Language filter for home TV

• US 20020007371A1
• Filed: 09/06/2001
• Published: 01/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: P48, LLC
• Original Assignee: Bray J. Richard
• Inventors: Bray, J. Richard
• Granted Patent: US 6,972,802 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/501.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/439 Processing of audio elementary streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4396 by muting the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4435 Memory management allocation of memory to service a request G06F9/5016; addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures G06F12/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4884 for displaying subtitles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/60 for the sound signals

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for use in connection with home television video recording, playback, and viewing involving processing an electronic signal, including audio and video information, whereby the audio information, including digital representations thereof, is analyzed and modified to compare words and phrases represented in the audio information with words and phrases stored in electronic memory for elimination of undesirable words or phrases in audible or visible representations of the audio with options for replacing undesirable words with acceptable words. The options include varying degrees of selectivity in specifying words as undesirable and control over substitute words which are used to replace undesirable words. The options for control of the method and apparatus for language filtering are selectable from an on-screen menu through operation of a control panel on the language filter apparatus or by use of a conventional television remote transmitter. Full capability of the method and apparatus depends only on presence of closed caption or similar digitally-encoded language information being received with a television signal but special instructions transmitted with a television signal may also be responded to for activating particular language libraries or customizing a library for the program material.

Claims

1. For use in connection with home television video recording, playback, and viewing equipment, apparatus for processing an electronic signal including audio and video portions corresponding to audible and visible portions of the electronic signal, with said audio portion containing a spoken component related to the audible portion and with said video portion containing an auxiliary information component corresponding to a visible representation of said spoken component of said electronic signal, said apparatus comprising:

a closed caption data slicer arranged to receive a video portion of an electronic signal with said video portion containing an auxiliary information component to produce a closed caption signal;

an on-screen display connected to receive said closed caption signal;

a video path by which video portions of the electronic signal are made available to a user of the apparatus;

an audio path by which audio portions of the electronic signal are made available to a user of the apparatus;

a programmable controller including a data memory having a plurality of text libraries;

said programmable controller having a closed caption editor for analyzing said auxiliary information component to determine if said auxiliary information component contains undesirable words or phrases stored in a selected library of said memory;

said closed caption editor being adapted to replace any detected undesirable word or phrase with another word or phrase from a selected library of said memory component to produce a modified closed caption signal for said on-screen display;

an audio switch in said audio path for selectively modifying a corresponding audio portion of said electronic signal if undesirable words or phrases are detected within an auxiliary information component segment;

said audio switch being controlled to cease modifications at the conclusion of receipt of the modified auxiliary information component segment; and

an on-screen display plus video combining unit connected in said video path to produce an auxiliary information component incorporating said modified closed caption signal in said video path.

2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 further including an operations and mode controller for controlling display of a modified auxiliary information component at the time an undesirable word or phrase is replaced.

3. The apparatus as recited in claim 2, wherein said operations and mode controller is adapted to selectively provide different modes of operation with respect to the displaying of said modified auxiliary information component which include:

(1) a full captioning mode in which all modified or unmodified auxiliary information data are displayed;

(2) a normal captioning mode in which only modified auxiliary information data which represent the replacement words or phrases are displayed; and

,

(3) a no-captioning mode in which no word or phrase is displayed.

4. Apparatus as recited in claim 2, wherein undesirable words or phrases are stored in at least one library memory and characters of closed caption segments are compared with characters of such undesirable words or phrases for detection thereof.

5. Apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein there is a second library memory having additional undesirable words not present in said at least one library memory and said operation and mode controller is adapted to provide greater or lesser numbers of undesirable words or phrases from said libraries to said closed caption editor for operation thereof.

6. Apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein substitute inoffensive words are contained in a library memory with reference pointers to undesirable words or phrases they should replace.

7. Apparatus as recited in claim 2 further including a speech synthesizer arranged to produce a spoken audio portion corresponding to said modified closed caption signal text and said audio switch is controllable by said operations and mode controller to insert synthesized speech audio for selected segments of the audio portion of said electronic signal.

8. Apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein said programmable controller includes an on-screen menu generator and an infrared signal receiver and interface for receiving program instructions from a conventional television remote control unit.

9. Apparatus as recited in claim 2 further including a speech recognizer connected to receive said electronic signal audio portion and produce digitally-coded signals wherein undesirable words or phrases can be recognized by said closed caption editor.

