Ground-Based Content Controller for In-Flight Entertainment Personalization

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems struggle to curate content and services in a user-centric manner, leading to limited passenger satisfaction and inefficient content targeting.

Innovation Solution

A ground-based content controller is introduced, which includes a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium to retrieve passenger information, determine content targeting rules, and transmit these rules to an on-board content controller via a radio access network before takeoff.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If content is updated only once per month across an aircraft fleet, then system complexity is reduced and ease of operation is improved, but content relevance to passengers deteriorates and passenger satisfaction decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent update operationVSAvoidcontent personalization capability

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments content delivery by creating passenger-specific content playlists that are tailored to individual preferences, demographics, and historical viewing data. Each passenger receives a customized content selection rather than a uniform fleet-wide update, resolving the contradiction between operational simplicity and content adaptability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-generating personalized content playlists for each passenger before the flight using ground-based processing of passenger data. This allows content personalization to be prepared in advance, maintaining ease of operation while achieving high adaptability during the flight.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Device complexity

If generic content selection based on box office ratings and TV ratings is used, then content selection process is simplified, but content relevance to individual passengers deteriorates and passenger satisfaction decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent selection systemVSAvoidpassenger preference information

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements feedback mechanisms by analyzing passenger demographic information, historical viewing data, and real-time interactions with the IFE system. This feedback loop enables the ground-based system to continuously refine and personalize content selections, preventing loss of passenger preference information while managing system complexity through automated processing.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes parameters by transforming generic content selection criteria into personalized content recommendations by incorporating passenger-specific parameters such as age, gender, nationality, language preferences, and historical viewing patterns. This resolves the contradiction by systematically utilizing passenger information to enhance content relevance.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

3Quantity of substance

If usage data is captured across a fleet of aircraft, then aggregate content popularity information is obtained, but individual passenger content preferences are lost and content targeting precision deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent usage data volumeVSAvoidpassenger-specific content preference accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments aggregate usage data into individual passenger records, maintaining data for each passenger separately rather than pooling it fleet-wide. This segmentation preserves individual passenger preferences and enables precise content targeting while still utilizing the volume of usage data across the fleet for pattern recognition and recommendation improvement.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS12301891B1Ground-based controller for selectively curating content provided by in-flight entertainment systems

Publication Date: 2025.05.13 THALES AVIONICS INC

AI summary

A ground-based content controller for managing content provided by an in-flight entertainment (“IFE”) system operating on an airplane can include a ground-based content processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium. The non-transitory computer readable medium can be communicatively coupled to the ground-based content controller and store program code executable by the ground-based content processor to perform operations. The operations can include retrieving information associated with a passenger of the airplane. The operations can further include determining content targeting rules based on the information. The content targeting rules can be used to select content to be made available to the passenger on the airplane. The operations can further include transmitting, prior to takeoff, the content targeting rules via a radio access network to an on-board content controller on the airplane.