U.S. patent application number 14/861721 was filed with the patent office on 2016-12-22 for systems and methods for determining reach using truncation and aggregation.
The applicant listed for this patent is ROVI GUIDES, INC.. Invention is credited to Steven D. Bennett, Samuel M. Meyer.
Application Number | 20160373820 14/861721 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 57588637 |
Filed Date | 2016-12-22 |
United States Patent
Application |
20160373820 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Meyer; Samuel M. ; et
al. |
December 22, 2016 |
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING REACH USING TRUNCATION AND
AGGREGATION
Abstract
Methods and systems are presented for creating and retrieving a
matrix wherein a first dimension represents viewers, a second
dimension represents media assets, and each data point represents a
probability that a viewer accessed a media asset. The methods
further include reducing the number of rows and columns of the
matrix based on a desired size of the matrix and calculating a
reach value for a media asset based on a the data points in the
modified matrix.
Inventors: |
Meyer; Samuel M.; (Boston,
MA) ; Bennett; Steven D.; (Somerville, MA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
ROVI GUIDES, INC. |
Santa Clara |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
57588637 |
Appl. No.: |
14/861721 |
Filed: |
September 22, 2015 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
62180934 |
Jun 17, 2015 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 21/2407 20130101;
H04N 21/26233 20130101; H04N 21/2668 20130101; H04N 21/25833
20130101; H04N 21/25883 20130101; H04N 21/812 20130101; H04N
21/4663 20130101; H04N 21/252 20130101; H04N 21/251 20130101; H04N
21/4667 20130101; H04N 21/25891 20130101; H04N 21/26283 20130101;
G06Q 30/0242 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04N 21/466 20060101
H04N021/466; H04N 21/25 20060101 H04N021/25; H04N 21/258 20060101
H04N021/258; H04N 21/24 20060101 H04N021/24 |
Claims
1. A method for reducing a number of data points used for
calculating unique reach, the method comprising: retrieving a
matrix comprising a plurality of data points, wherein: a first
dimension of the matrix represents viewers, a second dimension of
the matrix represents media assets, and each data point of the
plurality of data points represents a probability a viewer
associated with a value of the first dimension of the data point
accessed a media asset associated with a value of the second
dimension of the data point; determining a required size of the
matrix; reducing, based on the determination, a number of values of
the first dimension by combining a subset of data points associated
with a subset of values of the first dimension; reducing, based on
the determination, a number of values of the second dimension by
reducing a range of values of the plurality of data points; and
calculating a reach value for a media asset based on a first value
of the first dimension and a second value of the second dimension
associated with a data point corresponding to the media asset.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein reducing the number of values of
the second dimension further comprises: rounding up a data point in
response to determining the data point is above a first threshold
value; and rounding down the data point in response to determining
the data point is below a second threshold value.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein reducing the number of values of
the first dimension further comprises: determining that a plurality
of viewers associated with the subset of values of the first
dimension share an attribute.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the attribute is a demographic
value or a behavior value.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising iteratively reducing
the number of values of the first dimension and the number of
values of the second dimension until the required size is
reached.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the required size
is based on a user preference, a computing capability, or data
availability.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of data points is a
first subset of data points, the subset of values of the first
dimension is a first subset of values of the first dimension, and
further comprising: reducing, based on the determination, the
number of values of the first dimension by averaging a second
subset of data points associated with a second subset of values of
the first dimension; and adding the first subset of data points
weighted by a first weight value to the second subset of data
points weighted by a second weight value.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first weight value and the
second weight value are based on demographic or behavior values
associated with each of the first subset of data points and the
second subset of data points.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculating the reach value
further comprises: determining a probability value that a first
viewer watched the media asset based on the data point; and
multiplying the probability value by a number of values in the
subset values of the first dimension.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data points are
associated with a plurality of viewership data sources or future
predictions.
11. A system for reducing a number of data points used for
calculating unique reach, the system comprising: storage circuitry
configured to store a matrix comprising a plurality of data points,
wherein: a first dimension of the matrix represents viewers, a
second dimension of the matrix represents media assets, and each
data point of the plurality of data points represents a probability
a viewer associated with a value of the first dimension of the data
point accessed a media asset associated with a value of the second
dimension of the data point; and control circuitry configured to:
retrieve the matrix; determine a required size of the matrix;
reduce, based on the determination, a number of values of the first
dimension by combining a subset of data points associated with a
subset of values of the first dimension; reduce, based on the
determination, a number of values of the second dimension by
reducing a range of values of the plurality of data points; and
calculate a reach value for a media asset based on a first value of
the first dimension and a second value of the second dimension
associated with a data point corresponding to the media asset.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured, when reducing the number of values of the
second dimension, to: round up a data point in response to
determining the data point is above a first threshold value; and
round down the data point in response to determining the data point
is below a second threshold value.
13. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured, when reducing the number of values of the first
dimension, to: determine that a plurality of viewers associated
with the subset of values of the first dimension share an
attribute.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the attribute is a demographic
value or a behavior value.
15. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to iteratively reduce the number of values of
the first dimension and the number of values of the second
dimension until the required size is reached.
16. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to determine the required size based on a user
preference, a computing capability, or data availability.
17. The system of claim 11, wherein the subset of data points is a
first subset of data points, the subset of values of the first
dimension is a first subset of values of the first dimension, and
wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: reduce,
based on the determination, the number of values of the first
dimension by averaging a second subset of data points associated
with a second subset of values of the first dimension; and add the
first subset of data points weighted by a first weight value to the
second subset of data points weighted by a second weight value.
18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first weight value and the
second weight value are based on demographic or behavior values
associated with each of the first subset of data points and the
second subset of data points.
19. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured, when calculating the reach value, to: determine
a probability value that a first viewer watched the media asset
based on the data point; and multiply the probability value by a
number of values in the subset values of the first dimension.
20. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of data points
are associated with a plurality of viewership data sources or
future predictions.
21-50. (canceled)
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This disclosure claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C.
.sctn.119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/180,934, filed
Jun. 17, 2015, currently pending, which is hereby incorporated by
reference herein in its entirety.
BACKGROUND
[0002] A reach value of a media asset is a measure of the
proportion of a targeted audience that accesses the media asset.
For example, if half of all television viewers between the ages of
18-35 watch a certain television show, the reach of that television
show is 0.5 for viewers between the ages of 18-35. Traditional
methods for computing the reach of a media asset to viewers can be
computationally complex and time intensive, due to the large amount
of data that must be processed. Data from many sources, for many
media assets, and many viewers must be taken into account to
compute an accurate reach value.
SUMMARY
[0003] Accordingly, methods and systems are presented for reducing
a number of data points used for calculating unique reach. Unlike
conventional methods, the methods presented in this disclosure
modify raw data to make it easier to use in computing reach. This
modification may comprise reducing the amount of data to enable
simpler and faster computations.
[0004] The method comprises retrieving a matrix comprising a
plurality of data points, wherein a first dimension of the matrix
represents viewers, a second dimension of the matrix represents
media assets, and each data point of the plurality of data points
represents a probability a viewer associated with a value of the
first dimension of the data point accessed a media asset associated
with a value of the second dimension of the data point. For
example, the rows of a retrieved matrix may represent viewers, and
the columns of a retrieved matrix may represent media assets. The
data points may represent the probability that the viewer of the
associated row will access the media asset of the associated
column. The data points may also represent the fraction of the
media asset of the associated column that the viewer of the
associated row accesses. In some embodiments, the method may
further comprise generating the matrix using information from
viewership data sources or future predictions.
