association with the content 1 is found according to the content association table. Contents with a level greater than 2 are content 2 and content 4, so they are used The terminal outputs content 1, content 2, and content 4 information, for example, respectively outputting the name, attribute, and profile of the content. If the user terminal finally selects the content 4, the content association table 1 is updated according to the playback condition, and the table is updated. The association level of content 1 and content 4 in 1 and the association level of content 4 and content 1 are respectively increased by one.

When the new content is deleted or the existing content is deleted in the IPTV, the related information needs to be maintained. According to another embodiment of the method of the present invention, the process of maintaining the content association table is as shown in FIG. 4: Step 401: IPTV Create or delete a content.

Step 402: Receive a change notification for the content.

Step 403: Add or delete an association level between the content and other content in the content association table.

Step 404: Save the maintained content association table.

A flow of still another embodiment of the information output method of the present invention is shown in FIG. 5. The embodiment shows an information output flow when the content association information is a user habit table and a content association table, and the information is still completed by the EPG subsystem in the IPTV system. Output:

Step 501: The EPG subsystem receives a request message including a play content identifier.

Step 502: Determine the type and subclass to which the play content belongs.

Step 503: When the type that is of interest to the user is determined by the user habit table, the content identifier identifies the content association table of the subclass.

Step 504: Acquire other content whose association level with the playback content is greater than the preset association level. Step 505: Output information of the playback content and other content.

Step 506: The EPG subsystem obtains the playing condition of the content of the output content information.

Step 507: Update the association level corresponding to the play content in the content association table according to the content playing condition.

When the content of the IPTV system is large, for example, if there are more than 10000 content, the number of content association levels in the content association table will reach 100 megabytes, that is, as the number of content increases, the content association level in the content association table will be The geometric progression grows. Moreover, since Table 1 only describes the relationship between all contents from a two-dimensional perspective, it is impossible to further reflect the relationship between different categories and the contents of different sub-categories of the same category, for example, dividing different contents from dimensions. Categories can include years, countries, plots, starring, etc., taking countries as an example, further subcategories can include China, South Korea, and the United States. Country, etc. Therefore, the dimension can be classified according to the viewing habits of the user, and the dimension categories include the age, the country, the plot, the product, and the starring. For example, the initially generated user habit table is as shown in Table 2, and the user habit table corresponds to the system. The degree of interest of all users in the content played, assuming that the content in the IPTV system is divided into three categories: age, country and plot. The age is divided into three sub-categories: 70s, 80s, and 90s. It is divided into three sub-categories: China, the United States and South Korea. The plot is divided into three sub-categories: comedy, gun battle, and science fiction. The user habit table is generated as follows: The user can select the category of interest in advance at the terminal interface when opening an account. And subclasses, and recorded by the EPG subsystem, then the EPG subsystem synthesizes all categories and subclasses of interest to the user. For example, when more than 50% of users are interested in a subclass, the user is considered Interested in this subclass, when less than fifty percent of users are interested in a subclass, the user is considered not interested in the subclass. It should be noted that the content can be classified into more dimensions in the specific classification, and each classification can be further subdivided into more sub-categories. Table 2 is only for illustrative description, and the following Table 2 is in the table cells. The value is used to indicate the degree of interest of all users in the sub-category of each category based on the initial synthesis of the sub-categories of interest selected by the user:

Table 2

Table 2 above is a viewing habit table in which the user associates with the content on the multi-dimensional classification, where “0” indicates that the user is not interested in the content of the subclass, and “^” indicates that the user is interested in the content of the subclass, when the system When a new type or subclass of content appears, the user habit table can be automatically extended to add the user's interest in the type or subclass of the new content. In the IPTV system, each user corresponds to user attribute metadata, and the user attribute metadata is used to describe the basic situation of the user, such as a user name, a user nickname, a user payment account, and the like. The user can select whether to join the user habit table by adding a "whether to maintain the habit table" parameter in the metadata, that is, when the user chooses to maintain the user habit table in the process of opening an account or using the service, the IPTV system considers when generating the user habit table. The user For the interest parameter of each content type subclass, when the user no longer selects the maintenance viewing habit table, the IPTV system deletes the user's interest parameter corresponding to the user in the habit table, or freezes the user's interest parameter until the user reselects Maintain this user habit table. When the user reselects to maintain the user habit table, the system can prompt whether to use the user's interest parameter before freezing, or reset the user's interest parameter. Through the above user habit table, the understanding of the distribution of viewing habits of all users in the IPTV system can be realized.

