Content blocking

• US 20040255321A1
• Filed: 06/20/2002
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Matz, William R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,698,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/16 on playing information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4751 for defining user accounts, e.g. accounts for children
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A method for blocking content from being presented at a client device based on a user profile and content tags. Content having descriptive tags is delivered to a client device from a server device. The descriptive tags classify the content. A user profile at the client device contains tag data for identifying categories of content that the user does not want presented on the client device. The client device recognizes and evaluates the tags of received content and blocks content based on the user profile. The blocked content will not be presented to the user. The user profile may be created automatically or manually by the user. The user profile is automatically created based on usage history or demographic information. The client device has a tag dictionary that may be updated to correspond to tags utilized by content delivery systems.

Claims

1. A method of modifying a user profile for evaluating media content in a distributed network, the distributed network having a client device and a server device, the method comprising:

presenting tagged content comprising media content and a content tag;

monitoring viewing statistics associated with the tagged content; and

modifying the user profile based on the viewing statistics.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein modifying the user profile comprises:

enabling a user to select one or more tag categories for insertion into the user profile.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein enabling a user comprises:

presenting a viewing history comprising a category of the content tag and the viewing statistics; and

presenting a plurality of tag categories that may be selected for insertion into the user profile.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the category is selectable for insertion into the user profile.

5. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising:

presenting other tagged content;

monitoring viewing statistics associated with the other tagged content; and

presenting the viewing statistics associated with the other tagged content.

6. A method as defined in of claim 5 wherein monitoring viewing statistics associated with the other tagged content comprises:

measuring a first viewing time value representing time spent viewing the tagged content;

measuring a second viewing time value representing time spent viewing the other tagged content; and

dividing the first and second viewing time values by a total viewing time to yield a viewing time percentage for each category of tagged content.

7. A method as defined in claim 6 wherein presenting viewing statistics comprises:

presenting a viewing history window pane on a user interface.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 wherein the viewing history window pane comprises:

a first column having one or more content categories or subcategories; and

a second column having one or more time values, each time value associated with the one or more content categories or subcategories.

9. A method as defined in claim 8 further comprising:

presenting a content categories window pane having a plurality of possible categories or subcategories; and

presenting a user profile window pane; and

enabling the user to select a category or subcategory from the content category window pane for addition to the user profile window pane.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 further comprising:

presenting an add visual display element selectable by the user to add a category or subcategory to the user profile window pane;

presenting a delete visual display element selectable by the user to delete a category or subcategory from the user profile window pane; and

presenting a save visual display element selectable by the user to save the content categories and subcategories in the user profile window to the user profile.

11. A method as defined in claim 10 further comprising:

detecting user selection of the save visual display element;

responsively writing tag data to the user profile for each of the categories and subcategories in the user profile window pane; and

saving the user profile in memory.

12. A client device for blocking content prior to presentation to a user comprising:

a user profile having one or more user profile tags associated with unwanted content, the user profile created based on a viewing history;

a receive module operable to receive tagged content;

an analysis module operably coupled to the receive module and the user profile operable to block tagged content based on the user profile;

a user input/output module operably coupled to the analysis module to present received content.

13. A client device as defined in claim 12 wherein the analysis module comprises:

a profile generator module operably coupled to the user input/output module and the user profile, operable to update the user profile based on the content selection from the user.

14. A client device as defined in claim 13 wherein the analysis module further comprises:

a blocking module in operable communication with the user profile, operable to block the tagged content from presentation to the user input/output module.

15. A client device as defined in claim 13 wherein the analysis module further comprises:

a content insertion engine operably coupled to the user input/output module operable to detect tagged content transmitted to the user input/output module and generate viewing time statistics representing viewing times associated with each of one or more tagged content items.

16. A client device as defined in 15 wherein the content insertion engine is further operable to detect an insertion event and responsively transmit tagged data corresponding to the insertion event to the blocking module.

17. A client device as defined in claim 16 wherein the analysis module further comprises a presentation module operably coupled to the user input/output module, the presentation module operable to format tagged content and transmit the formatted tagged content to the user input/output module.

18. A user interface to facilitate editing a user profile based on a viewing history comprising:

a viewing history window pane having content categories of viewed content and viewing time values representing viewing times associated with viewed content categories;

a categories window pane having content category names and subcategory names, from which a user may choose to build a user profile; and

a user profile window pane providing one or more text fields for displaying chosen category names and subcategory names.

19. A user interface as defined in claim 18 further comprising:

a selectable add visual display element enabling a user to select a category or subcategory from the categories window pane and add the category or subcategory to the user profile window pane.

20. A user interface as defined in claim 19 further comprising:

a selectable delete visual display element enabling a user to select a category or subcategory from the user profile window pane and move the category or subcategory to the categories window pane.

21. A user interface as defined in claim 18 wherein the categories window pane comprises:

a drop down menu presenting selectable subcategories associated with a higher-level category.

22. A user interface as defined in claim 18 wherein the viewed content categories in the viewing history window pane are selectable to add to the user profile window pane.

23. A user interface as defined in claim 18 further comprising:

a selectable save profile visual display element enabling a user to save the categories in the user profile window pane to a user profile.