METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING PLAY OF AN AUDIO SIGNAL

• US 20090204404A1
• Filed: 04/20/2009
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clearplay Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Clearplay Incorporated
• Inventors: Jarman, Matthew T., Meisel, William S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,066,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/13 Arrangements for device control affected by the broadcast information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/48 for recognising items expressed in broadcast information
• 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 21/4394 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 21/440236 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures, audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4545 Input to filtering algorithms, e.g. filtering a region of the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4884 for displaying subtitles

Abstract

Apparatus and methods conforming to the present invention comprise a method of controlling playback of an audio signal through analysis of a corresponding close caption signal in conjunction with analysis of the corresponding audio signal. Objection text or other specified text in the close caption signal is identified through comparison with user identified objectionable text. Upon identification of the objectionable text, the audio signal is analyzed to identify the audio portion corresponding to the objectionable text. Upon identification of the audio portion, the audio signal may be controlled to mute the audible objectionable text.

Claims

1. A method of controlling play of an audio signal comprising:

receiving a close caption signal;

identifying a specified text in the close caption signal;

upon identifying the specified text in the close caption signal, analyzing an audio signal corresponding with the close caption text to identify a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text; and

controlling playback of at least the portion of the audio signal corresponding to the specified text as a function of the analysis of the audio signal corresponding with the close caption text to identify a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises attenuating a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text of the close caption signal.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises substantially deleting the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text of the close caption signal.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises issuing at least one command adapted to cause attenuation of a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text of the close caption signal.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises inserting at least one control code in the audio signal, the control code adapted to cause attenuation of a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text from the close caption signal.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the operation of converting the specified text to a phonetic representation of the specified text.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising time extending the phonetic representation of the specified text to define a time extended phonetic representation of the specified text.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising determining at least one energy value for the time extended phonetic representation of the specified text to define a comparative form of the specified text.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising determining at least one energy value for the audio signal to define a comparative form of the audio signal.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the operation of analyzing an audio signal further comprises the operation of comparing the comparative form of the specified text with the comparative form of the audio signal.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the operation of comparing further comprises identifying the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the specified text is selected from the group comprising a space, a letter, a word, a phrase, a sentence, a control code, and a symbol.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein specified text is selected by a user.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the specified text is selected from a text considered objectionable.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of identifying the specified text further comprising the operation of identifying a preceding text, the preceding text temporally preceding the specified text.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the operation of analyzing an audio signal as a function of the identification of the specified text from the close caption signal further comprises analyzing the audio signal as function of the identification of the preceding text from the close caption signal.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the operation of controlling playback of the audio signal corresponding to the specified text further comprises controlling playback of the audio signal corresponding to the preceding text.

18. The method of claim 6 wherein the operation of converting the specified text to a phonetic representation of the specified text comprises applying a letter-to-sound algorithm to the specified text.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of analyzing an audio signal as a function of the identification of the specified text from the close caption signal comprises applying a dynamic time warping algorithm.

20. A processor comprising a plurality of computer executable instructions configured to perform the method of claim 1.

21. The method of claim 6 further comprising determining at least one energy value for the phonetic representation of the specified text to define a comparative form of the specified text.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising determining at least one energy value for the audio signal to define a comparative form of the audio signal.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the operation of analyzing an audio signal further comprises the operation of comparing the comparative form of the specified text with the comparative form of the audio signal.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the operation of comparing further comprises identifying the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text.

25. A method of controlling play of an audio signal comprising:

converting a specified portion of a close caption text signal to an audio equivalent of the specified portion;

comparing the audio equivalent of the specified portion of the close caption text signal to an audio signal to identify a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the close caption signal; and

controlling playback of the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the close caption signal.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises attenuating the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the close caption signal.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises substantially deleting the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the close caption signal.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises issuing at least one command adapted to cause attenuation of the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the close caption signal.

29. The method of claim 25 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises inserting at least one control code in the audio signal, the control code adapted to cause attenuation of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the close caption signal.

30. The method of claim 25 wherein the operation of converting a specified portion of a close caption text signal to an audio equivalent of the specified portion further comprises the operation of converting the specified portion of the close caption signal to a phonetic representation of the specified portion of the close caption signal.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising time extending the phonetic representation of the specified portion of the close caption signal to define a time extended phonetic representation.

32. The method of claim 31 further comprising determining at least one energy value for the time extended phonetic representation to define a comparative form of the specified portion of the close caption signal.

33. The method of claim 32 further comprising determining at least one energy value for the audio signal to define a comparative form of the audio signal.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the operation of comparing further comprises the operation of comparing the comparative form of the specified portion of the close caption signal with the comparative form of the audio signal.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the operation of comparing further comprises identifying the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the close caption signal.

36. A processor comprising a plurality of computer executable instructions configured to perform the method of claim 25.

37. A method of controlling playback of an audio signal comprising:

receiving an indication of at least one objectionable word;

identifying the at least one objectionable word in a close caption signal; and

obtaining an audio signal representative of at least the at least one objectionable word;

identifying the at least one objectionable word in an audio signal as a function of the operation of obtaining an audio signal representative of at least the at least one objectionable word.

38. The method of claim 37 further comprising controlling an audio presentation of the audio signal as a function of the operation of identifying.

39. The method of claim 38 further comprising muting the audio presentation of a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the at least one objectionable word.

40. The method of claim 38 further comprising identifying a portion of the close caption signal preceding the objectionable word.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the preceding portion is selected from the group comprising a space, a letter, a word, a phrase, a symbol, and a close caption control signal.

42. The method of claim 40 further comprising identifying the at least one objectionable word in an audio signal as a function of the operation of identifying the at least one objectionable word in a close caption signal and the operation of identifying a portion of the close caption signal preceding the objectionable word.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein the operation of controlling is a function of the identification of a portion of the close caption signal preceding the objectionable word.

44. The method of claim 43 further comprising causing a mute of the audio presentation as a function of the identification of the portion of the close caption signal preceding the objectionable word in the audio stream.

45. The method of claim 44 further comprising ending the mute as a function of the identification of the at least one objectionable word in the audio signal.

46. A processor comprising a plurality of computer executable instructions configured to perform the method of claim 37.

51. The method of claim 46 wherein the operation of processing further comprises analyzing at least one channel of the audio signal.

47. A method of controlling playback of an audio presentation comprising:

receiving an indication of at least one objectionable word;

receiving an audio signal;

storing the audio signal in a memory;

processing the stored audio signal to determine whether the at least one objectionable word is present in the audio signal, the operation of processing including comparing the stored audio signal to an audio representation of the at least one objectionable word; and

controlling an audio presentation of the audio signal as a function of the operation of processing.

48. The method of claim 47 wherein the operation of controlling further comprises attenuating the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the at least one objectionable word.

49. The method of claim 47 wherein the operation of controlling further comprises substantially deleting the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the at least one objectionable word.

50. The method of claim 47 wherein the operation of controlling further comprises inserting at least one control code in the audio signal, the control code adapted to cause attenuation of the audio signal corresponding with the at least one objectionable word.

52. A processor comprising a plurality of computer executable instructions configured to perform the method of claim 47.