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Shoit uisseitation

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Naico Lisi 1886u1

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The uigital television (BTv) technology allows impiovements in the quality of auuio anu
viueo, offeis seivices anu applications anu incieases the offei of Tv content. This inciease
allows the Tv vieweis to finu a gieat vaiiety of content anu an oveiloau of infoimation. The
useis uo not necessaiily benefit fiom this oveiabunuance of available content; insteau, they
finu it uifficult to ietiieve the iight piogiam they woulu like to watch. In oiuei to solve this
pioblem, Electionic Piogiam uuiues (EPus) aie available foi the Tv vieweis look foi favouiite
piogiams. These, howevei, usually only list all the available piogiams anu theiefoie
iepiesent an appioach that uoes not solve the pioblem. What the useis woulu ieally neeu is
some soit of peisonalizeu piogiam guiue that woulu iecommenu them only those piogiams
that they aie likely to be inteiesteu in. So, the ieseaiches focus the uevelopment of content
iecommenuation systems, which is able to piopose the Tv content coiiesponuing to the
vieweis' inteiests.
In this uisseitation, two papeis |1j |2j will be uiscusseu that ueal about this topic. Follows a
shoit ieview of both papeis anu aftei a compaiison between the two.

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This papei uesciibes a iecommenuation system foi multi-usei enviionments to offei the
peisonalization. The focus of iecommenuations is not on each viewei but on the gioup as a
whole.
Foi this puipose the RePTvB (Peisonalizeu Recommenuation foi Bigital Television) is
piesenteu. This system offeis peisonalizeu iecommenuation of content foi gioups of vieweis
fiom a same place anu consiueis the piefeiences uiscoveieu by the viewing histoiy. The usei
piefeiences aie totally implicitly collecteu anu, fiom this infoimation, the system iuentifies
uiffeient behavioui patteins in the gioup anu uefines the best iecommenuations.
In oiuei to uiscovei the behavioui pattein in the gioup viewing histoiy, uata mining
technique was useu. Aftei analysing thiee possible uata mining algoiithms, the association
iules implementeu by the Apiioii algoiithm was chosen, since it is bettei aujustable to the
BTv uomain uue to the quantity anu vaiiety of iules what was ielevant foi this context. The
uata iemain in the set-top Box (STB), no connection to any seivei is neeueu to apply
mining technique.
The analysis was caiiieu out thiough measuiing the system accuiacy of piesenting ielevant
content to the viewei's expectations. In the foimula o = u, o coiiesponus to the efficiency of
the system anu vaiies fiom u a 1, is the numbei of vieweu iecommenuation anu u is the
numbei of peifoimeu iecommenuation.
The uata weie extiacteu fiom a sample of thiiteen vieweis subuiviueu in foui gioups. The
viewing behavioui was collecteu accoiuing to the open Tv ieal piogiam guiue. Buiing foui
weeks, the gioup viewing histoiical was submitteu to the iecommenuation system. Foi each
uay the system collecteu the viewing behavioui anu peifoimeu the mining in the enu of that
uay. Aftei that, it was peifoimeu the uata filteiing accoiuing to the obtaineu iules, which weie
compaieu the piogiam guiue of the following uay, with the aim of cieating a iecommenuation
list. This way, the system efficiency accounting was measuieu using the implicit feeuback, i.e.
if the viewei woulu have chosen to watch the iecommenuation offeieu.
In Figuie 1, the evaluation was ielateu to the accuiacy of all the gioups uuiing the foui weeks.
Consiueiations will be iepoiteu when compaieu with the iesults of the othei papei.














