Patent Grant
8640158
This invention generally relates to the field of programming control systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for allowing users to control and manage programming content. In one implementation, an application residing on a set-top box or other consumer electronic device, such as a television set, uses data synchronized to a program to dynamically block or modify portions of the program's video or audio based on a user's parental control settings.
With the increasing availability of television programming, cable services, Internet programming, and other interactive entertainment services, there is an ever greater need for the ability to control and manage content of programming. Users desire to be able to more easily and effectively choose the types of television programs to which they and/or their children are exposed.
In some existing “parental control systems,” such as those associated with V-chip technology or Electronic Program Guides (EPGs), users may block all programs having particular ratings and content attributes. For instance, a user may block all programs having a rating of “TV-MA” (Mature) or all programs having the content attribute for “Violence.” When a program with blocked ratings or content attributes appears, both its video and audio are blocked for the entire duration of the program unless the user enters a personal identification number (PIN) to unblock it. With such existing systems, ratings and content attributes are generalized for the entire program and rarely change. As a result, blocking is an “all or nothing” affair because either all of the program is blocked or none of it is blocked. This is a disadvantage if the ratings or content attributes apply to only a small part of the entire program.
For instance, if a program contains a brief scene of nudity and the user blocked all programs with “Nudity,” the entire program would be blocked even if the scene in question was only a few seconds in length. There would be no way to selectively block just that portion of the program. A good example of this is the movie “Titanic.” After Titanic's release, a small firm began editing from Titanic a love scene between the two main characters. There was an enormous demand for this version of Titanic among parents and other users who did not desire to see that particular scene, but did wish to view the other portions of the movie.
Even if parental control systems could block a portion of the program by briefly changing the program's ratings or content attributes or by changing the data being provided to the V-chip during a program, there would be no way to block just the video or just the audio portion of the program. For instance, if a program contained a few seconds of adult language, the ratings and/or content attributes data would be unable to instruct the parental control system to block only the audio for that period of time. As a result, both video and audio would always be blocked together.
Furthermore, existing parental control systems are also limited to completely disabling the audio or video. In other words, existing parental control systems cannot modify the video or audio in any way. For instance, if a program contains adult language, the ratings/content data cannot instruct the parental control system to switch to an alternative audio track containing a G-rated version of the dialog.
A better approach would be to make the ratings and/or content data vary during the course of the program. An even better approach would be to provide additional data to indicate whether the video, audio, or both video and audio portion of the program should be blocked. Additionally, the data could indicate ways in which to modify the video or audio portion of the program to make it acceptable for the current parental control settings.
Certain terms used in this section are described more fully below, particularly in the “Terminology” session. The present invention addresses the problems discussed above by providing systems and methods for allowing users of programs to control and manage the ways in which portions of the programs are presented. In general, this invention provides program users with program data for a program corresponding to discrete portions of the program. The program data comprises (a) program content data, (b) program control data, or (c) both. The content data may consist of rating values associated with categories in a rating system and/or content attribute values indicating the existence of predefined attributes or traits associated with each discrete portion of the program. The program control data comprises information concerning the media component (e.g., audio, video, text, hyperlinks, etc.) to which the rating or content attribute applies. The program control data may also contain control instructions corresponding to the ways in which each portion or media component of the program may be disabled, modified, replaced, and/or edited. These data are delivered to a set top box or other consumer electronics (“CE”) device that couples to a display, like a television or monitor.
Users can enter into the CE device a presentation profile, by which a user specifies content the user does not wish to review or wishes to insert over existing content. For instance, the user may select certain types of rating categories and/or content attributes that the user desires not to be presented. Optimally, users may specify a method for disabling, such as deleting, modifying, replacing, or editing, the portions of the program having the undesirable rating and/or content attribute. Based on the program data associated with the program and the information contained in the user's presentation profile, the CE device controls the programming presented for display.
