CUSTOMIZING BROADCAST TRANSMISSIONS TO VIEWER PREFERENCES

• US 20120084805A1
• Filed: 12/12/2011
• Published: 04/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: GULA Consulting LLC
• Original Assignee: Wounder GmbH (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Barnes, Melvin L. Jr.
• Application Number:
  US13/323,253
• Publication Number:
  US 20120084805A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel

Abstract

Systems and methods allow users to customize content of broadcast transmissions. A parent might, for example, wish to remove or replace profanity from an audio portion of the movie or violence from audio and video portions of the movie so that it is more suitable for younger viewers. The method comprises receiving at a viewing station a broadcast transmission, performing, via the viewing station, a search to identify specified material in the broadcast transmission, and, in response to identifying the specified material in the broadcast transmission, modifying the broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material so that the broadcast transmission can be presented via the viewing station without the specified material.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving at a viewing station a broadcast transmission, thereby resulting in a received broadcast transmission at the viewing station;

performing, via the viewing station, a search to identify specified material in the received broadcast transmission; and

in response to identifying the specified material in the received broadcast transmission, modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material so that the received broadcast transmission can be presented via the viewing station without the specified material.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing station receives the received broadcast transmission via a communication network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material comprises deleting the specified material.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material comprises substituting the specified material with replacement material that is different than the specified material.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the received broadcast transmission includes an audio portion, the method further comprising:

receiving at the viewing station a text version of the audio portion, wherein the text version of the audio portion is indexed to the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission via an index and wherein the viewing station performs a text-based search of the text version of the audio portion to identify the specified material in the received broadcast transmission.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material comprises:

identifying the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission via the index;

generating replacement audio based on one or more characteristics of the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission; and

substituting the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission with the replacement audio.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

measuring one or more characteristics of the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission, wherein the replacement audio is generated based on one or more of the measured characteristics of the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein measuring the one or more characteristics of the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission comprises measuring one or more of the volume, pitch, or duration of the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

isolating background audio in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission from the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission; and

causing the received broadcast transmission to be presented via the viewing station with the isolated background audio and without the specified material.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the received broadcast transmission includes an audio portion, the method further comprising:

receiving at the viewing station replacement audio, wherein the replacement audio is indexed to the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission and wherein modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material comprises substituting the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission with the replacement audio.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the received broadcast transmission includes an audio portion, the method further comprising:

after receiving the received broadcast transmission and before causing the received broadcast transmission to be presented via the viewing station, converting to text the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission; and

generating an index that correlates the text to the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission, wherein the viewing station performs a text-based search of the text to identify the specified material in the received broadcast transmission and wherein modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material comprises identifying the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission via the index and substituting the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission with replacement audio.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the received broadcast transmission includes an audio portion, the method further comprising:

converting to text the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission as the received broadcast transmission is received, wherein the viewing station performs a text-based search of the text to identify the specified material in the received broadcast transmission and wherein modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material comprises substituting the specified material in the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission with replacement audio.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the received broadcast transmission includes an audio portion and wherein the viewing station performs the search to identify the specified material in the received broadcast transmission by comparing at least a portion of the audio portion of the received broadcast transmission to audio characteristics associated with a set of stored words or phrases.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the received broadcast transmission includes a video portion, the method further comprising:

receiving at the viewing station one or more replacement scenes, wherein the one or more replacement scenes are indexed to the video portion of the received broadcast transmission via an index and wherein modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material comprises substituting the specified material in the video portion of the received broadcast transmission with one or more of the replacement scenes based on a profile associated with a user.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving via an input device associated with the viewing station one or more words or phrases that should be suppressed from the received broadcast transmission;

receiving via the input device a selection of a user profile with which the one or more words or phrases should be associated; and

storing in a memory associated with the viewing station the one or more words or phrases in association with the selected user profile, wherein the viewing station performs the search to identify the specified material in the received broadcast transmission by comparing at least a portion of the received broadcast transmission to the one or more words or phrases associated with the selected user profile.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the received broadcast transmission comprises a video broadcast transmission.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the received broadcast transmission comprises an audio broadcast transmission.

18. A system comprising:

a display device; and

a processor in operative association with the display device, the processor configured to;

in response to receiving a broadcast transmission, perform a search to identify specified material in the received broadcast transmission; and

in response to identifying the specified material in the received broadcast transmission, modify the received broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material so that the received broadcast transmission can be presented via the display device without the specified material.

19. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

instructions for, in response to receiving a broadcast transmission, performing a search to identify specified material in the received broadcast transmission; and

instructions for, in response to identifying the specified material in the received broadcast transmission, modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the specified material so that the received broadcast transmission can be presented via the display device without the specified material.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving from the viewing station via the communication network the user profile.

20. A method comprising:

receiving at a broadcast station a broadcast transmission, thereby resulting in a received broadcast transmission at the broadcast station;

accessing a user profile that includes specified material that should be suppressed from the received broadcast transmission;

performing, via the broadcast station, a search to identify material in the received broadcast transmission that corresponds to the specified material by comparing at least a portion of the received broadcast transmission to the specified material included in the user profile;

in response to identifying the material corresponding to the specified material in the received broadcast transmission, modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the material corresponding to the specified material so that the received broadcast transmission can be presented via a viewing station without the material corresponding to the specified material; and

transmitting to the viewing station via a communication network the modified received broadcast transmission.

22. A system comprising:

a communication module configured to communicate via a communications network; and

a processor in operative association with the communication module, the processor configured to;

in response to receiving a broadcast transmission via the communication module, access a user profile that includes specified material that should be suppressed from the received broadcast transmission;

perform a search to identify material in the received broadcast transmission that corresponds to the specified material by comparing at least a portion of the received broadcast transmission to the specified material included in the user profile;

in response to identifying the material corresponding to the specified material in the received broadcast transmission, modify the received broadcast transmission to suppress the material corresponding to the specified material so that the received broadcast transmission can be presented via a viewing station without the material corresponding to the specified material; and

transmit to the viewing station via the communication module the modified received broadcast transmission.

23. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

instructions for, in response to receiving a broadcast transmission, accessing a user profile that includes specified material that should be suppressed from the received broadcast transmission;

instructions for performing a search to identify material in the received broadcast transmission that corresponds to the specified material by comparing at least a portion of the received broadcast transmission to the specified material included in the user profile;

instructions for, in response to identifying the material corresponding to the specified material in the received broadcast transmission, modifying the received broadcast transmission to suppress the material corresponding to the specified material so that the received broadcast transmission can be presented via a viewing station without the material corresponding to the specified material; and

instructions for transmitting to the viewing station via the communication module the modified received broadcast transmission.