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In this papei it is uiscusseu how to pioviue the iight iecommenuations in the uigital Tv
enviionment. It is tieateu in uetail the question of piopei usei mouelling that will enable to
leain the patteins of usei's piefeiences. It shows that by applying some iesults fiom the fielu
of infoimation ietiieval, it is possible to builu a simple yet iobust system that coulu pioviue
helpful iecommenuations to its useis; follow an explanation of the methou:
Fiist of all, it is useful that the featuies aie expiesseu in numeiic foim. Quantifieu featuies
coulu be oiueieu in a vectoi stiuctuie that woulu then seive as a unique uesciiptoi foi the
obseiveu item; the iuea is to obtain a set of Tv piogiam featuies by use of the metauata
infoimation fiom NPEu-7 stanuaiu.
While some metauata aie alieauy numeiical, otheis, like title, genie, anu cast aie textual anu
neeu to be conveiteu to numeiical equivalents. The solution is founu in the infoimation
ietiieval: it is possible to uefine a set of ielevant featuies that woulu apply to all available
items. This leaus to the high-uimensional vectoi spaces, wheie each cooiuinate (i.e. basis
vectoi) iepiesents one piogiam featuie.
In oiuei to finu the piogiam(s) of expecteu inteiest, the usei mouelling anu piogiam ietiieval
algoiithm shown in Figuie 2 is applieu.
Tv piogiam p
!
is iepiesenteu by #-uimensional vectoi ($
!1
, $
!2,
..., $
!#
) whose cooiuinates aie,
E/'1%* F
E/'1%* G
as saiu befoie, piogiam featuies. The usei mouel is given by u = (u
1,
u
2,
..., u
#
) anu it coulu be
iegaiueu as taiget piogiam in the obseiveu vectoi space u.
The coiiesponuence of some piogiam p
!
to the usei mouel u is given with similaiity function:

Recommenuation agent, stoieu within usei's Tv ieceivei (oi in the set-top box), keeps the
iecoiu on % piogiams p
1
, ..., p
%
that the usei has pieviously watcheu, p
1
being the most
iecent one. It uses these uata to estimate the optimal usei mouel u; aftei estimating the usei
mouel, the agent then seaiches ovei the available piogiams to finu few with the gieatest
similaiities to u. These piogiams aie finally iecommenueu to the usei.
The cooiuinates of the optimal usei mouel will then be given with

Wheie

Wheie &
!
aie optional weighting coefficients that assign unequal impoitance to the watcheu
piogiams.
Shoulu the usei accept any of the iecommenueu piogiams, it woulu be consiueieu as positive
feeuback anu the cuiient usei mouel woulu be upuateu to incluue that piogiam. 0theiwise, if
the usei is not satisfieu with the piogiam he is cuiiently watching, he woulu piess a "Bislike"
button on the iemote contiol anu that piogiam woulu not be incluueu in his piofile; negative
feeuback is theiefoie stateu explicitly.
Foi evaluating the peifoimance, it is useu a uataset whit movies iecommenuations, consisting
on iating given by useis. Between these useis, 8u weie chosen ianuomly, who geneiateu
224u2 inteiactions with the system. The uistiibution of these iatings is given in Table I. The
aveiage iating was S.6.
Foi each movie, a genie uesciiption accoiuing to the uata fiom Inteinet Novie Batabase is
pioviueu. This uesciiption is useu to geneiate featuie vectois as follows. Each movie is
iepiesenteu as an 18-uimensional vectoi space, wheie each of the cooiuinates stanus foi the
piesence of a paiticulai genie of the movie.
Shoulu any of these featuies exist in the uesciiption of the obseiveu movie, a "1" is assigneu to
the matching cooiuinate; otheiwise, its value is "u". Finally, the featuie vectois aie
noimalizeu to unit magnituues.
The usei inteiactions weie soiteu in chionological oiuei anu the seiies of Nonte Cailo
simulations was then conuucteu. These incluueu usei mouelling, making a list of thiee
iecommenuations anu obseiving the usei's ieaction. This ieaction is consiueieu to be positive
shoulu the usei's iating foi any iecommenueu item be at least S. 0theiwise the
iecommenuation was consiueieu to be unsuccessful.
Foui weighting schemes weie consiueieu:
1. &
!
= 1, which is equivalent to no weighting;
2. 0seis' iatings (1-S) weie useu as weights;
S. &
!
= u.8
%-!
(with % size of histoiy winuow), oluei inteiactions weie favouieu;
4. &
!
= u.8
!-1
, newei inteiactions weie favouieu.
To evaluate the iesults, the iecommenuation success iate is taken into consiueiation, uefineu
as the peicentage of the inteiactions that weie finisheu successfully (usei's iating was at least
S). Figuie S shows how the success iate uepenus on the winuow size %.
Consiueiations of the iesults aie iepoiteu in the section below.


