Dynamic identification of a new set of media items responsive to an input mediaset

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for creating a list of media items that are similar to an input mediaset comprising at least one input media item, optionally together with at least one input parameter that constrains the output in scope or number of items. Media items include music, videos, pictures and other such items that can be associated or grouped together by a human into a list or mediaset. The mediaset is formed by a human applying virtually any objective and/or subjective criteria. Those criteria need not be made explicit; a relation among the selected items is implicit in the list per se. Alternatively, objective criteria such as metadata can be used.

1 . A method for dynamically generating a set of media items related to an input set of media items comprising the steps of:
 (a) receiving an input mediaset comprising a list of media items;   (b) accessing a database of predetermined mediasets; wherein the predetermined mediasets each comprise a list of media items;   (c) matching each entry in the input mediaset onto a unique media item found in the database, by matching item identifiers rather than any descriptive metadata;   (d) if an entry in the input mediaset can be mapped to multiple media items found in the database, selecting a best matching one of the media item media items found in the database, and matching the said entry to the selected best matching item;   (d) responsive to the matching steps (c) and (d), identifying a set of the predetermined mediasets in the database, so that each of the identified set of predetermined mediasets includes at least one media item to which an input mediaset entry was matched;   (e) merging the identified set of predetermined mediasets into a single list of similar media items; and   (d) creating an output set of media items by selecting one or more media items from the merged list.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , and further comprising ranking the output set by a computed item similarity weight such that higher ranked items are more likely to be related to the items listed in the input mediaset. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each entry of the input mediaset has a first level of abstraction, and said matching step includes first mapping at least one item of the input mediaset to a second level of abstraction higher than the first level of abstraction. 
     
     
         4 . The method in  claim 3 , wherein the input mediaset includes a music item corresponding to a specific recording track, and said mapping step includes mapping that music item to a corresponding song title and artist. 
     
     
         5 . The method in  claim 3 , wherein the input mediaset includes a music item corresponding to a specific recording track, and said mapping step includes mapping that music item to a corresponding song title without limitation to a particular artist. 
     
     
         6 . A system for dynamically generating a recommended set of media items comprising:
 (a) a mediaset processing system component that stores and organizes mediasets;   (b) a query processing system component that takes as input a mediaset, and in cooperation with the mediaset processing system, produces a set of said previously stored mediasets that are similar to the input set;   (c) a merge processing system component that, in cooperation with the query processing system, merges all the sets in the selected set into a single ranked ordering of media items according to a predefined merge function; and   (d) a selection processing system that selects a plurality of media items from the top of the ranked list from the merge processing systems and outputs a list of those items.   
     
     
         7 . The system in  claim 6 , where the selection processing system employs randomization as one factor in selecting items. 
     
     
         8 . The system in  claim 6 , in which input to the selection processing system includes a set of parameters applicable to further restrict the set of selected items on the output list. 
     
     
         9 . The system in  claim 6 , in which the selection processing system first filters items according to at least one predetermined parameter. 
     
     
         10 . The system in  claim 9 , where the parameter is one of a selected artist, album, genre, or sub-genre.