METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PRESENTING SUBSTITUTE CONTENT IN AN AUDIO/VIDEO STREAM USING TEXT DATA

• US 20090300699A1
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Kummer, David A., Casagrande, Steven M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,156,520 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/116
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording

Abstract

Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for skipping, filtering and/or replacing content from an audio/video stream using text data associated with the audio/video stream. The text data is processed using location information that references a segment of the text data of the first audio/video stream to identify a location within the first audio/video stream. The location within the first audio/video stream is utilized to identify portions of the audio/video stream that are to be skipped during presentation. The portions of the audio/video stream that are to be skipped are filtered from the audio/video stream, and some of the skipped portions of the audio/video stream are replaced with substitute content. The filtered video stream, including the substitute content, is outputted for presentation to a user.

Claims

1. A method for presenting a recorded audio/video stream, the method comprising:

recording a first audio/video stream including at least one segment of a show and at least one interstitial of the show;

recording supplemental data associated with the first audio/video stream, the supplemental data including closed captioning data associated with the first audio/video stream;

receiving autonomous location information referencing the closed captioning data to identify a video location within the first audio/video stream;

processing the closed captioning data to identify boundaries of the at least one segment of the show based on the video location;

identifying substitute content to present in association with the at least one segment of the show; and

outputting a second audio/video stream for presentation on a display device, the second audio/video stream including the at least one segment of the show and the substitute content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the autonomous location information further comprises:

receiving the autonomous location information separately from the first audio/video stream.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

sorting the closed captioning data according to a presentation order of the closed captioning data; and

storing the sorted closed captioning data in a data file separate from the first audio/video stream.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein outputting a second audio/video stream further comprises:

replacing the at least one interstitial with the substitute content.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein outputting a second audio/video stream further comprises:

outputting the substitute content before the at least one segment of the show in the second audio/video stream.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the location information further comprises:

receiving a string of bytes contained in the closed captioning data that is associated with the video location;

receiving a beginning offset, associated with the string of bytes, that is relative to the video location, the beginning offset identifying a beginning location of the at least one segment; and

receiving an ending offset, associated with the string of bytes, that is relative to the video location, the ending offset identifying an ending location of the at least one segment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein outputting the second audio/video stream further comprises:

outputting the at least one segment of the first audio/video stream between the beginning location and the ending location; and

presenting the substitute content after presenting a video frame associated with the ending location.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the string of bytes comprises a text string of displayable closed captioning data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the text string is unique within the at least one segment of the show.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the string of bytes comprises a data string of non-displayable closed captioning data.

11. A receiving device comprising:

a communication interface that receives a first audio/video stream including at least one segment of a show and at least one interstitial of the show, and that further receives supplemental data associated with the first audio/video stream, the supplemental data including closed captioning data associated with the first audio/video stream;

a storage unit that stores the first audio/video stream and the supplemental data;

control logic that;

receives autonomous location information that references the closed captioning data to identify a video location within the first audio/video stream;

processes the closed captioning data to identify boundaries of the at least one segment of the show based on the video location;

identifies substitute content to present in association with the at least one segment of the show; and

an audio/video interface that outputs a second audio/video stream for presentation on a display device, the second audio/video stream including the at least one segment of the show and the substitute content.

12. The receiving device of claim 11, wherein the processor receives the location information separately from the first audio/video stream.

13. The receiving device of claim 12, wherein the control logic sorts the closed captioning data according to a presentation order of the closed captioning data and stores the sorted closed captioning data in a data file separate from the first audio/video stream.

14. The receiving device of claim 12, wherein the audio/video interface replaces the at least one interstitial with the substitute content when outputting the second audio/video stream.

15. The receiving device of claim 12, wherein the audio/video interface outputs the substitute content before the at least one segment of the show in the second audio/video stream.

16. The receiving device of claim 12, wherein the location information received by the control logic includes:

a string of bytes contained in the closed captioning data that is associated with the video location;

a beginning offset, associated with the string of bytes, that is relative to the video location, the beginning offset identifying a beginning location of the at least one segment; and

an ending offset, associated with the string of bytes, that is relative to the video location, the ending offset identifying an ending location of the at least one segment.

17. The receiving device of claim 16, wherein the audio/video interface outputs the second audio/video stream including the at least one segment of the first audio/video stream between the beginning location and the ending location and the substitute content after a video frame that is associated with the ending location.

18. The receiving device of claim 16, wherein the string of bytes comprises a text string of displayable closed captioning data.

19. The receiving device of claim 18, wherein the text string is unique within the at least one segment of the show.

20. The receiving device of claim 16, wherein the text string is unique within the at least one segment of the show.

21. A method for presenting a recorded audio/video stream, the method comprising:

recording a first audio/video stream including at least one segment of a show and at least one interstitial of the show;

recording closed captioning data associated with the first audio/video stream;

receiving location information separately from the first audio/video stream, the location information including at least one text string that is contained in the closed captioning data, the at least one text string associated with a video location within the first audio/video stream, beginning and ending offsets, associated with the at least one text string, that are relative to the video location, the beginning and ending offsets identifying beginning and ending locations of the at least one segment;

sorting the closed captioning data according to a presentation order;

processing the sorted closed captioning data to identify the video location within the first audio/video stream based on the at least one text string;

identifying the beginning location and the ending location of the at least one segment in the first audio/video stream based on the video location, the beginning offset and the ending offset;

identifying substitute content;

replacing the at least one interstitial of the first audio/video stream with the substitute content to generate a second audio/video stream; and

outputting the second audio/video stream for presentation on a display device.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein identifying the substitute content further comprises identifying the substitute content based on demographics of the user.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein identifying the substitute content further comprises identifying the substitute content based on viewing characteristics of the user.

24. A receiving device comprising:

a communication interface that receives a first audio/video stream including at least one segment of a show and at least one interstitial of the show, and that further receives supplemental data, the supplemental data including closed captioning data associated with the first audio/video stream;

a storage unit that stores the first audio/video stream and the supplemental data;

control logic that;

sorts the closed captioning data according to a presentation order;

receives location information separately from the first audio/video stream, the location information including at least one text string that is contained in the closed captioning data, the at least one text string associated with a video location within the first audio/video stream, beginning and ending offsets, associated with the at least one text string, that are relative to the video location, the beginning and ending offsets identifying beginning and ending locations of the at least one segment;

processes the sorted closed captioning data to identify the video location within the first audio/video stream based on the at least one text string;

identifies the beginning location and the ending location of the at least one segment within the first audio/video stream based on the video location, the beginning offset and the ending offset;

identifies substitute content; and

replaces the at least one interstitial of the first audio/video stream with the substitute content to generate a second audio/video stream; and

an audio/video interface that outputs the second audio/video stream for presentation on a display device.

25. The receiving device of claim 24, wherein the control logic identifies the substitute content based on demographics of the user.

26. The receiving device of claim 24, wherein the control logic identifies the substitute content based on viewing characteristics of the user.