[0005] The method further comprises determining a required size of
the matrix. In some embodiments, this may be done based on user
preferences that specify the desired matrix size is 30 rows and 30
columns. In some embodiments, this may be done due to the limits of
the control circuitry performing the method. For example, the
control circuitry may only be capable of working with a matrix with
300 rows and 300 columns, which would be determined to be the
required size. In some embodiments, this may be done due to the
amount of data available. For example, there may only be enough
data to create a matrix with 20 rows and 5 columns.
[0006] The method further comprises, reducing, based on the
determination of the required size, a number of values of the first
dimension by combining a subset of data points associated with a
subset of values of the first dimension. For example, rows
corresponding to viewers with similar attributes may be combined to
reduce the number of rows in the matrix, wherein attributes refer
to demographic values or behavior values. The data points in the
rows to be combined may be averaged, or added using weights
corresponding to the viewers' attributes. In some embodiments, the
weights used to add the rows may correspond to attributes
associated with the rows. In some embodiments, data points in rows
may first be averaged, and then added using weights.
[0007] The method further comprises reducing, based on the
determination of the required size, a number of values of the
second dimension by reducing a range of values of the plurality of
data points. For example, data points below a lower threshold may
be rounded down to a lowest possible value of the matrix, and data
points above an upper threshold may be rounded up to a highest
possible value of the matrix. Columns with the same data points may
be combined.
[0008] The method further comprises calculating a reach value for a
media asset based on a first value of the first dimension and a
second value of the second dimension associated with a data point
corresponding to the media asset. For example, the data point
corresponding to a targeted group of viewers and a targeted media
asset may be accessed and used to estimate a reach of the media
asset among the targeted group of viewers. In some embodiments, the
method may comprise determining a probability value that a first
viewer watched a first media asset based on a data point in the
matrix, and then multiplying the probability value by a number of
rows or columns reduced to create the row or column corresponding
to the data point.
[0009] In some embodiments, the method may comprise iteratively
reducing the number of rows and the number of columns until a
required size of the matrix is reached.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] 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:
[0011] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen
generated by a media guidance application in accordance with some
embodiments of the disclosure;
[0012] FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display
screen generated by a media guidance application in accordance with
some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0013] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment
device in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0014] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0015] FIG. 5 shows an illustrative matrix that may be used to
store data about viewership of different programs;
[0016] FIG. 6 shows an illustrative process for a constructing
matrix used to store data about viewership of different
programs;
[0017] FIG. 7 shows an illustrative process for using aggregation
to reduce the number of rows of a matrix;
[0018] FIG. 8 shows an illustrative process for using truncation to
reduce the number of columns of a matrix;
[0019] FIG. 9 shows an illustrative process for calculating reach
values using a matrix;
[0020] FIG. 10 shows an illustrative process for using truncation
and aggregation to calculate reach values; and
[0021] FIG. 11 shows an illustrative process for modifying a matrix
before calculating a reach value.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0022] When developing advertising campaigns, a campaign manager
may aim to reach a maximum number of viewers while using minimal
resources. As referred to herein, "viewers" refers to consumers of
media assets, wherein the media assets do not necessarily have to
be visual media assets, and may be any type of media asset
including music, movies, television programs, live performances, or
any other media assets discussed below. Advertising campaign
managers may determine the reach of media assets among viewers to
determine which media assets reach the most viewers effectively.
The methods and systems described herein may enable a campaign
manager to set preferences about which viewers and media assets are
targeted for an advertisement campaign, and how quickly the reach
value should be calculated for the targeted viewers and media
assets. The systems and methods described herein may estimate a
reach value based on the campaign manager's preferences. As
referred to herein, "user preferences" refer to the campaign
manager's preferences.
[0023] As referred to herein, reach may be a measure of the portion
of an audience that receives information distributed during a
campaign. Reach may be measured as a percent of a total audience
that receives the information. For example, if 40% of the
population of New York City receives information about the weather
in New York City on a particular day, the reach of the campaign to
distribute weather information may be calculated to be 40%. In some
embodiments, only unique audience members may count in the reach
measurement. For example, if 10% of the population of New York City
receives information about a sports game score once, and 10% of the
population of New York City receives information about the sports
game score twice, the reach of the information about the sports
game score may be determined to be 20%.
[0024] Reach may be different from impressions. Impressions may
refer to the number of times information is delivered to any
audience members, not just unique audience numbers. Impressions may
have a linear relationship to the amount of resources used. Reach
may have a non-linear relationship to the amount of resources due
to the laws of diminishing returns. In other words, the number of
times information is delivered to unique viewers may increase more
slowly as the amount of resources used increases.
[0025] In some embodiments, reach may include information about the
number of times each unique audience member received information
distributed during the campaign. For example, reach 3+ may
represent the unique audience members who received information on
at least three occasions.
[0026] In some embodiments, reach may describe the unique audience
members of a particular demographic group that received
information. For example, reach may refer only to females between
ages 18 and 49 who received information about a clothing sale, not
the number of people of all genders and ages who received
information about the clothing sale.
[0027] The amount of content available to viewers in any given
content delivery system can be substantial. Consequently, many
viewers desire a form of media guidance through an interface that
allows viewers 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, a media guidance
application or a guidance application.
[0028] Interactive media guidance applications may take various
forms depending on the content for which they provide guidance. One
typical type of 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 viewers 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 viewer 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 viewer 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, advertisements,
chat sessions, social media, applications, games, and/or any other
media or multimedia and/or combination of the same. Guidance
applications also allow viewers 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.
[0029] The 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.
[0030] With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and
high-speed wireless networks, viewers 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. User equipment devices may be used by viewers accessing media
assets through the user equipment devices, and by campaign manager
users who create advertising campaigns and calculate reach using
the user equipment devices. 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, viewers 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 media guidance applications may be provided as on-line
applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone
applications or clients on user equipment devices. Various devices
and platforms that may implement media guidance applications are
described in more detail below.
[0031] One of the functions of the media guidance application is to
provide media guidance data to viewers. 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,
viewer preferences, viewer 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.), advertisement information (e.g., text,
images, media clips, etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites,
and any other type of guidance data that is helpful for a viewer to
navigate among and locate desired content selections.
[0032] FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used
to provide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS.
1-2 may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or
platform. While the displays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full
screen displays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over
content being displayed. A viewer 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 viewer's indication, the 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, viewer-defined, or other
organization criteria.
[0033] FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display
100 arranged by time and channel that also enables access to
different types of content in a single display. Display 100 may
include grid 102 with: (1) a column of channel/content type
identifiers 104, 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 106, where each
time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifies a time
block of programming. Grid 102 also includes cells of program
listings, such as program listing 108, 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 110. Information
relating to the program listing selected by highlight region 110
may be provided in program information region 112. Region 112 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.
[0034] 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 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 web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).
[0035] Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear
programming including on-demand listing 114, recorded content
listing 116, and Internet content listing 118. 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 100 may be based on
viewer 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 114, 116, and
118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayed in grid
102 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 102.
Additional media guidance data may be displayed in response to the
viewer selecting one of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an
arrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a
similar manner as selecting navigational icons 120.)
[0036] Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement
124, and options region 126. Video region 122 may allow the viewer
to view and/or preview programs that are currently available, will
be available, or were available to the viewer. The content of video
region 122 may correspond to, or be independent from, one of the
listings displayed in grid 102. 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 media
guidance application display screens of the embodiments described
herein.
[0037] Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content
that, depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscription
programming), is currently available for viewing, will be available
for viewing in the future, or may never become available for
viewing, and may correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of
the content listings in grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for
products or services related or unrelated to the content displayed
in grid 102. Advertisement 124 may be selectable and provide
further information about content, provide information about a
product or a service, enable purchasing of content, a product, or a
service, provide content relating to the advertisement, etc.
Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a viewer's
profile/preferences, monitored viewer activity, the type of display
provided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.
