Development of a generic XML personality metadata handler for distributed entertainment services

Especially in the case of entertainment services, the provision of a general valid personality profile is gaining in importance. The personality profile shall include information about the usage-context of media services. These media services can be arbitrary and range from simple playlist compilations of audio-visual content to complex feedback profiles in interactive television. This research paper provides an overview of a metadata based solution for merging personalized content. Multiple applications, such as audio or video players contribute with user-context information enabling future personalization scenarios. An XML metadata specification is presented providing a generic container format for representing a personality user profile. To enable generality, the personality profile simply extends existing XML standards by adding attributes and thus keeping the existing structure intact. This also allows the creation of slim and resource efficient personality schemas which are especially beneficial when deployed on resource-sensitive client devices like mobile phones. © 2008 Springer-Verlag