Abstract: A recommender engine for recommending content items to a user comprises a profile generation unit having a pre-profile input unit, which is configured to receive pre-profile data comprising pre-profile text data suitable for identifying entities of interest to a given user, and having a pre-profile analysis unit, the entities of interest and to generate an initial user profile data set for the given user from the extracted identification data; a query generation unit, to generate at least two queries semantically different from each other to be directed to at least one content repository; a content retrieval unit, to issue the generated queries to the content repository and to receive in response to the queries, content-related response data comprising respective hit lists and an interleaver unit to generate from the different hit lists a single recommendation list.

Abstract: An electronic device and method for automatic generation of a sorted list of items related to a seed item comprises a relatedness determinator to compare the seed item with a plurality of further items and to determine a relatedness value for each further item with respect to the seed item. The device also has a clustering engine to cluster the further items by determining a relative relatedness between (among) the further items. Each further item is assigned to one cluster. The device also has a list generator to generate a sorted result list by sorting the further items according to both, their relatedness value and their belonging (or membership) to a cluster in that once an item is added to the sorted list, the relatedness value depending ranking of the further items in that cluster is at least momentary lowered so as to promote adding items of further clusters.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of operating an apparatus for displaying content items on a display, a corresponding computer program for operating an apparatus and to an apparatus (100) for displaying content items on a display (410) that is arranged for being coupled to the apparatus (100). In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus (100) that is configured to display a plurality of content items in a two-dimensional grid (300) in dependence of a respective relatedness between a selected content item (A) and one of the content items to be displayed. The selected content item is positioned at a center of the display (410) and the related content items are displayed such that associated relatedness values decrease both in left, right, up and down direction with respect to the center position. The invention furthermore relates to a user terminal (400) that comprises such apparatus.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an operating method of operating a recommender system, a filtering apparatus (260) for a recommender system (200), a recommender system and a corresponding computer program. An idea of the invention is to automatically learn for a user A in a social network, which recommendations of contacts of user A, who are also members of the social network, are relevant with respect to a genre into which user A is interested in. A learning algorithm is used to interpret feedback from user A in response to receiving recommendations from his/her contacts. Thereby, for each combination of a contact and a genre, a relevance-taste index can be determined. The determined relevance-taste index is subjected to a filter. Only such recommendations are provided to user A, whose associated relevance-taste indices fulfil a filtering criterion. Thereby, the amount of irrelevant recommendations submitted to user A can be significantly reduced.

Abstract: A method of distributing second multi-media content items into a list having at least one first multi-media content item is provided. The list of the first multi-media content item is to be reproduced on a personal TV system. A playlist of first multi-media content items is selected from a plurality of first multi-media content items available on different TV channels. Potential second multi-media content items from a plurality of available second multi-media content items are determined by matching information from the first and second multi-media content items. At least one of the determined second multi-media content items are selected based on a user profile, metadata of the first and second multi-media content items and/or a distribution scheme for distributing the second multi-media content items into the playlist of the first multi-media content items.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of operating a recommender system arranged for being coupled to a computer implemented social network (200). The present invention furthermore relates to a corresponding computer program and to a corresponding recommender system (100) arranged for being coupled to a computer implemented social network (200). In particular, the present invention relates to a recommender system (100) being configured to provide a recommendation (172) relating to a content item being highly discussed in the social network (200), without the recommendation being necessarily based on some kind of a correlation between characteristics of a recipient (10) of the recommendation on the one side and characteristics of content items to be recommended and/or characteristics of contacts/friends of the recipient (10) on the other side.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program product for controlling a recommender system, wherein a bias is applied to the output of a recommender in order to favour newly added services and content sources. The bias may decay in time and/or with the number of ratings given to content coming from the new service.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus (100), a video system, a method and a corresponding computer program and a computer readable medium for managing a personal channel (210) of a user (200). The apparatus (100) is configured to identify a personal channel data piece that specifies a content item that the user (200) of the personal channel might not like anymore. The apparatus (100) then suggests (142) to the user (200) to delete the corresponding identified personal channel data piece and thus assists the user (200) in keeping a clear personal channel (210).

Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus (100), a video system, a method and a corresponding computer program and a computer readable medium for managing a personal channel (210) of a user (200). The apparatus (100) is configured to control a search engine (300) with a specified search string (132) that the apparatus (100) has generated by combining a predefined search string (122) and a metadata piece (214). Thereby, the apparatus (100) retrieves a non-linear content (314) item being similar to a specific linear content item being referenced by the metadata piece and causes a recommendation (152) to the user (200) to add the retrieved non-linear content item to his personal channel (210).

Abstract: The present invention is related to a recommender system (100), a computer-implemented recommending method, a corresponding computer readable medium and a corresponding computer program. A recommender system (100) is configured to send an electronic suggestion signal (186) to a respective user (199) of a user database (140) in dependence of a first like-degree (164) of a specific item, which has been determined based on items that the respective user has already recommended to his contacts. The electronic suggestion signal (186) suggests the respective user (199) to recommend the specific item to one or more of his contacts (198). In that way, personal based recommendations (188) are stimulated.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program product for automatically inserting advertisements into a media stream, wherein subscription information which specifies categories of advertisements to be scheduled for insertion is stored and a category of a target advertisement is determined. Based on the result of the determination those advertisements of a stored list of scheduled advertisements, which according to their subscription information are subscribed to the determined category, are triggered and subjected to a predetermined modification processing selected based on the result of the determination.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program product for controlling distribution and processing of content-related metadata of different content sources (101-1 to 101-n), wherein extracted metadata are transformed at from a received format of the extracted metadata into a predetermined common format used by a recommender engine. Additionally or alternatively, it is checked for an overlap between a detected classification parameter and at least one stored classification parameter, and non-overlapping metadata is enriched by adding at least one new classification parameter derived from an ontology-based processing of the non-overlapping metadata.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program product for controlling a recommender system, wherein a user profile normally used by a recommender to predict user ratings is employed to generate a targeted query for the remote database yielding a set of results that can be scored by the recommender and provided as suggestions to the user.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program product for adapting a document with actively selectable content, e.g., web-based content, for consumption in a lean-back mode. The document is rendered in a way that it can be optimally consumed in the lean-back mode. The multimedia content of the document (images, text, etc.) is transformed into a continuous information flow (e.g. video) that can be rendered as if it were a television channel, for example.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus, method, and computer program product for controlling a recommender system, wherein placement of auxiliary media in relation to at least one content item presented to a user is controlled. A first scheduler (111) is provided for scheduling the at least one content item based on a user profile obtained from a recommender system. Additionally, a second scheduler (118) is provided for scheduling placement of the auxiliary media in response to the first scheduler (111), wherein the second scheduler (118) is adapted to receive information about a scheduled content from the first scheduler (111) and to decide which auxiliary media to place into a presentation space based on the received information.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program product for controlling a recommender system, wherein a bias is applied to the output of a recommender in order to favour newly added services and content sources. The bias may decay in time and/or with the number of ratings given to content coming from the new service.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a recommender system and method comprising a first extractor (S200) for applying a first feature extraction algorithm to extract first features characterizing a content of a data input (e.g. webpage) processed by a first application (e.g. Internet browser) running on the system, and a second extractor (S100) for applying a second feature extraction algorithm to extract second features characterizing a content of a database of a second application (e.g. personal TV or movie access) running on the system. Additionally, a comparator (S300) is provided for comparing the first and second features to identify matching items used for the recommendation.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus, method, and computer program product for controlling a recommender system, wherein user actions on content items are associated to explicit ratings on these content items and translated into a UI features profile, which is subsequently used by a recommender. This recommender rates new items based on user actions on this item and thus creates an implicitly learned rating history. This learning makes the implicit rating or scoring personalized. It can be combined in several ways with an explicitly learned rating history to improve overall performance and/or to mitigate the burden for the user, by having him/her rate less items explicitly.

Abstract: A method of distributing second multi-media content items into a list having at least one first multi-media content item is provided. The list of the first multi-media content item is to be reproduced on a personal TV system. A playlist of first multi-media content items is selected from a plurality of first multi-media content items available on different TV channels. Potential second multi-media content items from a plurality of available second multi-media content items are determined by matching information from the first and second multi-media content items. At least one of the determined second multi-media content items are selected based on a user profile, metadata of the first and second multi-media content items and/or a distribution scheme for distributing the second multi-media content items into the playlist of the first multi-media content items.