Methods and apparatus to generate relevance rankings for use by a program selector of a media presentation system
View Patent ↗Example methods and apparatus to generate relevance rankings for use by a program selector of a media presentation system are disclosed. An example method comprises tabulating a plurality of occurrence counts for respective ones of a plurality of terms of a program guide, each of the occurrence counts indicating a corresponding number of times each of the terms appears in the program guide, computing a plurality of relevance ranking scores for respective ones of a plurality of programs listed in the program guide based on the plurality of occurrence counts, selecting a list of programs from the program guide based on the relevance ranking scores, and outputting the list of programs.
1. A method comprising:
tabulating for each program in a program guide an occurrence count corresponding to each term of a plurality of terms, the occurrence count indicating a number of times the respective term is associated with a corresponding program;
computing, by utilizing instructions from memory that are executed by a processor of a computer, for each program in the program guide, a relevance ranking score by multiplying an average of occurrence counts associated with a corresponding program by how many times the corresponding program is listed in the program guide;
selecting a list of programs from the program guide based on a respective relevance ranking score of each program; and
outputting the list of programs.
2. The method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the occurrence count indicates a number of times the respective term appears in at least one of a program title or a program description of the program guide.
3. The method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a search criteria; and
selecting a list of programs from the program guide based on the relevance ranking score of each program and the search criteria.
4. The method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising weighting the relevance ranking score based on viewership ratings.
5. The method as defined in claim 4 , wherein the viewership ratings are applied on at least one of a day-of-month, a day-of-week or an hour-of-day basis.
6. The method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising weighting the relevance ranking score based on a user profile.
7. The method as defined in claim 6 , wherein the list of programs is selected to include a program chosen by a user associated with a second user profile.
8. The method as defined in claim 6 , wherein the user profile represents a historical watching behavior for at least one of a particular broadcaster or a particular program.
9. The method as defined in claim 6 , further comprising monitoring media selections made by a user to form the user profile.
10. The method as defined in claim 9 , wherein a media selection comprises at least one of a channel or a program title.
11. The method as defined in claim 6 , wherein the user profile comprises a plurality of durations for respective ones of a plurality of program titles.
12. The method as defined in claim 6 , wherein the user profile comprises a plurality of durations for respective ones of a plurality of channels.
13. The method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising multiplying the occurrence count with a boost value.
14. The method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising weighting the relevance ranking score based on a first user profile and a second user profile.
15. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory medium for storing machine readable instructions which, when loaded and executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
tabulating for each program in a program guide an occurrence count corresponding to each term of a plurality of terms, the occurrence count indicating a number of times the respective term is associated with a corresponding program;
computing for each program in the program guide a relevance ranking score by multiplying an average of occurrence counts associated with a corresponding program by how many times the corresponding program is listed in the program guide;
selecting a list of programs from the program guide based on a respective relevance ranking score of each program; and
outputting the list of programs.
16. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 15 , wherein the occurrence count indicates the corresponding number of times the respective term appears in at least one of a program title or a program description of the program guide.
17. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving a spoken search criteria; and
selecting a list of programs from the program guide based on the relevance ranking scores and the search criteria.
18. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise weighting the relevance ranking score based on viewership ratings.
19. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise weighting the relevance ranking score based on a user profile.
20. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise weighting the relevance ranking score based on a first user profile and a second user profile.
21. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise weighting the relevance ranking score based on a similarity between a first user profile and a second user profile.
22. A system, comprising:
a memory that stores instructions;
a processor that executes the instructions from memory to perform operations, the operations comprising:
tabulating for each program in a program guide an occurrence count corresponding to each term of a plurality of terms, the occurrence count indicating a number of times the respective term is associated with a corresponding program;
computing, for each program in the program guide, a relevance ranking score by multiplying an average of occurrence counts associated with a corresponding program by how many times the corresponding program is listed in the program guide;
selecting a list of programs from the program guide based on a respective relevance ranking score of each program; and
outputting the list of programs.
23. The system of claim 22 , wherein the operations further comprise receiving a search criteria and selecting a list of programs from the program guide based on the relevance ranking score of each program and the search criteria.
24. The system of claim 22 , wherein the operations further comprise weighting the relevance ranking score based on viewership ratings.
25. The system of claim 22 , wherein the operations further comprise weighting the relevance ranking score based on a user profile.
26. The system of claim 25 , wherein the operations further comprise monitoring media selections made by a user to form the user profile.
27. The system of claim 22 , wherein the operations further comprise multiplying the occurrence count with a boost value.
28. The system of claim 22 , wherein the operations further comprise weighting the relevance ranking score based on a first user profile and a second user profile.
29. The system of claim 22 , wherein the operations further comprise adjusting the relevance ranking score based on a viewership rating.
30. The system of claim 22 , wherein the operations further comprise storing the relevance ranking score of each program.
31. The system of claim 22 , wherein the operations further comprise ignoring terms of the plurality of terms that have a limited value.