Since each dimension type also includes sub-categories of different numbers, it is possible to flexibly select some sub-categories in the partial classification to further generate a content association table for the sub-category, and the dimension type of interest of the user in Table 2 above is "country country". "Subclass "China" as an example, the generated country-China-content association table is shown in Table 3 below, g殳 There are 5 contents related to "China" in Table 3:

table 3

The metadata of the content in each content association table is saved in the IPTV system, and the metadata is used to describe the basic content of the content, including the content name, the content copyright information, the content life cycle information, the content evaluation information, and the like. Further, the parameter "Whether to maintain the content association table" may be added to the metadata to select whether the parameter is set to "TRUE" or "FALSE" when the content is published, wherein TRUE corresponds to maintaining the content and other content in the content association table. The level of association between the FALSE corresponds to not maintaining the level of association between the content and other content in the content association table.

In order to generate a content association table of a plurality of sub-categories corresponding to the user habit table in the IPTV system, it is necessary to perform association analysis on the case where the user uses a specific sub-category content under a specific type in the system, and perform a correlation analysis process on the content. As shown in Figure 6:

Step 601: Initialize a content association table of multiple subclasses, and assign an association level between all contents to 0. Step 602: When the user receives a request message for playing a certain content information, the content ID is assigned to PID_I.

Step 603: Search M content that the user has watched and obtain a subclass of the type of interest of the user according to the user habit table.

Step 604: Read one content ID that is not read in the M contents in sequence, and each content ID is assigned to PID[i], and the value of i ranges from 1 to M.

Step 605: Determine whether PID_I is consistent with PID[i], and if yes, return to step 604; otherwise, execute step 606.

Step 606: Traverse each subclass of the type of interest to the user in order.

Step 607: Determine whether both PID_I and PID[i] belong to the subclass that is currently traversed. If yes, execute step 608; otherwise, return to step 606.

Step 608: Add 1 to the association level of [PID_I, PID[i]] and [PID[i], PID_I] in the current subclass.

Step 609: Determine whether the current subclass is the last subclass of interest to the traversed user. If yes, go to step 610; otherwise, return to step 606.

Step 610: Determine whether the current i and M are equal. If yes, execute step 411; otherwise, return to step 404.

Step 611: Save the content association table of all subclasses, and end the current process.

The following describes the association level corresponding to the content played in the content association table according to the content playing condition in combination with Tables 2 and 3. Assuming that the request message of the content 1 in the user playlist 3 is received, the classification of the content 1 is first classified as "country", and the subclass belongs to "China", and the degree of interest of the user to the subclass is obtained by the user habit table 2" ⁰ further associating the content association table 3 of the subclass, and if the preset association level is 2, finding the content with the association level greater than 2 of the content 1 as the content 2 and the content 5 according to the content association table 3, and thus the user The information of the content 1, the content 2, and the content 5 is outputted, for example, the name, the attribute, and the profile of the content are respectively output. If the user terminal finally selects the content 2, the content association table 1 is updated according to the playing condition, and the table 1 is The level of association between content 1 and content 2 and the level of association between content 2 and content 1 are increased by one, respectively.

It should be noted that the initially generated user habit table may be further updated and maintained according to the request of the user to play the content. The process of dynamically maintaining the user habit table is as shown in FIG. 7: Step 701: Receive a request message sent by the user to play a certain content information.

Step 702: Determine the identity of the user.

Step 703: Retrieve the type and subclass to which the content belongs.

Step 704: Determine whether the entry of the subclass corresponding to the current user in the user habit table is "^", and if yes, execute step 706; otherwise, execute step 705.

Step 705: Add 1 to the entry of the subclass of the type to which the content belongs in the user habit table.

Step 706: Determine whether the retrieved type and subclass are the last subclass, and if yes, execute step 707; otherwise, return to step 703.

Step 707: Save the updated user habit table and end the current process.

If the initial interest level of a subclass in the updated user habit table is "0", the sub-class may be updated after the value of the interest level exceeds 50% of the total number of users after multiple times of playing. The degree of interest is "^", making it a subclass of interest to the user.

The information output method of the embodiment of the present invention is applicable not only to the recommendation of the on-demand content in the interactive television, but also to the recommendation of the live content, and the scene of the mixed application of the live content and the on-demand content, and further introducing other media forms in the interactive television. At the same time, a hybrid recommendation of newly introduced media content and existing media form content is realized. The following is a brief description of the hybrid application of live and on-demand content, setting the same classification and sub-category of the on-demand content and the live content, and setting the association level of the live content and the on-demand content in the content association table corresponding to the sub-category, when the user passes When the application terminal requests the detailed information of the content that is of interest to the user, the user's habit table and the corresponding content association table are analyzed, and the live content information associated with the on-demand program is found and outputted, and the information of the live content output by the user, such as The introduction and start time of the content increases the likelihood of users accessing live shows.

Corresponding to the embodiment of the interactive television based information output method and system of the present invention, the present invention also provides an information output apparatus.

