Apparatus and Method for Blocking Television Commercials and Providing an Archive Interrogation Program

• US 20090031337A1
• Filed: 10/17/2008
• Published: 01/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hamilton, Rick Allen II, Fellenstein, Craig William
• Granted Patent: US 8,359,613 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/28
• 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 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/60 Network structure or processes for video distribution between server and client or between remote clients; Control signalling between clients, server and network components; Transmission of management data between server and client , e.g. sending from server to client commands for recording incoming content stream; Communication details between server and client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/854 Content authoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

An apparatus and method is disclosed for blocking specific television commercials from the viewer'"'"'s television based upon the characteristics of the television commercial and a program to place the blocked television commercials into an archive. An archive interrogation program then acquires the users search criteria and sends the search criteria to the content search program for a list of matches. The matches are displayed to the user and the user can select a segment for viewing.

Claims

1. A method for searching archived blocked television commercials comprising:

receiving a first television signal;

recognizing said first television signal in a logical unit;

blocking said first television signal by the logical unit;

saving the first television signal to an archive;

buffering the first television signal;

specifying at least one search parameter;

searching said archive for a data that matches said search parameters;

responsive to finding the data that matches said search parameters, identifying the first television signal as a second signal;

saving the second

displaying the second signal.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said search parameter is a keyword.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said data is a closed captioning signal.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said buffering occurs when a television unit is not activated.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising decoding said television signal.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising linking said search parameters by at least one logical relationship.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing said search parameters to a dictionary.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising obtaining lexically parsed equivalents and searching said television signal for data that matches said lexically parsed equivalents.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing said search parameters to a thesaurus.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising obtaining synonym equivalents and searching said television signal for data that matches said synonym equivalents.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said buffering simultaneously occurs over a plurality of television channels embedded within said television signal.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said first television signal is a commercial.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said first television signal is recognized by the time, audio and video components of said first television signal.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said first television signal is recognized by an identifying tag.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein said parameter is a user-defined parameter.

16. An apparatus for searching archived blocked television commercials comprising:

a logical unit with a memory;

a program stored in said memory;

said memory, so configured by said program, causes said logical unit perform operations comprising;

receiving a first television signal;

recognizing said first television signal in the logical unit;

blocking said first television signal by the logical unit;

saving the first television signal to an archive;

buffering the first television signal;

specifying at least one search parameter;

searching said archive for data that matches said search parameters;

responsive to finding a data that matches said search parameters, identifying a first television signal as a second signal;

displaying the second signal.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said signal is a television signal.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said parameter is a user-defined parameter.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said search parameter is a keyword.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said data is a closed captioning signal.

21. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said buffering occurs when a television unit is not activated.

22. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said operations further comprise decoding said television signal.

23. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said operations further comprise linking said search parameters by at least one logical relationship.

24. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said operations further comprise comparing said search parameters to a dictionary.

25. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said operations further comprise obtaining lexically parsed equivalents and searching said television signal for data that matches said lexically parsed equivalents.

26. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said operations further comprise comparing said search parameters to a thesaurus.

27. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said operations further comprise obtaining synonym equivalents and searching said television signal for data that matches said synonym equivalents.

28. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said buffering simultaneously occurs over a plurality of television channels embedded within said television signal.

29. An apparatus for searching archived blocked television commercials comprising:

means for receiving a first television signal;

means for recognizing said first television signal in the logical unit;

means for blocking said first television signal by the logical unit;

means for saving the first television signal to an archive;

means for buffering the first television signal;

means for specifying at least one search parameter;

means for searching said archive for data that matches said search parameters;

responsive to finding a data that matches said search parameters, means for identifying a first television signal as a second signal;

means for displaying the second signal.