[0038] While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner
shaped, advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape,
and location in a guidance application display. For example,
advertisement 124 may be provided as a rectangular shape that is
horizontally adjacent to grid 102. This is sometimes referred to as
a panel advertisement. In addition, advertisements may be overlaid
over content or a guidance application display or embedded within a
display. Advertisements may also include text, images, rotating
images, video clips, or other types of content described above.
Advertisements may be stored in a user equipment device having a
guidance application, in a database connected to the user
equipment, in a remote location (including streaming media
servers), or on other storage means, or a combination of these
locations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application
is discussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al.,
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan.
17, 2003; Ward, III et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29,
2004; and Schein et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14,
2002, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their
entireties. It will be appreciated that advertisements may be
included in other media guidance application display screens of the
embodiments described herein.
[0039] Options region 126 may allow the viewer to access different
types of content, media guidance application displays, and/or media
guidance application features. Options region 126 may be part of
display 100 (and other display screens described herein), or may be
invoked by a viewer by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a
dedicated or assignable button on a user input device. The
selectable options within options region 126 may concern features
related to program listings in grid 102 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 viewer's profile,
options to access a browse overlay, or other options.
[0040] The media guidance application may be personalized based on
a viewer's preferences. A personalized media guidance application
allows a viewer to customize displays and features to create a
personalized "experience" with the media guidance application. This
personalized experience may be created by allowing a viewer to
input these customizations and/or by the media guidance application
monitoring viewer activity to determine various viewer preferences.
Viewers may access their personalized guidance application by
logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to the guidance
application. Customization of the media guidance application may be
made in accordance with a viewer 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, viewer-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 viewers, 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.
[0041] The media guidance application may allow a viewer to provide
viewer profile information or may automatically compile viewer
profile information. The media guidance application may, for
example, monitor the content the viewer accesses and/or other
interactions the viewer may have with the guidance application.
Additionally, the media guidance application may obtain all or part
of other viewer profiles that are related to a particular viewer
(e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the viewer accesses,
such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidance applications the
viewer accesses, from other interactive applications the viewer
accesses, from another user equipment device of the viewer, etc.),
and/or obtain information about the viewer from other sources that
the media guidance application may access. As a result, a viewer
can be provided with a unified guidance application experience
across the viewer's different user equipment devices. This type of
viewer experience is described in greater detail below in
connection with FIG. 4. Additional personalized 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.
[0042] Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is
shown in FIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable
options 202 for content information organized based on content
type, genre, and/or other organization criteria. In display 200,
television listings option 204 is selected, thus providing listings
206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcast program listings. In display
200 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 viewer
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 208 may include more than
one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.
Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to view
content in full-screen or to view information related to the
content displayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for
the channel that the video is displayed on).
[0043] The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e.,
listing 206 is larger than listings 208, 210, and 212), 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 viewer or to emphasize certain content, as desired
by the content provider or based on viewer 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.
[0044] Viewers may access content and the media guidance
application (and its display screens described above and below)
from one or more of their user equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a
generalized embodiment of illustrative user equipment device 300.
User equipment device 300 may be used by an advertising campaign
manager to calculate reach values. More specific implementations of
user equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG.
4. User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via
input/output (hereinafter "I/O") path 302. I/O path 302 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 304, which includes processing circuitry 306 and
storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may be used to send and receive
commands, requests, and other suitable data using I/O path 302. I/O
path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (and specifically
processing circuitry 306) 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.
3 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.
[0045] Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable
processing circuitry such as processing circuitry 306. 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 304
executes instructions for a media guidance application stored in
memory (i.e., storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may
be instructed by the media guidance application to perform the
functions discussed above and below. For example, the media
guidance application may provide instructions to control circuitry
304 to generate the media guidance displays. In some
implementations, any action performed by control circuitry 304 may
be based on instructions received from the media guidance
application.
[0046] In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304
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. 4). 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).
[0047] Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as
storage 308 that is part of control circuitry 304. 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 308 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. 4, may be used to supplement
storage 308 or instead of storage 308.
[0048] Control circuitry 304 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
304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconverting and
downconverting content into the preferred output format of the user
equipment 300. Circuitry 304 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 308 is provided as a separate device from user
equipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including
multiple tuners) may be associated with storage 308.
[0049] A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using
user input interface 310. For example, a campaign manager may input
user preferences regarding how reach values should be calculated
using user input interface 310. User input interface 310 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 312 may be provided as a stand-alone device or
integrated with other elements of user equipment device 300. For
example, display 312 may be a touchscreen or touch-sensitive
display. In such circumstances, user input interface 310 may be
integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 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 312 may be
HDTV-capable. In some embodiments, display 312 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 312. 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 304. The
video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.
Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of
user equipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio
component of videos and other content displayed on display 312 may
be played through speakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may
be distributed to a receiver (not shown), which processes and
outputs the audio via speakers 314.
[0050] 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 300. In
such an approach, instructions of the application are stored
locally (e.g., in storage 308), 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 304 may retrieve instructions of the application
from storage 308 and process the instructions to generate any of
the displays discussed herein. Based on the processed instructions,
control circuitry 304 may determine what action to perform when
input is received from input interface 310. For example, movement
of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated by the processed
instructions when input interface 310 indicates that an up/down
button was selected.
[0051] In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a
client-server based application. Data for use by a thick or thin
client implemented on user equipment device 300 is retrieved
on-demand by issuing requests to a server remote to the user
equipment device 300. In one example of a client-server based
guidance application, control circuitry 304 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 304) 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
300. This way, the processing of the instructions is performed
remotely by the server while the resulting displays are provided
locally on equipment device 300. Equipment device 300 may receive
inputs from the user via input interface 310 and transmit those
inputs to the remote server for processing and generating the
corresponding displays. For example, equipment device 300 may
transmit a communication to the remote server indicating that an
up/down button was selected via input interface 310. 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 300 for
presentation to the user.
[0052] In some embodiments, the media guidance application is
downloaded and interpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or
virtual machine (run by control circuitry 304). In some
embodiments, the guidance application may be encoded in the ETV
Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received by control circuitry 304
as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by a user agent running
on control circuitry 304. 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 304. 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.
[0053] User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in
system 400 of FIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user
computer equipment 404, wireless user communications device 406, 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
a 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.
[0054] A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the
system features described above in connection with FIG. 3 may not
be classified solely as user television equipment 402, user
computer equipment 404, or a wireless user communications device
406. For example, user television equipment 402 may, like some user
computer equipment 404, be Internet-enabled allowing for access to
Internet content, while user computer equipment 404 may, like some
television equipment 402, include a tuner allowing for access to
television programming. The 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 404, the guidance application
may be provided as a web site accessed by a web browser. In another
example, the guidance application may be scaled down for wireless
user communications devices 406.
[0055] In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type
of user equipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to
avoid overcomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user and/or
viewer may utilize more than one type of user equipment device and
also more than one of each type of user equipment device.
[0056] In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user
television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless
user communications device 406) 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.
[0057] The viewer may also set various settings to maintain
consistent 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 viewer sets a
channel as a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com
on their personal computer at their office, the same channel would
appear as a favorite on the viewer's in-home devices (e.g., user
television equipment and user computer equipment) as well as the
viewer'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 viewer, as well as viewer
activity monitored by the guidance application.
[0058] The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications
network 414. Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer
equipment 404, and wireless user communications device 406 are
coupled to communications network 414 via communications paths 408,
410, and 412, respectively. Communications network 414 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 408, 410, and 412 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 412 is drawn
with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplary embodiment
shown in FIG. 4 it is a wireless path and paths 408 and 410 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. 4 to
avoid overcomplicating the drawing.
[0059] 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 408, 410, and 412, 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 414.