10. For use in connection with home television video recording, playback, and viewing equipment, apparatus for processing an electronic signal including audio and video portions corresponding to audible and visible portions of the electronic signal, with said audio portion containing a spoken component related to the audible portion and with said video portion containing an auxiliary information component corresponding to a visible representation of said spoken component of said electronic signal, said apparatus comprising:

a closed caption data slicer arranged to receive a video portion of an electronic signal with said video portion containing an auxiliary information component and adapted to produce a closed caption signal;

an on-screen display generator connected to receive said closed caption signal;

a video path by which video portions of the electronic signal are made available to a user of the apparatus;

an audio path by which audio portions of the electronic signal are made available to a user of the apparatus;

a programmable controller including a data memory having a plurality of text libraries;

said programmable controller having a closed caption editor for analyzing said auxiliary information component to determine if said auxiliary information component contains undesirable words or phrases stored in a selected library of said memory;

said closed caption editor being adapted to remove any detected undesirable word or phrase with another word or phrase to produce a modified closed caption signal for said onscreen display;

an audio switch in said audio path for selectively modifying a corresponding audio portion of said electronic signal if undesirable words or phrases are detected within an auxiliary information component segment;

an on-screen display plus video combining unit connected in said video path to produce an auxiliary information component incorporating said modified closed caption signal in said video path; and

,

an operations and mode controller for controlling display of a modified auxiliary information component at the time an undesirable word or phrase is replaced, said operations and mode controller being adapted to selectively provide different modes of operation with respect to the displaying of said modified auxiliary information component which include;

(1) a full captioning mode in which all modified or unmodified auxiliary information data are displayed;

(2) a normal captioning mode in which only modified auxiliary information component segments are displayed; and

,

(3) a no-captioning mode in which no word or phrase is displayed.

11. Apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein undesirable words or phrases are stored in at least one library memory and characters of closed caption segments are compared with characters of such undesirable words or phrases for detection thereof.

12. Apparatus as recited in claim 11, wherein there is a second library memory having additional undesirable words not present in said at least one library memory and said operation and mode controller is adapted to provide greater or lesser numbers of undesirable words or phrases from said libraries to said closed caption editor for operation thereof.

13. Apparatus as recited in claim 11, wherein substitute inoffensive words are contained in a library memory with reference pointers to undesirable words or phrases they should replace.

14. Apparatus as recited in claim 10 further including a speech synthesizer arranged to produce a spoken audio portion corresponding to said modified closed caption signal text and said audio switch is controllable by said operations and mode controller to insert synthesized speech audio for selected segments of the audio portion of said electronic signal.

15. Apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein said programmable controller includes an onscreen menu generator and an infrared signal receiver and interface for receiving program instructions from a conventional television remote control unit.

16. Apparatus as recited in claim 10 further including a speech recognizer connected to receive said electronic signal audio portion and produce digitally-coded signals wherein undesirable words or phrases can be recognized by said closed caption editor.

17. For use in connection with home television video recording, playback, and viewing, a method of processing an electronic signal including audio and video portions corresponding to audible and visible portions of the electronic signal, with said audio portion containing a spoken component related to the audible portion and with said video portion containing an auxiliary information component corresponding to a visible representation of said spoken component of said electronic signal, said method comprising:

receiving a video portion of an electronic signal with said video portion containing an auxiliary information component and producing a closed caption signal;

providing a data memory having a plurality of text libraries;

analyzing said auxiliary information component to determine if said auxiliary information component contains undesirable words or phrases stored in a selected library of said memory;

replacing any detected undesirable word or phrase with another word or phrase from a selected library of said memory to produce a modified closed caption signal and transmitting said modified closed caption signal to an on-screen display;

selectively modifying a corresponding audio portion of said electronic signal if undesirable words or phrases are detected within an auxiliary information component segment; and

,

controlling an audio switch to cease modifications at the conclusion of receipt of the modified auxiliary information component segment.

18. The method as recited in claim 17 further including selectively providing different modes of operation with respect to the displaying of said modified auxiliary information component which include:

(1) a full captioning mode in which all modified or unmodified auxiliary information data are displayed; and

,

(2) a normal captioning mode in which only modified auxiliary information data which represent the replacement words or phrases are displayed.

19. The method as recited in claim 17 further including producing a spoken audio portion corresponding to said modified closed caption signal text and controlling said audio switch to insert synthesized speech audio for selected segments of the audio portion of said electronic signal.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein providing a data memory includes accepting text input in data memory to supplement or modify an existing text library.