Keen Personal Media, Inc.

Bradley S Masters

Russell M Krapf

William Pat Price

A video system has an input port to receive display contents including a plurality of broadcast display contents and has an output port to couple to a video display. Further, the system includes a preference engine, a storage device and a management module. The preference engine is coupled to the input port and tracks viewer selections of the broadcast display contents to create a viewer profile. The storage device is coupled to the input port, the output port and the preference engine, and records a first plurality of display contents according to the viewer profile and a second plurality of display contents upon a viewer selecting the display contents for recording. The management module is coupled to the preference engine and the storage device, and defines a third plurality of display contents based upon the available broadcast display contents for a viewing session and based upon the viewer profile. Further, the management module creates a menu of viewing choices comprising at least one of the first plurality of display contents, the second plurality of display contents and the third plurality of display contents. The menu is displayable on the video display from which a viewer can select a sequence of display contents for the viewing session.

System and method for creating and displaying a preference based menu for a viewing session

An audiovisual system and a method make audiovisual programs available to a user and present on a display device a first available audiovisual program selected from the available audiovisual programs. The audiovisual system includes a disk drive and a preference determination module. The preference determination module estimates a degree of interest for each available audiovisual program. The audiovisual system further includes an alert module that generates an interrupt signal in response to the degrees of interest of the available audiovisual programs. The audiovisual system further includes a system controller responsive to user input and electronic program guide information to present the first available audiovisual program to the user. The system controller is further responsive to the interrupt signal from the alert module to interrupt presenting the first available audiovisual program to provide information to the user regarding at least a second available audiovisual program.

Audiovisual system to interrupt viewing of a first audiovisual program to provide notification of a second audiovisual program of interest to the user

A method of operating a personal video recorder, which is coupled to a display device to selectively present broadcast programs and recorded content to a viewer, maintains a viewing menu in the personal video recorder. The viewing menu includes for a predetermined day of a week at least channel and time information of broadcast programs the viewer has previously selected on the predetermined day of a previous week. The method displays the viewing menu on the predetermined day of the week to enable the viewer to select between executing and not executing the viewing menu in accordance with at least the channel and time information of the broadcast programs. Further, the method selectively updates the viewing menu upon viewer input on the predetermined day of the week to provide for a history of broadcast programs the viewer actually selected on the predetermined day of the week.

Personal video recorder and method enabling a history pull down function for program selection

A control device for a system for displaying video data includes an output port configured to couple to the video display and input ports configured to couple to a plurality of sources for display content. An image generator is coupled to the input ports and the output port and generates a portal image to be displayed on the video display as a personalized portal screen. The personalized portal screen has a plurality of integrated display options personalized to a viewer's preferences. Each display option corresponds to one of the sources for display content or content within one of the sources. The display options include viewports that display content from selected sources and further including links to other sources.

System for displaying an integrated portal screen

A video system has an input port to receive video data that includes a plurality of premium contents, and an output port to couple to a video display for displaying video data selected by a viewer. A preference engine coupled to the input port tracks viewer selections of the video data and creates a viewer profile representing viewing preferences of the viewer. A storage device is coupled to the preference engine to store the viewer profile. An image generator is coupled to the input port, the output port and the storage device, wherein the image generator is responsive to the viewer profile and responsive to data representing available video data, including data representing the premium contents. The image generator generates a menu image to be displayed on the video display as a menu including a limited number of viewing preferences having a high probability of acceptance by the viewer. The image generator applies a weighting factor to the data representing the premium contents to ensure that at least one of the premium contents is included in the menu.

Video system with a control device for displaying a menu listing viewing preferences having a high probability of acceptance by a viewer that include weighted premium content

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Mission Viejo, CA, United States of America

Bradley S Masters