[0060] System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance
data source 418 coupled to communications network 414 via
communication paths 420 and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422
may include any of the communication paths described above in
connection with paths 408, 410, and 412. Communications with the
content source 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be
exchanged over one or more communications paths, but are shown as a
single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. In
addition, there may be more than one of each of content source 416
and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each is shown
in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The different
types of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired,
content source 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be
integrated as one source device. Although communications between
sources 416 and 418 with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406
are shown as through communications network 414, in some
embodiments, sources 416 and 418 may communicate directly with user
equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 via communication paths (not
shown) such as those described above in connection with paths 408,
410, and 412.
[0061] Content source 416 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 416 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 416 may
include cable sources, satellite providers, on-demand providers,
Internet providers, over-the-top content providers, or other
providers of content. Content source 416 may also include a remote
media server used to store different types of content (including
video content selected by a viewer), 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.
[0062] Media guidance data source 418 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.
[0063] In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data
source 418 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 418 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 418
may provide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media
guidance application itself or software updates for the media
guidance application.
[0064] In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include
viewer data. For example, the viewer data may include current
and/or historical viewer activity information (e.g., what content
the viewer typically watches, what times of day the viewer watches
content, whether the viewer interacts with a social network, at
what times the viewer interacts with a social network to post
information, what types of content the viewer 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 viewer subscribes and/or to which sources or
services the given viewer has previously subscribed but later
terminated access (e.g., whether the viewer subscribes to premium
channels, whether the viewer has added a premium level of services,
whether the viewer has increased Internet speed). In some
embodiments, the viewer data and/or the subscription data may
identify patterns of a given viewer 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 viewer will terminate access to a service/source. For
example, the 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 viewer will
terminate access to a particular service or source. In particular,
a higher score may indicate a higher level of confidence that the
viewer will terminate access to a particular service or source.
Based on the score, the media guidance application may generate
promotions and advertisements that entice the viewer to keep the
particular service or source indicated by the score as one to which
the viewer will likely terminate access.
[0065] Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone
applications implemented on user equipment devices. For example,
the media guidance application may be implemented as software or a
set of executable instructions which may be stored in storage 308,
and executed by control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device
300. In some embodiments, 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, media guidance applications may be
implemented partially as a client application on control circuitry
304 of user equipment device 300 and partially on a remote server
as a server application (e.g., media guidance data source 418)
running on control circuitry of the remote server. When executed by
control circuitry of the remote server (such as media guidance data
source 418), the 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 418 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.
[0066] Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user
equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 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
media guidance applications (e.g., web-based applications or
cloud-based applications), or the content can be displayed by media
guidance applications stored on the user equipment device.
[0067] Media guidance system 400 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. 4.
[0068] 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 414. 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 viewers to maintain consistent 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 viewer may
transmit content from user computer equipment to a portable video
player or portable music player.
[0069] In a second approach, viewers 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. Viewers may control in-home
devices via a media guidance application implemented on a remote
device. For example, viewers may access an online 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 viewer may set various settings (e.g., recordings, reminders,
or other settings) on the online guidance application to control
the viewer's in-home equipment. The online guide may control the
viewer's equipment directly, or by communicating with a media
guidance application on the viewer'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.
[0070] In a third approach, viewers using user equipment devices
inside and outside a home can use their media guidance application
to communicate directly with content source 416 to access content.
Specifically, within a home, viewers of user television equipment
402 and user computer equipment 404 may access the media guidance
application to navigate among and locate desirable content. Viewers
may also access the media guidance application outside of the home
using wireless user communications devices 406 to navigate among
and locate desirable content.
[0071] 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 viewers and devices connected via a network such as the
Internet via communications network 414. These cloud resources may
include one or more content sources 416 and one or more media
guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, the
remote computing sites may include other user equipment devices,
such as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,
and wireless user communications device 406. 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.
[0072] 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 viewer-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.
[0073] A viewer 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 viewer can upload content to a content storage service on the
cloud either directly, for example, from user computer equipment
404 or wireless user communications device 406 having content
capture feature. Alternatively, the viewer can first transfer the
content to a user equipment device, such as user computer equipment
404. The user equipment device storing the content uploads the
content to the cloud using a data transmission service on
communications network 414. 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 viewer stored the content.
[0074] Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device
using, for example, a web browser, a 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.
3.
[0075] 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 another 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
another action may not include interstitial steps between the first
action and the second action.
[0076] FIG. 5 shows an illustrative matrix that may be used to
store data about viewership of different programs. Matrix 500 is
only intended to be an illustrative data structure that can be used
to store data about viewership of different programs, and any other
data structure may be used in accordance with the embodiments
described in this disclosure. For example, data about viewership of
different programs may be stored in trees, arrays, or hash
tables.
[0077] Control circuitry 304 may generate matrix 500 by combining
data from several viewership data sources. As referred to herein,
"viewership data sources" provide information about viewership
levels of different media assets, and information about viewers who
access different media assets. The viewership data sources may
include media guidance data source 418, sources such as Neilsen,
comScore, and Rentrak, user devices such as user television
equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless user
communications device 406, predicted viewership data input through
user input interface 310, and the like.
[0078] Rows in matrix 500 represent viewers, and columns in matrix
500 represent media assets. The rows and columns of matrix 500 may
be switched without departing from the embodiments described in
this disclosure. Matrix 500 may contain any number of rows and
columns. Matrix 500 may be stored using storage circuitry 308.
[0079] In some embodiments, rows in matrix 500 may represent
individual viewers. These viewers may access the media assets
represented by the columns of matrix 500. For example, in matrix
500, row 502 represents Viewer A, row 504 represents Viewer B, and
row 506 represents Viewer C. In some embodiments, rows in matrix
500 may represent demographic values of viewers. As referred to
herein, "demographic values" refer to categories used to classify
people. For example, demographic values may refer to age ranges,
locations, salary ranges, gender, and the like. For example, row
502 may represent viewers between the ages of 15-24, row 504 may
represent viewers between the ages of 25-39, and row 506 may
represent viewers between the ages of 40-79. In some embodiments,
rows in matrix 500 may represent viewer behavior values. As
referred to herein, "behavior values" refer to actions used to
classify people. For example, behavior values may refer to when
people access media assets, how many media assets they access
daily, what types of media assets they prefer, what genres of media
assets they enjoy, and the like. For example, row 502 may represent
viewers who enjoy media assets in the genre "comedy," row 504 may
represent viewers who enjoy media assets in the genre "drama," and
row 506 may represent viewers who enjoy media assets in the genre
"tragedy."
[0080] In some embodiments, columns in matrix 500 may represent
media assets. For example, column 508 may represent broadcast
Program A, and column 510 may represent on-demand Program B. In
some embodiments, columns in matrix 500 may represent different
media content sources. Different types of media content sources are
described in greater detail in relation to media content source
416. For example, column 508 may represent a first television
channel, and column 510 may represent a second television channel.
In some embodiments, columns in matrix 500 may represent different
mediums of media assets. For example, column 508 may refer to
televised media assets, and column 510 may refer to media assets
provided through the Internet. In some embodiments, columns in
matrix 500 may represent media assets accessed by different
devices. For example, column 508 could refer to media assets
accessed through user television equipment 402, and column 510
could refer to media assets accessed through wireless user
communications device 406.
[0081] In some embodiments, the data points in matrix 500 represent
how much of the media asset(s) represented by each column in matrix
500 was accessed by the viewer(s) represented by each row in matrix
500. For example, rows in illustrative matrix 500 represent single
viewers, and columns in matrix 500 represent televised programs.
Viewer A of row 502 watched 60% of televised Program A of column
508, so the data point corresponding to row 502 and column 508 is
"0.6". Viewer B of row 504 watched 20% of televised Program B of
column 510, so the data point corresponding to row 504 and column
510 is "0.2". Other data points in matrix 500 are derived similarly
from the viewers' viewership behavior.