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The fiist thing that must be noticeu is that the two papeis piopose two uiffeient methous foi
ieaching the same puipose: the fiist woiks whit uata mining algoiithms while the seconu
with vectoi space mouel fiom the infoimation ietiieval.
Apait fiom this, theie aie seveial aiguments that aie uealt fiom both the authois.
In |2j, we finu a uefinition of content-baseu systems anu collaboiative systems:
Content-baseu systems iecommenu those items that iesemble the ones the usei likeu in the
past, while collaboiative systems iecommenu the items that the othei useis with similai
tastes likeu in the past. It is cleai that in |1j collaboiative system can be useu since the
ieseaich is uevelopeu foi multi-usei enviionment; but also in |2j it is consiueieu the
possibility to woik on viewing gioups using collaboiative appioach.
Both |1j anu |2j agiee on the fact that woik with implicit methous it woulu be piefeiable
when possible (i.e. the usei shoulu not give input to the system which woiks in an automatic
way). In |1j a total implicit methou is auopteu, while in |2j it takes into account the possibility
of obtaining a ielevant feeuback by the usei thiough a "LikeBislike" buttons on the iemote
contiol of the system.
Accoiuing to this, it's possible to see in the iesults obtaineu in |2j that the success iate foi "no
weighting" anu "weighteu by useis' iatings" aie quite the same: this justifies oui opinion
that theie is no neeu foi the useis to expiess theii feeuback by iating the
iecommenuations, so no explicit feeuback is neeueu to uevelop a goou
iecommenuation system.
Analysing the iesults of both papeis, it's possible to notice the colu stait oi the new usei
pioblem, which ieflects the fact that the system can haiuly iecommenu an item to the usei
who has not geneiateu enough inteiactions foi his piefeiences to be leaineu. In fact, the
iesult impiove with time |1j oi with the giowth of the histoiy winuow |2j (in which all
pievious watcheu piogiams aie stoieu), cleaily because the system has moie uata to woik on.
Both methous aie uevelopeu to woik with existing haiuwaie (Tv ieceivei oi set-top-box) anu
not senuing uata to any seivei to apply the iecommenuation techniques: the peisonalizeu
Electionic Piogiam uuiue shoulu iely on techniques that coulu be applieu locally in the usei's
Tv ieceivei oi STB.

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Both papei shows valiu methous to implement a iecommenuation system foi BTv, both uata
mining association algoiithm anu infoimation ietiieval hau success, but seeing the iesult it's
quite eviuent that in |1j the implementeu methou uoes not achieve a laige efficiency (u.S6
above all gioups oveiall). This is piobably uue to the fact that the accuiate iuentification of a
membei of a gioup is a challenge anu it coulu be uifficult to inseit in a uefineu gioup useis
whose piefeiences fall outsiue the existing niches.
So, uefinitively, woiking on collaboiative systems it coulu be tough anu not always leau to
uesiieu iesults while content-baseu techniques shoulu be uominant foi uigital Tv
iecommenuei systems.
It is possible to imagine that in the neai futuie technologies will allows this kinu of systems to
woik on-line, communicating with seivei, so that a possible iecommenuation system can
have access to a huge uatabase of infoimation (anu also computation algoiithms coulu woik
on seiveis) anu not only limit to the piefeiences evaluateu in a single uevice (STB).
The uevelopment anu futuie woik shoulu take in consiueiation these possibilities.

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