For example, the program data is compared against the presentation profile. When the presentation profile indicates deletion or editing of specific type material, and when the program data indicates the presence of that material in a portion of the programming, that portion of the programming is modified accordingly. If the program data contains a rating and/or content attribute listed in the presentation profile, systems and methods according to the present invention perform any of the following functions: block video, block audio, block video and audio, block only a portion of the audio or video, substitute local audio, substitute local video, substitute alternative audio stream, substitute alternative video channel/stream, substitute alternative video and audio channel/stream, edit content, and/or delete content.
In one implementation, this invention uses streaming data or timestamped data synchronized to a program to provide ratings and/or content attribute information that vary during the program. This data is used by applications residing on a set-top box or other CE device to block or modify portions of a program's video or audio based on the settings selected by the user. In addition to providing varying ratings and/or content attribute information, the data may also include program control data related to what component of the program to block, such as video only, audio only, or both video and audio. Additionally, this data includes instructions on possible ways to modify the content. For example, the data could instruct the application to do such things as switch to an alternate audio track, switch to an alternate video channel, or blackout a certain area of the screen. Alternatively, all of these different capabilities could be entered, enabled or disabled by the user via the presentation profile or a control.
A further application of this invention is for Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) or digital disk recorders. When outfitted with this invention, DVRs or the like are capable of dynamically editing and deleting scenes based on the program data and the presentation profile created by a user.
This invention aims to achieve one, combinations, or all of the following objectives:
I. Terminology
Before further describing a particular implementation of the present invention that is shown in the drawings, the following terms are explained, although more thorough understanding of the terms can be reached by resorting to this entire document. These term explanations are not intended to be conclusive, as technology will change and skilled persons will recognize other ways to implement the same functionality.
Transmission facility 12 processes the programming furnished by data/content providers 14 and 16 and provides to program viewers 18 a signal 13 over a communications network 15, which may be a broadband distribution network, a public or private packet-switched or other data networks (including the Internet), circuit switched networks such as the public switched telephone network, wireless networks, or any other desired communications network. Transmission facility 12 may comprise a plurality of servers, such as broadcast server 19, video server 20, EPG data server 22, and program data server 24, for providing multiple types of programming and related data via signal 13. Program viewers 18 receive programming at a presentation control system 26, which may be a standard set top box, a properly programmed processor, coupled to a display, a consumer electronic device, or any other device adapted to couple to communications network 15. Control system 26 includes, or couples to, a receiver (such as receiver 56 shown in
Presentation control system 26 may be a stand alone system that communicates with a display device and other consumer electronic devices or may be combined with the display device and/or any other suitable CE device in one device. In accordance with the present invention, presentation control system 26 also may receive a presentation profile 35 from program viewers 18. Based on presentation profile 35 and program data 36 received from transmission facility 12, the presentation control system 26 manages and controls the presentation of program content by interacting with video cassette recorder (VCR) 30, digital video recorder (DVR) 32, personal computer 34, or any other suitable CE device.
As shown in
In addition to providing program viewers 18 with program data 42 for each program 40, transmission facility 12 also provides program viewers 18 with program data 36 for each program 40. Data 36 is information associated with program data 42 comprising program content data, program control data, or both. As shown in
As will be described in more detail below, program viewers 18 may use the information contained in data 36 about programs 40 to control and manage which programs are presented, which portions of programs are presented, and which media components are presented. Data 36 may also be used to control and manage the manner in which programs, portions of programs, and media components of programs and portions of programs are edited, substituted, deleted, or otherwise altered based on the information in data 36 and/or viewer preferences.
III. Formulation and Delivery of Data
In accordance with the systems and methods of the present invention, data 36 associated with program data 42 for programs 40 may be formulated by a number of entities. For instance, programming producers may formulate data 36 while producing programming. Alternatively, data 36 may be formulated by data/content providers 14, EPG data providers 16, by the entity supporting transmission facility 12, or by any other entity that has access to programming. An example of a method of formulating alternative programming is one which uses the Internet. Thus, a studio may release a portion or all of a story-line for a series on the Internet and allow users there to “vote” or suggest endings or twists in the plot line. Either before or after receiving such input, the studio may film the most popular of the suggestions and embed these alternative programs into other channels. If the alternatives are filmed first and then selected by viewers of the Internet sight via voting or similar feedback, the site can be linked to the transmission facility and, following tabulation of viewer feedback, the site can automatically instruct the transmission facility to load a particular alternative track. Ultimately, such viewer feed back may be done in real time or virtual real time.