[0082] In some embodiments, the data points in matrix 500 represent
a probability that a given viewer accessed a media asset. For
example, Viewer A of row 502 has a 60% chance of tuning to the
televised Program A of column 508, so the data point corresponding
to row 502 and column 508 is "0.6". In some embodiments,
probability values may be used for matrices representing future
predictions. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may
calculate the probability values based on past viewer behavior.
[0083] Control circuitry 304 may derive data points in matrix 500
using data provided by media guidance data source 418 through
communications network 414. For example, control circuitry 304 may
aggregate data from viewership data sources such as Neilsen,
comScore, or Rentrak. Control circuitry 304 may use this data to
construct matrix 500. In some embodiments, user television
equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless user
communications device 406 may track media asset accesses and
provide this information to control circuitry 304. In some
embodiments, control circuitry 304 may receive predicted viewership
data through user input interface 310, to be used for modeling.
[0084] FIG. 6 shows an illustrative process 600 for constructing
matrix 500. Control circuitry 304 may use this process to create
matrix 500, which can then be used to calculate reach values.
[0085] At block 602, control circuitry begins a routine to
construct matrix 500 based on user preferences. User preferences
may specify how often matrix 500 should be constructed, when the
routine to construct matrix 500 should begin, and where matrix 500
should be stored. For example, user preferences may indicate that
matrix 500 should be constructed every Monday morning and be stored
in cloud storage using communications network 414.
[0086] At block 604, control circuitry 304 retrieves data points
from the next viewership data source. As described above, the
viewership data sources may include media guidance data source 418,
sources such as Neilsen, comScore, and Rentrak, viewer devices such
as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and
wireless user communications device 406, and predicted viewership
data input through user input interface 310. Control circuitry 304
may access each of these viewership data sources in turn. Control
circuitry 304 may determine the order of access using the user
preferences from block 602. In some embodiments, the user
preferences may describe a subset of viewership data sources to be
accessed.
[0087] At block 606, control circuitry 304 adds the data points
retrieved in block 604 to appropriate rows in columns in matrix
500. In some embodiments, the retrieved data points may be
associated with unique identifiers for the viewers and television
programs they are associated with. Control circuitry 304 may
compare the unique identifiers of the data points with the unique
identifiers of rows and columns in matrix 500. If a match is found,
control circuitry 304 may insert the data point into the
appropriate row and column. If no match is found, control circuitry
304 may create a new row and/or column, and the data point then
inserted into the appropriate row and column. For example, control
circuitry 304 may retrieve a data point from user television
equipment 402 that indicates Viewer C watched 30% of televised
Program C. Viewer C and Program C may each be associated with
unique identifiers. Control circuitry 304 may compare the unique
identifiers to unique identifiers of rows and columns in partially
constructed matrix 500. Control circuitry 304 may determine that
the unique identifier for Viewer C matches the unique identifier
for row 506 in matrix 500. Control circuitry 304 may further
determine that the unique identifier for Program C cannot be found
in partially constructed matrix 500. Control circuitry 304 may add
a new column 512 to matrix 500, wherein column 512 corresponds to
Program C and is associated with the same unique identifier as
Program C. Control circuitry 304 may then insert the retrieved data
point in row 506 and column 512. In some embodiments, control
circuitry 304 may fill empty spots in matrix 500 with a data point
that indicates no data was found for that spot, such as the number
"0" or a value "Not an Integer."
[0088] At block 608, control circuitry 304 determines if
information about viewer attributes is associated with the
retrieved data point. Viewer attributes may include demographic
values or behavior values. For example, control circuitry 304 may
determine that a data point retrieved at block 604 is associated
with user television equipment 402 which belongs to a male in the
age range 25-39 who earns $50,000 per year and watches television
on Sunday nights. Hence, control circuitry 304 may determine that
information about viewer attributes is available for the retrieved
data point.
[0089] If control circuitry 304 determines that information about
viewer attributes is available, process 600 proceeds to block 610.
At block 610, control circuitry 304 executes a subroutine to add
viewer attributes to matrix 500. For example, row 502 may be
associated with Viewer A who is a male in the age range 25-39, who
earns $50,000 per year, and watches television on Sunday nights.
Control circuitry 304 may add tags to row 502 such as "male,"
"25-39," "$40,000-$60,000," and "Sunday night" to represent the
viewer attributes. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may
create a separate table storing associations between rows in matrix
500 and corresponding viewer attributes instead of adding tags to
rows in matrix 500.
[0090] After the subroutine of block 610 has been executed, or if
no viewer attribute information is available at block 606, process
600 proceeds to block 612. At block 612, control circuitry
determines if upper and/or lower thresholds for data points are
available. Control circuitry 304 may include the upper and/or lower
thresholds for data points in the user preferences from block 602.
In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may use default upper
and/or lower thresholds for data points. If control circuitry 304
determines that upper and/or lower thresholds for data points are
available, process 600 proceeds to block 614.
[0091] At block 614, control circuitry 304 executes a subroutine to
round up data points greater than the upper threshold and round
down data points lesser than the lower threshold. For example,
control circuitry 304 may have retrieved a data point "0.9"
corresponding to row 502 and column 510. Control circuitry 304 may
determine that the data point is greater than an upper threshold of
"0.8," and round up the data point to "1.0". Similarly, control
circuitry 304 may have retrieved a data point "0.1" corresponding
to row 504 and column 508. Control circuitry 304 may determine that
the data point is lesser than a lower threshold of "0.2," and round
down the data point to "0.0".
[0092] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may round up data
points to the maximum possible value and round down data points to
the minimum possible value for data points. In some embodiments,
control circuitry 304 may round up and round down data points to a
predetermined value defined in the user preferences from block
602.
[0093] After control circuitry 304 has executed the subroutine of
block 614, or if control circuitry 304 determines that upper and
lower thresholds are not available at block 612, process 600
proceeds to block 616. At block 616, control circuitry 304 executes
a subroutine to store matrix 500. Control circuitry 304 may store
partially constricted matrix 500 each time it reaches block 616 of
process 600. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may rewrite
the previously stored matrix 500 with the newer version of matrix
500. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may store a new
version of matrix 500 without rewriting or modifying the older
versions of matrix 500. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304
may only store the changes made to the previously stored version of
matrix 500. Control circuitry 304 may use storage circuitry 308 to
store the partially constructed matrix. In some embodiments,
storage circuitry 308 may locally store partially constructed
matrix 500, to be moved to cloud storage once matrix 500 has been
fully constructed at block 620.
[0094] At block 618, control circuitry 304 determines if all
instances of viewership data sources have been accounted for. If
data points have not been retrieved from all of the viewership data
sources, control circuitry 304 returns to block 604. If data points
have been retrieved from all viewership data sources, process 600
may proceed to block 620.
[0095] At block 620, control circuitry 304 executes a subroutine to
store completed matrix 500. In some embodiments, storage circuitry
308 may store completed matrix 500 in a different location from the
partially constructed matrices from block 616. Control circuitry
304 may use completed matrix 500 calculate reach as described in
relation to FIG. 9.
[0096] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may retrieve
completed matrix 500 from a viewership data source instead of
constructing a matrix as described in process 600. In some
embodiments, control circuitry 304 may construct multiple matrices
for different types of user preferences.
[0097] FIG. 7 shows an illustrative process 700 for using
aggregation to reduce the number of rows of matrix 500. Although
process 700 is described in reference to reducing rows, it could be
used to reduce columns as well. Control circuitry 304 may apply
process 700 to matrix 500 as constructed using process 600. Control
circuitry 304 may apply process 700 iteratively several times to
the same matrix. Control circuitry 304 may apply process 700 in
parallel to different rows of the same matrix simultaneously.
