Efficient channel selection using hierarchical clustering

Increases in the number of TV channels requires users to spend more time to select their preferred channels since the user interaction for browsing is practically limited to the conventional remote control with a two-way scrolling button. We formally define the problem to construct the optimal channel ordering which minimizes the seek distance in selecting channels and show this problem is NP-hard. In addition, we present a reasonable heuristic to solve this problem. The proposed method constructs an efficient channel ordering by applying a hierarchical clustering algorithm based on the frequencies of switching events between channels. We demonstrate the feasibility of this method by applying a number of well-known hierarchical clustering algorithms and evaluating the number of user inputs required for selecting channels. Our experimental results show that the proposed method significantly decreases the number of user inputs compared with the conventional methods.