Program data 36 may be provided using many possible data delivery methods, as skilled persons will recognize. The following details several exemplary delivery methods:
Timestamped Delivery: Data 36 may be provided using a timestamped data delivery approach. This approach delivers all data 36 for an entire program either before the program begins or when the user tunes to the program. Timestamps are used to associate particular ratings and/or content attributes data to particular portions of the program. Ideally, this approach works best when presentation control system 26 has or couples to an internal clock that synchronizes to a network clock to assure accurate synchronization of data 36 to the program content.
Batch EPG Delivery: Data used by existing EPGs is often delivered all at once, for example as a batch transmission. A similar approach can be used by which existing EPG data is supplemented with program data 36. Specifically, as shown in
Streaming Delivery: Data 36 may also be provided using a streaming delivery method. This approach delivers program content data and program control data in real-time along with the program's video and audio content. There is no need for timestamps or clock synchronization since the data delivery is synchronized to the showing of the program. Methods of delivering streaming data include an MPEG private data stream or data insertion into the program's VBI (vertical blanking interval) line.
An advantage of this approach over the timestamped approach described above is that it is not effected by delays in the video content. For example, if a program is delayed because a sporting event that precedes it goes into overtime, the program's timestamped data may no longer be accurate since it was downloaded ahead of time and assumed the program began at a certain time. Program viewer 18 may tune to the program while in progress.
Data 36 would have to be repeatedly retransmitted during the period for which it was valid because presentation control system 26 or consumer electronic device 28, 30, 32, or 34 may not know what the last data values were when tuning to a program. Ideally, the retransmission interval should not be more than once a second.
Regardless of the delivery vehicle, in operation, program viewers 18 receive signal 13 and data 36 from transmission facility 12. As described above, data 36 may be included within signal 13 as another channel within the frequency spectrum or may be received as an independent data stream or as a periodic download. In situations where data 36 is received in the form of a periodic download before programs are viewed, data 36 may be stored in memory by system 26. In alternative embodiments, data 36 may be supplied to program viewers 18 as part of a broadcast television signal in the vertical blinking interval. Data 36 may also be supplied by other service providers using communications network 15 or any other suitable communications network. Data 36 may also be received via any public or private packet-switched or other data networks including the Internet, circuit switched networks such as the public switched telephone network, wireless networks, or any other desired communications infrastructure.
IV. Data Formatting
Skilled persons will recognize several methods of formatting program content and control data. Co-pending application Ser. No. 60/231,180 discloses certain methods for formatting data tags into EPG data. Other methods are described below.
Data 36 provides program viewers 18 continuous information related to the content of programs 42 throughout the entire presentation. As shown in
Timestamp 44 associates program content and program control data with a particular time interval within a program 40. The time interval may be represented as an offset from the start of program 40 and may be expressed in hours, minutes, and seconds or in any smaller unit of time, such as the length of a video frame.
The remaining parameters are used to define desirable control and management parameters for the corresponding time interval. For example, rating 46 may be a value associated with a ratings system, such as the TV Parental Guidelines ratings system, the MPAA ratings system, or any other standard ratings systems. Alternatively, rating 46 may be values associated with multiple ratings systems. Content attributes 48 may be a value associated with a trait or attribute of program 40. Content attribute 48 may be based on the content rating system employed by the TV Parental Guidelines or MPAA rating system. Content attribute 48 may be a value indicating the existence of certain attributes or traits in a particular time interval of program 40, such as violence (V), sexual situations (S), coarse or crude indecent language (L), suggestive dialogue (D), fantasy violence (FV), or any other defined attribute or trait. A better approach than using the fairly simplistic content attributes associated with the existing TV ratings system (L, V, FV, S, D) would be to use a system that assigns numeric values to each of the content attributes depending on the degree of attributes present. For example, Violence (V) could be rated on a scale of 1-5 during the course of a program. Such ratings provide viewers with finer control over the level of violence blocked or modified. Program components 50 may be used to identify the media component of program rating 46 and/or content attribute 48 apply. For example, program component 50 may indicate that rating 46 or content attribute 48 apply only to the video component, only the audio component, or both the video and audio components. Program component 50 may also be used where program 40 contains multiple audio and/or video streams within the same channel 38, in which case the data may indicate to which stream or streams rating 46 or content attribute 48 apply. Program control parameters, such as control instructions or actions 52, may be a value associated with the various ways in which program 40 may be blocked, disabled, modified, replaced, and/or edited. For instance, the following table I illustrates an example of possible control instructions and their corresponding functions supported by data 36.