[0098] At block 702, control circuitry 304 retrieves a desired size
of the matrix and compares the desired size to the current size of
the matrix. Control circuitry 304 may retrieve a desired size from
storage circuitry 308, or from user input interface 310. The
desired size of the matrix may be determined by user preferences
that explicitly state the desired size, or by taking into account
the desired computational complexity of determining reach or the
amount of storage space available for storing matrix 500. The
desired size may be expressed as a memory size for storing matrix
500, a time value for computing reach using process 500, or a
number of rows and columns in matrix 500. Control circuitry 304 may
determine a desired number of rows and columns required if the
desired size is not expressed in terms of rows and columns.
[0099] Control circuitry 304 may compare the desired size of matrix
500 to the current size of matrix 500 by comparing the desired
number of rows to the current number of rows, and the desired
number of columns to the current number of columns. At block 704,
control circuitry 304 determines if the desired number of rows is
less than the current number of rows. If control circuitry 304
determines that the desired number of rows is not less than the
current number of rows, process 700 proceeds to block 706 and
control circuitry 304 uses matrix 500 to calculate reach as
described in FIG. 9. If control circuitry 304 determines that the
desired number of rows is less than the current number of rows,
process 700 proceeds to block 708.
[0100] At block 708, control circuitry 304 selects a first subset
of rows of matrix 500, wherein the first subset of rows are
associated with a first plurality of viewers who share a first
attribute. As described in relation to block 610, each row in
matrix 500 may be associated with different attributes. Control
circuitry 304 may select a subset of rows of matrix 500 that share
a first attribute.
[0101] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 determines the
first attribute using data from user preferences. For example, the
user preferences may state that control circuitry 304 should use
different age ranges as the attributes in process 700. Control
circuitry 304 may then determine that an age range of 18-29 is the
first attribute, an age range of 30-55 is the second attribute, and
an age range of 56-69 is the third attribute. Control circuitry 304
may determine the different age ranges such that each age range
includes approximately the same number of rows.
[0102] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 determines the
first attribute based on which attribute will result in the
greatest impact on matrix 500. For example, control circuitry 304
may determine that the most common attribute associated with rows
in matrix 500 is the gender "male." Based on this determination,
control circuitry 304 may select "male" as the first attribute.
[0103] At block 710, control circuitry 304 may select a second
subset of rows of matrix 500, wherein the second subset of rows are
associated with a second plurality of viewers who share a second
attribute. Control circuitry may perform block 710 in a manner
similar to that described in relation to block 708. In some
embodiments, blocks 708 and 710 may occur in parallel. In some
embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select the rows of the
second subset and the rows of the first subset to be mutually
exclusive. In some embodiments, the control circuitry may impose a
maximum size on the number of rows in the first and second
subset.
[0104] At block 712, control circuitry 304 replaces the first
subset of rows with a first row which includes an average of data
points in the first subset of rows. For example, control circuitry
304 may determine that rows 502 and 504 belong to the first subset
because they both correspond to viewers between the ages of 18-29.
Control circuitry 304 may replace rows 502 and 504 with a new row
512, which includes data points averaged from rows 502 and 504. For
example, rows 502 and 504 include the data points "0.6" and "0.1"
respectively for column 508. The average of these data points is
"0.35". Rows 502 and 504 also include the data points "0.9" and
"0.2" respectively for column 510. The average of these data points
is "0.55". New row 512 may include the data points "0.35" and
"0.55" for columns 508 and 510 respectively. In some embodiments,
control circuitry 304 may use the mean or mode of data points, or
any other similar statistical measure to combine the data points in
the rows.
[0105] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may also combine
viewer attribute information when combining rows. For example, row
502 may be associated with a male earning between $10,000 and
$15,000. Row 504 may be associated with a male earning between
$14,000 and $17,000. Control circuitry 304 may combine rows 502 and
504 into a new row 512 associated with males earning between
$10,000 and $17,000. In another example, row 502 may be associated
with a male earning between $10,000 and $12,000. Row 504 may be
associated with a male earning between $14,000 and $16,000. Control
circuitry 304 may combine rows 502 and 504 into a new row 512
associated with males, wherein half the males aggregated to create
row 512 earn between $10,000 and $12,000, and half the males
aggregated to create row 512 earn between $14,000 and $16,000.
[0106] At block 714, control circuitry 304 may replace the second
subset of rows with a second row which includes an average of data
points in the second subset of rows. Control circuitry 304 may
process block 714 in a manner similar to that described in relation
to block 712.
[0107] At block 716, control circuitry 304 may add the first row
weighted by a first value associated with the first attribute to
the second row weighted by a second value associated with the
second attribute. User preferences may define the value associated
with each attribute. For example, the first attribute may be living
in New York, which may be associated with a weight of 0.9. The
second attribute may be living in Boston, which may be associated
with a weight of 0.3. Boston may be weighted lower than New York
because the user places more importance on reach values associated
with New York. Control circuitry 304 may retrieve these user
preferences from storage circuitry 308, or receive them through
user input interface 310. Control circuitry may then replace the
first and second row by adding the two rows together based on their
respective weights. Control circuitry 304 may perform the
calculation as shown below:
v.sub.new=(w.sub.1v.sub.1)+(w.sub.2v.sub.2)
Wherein v.sub.1 and v.sub.2 are the data points corresponding to a
first column from the first and second rows respectively, v.sub.new
is the data point corresponding to the first column in the new row,
and w.sub.1 and w.sub.2 are the weights associated with the first
and second attributes respectively.
[0108] In some embodiments, process 700 may proceed to block 704
with a different set of attributes until it determines the desired
size is not less than the current size of matrix 500 as described
in relation to block 704. In some embodiments, process 700 may
proceed to block 704 in accordance with user preferences that
specify how many times blocks 708-716 should be repeated, or how
many attributes should be used to aggregate rows of matrix 500.
[0109] FIG. 8 shows an illustrative process 800 for using
truncation to reduce the number of columns of matrix 500. Although
process 800 is described in reference to reducing columns, it could
be used to reduce rows as well. Control circuitry 304 may apply
process 800 to matrix 500 as constructed using process 600. Control
circuitry 304 may apply process 800 iteratively several times to
the same matrix. Control circuitry 304 may apply process 800 in
parallel to different columns or data points of the same matrix
simultaneously. Control circuitry 304 may apply process 700 and
process 800 in an alternating manner to matrix 500 until matrix 500
reaches a desired size. In some embodiments, the subroutine
discussed in relation to block 614 may be similar to process
800.
[0110] At block 802, control circuitry 304 retrieves a first data
point of matrix 500. The first data point may correspond to any
data point in matrix 500. For example, control circuitry 304 may
retrieve the data point in row 502 and column 508 as the first data
point, and then continue retrieving further data points from the
same row, and progress to row 504 once all data points in row 502
have been retrieved. Control circuitry 304 may use any other
pattern of accessing data points in matrix 500 as well.
[0111] At block 804, control circuitry 304 determines whether the
retrieved data point is less than the lower threshold. Control
circuitry 304 may use the lower threshold from the upper and lower
thresholds discussed in relation to block 612. If control circuitry
304 determines that the retrieved data point is less than the lower
threshold, process 800 proceeds to block 806. At block 806, control
circuitry 304 rounds down the retrieved data point. For example,
control circuitry 304 may retrieve data point "0.1" corresponding
to row 504 and column 508, and compare it to a lower threshold of
"0.2". Upon determining that the retrieved data point is less than
the lower threshold, control circuitry 304 may round down the
retrieved data point to "0.0".
