Broadcasting system and reception apparatus

1. A broadcasting system comprising:

a broadcasting station for broadcasting digital contents and attribute information indicating an attribute thereof and an electronic program guide (EPG); and

a plurality of reception apparatuses having:

reception means for receiving said digital contents and said attribute information broadcast from the broadcasting station,

output means for outputting the received digital contents, and

selection means for allowing a user to select the digital contents via a filtering process by comparing selection information indicating user preferences with attribute information assigned to the digital contents,

said selection information is expressed with an n-dimensional vector S comprising user preference items as elements,

wherein each element identifies a preference intensity,

wherein an element of vector S identifies a positive value as a preference intensity when the user has demonstrated a positive preference for the element and indentifies a negative value as a preference intensity when the user has demonstrated a negative preference for the element, and

wherein said plurality of reception apparatuses include a selection means for: (1) performing a calculation between a vector A related to the attribute information and the vector S; and (2) determining whether to select the digital content based on the result of the calculation,

wherein Vector S is generated by using Vector A for a program which is reproduced for a specified period of time or longer, and

wherein Vector S is generated by changing a weighting factor for a reserved program and a realtime reproduced program.

2. A reception apparatus comprising:

reception means for receiving digital contents and attribute information transmitted from a content provider;

output means for outputting the received digital content; and

selection means for allowing a user to select the digital contents via a filtering process by comparing selection information indicating user preferences with attribute information related to the digital content,

said selection information is expressed with an n-dimensional vector S comprising user preference items as elements,

wherein each element identifies a preference intensity,

wherein an element of vector S identifies a positive value as a preference intensity when the user has demonstrated a positive preference for the element and indentifies a negative value as a preference intensity when the user has demonstrated a negative preference for the element, and

wherein said selection means performs a calculation between a vector A related to the attribute information and the vector S, and determines whether to select the digital content based on the result of the calculation

wherein Vector S is generated by using Vector A for a program which is reproduced for a specified period of time or longer, and

wherein Vector S is generated by changing a weighting factor for a reserved program and a realtime reproduced program.

3. The reception apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said selection means finds a selection value P based on the following equation and selects the digital content based on a size of the selection value P as follows:

A= ( a 1 , a 2 , a 3 , . . . , an )

S= ( s 1 , s 2 , s 3 , . . . , sn )

P

=

A

·

S



A



⁢

⁢



S



where

A

·

S

=

∑

k

=

1

n

⁢

a

k

⁢

S

k



A



=

∑

k

=

1

n

⁢

a

k

2



S



=

∑

k

=

1

n

⁢

S

k

2

in which neither A nor S is a zero vector.

4. The reception apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said selection information's vector S is found from a vector A of attribute information attached to a plurality of digital contents selected by the user.

5. The reception apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said selection information's vector S is found according to the following equation:

S

=

1

M

⁢

∑

k

=

1

M

⁢

A

k

where M is assumed to be a number of digital contents selected by the user and an attribute vector for the K-th digital content selected by the user is assumed to be: Ak=(a 1 k , a 2 k , a 3 k , . . . , ank).

6. The reception apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said selection information's vector S is found according to the following equation:

S

=

1

M

⁢

∑

k

=

L

-

M

+

1

L

⁢

A

k

where M is assumed to be a number of windows for finding a vector S, L is assumed to be a start point for selecting the plurality of digital contents for finding the vector S, and an attribute vector for the K-th digital content selected by the user is assumed to be: Ak=(a 1 k , a 2 k , a 3 k , . . . , ank).

7. The reception apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said selection information's vector S is found by averaging vectors A for attribute information attached to the plurality of digital contents reproduced by the user for a specified time.

8. The reception apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said selection information's vector S is found by averaging vectors A for attribute information attached to the plurality of digital contents reserved by the user.

9. The reception apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said selection information's vector S is found by averaging vectors A for attribute information attached to the plurality of digital contents reproduced by the user for a specified time, averaging vectors A for attribute information attached to the plurality of digital contents reserved by the user, assigning a weight to each average, and combining the weights.

10. The reception apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said selection means selects the digital content based on a vector S of the selection information corresponding to a plurality of users.

11. A reception method comprising:

receiving digital contents and attribute information transmitted from a content provider;

outputting the received digital content;

allowing a user to select the digital contents via a filtering process by comparing selection information indicating user preferences with attribute information related to the digital content;

expressing the selection information with an n-dimensional vector S comprising user preference items as elements,

identifying a preference intensity for each element

wherein an element of vector S identifies a positive value as a preference intensity when the user has demonstrated a positive preference for the element and indentifies a negative value as a preference intensity when the user has demonstrated a negative preference for the element, and

performing a calculation between a vector A related to the attribute information and the vector S; and

determining, based on calculation, whether to select the digital content,

wherein Vector S is generated by using Vector A for a program which is reproduced for a specified period of time or longer, and

wherein Vector S is generated by changing a weighting factor for a reserved program and a realtime reproduced program.