As shown in
As shown in
V. Exemplary Data Format
An example of a possible data format for dynamic ratings and content attributes is shown below in Table II.
In this example: DEFAULT indicates a set of overall ratings and content attributes for the program. These overall ratings and content attributes would be similar to the ones already provided by many existing EPGs and other parental control systems.
Table III illustrates how this data format could be used to deliver program data 36 using the timestamped delivery approach described above. This example uses the existing MPAA ratings system (G,PG,PG-13,R,NC-17) and the content attributes associated with the TV ratings system (L=Language, V=Violence, S=sexual situations, D=suggestive dialog, FV=fantasy violence).
Table III shows where the content data has been formulated into a series of data records, each record associated with a particular portion of the programming. Thus, in this example:
In the above example, if the streaming delivery approach was used, the “Timestamp” attribute would not be needed. As shown in
If program data 36 is batch delivered to presentation control system 26, an applet at the CE device or set top box associated with the user's display device may scan all of data 36 in advance to determine how often blocking would occur during the program. If implementing the user's presentation profile 35 based on the received program data 36 would cause an unacceptably high amount of blocking or modification (e.g., in terms of amount of time program is blocked or percentage of program blocked), the entire program could be blocked or the user informed and allowed to change the rating. The user may select the threshold at which this decision is made as part of the user's input of presentation profile 35 data.
VI. Viewer Presentation Profile
With reference to
For instance, viewer 18 may configure system 26 permanently or temporarily to disable certain channels 38 in order to block undesired programming. In other words, application 60 running on a set top box or other CE device allows the user to turn parental controls on or off and indicate what ratings or content should trigger those controls. For example, if the user set the ratings level to R, all material with a rating of R or higher would be blocked or modified, as depicted in Table IV below
In addition to ratings, however, users may modify discrete programming portions having certain attributes. For example, if content attributes associated with the TV ratings system were used, viewers may indicate which of the following content attributes should be blocked or modified, as per Table V below in which the user blocks “Sexual Situations”, “Suggestive Dialog” and “Language” content.
Additionally, the system offers users the ability to block ratings or content attributes in several different ways. Specifically, the user could choose from the following blocking options for each rating level and content attribute:
In this example, a program that had any sexual situations (as indicated by the overall ratings/content data) would be blocked in its entirety. Portions of the program with suggestive dialog (S) would be blocked, and portions of the program with language (L) would be blocked or modified.
Table VII below shows a further example using a different, MPAA ratings system:
Even more detailed parental control settings are possible. For instance, viewer 18 could choose to allow audio to be modified but not video, forcing video to always be blocked. Or, viewer 18 may select any of the following disabling methods: complete block, partial block, substitution from local device, substitution from service provider (alternate channel), and substitution from service provider (alternate stream), and local edit.
In yet another aspect of this invention, viewers may add additional, demographic data to their presentation profile. The viewer may indicate the viewer's household income, number of children, ages, gender, etc. This demographic data, as explained in applicant's concurrently filed application entitled, “Methods for Displaying Programming Content Based on User's Demographic Data, Usage Data and/or Commands,” which application is hereby incorporated in its entirety by this reference, may be used by an applet running on the viewer's system 26 to select a particular program or advertisement targeted to viewers with a predetermined demographic profile.