[0112] If control circuitry 304 determines, at block 804, that the
data point is not lesser than the lower threshold, process 800
proceeds to block 808. At block 808, control circuitry 304
determines whether the retrieved data point is greater than the
upper threshold. Control circuitry 304 may use the upper threshold
from the upper and lower thresholds discussed in relation to block
612. If control circuitry 304 determines that the retrieved data
point is greater than the upper threshold, process 800 proceeds to
block 810. At block 810, control circuitry 304 rounds up the
retrieved data point. For example, control circuitry 304 may
retrieve data point "0.9" corresponding to row 502 and column 510,
and compare it to an upper threshold of "0.8". Upon determining
that the retrieved data point is greater than the upper threshold,
control circuitry 304 may round up the retrieved data point to
"1.0". If control circuitry 304 determines, at block 808, that the
data point is not greater than the upper threshold, process 800
proceeds to block 812.
[0113] After control circuitry 304 has completed either block 806
or 810, or if control circuitry determined that the retrieved data
point is not less than the lower threshold and not greater than the
upper threshold, process 800 proceeds to block 812.
[0114] At block 812, control circuitry 304 determines if the last
data point in matrix 500 has been retrieved. In some embodiments,
control circuitry 304 may maintain an index of the currently
retrieved data point using storage circuitry 308 and compare the
index to a total number of data points in matrix 500 to determine
if the last data point has been reached. In some embodiments,
control circuitry 304 may tag the last data point in matrix 500 to
indicate that it is the last data point. Control circuitry 304 may
use this tag to determine that the last data point has been
retrieved. If control circuitry 304 determines that the last data
point in matrix 500 has not been retrieved, process 800 proceeds to
block 814. At block 814, control circuitry 304 selects the next
data point and process 800 proceeds to block 804.
[0115] If control circuitry 304 determines that the last data point
in matrix 500 has been retrieved, process 800 proceeds to block
816. At block 816, control circuitry 304 combines columns with
similar data points. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may
search matrix 500 column by column to identify a subset of columns
with the same data points, and then replace the subset of columns
with the single column containing those data points. In some
embodiments, control circuitry 304 may search for columns only
including data points of "0.0", or any other predetermined value,
and remove those columns from matrix 500. Control circuitry 304 may
store the edited matrix 500 using storage circuitry 308 as
described in relation to blocks 616 and 620.
[0116] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may tag the newly
created columns with information that describes which columns were
combined to create the newly created columns. For example, if
control circuitry 304 combined column 508 corresponding to Program
A and column 510 corresponding to Program B to create a new column
512, control circuitry 304 may tag the new column 512 with tags
indicating "Program A" and "Program B." In some embodiments,
control circuitry 304 may maintain a log of all changes made to
matrix 500 using storage circuitry 308. The log may describe which
original rows and columns were removed or combined with each other,
and what original rows and columns the newly created rows and
columns correspond to.
[0117] At block 818, control circuitry 304 determines if a desired
number of columns is less than a current number of columns. Control
circuitry 304 may determine the desired number of columns as
discussed in relation to block 702. If the desired number of
columns is less than the current number of columns, process 800
proceeds to block 820. At block 820, control circuitry 304
calculates reach using matrix 500 as described in relation to FIG.
9.
[0118] If control circuitry 304 determines, at block 818, that the
desired number of columns is not less than a current number of
columns, process 800 proceeds to block 822. At block 822, control
circuitry 304 edits the lower and upper threshold values. In some
embodiments, control circuitry 304 may edit either one or both of
these values, in accordance with user preferences. For example,
user preferences may state that if a desired number of columns is
not less than the current number of columns, the lower threshold
should be increased by "0.05". Control circuitry 304 may determine
that the current lower threshold is "0.15" and change this
threshold to "0.20" in accordance with the user preferences,
leaving the upper threshold unchanged.
[0119] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 determines which
threshold should be edited, and how it should be edited based on
statistical information about matrix 500. Control circuitry 304 may
use statistical information about matrix 500 to determine which
edits will result in the required number of columns being removed
from matrix 500. Control circuitry 304 may also determine which
changes will result in the largest number of data points being
rounded. For example, control circuitry 304 may determine that 25%
of data points in matrix 500 are less than a value of "0.34".
Control circuitry 304 may use this information to increase the
value of the lower threshold from "0.20" to "0.35".
[0120] Control circuitry 304 may store the edited values for the
upper and lower thresholds using storage circuitry 308. In some
embodiments, storage circuitry 308 may store only the edited
threshold value. Process 800 may proceed to block 802, so that
process 800 can be repeated with different lower and upper
threshold values. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may
repeat process 800 until the desired number of columns is less than
the current number of columns and block 820 is reached.
[0121] FIG. 9 shows an illustrative process 900 for calculating
reach values using matrix 500. At block 902, control circuitry 304
retrieves matrix 500 in a desired size using storage circuitry 308.
Matrix 500 may have been edited using the processes described in
FIGS. 6-8 to ensure it has the desired size.
[0122] At block 904, control circuitry 304 retrieves information
about the targeted viewer and targeted media asset. Control
circuitry 304 may retrieve this information from user preferences
stored using storage circuitry 308, or receive it as an input from
user input interface 310. For example, user preferences may state
that the targeted viewers are females in New York City, and that
the targeted media asset is televised Program A. Control circuitry
304 may retrieve these preferences using storage circuitry 308. In
some embodiments, more than one viewer and media asset may be
targeted. Control circuitry 304 may perform process 900 multiple
times to account for all combinations of targeted viewers and media
assets.
[0123] At block 906, control circuitry 304 selects a data point
from matrix 500 based on the targeted viewers and media asset.
Matrix 500 may include rows and columns created by combining
several rows and columns in the original matrix. Control circuitry
304 may determine which rows and columns in matrix 500 are
associated with the targeted viewers and media assets. For example,
control circuitry 304 may determine that row 502 was created by
combining all female viewers' data points, and row 504 was created
by combining all male viewers' data points. Control circuitry 304
may hence select row 502 as it corresponds to a characteristic of
the targeted viewers as described in block 904. Control circuitry
304 may also determine that column 508 was created by combining
columns corresponding to Programs B, C, and D, while column 510 was
created by combining columns corresponding to A and E. Control
circuitry 304 may hence select column 508 as it corresponds to the
targeted program. Control circuitry 304 may choose the data point
"0.6" as it corresponds to the selected row 502 and the selected
column 508.
[0124] Control circuitry 304 may use tags associated with rows and
columns of matrix 500 or a log of changes made to matrix 500 to
determine which data point should be selected. In some embodiments,
if an appropriate data point cannot be found, control circuitry 304
may make an approximation. For example, control circuitry 304 may
receive user preferences indicating that viewers in New York City
are to be targeted. Control circuitry 304 may determine that row
502 corresponds to New York State, row 504 corresponds to
Massachusetts, and row 506 corresponds to California. Control
circuitry 304 may further determine that no row in matrix 500
corresponds to viewers in New York City, and, hence, choose a data
point in row 502 corresponding to New York State, as New York State
is the closest available approximation to New York City available
in the matrix.
[0125] At block 908, control circuitry 304 determines modifications
made to the original matrix to create matrix 500 of the desired
size. Control circuitry may determine how many people, media
assets, or demographics are represented by each data point. For
example, control circuitry 304 may have retrieved information at
block 904 that the targeted viewers are females in New York City,
and that the targeted media asset is televised Program A. Based on
this information, control circuitry 304 may have selected data
point "0.6" corresponding to row 502 created by combining all
female viewers' data points and column 510 created by combining
columns corresponding to A and E. Control circuitry 304 may use
tags and/or a log associated with matrix 500 to determine that 500
female viewers' data points were combined to create row 502, so
data point "0.6" is associated with 500 female viewers.
