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The need for a more readily usable interface for programmable devices is widely recognized. The present invention relates to programmable sequencing devices, or, more particularly, the remote controls for consumer electronic devices. The present invention provides an enhanced interface for facilitat

The need for a more readily usable interface for programmable devices is widely recognized. The present invention relates to programmable sequencing devices, or, more particularly, the remote controls for consumer electronic devices. The present invention provides an enhanced interface for facilitating human input of a desired control sequence in a programmable device by employing specialized visual feedback. The present invention also relates to a new interface and method of interfacing with a programmable device, which is usable as an interface for a programmable video cassette recorder.

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1. A system, comprising: a memory storing at least a portion of a user profile comprising user-specific information desirability characteristics and user-specific information undesirability characteristics, which are each at least partially automatically derived from observing the user interact with

1. A system, comprising: a memory storing at least a portion of a user profile comprising user-specific information desirability characteristics and user-specific information undesirability characteristics, which are each at least partially automatically derived from observing the user interact with information without receiving user feedback, and a history of user executed functions;an input port configured to receive descriptions of a plurality of available information items; anda processor, configured to access the memory, and to: receive the descriptions of the plurality of available information items, retrieve the at least a portion of the user profile from the memory,process the descriptions of the plurality of available information items, in conjunction with the at least a portion of the user profile retrieved from the memory,generate a set of available choices and present the available choices for selection by a user, the set of available choices comprising a subset of the plurality of information items comprising information items predicted to be desirable to the user, with a bias against repetition, andautomatically update the user profile comprising user-specific information desirability characteristics and user-specific information undesirability characteristics based on user selection of an information item by the user. 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of available information items comprise digitally compressed video programs, and wherein the descriptions comprise an on line database of program descriptions. 3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the descriptions comprise automatically generated descriptors. 4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user profile is derived at least in part from explicit user profile input information. 5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user profile is derived, at least in part, implicitly from observation of user behavior. 6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user profile further comprises user feedback relating to a respective information items. 7. A method, comprising: storing in a memory at least a portion of a user profile comprising user-specific information desirability characteristics and user-specific information undesirability characteristics, which are each at least partially automatically derived from observing the user interact with content without receiving user feedback, and a history of user executed functions;receiving descriptions of a plurality of available information items;automatically processing the descriptions of a plurality of available information items, in conjunction with the at least a portion of the stored user profile retrieved from the memory, to generate an output representing a set of information items available for selection by a user predicted to be desired by the user based on an automatically determined correspondence of the descriptions with the information desirability characteristics of the user profile, with a bias against repetition; andautomatically updating the user profile comprising user-specific information desirability characteristics and user-specific information undesirability characteristics in dependence on a user selection of an information item. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the plurality of available information items comprise digitally compressed video programs, and wherein the descriptions comprise an on line database of program descriptions. 9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the descriptions comprise automatically generated descriptors. 10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising deriving the user profile at least in part from explicit user profile input information. 11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising deriving the user profile, at least in part, implicitly from observation of user behavior. 12. The method according to claim 7, further comprising generating the user profile based on at least received user feedback relating to a respective information item. 13. A method, comprising: storing a user profile in a memory, representing a plurality of subjective desirability characteristics for a user, and subjective undesirability characteristics for the user, which are each at least partially automatically derived from observing the user interact with content without receiving user feedback;receiving information characterizing a content of a plurality of available items having information content;processing the received information, in conjunction with the user profile retrieved from the memory, to determine a plurality of candidate items which are likely to be preferred by the user based on both the subjective desirability characteristics and the subjective undesirability characteristics, with a bias against repetition;presenting identifications of at least a portion of the plurality of items to the user; andupdating the user profile based on a user response to the presented identifications of the at least a portion of the plurality of items. 14. The method according to claim 13, wherein said processing step employs artificial intelligence. 15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the information characterizing a plurality of available items is received from an on-line database through a telecommunication system. 16. The method according to claim 13, further comprising maintaining a user history. 17. A system, comprising: a first memory configured to store a user profile, representing a plurality of subjective desirability characteristics for a user, and subjective undesirability characteristics for the user, which are each at least partially automatically derived from observing the user interact with content without receiving user feedback;a second memory configured to store information characterizing a content of a plurality of available items having information content;a processor configured to process the user profile retrieved from the first memory in conjunction with the information characterizing a content of a plurality of available items from the second memory, to determine a plurality of candidate items which are likely to be preferred by the user based on both the subjective desirability characteristics and the subjective undesirability characteristics, with a bias against repetition; anda user interface port configured to output identifications of at least a portion of the plurality of items for presentation to the user and to receive a user response to the presented identifications,wherein the processor is further configured to update the user profile based on the user response to the presented identifications of the at least a portion of the plurality of items. 18. The system according to claim 17, further comprising a telecommunication system interface port configured to receive the information characterizing a plurality of available items from an on-line database. 19. The system according to claim 17, further comprising a third memory configured to store a user history.