VI. Use of Program Data
In any event, in controlling programming content, system 26 acts on (1) program data 36 that has both content and control data, (2) presentation profile 35, or (3) a combination of the program data 36 and presentation profile 35. Examples of each of these are given below:
A. Filtering Operations
Data 36 is received at the control system 26. A processor, e.g., blocking processor 66, accesses profile 35 from a memory 62 and combines it with data 36 to determine if and how program 40 should be presented. As seen in
For example, referring to
B. Editing Operations
In accordance this invention, programming may also be dynamically edited based on the viewer's presentation profile 35. For instance, blocking processor 66 sends a “block portion of video” control instruction if viewer 18 selects the “partial block” disabling method 76 and program component 50 is “video.” Thereafter, processor 68 may modify the signal in order to blank or blur the affected portion of the video display or may overlay the affected portion with any desirable text or other message. After completing signal processing, control processor 68 forwards the signal to output processor 70 for presentation on television 28.
Alternatively, other programming content, ranging from audio, to video, to Web pages or combinations thereof, may be substituted for the undesired programming portion. For instance, blocking processor 66 sends a “substitute local audio” control instruction if viewer 18 or the transmission facility 12 has selected the “substitution from local device” disabling method per instruction 76 and program component 50 is “audio.” In response to this instruction from blocking processor 66, control processor 68 performs the appropriate signal processing to block the audio component of channel 38 received from demultiplexer 64. Control processor 68 then initiates a communications link with (a) a different channel having the substitute audio or (b) the desired local device, such as memory 62, DVR 32, VCR 30, personal computer 34, or any other suitable device capable of providing audio, from which the substitute audio is to be received. After receiving the substitute audio, control processor 68 performs the appropriate signal processing to combine the substitute audio with channel 38 and then forwards the combined signal to output processor 70 for presentation on television 28.
Other commands such as substitute video, substitute local video, substitute video from memory 62, switch channel, display Web page, etc. may be implemented by the processors 66, 68 in similar fashion. Note that alternate content may be provided from transmission facility 12 as part of the original signal 13, either in the form of alternate channels 38 or alternate streams within a channel 38. Program 40 on channel 38 may comprise a plurality of audio streams and a plurality of video streams, as well as a plurality of alternate audio streams and a plurality of alternate video streams. In this way, there may be an alternate stream according to each rating/content attribute category. In these situations, the transmission facility 12 includes within the data 36 information concerning the channel or URL to which the system 26 should tune for the alternate content. Alternatively, the alternate content may also be provided by a service provider other than the service provider supplying signal 13.
Referring to
Recall from above, the movie Titanic would have been rated PG except for the short love scene between the two main characters. Thus, prior to the present invention, a viewer that desired not to view programming rated PG-13 would not have been able to view any portion of Titanic. The present invention solves this problem. For example, in the present invention data 36 associated with each portion of Titanic is also provided to the viewer. Data 36 comprises rating data, content attribute data, and control instructions. As shown in
VII. Other Features and Embodiments
Other features may be programmed into the control system 26 that may reside on the CE device or set top box coupled to a display device. For instance, it may not be immediately apparent to viewers whether the control system 26 is in effect when they initiate the display device and tune to a program. On screen indicators may be used to indicate the status of the controls (e.g., an icon may display or a message like “All programming with ratings above PG-13 have been blocked.”). Likewise, during modification of the programming content, an icon may indicate to the user that the content has been edited or deleted.
PIN entry or other security protocols can be implemented by system 26 to allow valid users to initiate, modify or disable the controls. Correct PIN entry shows the programming in its unmodified form. Programming controls can be reinstated when the user tunes to another channel or turns off the Set Top Box or CE device.
While this invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the preferred embodiments of the present invention described are intended to be illustrative and not limiting. Various changes may be made without departing from the true spirit and full scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/122,853, filed May 19, 2008, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,788, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/751,702, filed Dec. 29, 2000, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,380,258, with each application incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This application also claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application 60/213,058, filed Jun. 21, 2000 and to U.S. Provisional Application 60/214,529, filed Jun. 27, 2000, with each application incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
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