A block diagram of an embodiment of the information output device of the present invention is shown in FIG. 8:

The apparatus includes a storage unit 810, a receiving unit 820, an analyzing unit 830, and an output unit 840. The storage unit 810 is configured to store the content association information in advance; the receiving unit 820 is configured to receive the request message that includes the content identifier, and the analyzing unit 830 is configured to analyze the content association information according to the content identifier, and obtain the Other content related to the content; the output unit 840 is configured to output information of the other content. A block diagram of another embodiment of the information output device of the present invention is shown in FIG.

The device includes: a storage unit 910, configured to pre-store content association information; a receiving unit 920, configured to receive a request message that includes a play content identifier; and an analyzing unit 930, configured to analyze the content association information according to the play content identifier, Obtaining other content related to the play content; an output unit 940, configured to output information of the other content; an update unit 950, configured to receive a play condition of the content and other content, and update the content according to the play situation Content-related information; a maintenance unit 960, configured to: when the content is added to the interactive television, add association information of the content to the content association information, and/or when the content is deleted in the interactive television, The related information of the content is deleted from the content association information.

Specifically, when the content association table is stored in the storage unit 910, the analyzing unit 930 includes a searching unit, configured to search the content association table according to the play content identifier, and an acquiring unit, configured to acquire the content that is played The association level is greater than the other content of the preset association level.

When the user habit table and the plurality of content association tables are stored in the storage unit 910, the analyzing unit 930 includes a determining unit, configured to determine a type and a subclass to which the playing content belongs, and a searching unit, configured to When the user is used to determine that the type is of a type that is of interest to the user, the content association table of the sub-category is searched according to the content identifier; and the acquiring unit is configured to acquire the association level with the playback content that is greater than the preset association level. Other content.

According to the description of the embodiment of the present invention, after receiving the request message including the play content identifier, the embodiment of the present invention analyzes the pre-stored content association information according to the play content identifier, and acquires other content related to the play content, and then The information of the played content and other content is output. The embodiment of the present invention fully considers the user's viewing habits and the association of the playing content, and fully considers the relevance between the content through the analysis of the association level, instead of simply considering the number of times the content is played, since the content and system can be simultaneously played. The related content information is displayed to the user, which greatly improves the pertinence of the content recommendation and enhances the viewing experience of the user. Moreover, the embodiment of the present invention can simultaneously support the live content and the on-demand content in the IPTV, and expand the content output. Application range.

A person skilled in the art can understand that all or part of the steps of implementing the above embodiments can be completed by a program to instruct related hardware, and the program can be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and the program is executed. The method includes the following steps: receiving a request message that includes a play content identifier, analyzing the pre-stored content association information according to the play content identifier, and obtaining the Playing other content related to the content; outputting information of the other content. The storage medium is, for example, a ROM/RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or the like.

While the invention has been described by the embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood that

Claims

Rights request

1. An information output method based on interactive television, characterized in that:

Receiving a request message including a content identifier;

The information of the other content is output.

The method according to claim 1, wherein the content association information is a content association table, and the content association table includes an association level between each content and other content; or the content association information. For the user to customize the table and the content association table, the user habit table includes the degree of interest of the user for each type of content, and the content association table includes the association level between the content in each of the subtypes of the type.

The method according to claim 2, wherein the content association information is a content association table, and acquiring other content related to the content includes:

Finding the content association table according to the content identifier;

Obtaining other content whose association level with the content is greater than a preset association level.

The method according to claim 2, wherein the content association information includes a user habit table and a content association table, and acquiring other content related to the content includes:

Determining the type and subclass to which the content belongs;

When determining, by the user habit table, that the type is a type of interest to the user, searching for the content association table of the subclass according to the content identifier;

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

Obtaining the playback of the content and other content;

Updating the content association information according to the playing situation.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

When the content is added to the interactive television, the associated information of the content is added to the content association information; and/or

When the content is deleted in the interactive television, the associated information of the content is deleted in the content association information.

An information output device based on an interactive television, comprising: a storage unit, configured to pre-store content association information;

An output unit, configured to output information of the other content.

The device according to claim 7, wherein the storage unit is configured to store a content association table.

The analysis unit includes:

a searching unit, configured to search the content association table according to the content identifier;

And an obtaining unit, configured to acquire other content whose association level with the content is greater than a preset association level.

The device according to claim 7, wherein the storage unit is configured to store a user habit table and a plurality of content association tables, and the analyzing unit comprises:

a determining unit, configured to determine a type and a subclass to which the content belongs;

a searching unit, configured to search for a content association table of the subclass according to the content identifier when determining, by using the user habit table, that the type is a type of interest to the user;

And an obtaining unit, configured to acquire other content whose association level with the playing content is greater than a preset association level.

10. The device according to claim 7, further comprising:

And an updating unit, configured to obtain a playing condition of the content and other content, and update the content related information according to the playing condition.

The device according to claim 7, further comprising:

a maintenance unit, configured to add association information of the content to the content association information when adding content in the interactive television, and/or when the content is deleted in the interactive television, in the content association information Delete the associated information of the content.