The document discusses the role of MPEG-21 User Description in recommendation issues. MPEG-21 User Description allows for the exchange and integration of metadata standards from different recommendation engines. This is aimed at enhancing recommendation accuracy and improving the user experience. The document outlines the User Description, Context Description, Service Description, and Recommendation Description components of MPEG-21 and how they can be used by recommendation engines and services to provide interoperable and enhanced recommendation capabilities.

1. FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2016, October 12-15, Warsaw MPEG-21 User Description
The role of MPEG-21 User Description
in recommendation issues
Sabino Metta,
RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana
Centre for Research and Technological Innovation
FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2016
“Rethink the future of AV”
October 12 to October 15, Warsaw

2. FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2016, October 12-15, Warsaw MPEG-21 User Description
MPEG-21 User Description (MPEG-21 UD)*
Exchange and “horizontal” integration of metadata standards
provided by recommendation engines of different
stakeholders. This is aimed at enhancing recommending
accuracy and improving the user experience.
(*) ISO/IEC DIS 21000-22: Information technology – Multimedia framework (MPEG-21) – Part 22: User Description. 2015

3. FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2016, October 12-15, Warsaw MPEG-21 User Description
Recommendation Description (RD)
It includes: (i) subsets of UD/CD/SD,
which are the actual recommended
items together with information about
what role these items play in the
recommendation; (ii) additional logical
relations linking recommended items
(e.g. a ranked list specifying a
preference order of the recommended
items and other similar structures); (iii)
descriptive metadata related to the
recommended items.
RD descriptors include e.g. the
recommended objects and the
services by which they are provided
(such as an audio interview provided
by a broadcaster's website),
descriptive information about the
recommended items or additional
logical relations among the
recommended items.
User Description (UD)
Description of the User seeking
recommendation (UD).
UD descriptors contain e.g. static and
dynamic information about the user,
the history of the user's interactions,
preferences, security settings
regarding these information, etc.
Context Description (CD)
Description of the Context in which the
User operates (CD).
CD descriptors provide information
about the user operational
environment, such as the used device,
physical position, temperature,
humidity, sound level, etc.
Service Description (SD)
Description of Services offering
content sought by the User (SD).
SD descriptors contain information
about the service (or a set of sub-
services), that is offered to the end-
user application (e.g. music tracks on
demand, newscasts, etc) and the
objects (e.g., multimedia items) offered
by the service
Conceptual Model of MPEG-21 UD.
UD/CD/SD/RD (red) indicate the formats specified by MPEG-UD.
Description Managers, Recommendation Engine and
Application (black) are out of the scope of the standard

4. FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2016, October 12-15, Warsaw MPEG-21 User Description
Interoperable Rec. Engines
Even if the Service Provider can
have its own internal
Recommendation Engine, it can
request the auxiliary
functionalities of n different and
external Recommendation
Engines in order to enhance the
user experience with richer
information.
According to the policies set by
the user in terms of availability of
his/her information to external
applications, the Service Provider
can forward UD, CD descriptions
(or subsets of them) and its own
SD description to these Engines.
At this point, according to an
internal integration logic, the
Service Provider can integrate the
received items and return to the
user an enhanced
recommendation service

5. FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2016, October 12-15, Warsaw MPEG-21 User Description
EBU RecSys. December 1 and 2, 2015 – Yle (Helsinki)
The role of MPEG-21 User Description in recommendation issues
RAI - Radiotelevisione italiana
14 TV channels,
10 Radio stations and
44 web sites.
Multimedia services are offered
for news, entertaiment, movies,
fiction, cartoons, sport, culture,
arts, etc

6. FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2016, October 12-15, Warsaw MPEG-21 User Description
Several RAI apps are
currently available on
different platforms:
iPhone, iPad, Windows
Phone, Android Phone,
Android Tablet,
Blackberry, Kindle Fire,
Smart tv (Samsung), MHP.
CLOSED and SEPARATED !
http://www.rai.it/dl/rai/appMobile.html?refresh_ce

7. FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2016, October 12-15, Warsaw MPEG-21 User Description
http://www.rai.it/dl/rai/appMobile.html?refresh_ce
Such service descriptions
can be exploited by a
generic (or more than
one) engine thus making
intraoperable different
RAI applications.

8. FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2016, October 12-15, Warsaw MPEG-21 User Description
Sabino Metta
RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana
Centre for Research and Technological Innovation
sabino.metta@rai.it