Profiling media characters

Abstract

Provided is a process of matching media characters, the process including: obtaining a plurality of character records, each character record including a trait vector specifying traits of the respective character; receiving a request from a user device to match characters in the character records, the request identifying at least one reference character record; calculating, with one or more processors, matching scores indicative of similarity between the trait vector of the reference character record and trait vectors of other character records among the plurality of character records; selecting a responsive character record from among the plurality of character records based on the matching scores; and sending instructions to the user device to display information about a character of the responsive character record.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of matching media characters, the method comprising:
 obtaining a plurality of character records, each character record including a trait vector specifying traits of the respective character;   receiving a request from a user device to match characters in the character records, the request identifying at least one reference character record;   calculating, with one or more processors, matching scores indicative of similarity between the trait vector of the reference character record and trait vectors of other character records among the plurality of character records;   selecting a responsive character record from among the plurality of character records based on the matching scores; and   sending instructions to the user device to display information about a character of the responsive character record.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein obtaining a plurality of character records, each character record including a trait vector specifying traits of the respective character comprises:
 obtaining text of media containing a character;   analyzing the text with natural language processing to score traits of the character; and   constructing a trait vector for the character with the scored traits.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein obtaining a plurality of character records, each character record including a trait vector specifying traits of the respective character comprises:
 sending a user a character comparison interface requesting the user the compare two characters according to a trait;   receiving a response indicating which of the two characters exhibits the trait more strongly; and   adjusting a trait score for each of the two characters based on the response.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein obtaining a plurality of character records, each character record including a trait vector specifying traits of the respective character comprises:
 receiving a human-scored trait vector for a plurality of characters in an item of media.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 receiving a request to identify characters corresponding to two mash-up characters;   calculating a synthetic trait vector by combining trait vectors of the two mash-up characters; and   searching for character records having a trait vector similar to the synthetic trait vector.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 sending the user a quiz to evaluate traits in the trait vectors;   receiving a response to the quiz from the user;   constructing a user trait vector based on the response.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , comprising:
 searching for character records having a trait vector similar to the trait vector of a user.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , comprising:
 searching for other user records having a trait vector similar to the trait vector of a user.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 receiving a request to identify characters based on a binary list of traits;   searching for character records having a trait vector similar to the binary list of traits.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 recommending characters to the user based on a trait vector of the user.   
     
     
         11 . A system, comprising:
 one or more processors; and   memory storing instructions that when executed by at least some of the processors cause operations comprising:
 obtaining a plurality of character records, each character record including a trait vector specifying traits of the respective character; 
 receiving a request from a user device to match characters in the character records, the request identifying at least one reference character record; 
 calculating, with one or more processors, matching scores indicative of similarity between the trait vector of the reference character record and trait vectors of other character records among the plurality of character records; 
 selecting a responsive character record from among the plurality of character records based on the matching scores; and 
 sending instructions to the user device to display information about a character of the responsive character record. 
   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein obtaining a plurality of character records, each character record including a trait vector specifying traits of the respective character comprises:
 obtaining text of media containing a character;   analyzing the text with natural language processing to score traits of the character; and   constructing a trait vector for the character with the scored traits.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein obtaining a plurality of character records, each character record including a trait vector specifying traits of the respective character comprises:
 sending a user a character comparison interface requesting the user the compare two characters according to a trait;   receiving a response indicating which of the two characters exhibits the trait more strongly; and   adjusting a trait score for each of the two characters based on the response.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein obtaining a plurality of character records, each character record including a trait vector specifying traits of the respective character comprises:
 receiving a human-scored trait vector for a plurality of characters in an item of media.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the operations comprise:
 receiving a request to identify characters corresponding to two mash-up characters;   calculating a synthetic trait vector by combining trait vectors of the two mash-up characters; and   searching for character records having a trait vector similar to the synthetic trait vector.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the operations comprise:
 sending the user a quiz to evaluate traits in the trait vectors;   receiving a response to the quiz from the user;   constructing a user trait vector based on the response.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the operations comprise:
 searching for character records having a trait vector similar to the trait vector of a user.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the operations comprise:
 searching for other user records having a trait vector similar to the trait vector of a user.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the operations comprise:
 receiving a request to identify characters based on a binary list of traits;   searching for character records having a trait vector similar to the binary list of traits.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the operations comprise:
 recommending characters to the user based on a trait vector of the user.