Dynamic video segment recommendation based on video playback location

Abstract

A system and method for dynamically providing video segment recommendations to a user based on video metadata, current playback position within the video, and / or the user's previous viewing history or patterns. The system / method also provides the user with a simple mechanism to enable / disable receipt of these recommendations with the click of a button within the display interface.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 149,216 filed on Feb. 2, 2009, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a media system and, more particularly, to a media system for and method of dynamically and intelligently recommending video segments to a user.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]In general, video sharing sites such as YouTube allow users to browse / search for videos, and view the videos as and when they find anything interesting. Users can even browse through similar / related videos while watching a certain video.[0004]However, if a user likes a certain segment / scene in a video and would like to find / view any similar scenes, current systems provide no search feature (to find “Related Video Segments”). In such cases, users are required to recreate and re-submit a new search query, which may not be e...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]The present invention makes recommendations that are implicit in nature, i.e., users are not required to explicitly indicate their interest in certain events. These recommendations are based on the current playback location of the user in the video and utilize a user's profile, preferences and previous viewing history behavior to determine which of the recommendations best suit the user's interest. Unlike related art systems where a user's preference profile is used by the system to check if the user is interested in a given video, or the current event (within the video), the present invention uses a user's preference profile to select the best of all the available (or dynamically generated) recommendations that would suit the user's interest with respect to current activity (or event) in the video. The present invention can therefore provide continuous video segment recommendations to the user (i.e., as the current segment being viewed keeps changing, the recommendations keep changing).

Problems solved by technology

However, if a user likes a certain segment / scene in a video and would like to find / view any similar scenes, current systems provide no search feature (to find “Related Video Segments”).

In such cases, users are required to recreate and re-submit a new search query, which may not be easy for users to formulate (or describe in words) especially when a user is interested in a particular scene.

Furthermore, describing / representing an event in plain text itself might not be intuitive to the users.

For example, say if the user is watching a football game and is interested in a “goal” event (meaning that while the football is near the goal line), such events cannot be easily represented in a way that the recommendation engine can interpret it correctly.

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