[0126] At block 910, control circuitry 304 extrapolates the
selected data point value. Control circuitry may perform the
extrapolation to form an estimate of reach for the initial data
represented in the original matrix. For example, control circuitry
304 may determine that 500 women watch 60% of Program A using the
information from blocks 902-908.
[0127] At block 910, control circuitry 304 may further use a
heuristic that X viewers accessing Y % of a media asset is
equivalent to (X*Y) viewers accessing the entire media asset.
Hence, in the example described above, control circuitry 304 may
form an estimate that (500*0.60)=300 women watched the entirety of
Program A. In other words, the reach of Program A was 300
people.
[0128] FIG. 10 shows an illustrative process 1000 for using
truncation and aggregation to calculate reach values. Truncation
may refer to the process described in relation to FIG. 8, while
aggregation may refer to the process described in FIG. 7. It is
understood that process 1000 is only an illustrative embodiment of
how control circuitry 304 may calculate reach using the methods and
systems described in this disclosure, and any other combination of
the processes described above may be used in accordance with this
disclosure.
[0129] At block 1002, control circuitry 304 retrieves a matrix
comprising a plurality of data points, wherein a first dimension of
the matrix represents viewers, a second dimension of the matrix
represents media assets, and each data point of the plurality of
data points represents a probability a user associated with a value
of the first dimension of the data point accessed a media asset
associated with a value of the second dimension of the data point.
The retrieved matrix may be similar to matrix 500 as described in
relation to FIG. 5. The retrieved matrix may have been created
using process 600, and modified using processes 700 and 800 to
transform the matrix into the desired size.
[0130] The first dimension of the retrieved matrix may be rows,
wherein each row represents a viewer or a group of viewers. The
second dimension of the retrieved matrix may be columns, wherein
each column represents a media asset, a group of media assets, a
media asset source, or a media asset medium. The data points
representing a probability may represent the likelihood that a
viewer will access a media asset based on past behavior. For
example, if the viewer tunes to Program A 60% of the times Program
A is televised, the associated data point may be "0.6". The data
points may also represent a fraction of a media asset accessed by a
viewer. For example, if a viewer watched 60% of on-demand Program
B, the associated data point may be "0.6".
[0131] At block 1004, control circuitry 304 determines a required
size of the matrix. Control circuitry may perform this
determination as described in relation to block 702. Control
circuitry 304 may determine the required size based on user
preferences, computational capability, or data availability. For
example, user preferences may specify the desired matrix size is 30
rows and 30 columns, or computational capability may dictate that
control circuitry 304 is capable of working with a matrix with 300
rows and 300 columns, or data availability may indicate that there
is only enough data to create a matrix with 20 rows and 5 columns.
In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may determine
computation capability by measuring its own speed, available memory
in storage circuitry 308, available RAM, available processing
power, available bandwidth, or the like. In some embodiments,
control circuitry 304 may determine information about data
availability based on metadata retrieved from the viewership data
sources.
[0132] At block 1006, control circuitry 304 reduces, based on the
determination of the required size, a number of values of the first
dimension by combining a subset of data points associated with a
subset of values of the first dimension. The values of the first
dimension may be viewers associated with rows in matrix 500.
Control circuitry 304 may combine rows associated with viewers with
common attributes, wherein attributes may be demographic values or
behavior values. Control circuitry 304 may also combine rows by
weighing rows based on their associated attributes, and adding the
weighted rows. Control circuitry 304 may perform this reduction as
described in relation to process 700.
[0133] At block 1008, control circuitry 304 reduces, based on the
determination of the required size, a number of values of the
second dimension by reducing a range of values of the plurality of
data points. Control circuitry 304 may modify data points in the
retrieved matrix by comparing them to thresholds, and combine
columns that have the same data points. Control circuitry 304 may
perform this reduction as described in relation to process 800.
[0134] At block 1010, control circuitry 304 calculates a reach
value for a media asset based on a first value of the first
dimension and a second value of the second dimension associated
with a data point corresponding to the media asset. Control
circuitry 304 may calculate a reach value for a targeted media
asset. Control circuitry 304 may also calculate a reach value among
a targeted viewer group. The targeted media asset and viewer group
may be defined by user preferences. Control circuitry 304 may
calculate a reach value using a data point that is in a row
corresponding to the targeted viewer group and a column
corresponding to the targeted media asset. Control circuitry 304
may perform this calculation as described in relation to process
900.
[0135] FIG. 11 shows an illustrative process 1100 for modifying a
matrix before calculating a reach value. Process 1100 is one
possible implementation of process 1000.
[0136] At block 1102, control circuitry 304 retrieves a matrix and
a desired size of the matrix. The matrix may be similar to matrix
500. The matrix may be retrieved from storage circuitry 308, or may
be created using process 600 by control circuitry 304.
[0137] At block 1104, control circuitry 304 determines if the
current number of columns of the matrix needs to be reduced.
Control circuitry 304 may perform this determination as described
in relation to block 818. If control circuitry 304 determines that
the current number of columns of the matrix needs to be reduced,
process 1100 proceeds to block 1106. At block 1106, control
circuitry 304 retrieves upper and lower threshold values using
storage circuitry 308 as described in relation to block 612. At
block 1108, control circuitry 304 rounds down the data points less
than the lower threshold, as described in relation to blocks 804
and 806. At block 1110, control circuitry 304 rounds up the data
points greater than the upper threshold, as described in relation
to blocks 808 and 810.
[0138] If control circuitry 304 determined that the current number
of columns of the matrix does not need to be reduced at block 1104,
or after blocks 1106-1110 have been completed, process 1110
proceeds to block 1112. At block 1112, control circuitry 304
determines if the current number of rows of the matrix needs to be
reduced. Control circuitry 304 may perform this determination as
described in relation to block 704. If control circuitry 304
determines that the current number of rows of the matrix needs to
be reduced, process 1100 proceeds to block 1114. At block 1114,
control circuitry 304 finds a subset of viewers with common
attributes, as described in relation to blocks 708 and 710. Control
circuitry 304 may find any number of subsets of viewers. At block
1116, control circuitry 304 averages data points for viewers in
each subset, as described in relation to blocks 712 and 714. At
blocks 1118, control circuitry 304 combines subsets using weight
values associated with attributes, as described in relation to
block 716.
[0139] If control circuitry 304 determined that the current number
of rows of the matrix does not need to be reduced at block 1112, or
after blocks 1114-1118 have been completed, process 1110 proceeds
to block 1120. At block 1120, control circuitry 304 determines if
the desired size of the matrix has been reached. Control circuitry
304 may determine that the desired size of the matrix has been
reached if the current number of rows does not need to be reduced
and the current number of columns does not need to be reduced. If
control circuitry 304 determines the desired size has not been
reached, process 1100 proceeds to block 1104.
[0140] If control circuitry 304 determines, at block 1120, that the
desired size of the matrix has been reached, process 1100 proceeds
to block 1122. At block 1122, control circuitry 304 selects a data
point to determine the probability of a targeted viewer accessing a
targeted media asset as described in relation to block 906. At
block 1124, control circuitry 304 extrapolates the selected data
point based on the modifications made to the matrix in blocks
1106-1110 and 1114-1118, as described in relation to block 910.
[0141] It should be noted that processes 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000,
or 1100, or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by,
the optimization system on any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4.
For example, processes 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, or 1100 may be
executed by processing circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by
processing circuitry implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or
406 (FIG. 4) in order to provide information to a user. In
addition, one or more steps of processes 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000,
or 1100 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps
of any other process or embodiment.
[0142] It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIGS.
6-11 may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In
addition, the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS.
6-11 may be done in alternative orders or in parallel to further
the purposes of this disclosure. For example, each of these steps
may be performed in any order or in parallel or substantially
simultaneously to reduce lag or increase the speed of the system or
method.
[0143] 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 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, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied
to, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.
* * * * *
References