US 7,813,822 · Granted 2010-10-12

The Smart TV Box That Learns What You Actually Want to Watch

Imagine a cable box that gets smarter over time by watching what shows you pause on, rewind, or skip—and then automatically tailors the menu to show you stuff you'll actually like. This patent covers the brains behind that kind of personalized, adaptive TV experience, plus the tech to understand what's happening in the video itself.

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The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers an intelligent set-top box system that combines three key pieces: an adaptive user interface that learns and models viewer preferences through observation and feedback; a content-analysis engine that watches audio and video to automatically understand what's happening and generate descriptive metadata about it; and a metadata processor that uses that information (like electronic program guides or automatically generated tags) to filter, organize, and present media. Also included are digital rights management features and trick-play effects like fast-forward and rewind. Someone copying this exact combination without permission would be infringing.

Why it matters

This patent represents an early, foundational approach to making home media systems intelligent and personalized. At the time of filing in 2005, broadband video was becoming mainstream, but most cable boxes treated every viewer the same. The patent's core insight—that a box could learn individual preferences and use content analysis to make smarter recommendations—anticipated what Netflix, YouTube, and modern smart TVs do routinely today. It's a building block in the shift from passive, one-size-fits-all broadcasting to adaptive, user-aware entertainment delivery.

Real-world use

When you flip through a streaming service and notice it suggests shows based on your watch history and pauses, or when a smart TV's menu reorganizes to prioritize genres you favor, you're seeing ideas that trace back to systems like the one this patent describes.

Original USPTO abstract

An intelligent electronic appliance preferably includes a user interface, data input and/or output port, and an intelligent processor. A preferred embodiment comprises a set top box for interacting with broadband media streams, with an adaptive user interface, content-based media processing and/or media metadata processing, and telecommunications integration. An adaptive user interface models the user, by observation, feedback, and/or explicit input, and presents a user interface and/or executes functions based on the user model. A content-based media processing system analyzes media content, for example audio and video, to understand the content, for example to generate content-descriptive metadata. A media metadata processing system operates on locally or remotely generated metadata to process the media in accordance with the metadata, which may be, for example, an electronic program guide, MPEG 7 data, and/or automatically generated format. A set top box preferably includes digital trick play effects, and incorporated digital rights management features.

Patent details

Publication number: US 7,813,822
Filing date: 2005-01-29
Grant date: 2010-10-12
Assignee: Hoffberg Steven M
Inventor(s): HOFFBERG STEVEN M.
CPC class: H04N7/163

View original record on Google Patents →

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